[ackyshake]

> A particular thing I don’t like about git forge websites is the way they make you create an account.

Exactly. I used to have a GitHub account but as soon as it got bought out by Microsoft, I was gone.

I still refuse to create an account, even though there have been bugs I wanted to report or patches I wanted to contribute. Maybe some maintainers still have email addresses on their profile, many don't. Even if they do, I just don't get the motivation to email them.

People like to complain about email a lot, but I enjoy different mailing lists for open source software. You could have discussions with other users of that software or keep track of development by following the "-devel" list. All you needed is something you already had—email. Sadly, they're becoming less popular. Even python moved to discourse which—dun dun dun—requires an account. grumble grumble

I like SourceHut for many reasons—it's the fastest forge I've used, it's FOSS, doesn't try to copy the GitHub UI like every other Git forge these days. But by far the reason I love it is _because_ it doesn't require me creating an account to contribute. I think of it as gitweb, but nicer.

[mcherm]

I am curious -- what is your concern about creating an account? Is it security? Privacy? The need to keep track of it?

[ackyshake]

Security/privacy yeah. I don't do business with Twitter/Facebook for the same reason. In the case of GitHub, if I want to contribute something, I am going to do it volitionally, knowing they will do whatever they want with it.

Creating an account just locks you in, when the alternative exists or existed before. SourceHut proves this is possible. Why not allow non-accounts to contribute?

[immibis]

My GitHub account is blocked because I refuse to give them my phone number or install their app. They refused a GDPR deletion request too.

[TiredOfLife]

How are you posting on HN without an account?

[cxr]

Bad comparison. People who are critical of others' complaints about creating and/or logging in to a GitHub account like this aren't going through the trouble of creating a GitHub account in 2025 (as opposed to, say, 2015) and are clearly logging in once and staying logged in.

I encourage you to try an experiment where you pick three or four (or more) times a day to log out of your HN account and only log back in the next time you need to perform some action that requires an account/authorization. Now do the same with GitHub and compare the experience. They've made merely logging in such a massive pain in the ass that somehow goes beyond the anticipated pain around "here's a forced 2FA workflow you didn't ask for but have to run through, anyway". All so you can be generous with your time to someone else's benefit and e.g. leave a signpost comment with answers to a shared problem in some neglected bugtracker, but it's real a kicker when this is interrupting a semi-flow state.

[ackyshake]

It's a good point, I suppose, but it doesn't have to be so black-and-white. There are certain exceptions to this no-account rule of course, like for your bank.

Now, would HN be better without an account? I believe it would, why not? I like lurking (and sometimes commenting) on HN though so I feel like creating an account is valid. Also, HN works fine without JS and has no trackers, which does tend to get me to create an account.