Before GitHub

"GitHub became the place where a large part of my Open Source identity formed. Projects I worked on found users there, and many professional relationships and friendships started because some repository, issue, pull request, or comment thread made two people aware of each other."

"GitHub changed how Open Source feels, and later npm and other systems changed how dependencies feel. Put them together and you get a world in which publishing code is almost frictionless, consuming code is almost frictionless, and the number of projects in the world explodes."

"GitHub was part of the social infrastructure of Open Source for a very long time. For many of us, it was not merely where the code lived; it was where a large part of the community lived."

GitHub became a pivotal platform for Open Source, shaping identities and fostering connections among developers. Initially, projects were hosted on SourceForge and Bitbucket, but GitHub's rise marked a significant shift in community engagement. The platform facilitated relationships through repositories and discussions, becoming integral to the Open Source ecosystem. However, its current decline is viewed with sadness, as it represents a loss of a vital social infrastructure. The evolution of dependency management in Open Source has also changed the landscape, making code publishing and consumption easier, but it is essential to remember the historical context of Open Source development.

Read at Armin Ronacher's Thoughts and Writings