The other side is, that existing users will get pissed at github, because they can't even search anymore without logging in, and sometimes that's a pain (not their pc, public pc, incognito tab, the time needed to do the 2fa, etc.).
Github can still keep the cheap, fast basic search for users not logged in, but they didn't.
1: You have to maintain two full independent search and indexing implementations
2: User confusion. Why are the search results different depending on if I'm logged in or logged out?
I mean, the person opening the issue escalated this into socioeconomic issues just because they don't know how to use grep... What else is there to say?
I suppose one could try to see the value in the argument and engage in good faith discussion but it's easier to flippantly dismiss people like this, I imagine.
There wasn't enough thought behind the issue, other than being outraged at their unsatisfied entitlement
Slightly more than your response, at any rate
Trying to think this through, my own best guess for what is going on is that there is some amount of traffic coming from bots/scripts and github would like to have all queries associated with an account so that they can block accounts? I'm not sure if this makes sense, but I think it's a reasonable possibility.
now under new ownership they closed search and "pray they don't alter the terms further"
ps: also everyone here guessing wrong. Microsoft is an advertising company. requiring you profile for a service is self explanatory.
Seems to be around 5pc revenue from a quick search.
Not that I want to defend Microsoft.
This makes no sense. The number of people who use GitHub code search but don’t already have a GitHub account is surely negligible
logged in user ad impression is 8 to 12 usd. anonymous user is .01cent per thousands.
They justify it with "engagement" and it kinda works to a point, since if you don't get pissed with the broken search and register an account, you're not considered a "user", and if you try to use the tool but don't want to register you're not "engaging" with it, I guess... But it makes the initial contact that much more miserable.
That's an assumption which github may not agree with.
by putting login, they can throttle or block it entirely.