Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GitHub Is Undergoing a Full-Blown Overhaul As Execs and Employees Depart (businessinsider.com)

Posted by timothy on from the could-never-happen-here dept.

mattydread23 writes: This is what happens when hot startups grow up. [GitHub] CEO Chris Wanstrath is imposing management structure where there wasn't much before, and execs are departing, partly because the company is cracking down on remote work. It's a lot like Facebook in 2009. Business Insider has the full inside story based on multiple sources in and close to the company.

10 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Re:All I know is that this: by binarylarry · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Protip: Keep your intellectual property on your own equipment.

    --
    Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  2. Management structure and meritocracy by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    By ditching their management structure they threw out an important part of their corporate culture as well. Not smart. Instead, they might have looked at ways to make the existing structure scale up. There are other large organisations with a flat org chart and seniority based on merit, like W. L. Gore. Go talk to them instead of the regular MBAs.

    By the way, I don't know if I'd have an issue with a lack of remote working options or a shift to a more hierarchical management structure, but what I read about their diversity and social impact team would certainly be enough to make me run, screaming. Also, they brought in a former Yahoo exec...

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
    1. Re:Management structure and meritocracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, I kind of had that same sinking feeling when one of the very first official things the new CEO did was get rid of a rug in the lobby because the slogan espoused a meritocracy... you know, the completely radical concept of judging people solely on merit, which somehow offends SJW's and feminists...

      http://readwrite.com/2014/01/24/github-meritocracy-rug

      It was apparently just a preview of things to come. Github is finished long-term. Their primary source of revenue is from a technical product made for technical people. The instant you value some SJW corporate bullshit over technical competence is the exact instant that you lose your innovative edge in a fast-paced technical place like silicon valley. Your customers really don't care whether your staff has the requisite token proportional ethnic/gender representation, they just need them to be capable enough to ensure that the uptime on their repos is more reliable than a rusted-out yugo. They don't give a shit whether you have harmonized safe spaces that nurture inclusion, they just want someone to implement that new innovative feature that your fast-moving startup competitor is beating you over the head with. etc. etc.

    2. Re:Management structure and meritocracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      He's not wrong, just look at the subreddit dedicated to outing the lunacy going on over there.

      https://www.reddit.com/r/gitinaction

      I'll give a few examples:

      https://archive.is/JzOoj scroll down for the insanity

      https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/165 people complaining about the labels Master/Slave, yes seriously

      https://github.com/nodejs/TSC/issues/8 the banning of a user who used the eggplant emoji

      https://github.com/womenwhocodedc/organization/issues/26 complaining about "Too many CIS(straight) White Men at WWCDC"

      https://github.com/joyent/libuv/pull/1015 complaining about gendered pronouns

      Remind me, where is the Meirtocracy in all this again?

  3. Re:fast growth by Kethinov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    a new competitor will come and replace them (possibly Sourceforge, if they manage to continue with the same enthusiasm they've started with recently, and manage to turn that enthusiasm in to their product)

    SourceForge's death spiral hits me right in the feels as much as any other Slashdotter, but I am pretty convinced that new competitor which will dethrone GitHub will be GitLab. Basically the same product, but open source. Similar monetization model for enterprise use. That's who I'm rooting for these days.

    Sorry SourceForge. You had your chance.

    --
    You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
  4. SourceForge by Ecuador · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, it is a good time for SourceForge to attempt a come-back. Right guys?

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  5. Re:fast growth by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If anyone can take over the throne from GitHub, why would it not be BitBucket? They produce the excellent and free Git client Sourcetree, and all around have a more reasonable pricing model than GitHub.

    It's not like I don't have a GitHub account, everyone does, but I also have a BitBucket account and have no qualms switching to them entirely if GitHub really starts being a problem (well, MORE of a problem since they did just recently have a big outage... perhaps that was early warning).

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  6. Re:fast growth by thisisauniqueid · · Score: 5, Informative

    SourceForge always sucked, and never got better: they had an obtuse navigation structure, a ridiculously hard-to-use bug tracker, terrible source code management and viewing tools, way too many ads, etc. etc. -- and they seemed to refuse to evolve, in spite of pulling in who knows how much money.

  7. So they're kicking out the SJW's? by sethstorm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That would be a welcome and necessary change.

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  8. "Open Code of Conduct" craziness! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    We should never forget about the Open Code of Conduct debacle. GitHub is listed under the "What companies or communities support or use the Open Code of Conduct?" section on that page.

    Read the comments at https://github.com/todogroup/opencodeofconduct/issues/84. It's unbelievable how hypocritical some of the people are. The stuff about "reverse -isms" is particularly fucked up.