(this post is intended for the repo-criteria-discuss@gnu.org mailing list)

This article covers a lot of unethical characteristics of gitlab.com.

If you search for the string “criteria” on that page, it will bring you to the issues that are relevant to the FSF mission. I also suggest reading the whole thing, because some of gitlab.com’s harmful conduct should inspire more criteria for ethical repositories.

E.g.:

• (3) Bugs should be easy to report. Some repos are so painful to use that people simply choose not to report bugs. Yet there is no criteria that covers this. Bug reporting is the one activity where convenience is critical.

• (7) Being able to run “torsocks git clone <repo>” should be a criteria.

• (9) Being able to register with a forwarding email account (and more generally, not being excluded from participation as a consequence of securing one’s self).

This post is here because gnu.org has started using “OpenSPF” to restrict inbound email. The email above was rejected by the mail server automatically because the domain of the envelope FROM header does not match the reverse lookup of the sending server’s IP address. In short, they are blocking contributors from using a forwarding email service to protect themselves. It’s a pre-emptive strike with collateral damage to legitimate participants. Anyone with access to repo-criteria-discuss@gnu.org: please forward this to that list (or people thereon).