Re: GitHub “pull request” is useful and can be easily integrated'’
Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> writes:
> It's a UI. The UI is really nice. That's why people use it. But
> lock-in implies more than a really nice UI that people use because
> it's superior.
By lock-in I'm implying vendor lock-in: the customer or user is unable
to switch away from the vendor's service without significant switching
costs <URL:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in>.
> Lock-in implies something you're trapped into using even when it's
> *inferior*, and that's what people are taking issue with.
I don't see that implication from vendor lock-in, and propose that
people are reading it in where it's not implied.
The service may be utterly wonderful and still impose significant
switching costs; in such a case its customers are still locked in. The
benefits of the service don't negate the fact of vendor lock-in.
By that sense – the dominant sense, if I understand correctly – GitHub's
pull requests, no matter how wonderful and beneficial, subject a project
that uses them to the same vendor lock-in.
Robert Collins <robertc@robertcollins.net> writes:
> For clarity, I made no such suggestion [that criticisms of GitHub are
> invalid from someone who doesn't use it].
Thanks for clarifying.
> However your critique has a number of 'how does X work' questions
> which most users of Github could answer.
A made informed statements about how GitHub features work. Responses
told me “that's not true”. Rather than coming back with “is too”, I ask
questions to understand what the person is saying.
What I learned is that I was right in my statement, and I was glad to
have asked the questions because that led to more informed discussion.
My apologies that my questions seemed like I was uninformed.
> That makes your debate about Github seem uninformed, and detracts from
> whatever your actual point is. (Simple by reducing the signal:noise
> ratio of the debate).
I've made my point, some in the discussion have understood. Going
further in this thread is unlikely to convince enough people to be worth
the noise.
So I'll just have to wait until more data comes along, and raise the
issues again at that time.
--
\ “Self-respect: The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is |
`\ suspicious.” —Henry L. Mencken |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
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