Quote · Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats
1020: Do You Read The Code?
Where this was said
Github Repos on a CD-ROM
At 24:10 · chapter starts 22:39
When Sony announced the PlayStation would go fully diskless, GitHub seized the meme moment and offered to ship your public repository on a CD-ROM — classic GitHub brand humor, in the tradition of the Octocat. The promotion was capped at 1,000 signups. CJ signed up immediately because it sounded cool. Scott, however, walked into a buzzsaw of criticism: commenters accused GitHub of diverting infrastructure funds, argued about optics, and generally treated a fun promotion as evidence of corporate malfeasance. Scott is baffled and puts one particularly aggressive critic 'on his list.' [1] — CJ Reynolds "GitHub CD-ROM promo: only first 1,000 signups: GitHub's fun CD-ROM promo was capped at 1,000 recipients but triggered backlash from tens of…" 29:29 CJ adds nuance: the opening line 'we heard you and we agree' was perhaps ill-judged given GitHub's recent uptime issues, since nobody actually asked for CD-ROMs. But both agree: the tens of thousands of outraged people dwarfed the 1,000 actual recipients, and the rage was completely disproportionate. A fun side note: GitHub COO Kyle Daigle personally replied to Scott's quote tweet to award him two CDs.
GitHub announced you can get your public repo on a CD-ROM, and the internet declared it an infrastructure scandal. Scott's take: the marketing team of 3 people cannot redirect engineering budget. The outrage was completely unhinged.
GitHub's fun CD-ROM promo was capped at 1,000 recipients but triggered backlash from tens of thousands of people, a reaction Scott Tolinski found absurd.
