GitHub backs down, kills Copilot pull-request ads after backlash

I guess it's time to consider ditching GitHub. Everything that are purchased by Microsoft ware destined to be rotten.

Calling advertisements "product tips" as if everybody is too stupid to understand what that means.

They created an amazing technology that oftentimes is indistinguishable from magic and then use it to deliver ads and - sorry about the tangent - kill people.

This really is the quote of the century:

> The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads

What a waste.

Microsoft will probably try to sneak it back in later. They've done that with other intrusions.

Migrating away from Github just increased in priority.

> GitHub does not and does not plan to include advertisements in GitHub

They already did! https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/65245

I just saw the headline fly by yesterday and thought that this was just another dumb bug in what is the slow decline of GitHub. To find out today that this was very much intentional is even worse.

The lack of market understanding by the person that thought this “feature” was a good idea is staggering. There was never a world where developers would think this is a good idea.

Microsoft is seriously the worst offender in shoving AI down everyone's throats.

I'm pro-AI adoption but the way Microsoft distastefully forces Copilot into everything is how you get people to hate AI.

I’m guessing product teams are told by upper management to AI-fy every product they own. Teams are then rushed to just get something out there whether they make sense or not.

Still waiting for their next attempt at charging for self hosted runners. That's going to be a pain of a migration.

GitLab team on other hand is unyielding, they love adding their "Closes #" in MRs and don't care about people that ask to get rid of it.

I moved almost everything off of GitHub when MS bought it. Go to GitLab or CodeBerg, depending...

Microslop is clearly flailing. They were first movers with the OAI investment but OAI is doing fine on its own and microslop failed to capitalize on that early momentum. Now they’re resorting to increasingly desperate measures across their product portfolio to stay relevant.

It’s good they walked it back, but the fact it was implemented in the first place is a signal of their thinking and inexcusable in itself.

Trust is easier to lose than to gain, and Microdoft continues to break trust.

> We identified a programming logic issue with a GitHub Copilot coding agent tip that surfaced in the wrong context within a pull request comment. We have removed agent tips from pull request comments moving forward.

Why does this read as they are saying it was a mistake ? Because it absolutely wasn't, and it will absolutely happen again, maybe just less obvious next time.

Would you like Copilot to generate ads?

[Yes] [Maybe later]

I understand "free services" eventually come to the conclusion of either charging or using ads to finance and even make money out of them.

I believe there are two caveats on it:

1. Approach: to make the experience worth it, so that ads are not very intrusive , done correctly, which, over and over and over, it is proven contrarious to the interest of the user.

2. Relevance: if you are going to put ads onto your product, make sure things are done correctly, curate if possible what will be shown (I believe Microsoft's worse fear would be to see online casinos ads onto something like GitHub, as an example).

Remember when they wanted to charge for self hosted runners and “backed down”, let’s see how long it lasts

I wonder what was the thought process when they green lit this feature and thought it is a good idea.

"You're just a bunch of fanatic, Linux obsessed Microsoft haters living in the past. Microsoft are the good guys now."

-- ca. everyone here, during the GitHub acquisition

So, after Windows cleanup announcement nobody at Github thought "may be we should review all our copilot integrations to avoid another embarrassment for MS" ?

That shows either it was just a Windows org announcement and not a culture change at MS or it was just an empty promise to temporarily deflect mounting criticism.

Either way it is disappointment for anyone who thought it was a genuine case of introspection and change of heart at MS.

It's great that they backed down, but they still did it in the first place. GitHub is on borrowed time now; my own repos are insignificant, but I'll definitely look to move somewhere else this year, and I'm sure many others will too.

> Martin Woodward, VP of Developer Relations, GitHub, said in a statement: "GitHub does not and does not plan to include advertisements in GitHub. We identified a programming logic issue with a GitHub Copilot coding agent tip that surfaced in the wrong context within a pull request comment. We have removed agent tips from pull request comments moving forward."

What a joke. It literally went in and edited the PR description 8 minutes after the user submitted it.

That's not a tip somehow ending up in the wrong context. If it were it would have happened at submission time. At least be honest. Yuck.

> Hearing feedback from the community following Manson's post and the kerfuffle it generated, Rogers said, has helped him realize that "on reflection," letting Copilot make changes to PRs written by a human without their knowledge "was the wrong judgement call."

Thankfully, they need the community feedback to realize it was wrong. It was so hard to guess it was wrong without the feedback! It's good to know these people are in charge of building Copilot.

I'm not suprised Raycast is involved in this marketing scheme. They pollute their own product with ads where they shouldn't be. Whoever is running their marketing team needs a lesson in not pissing off your userbase.

And what about the companies that thought that advertising (sorry, suggesting) their product through this channel was a good idea?

Updated to add on March 31: Martin Woodward, VP of Developer Relations, GitHub, said in a statement: "GitHub does not and does not plan to include advertisements in GitHub. We identified a programming logic issue with a GitHub Copilot coding agent tip that surfaced in the wrong context within a pull request comment. We have removed agent tips from pull request comments moving forward."

Wow, well that is clearly a bald-faced lie.

But why were they running unpaid ads for third party services? It makes no sense

Microsoft Always Chickens Out

That just means they'll be more subtle once the dust settles.

This was a humiliation ritual!

I would be curious what Raycast’s reaction is. They just got caught in the crossfire or they deliberately bought ads to be placed with Copilot

finally they are coming to their senses

time is money, save both.try ramp.

It would have been less controversial to place an ad somewhere at the top of the screen. Putting it in the Markdown feels like a very deliberate and antagonistic fuck you to everyone.

Just downgraded to free. Fuck em.

Microsoft github.com should restore classic web compatibility for the core functions (issue tracking, etc) and be native IPv6.

"OK guys, back to the drawing board. How can we market this better? How long do we wait until this WILL fly under the radar?"

I wonder if the PM responsible for this will be held accountable. Who should resign?

I'm guessing the answers will be predictable and disappointing.

This is peak entishitification and a quick way to burn a lot of goodwill and trust fast.

Push push push. When your customers are livid at you take a small step back. Wait for a moment then come back at them from another angle.

I hate this philosophy. But it’s seems to be the preferred path for Microsoft.

> GitHub does not and does not plan to include advertisements in GitHub

For another six months.

First of all, I find it enraging that dimwitted AI companies decided to edit PR descriptions for anything at all.

The problem is that Microslop is not THINKING. What is the point of inserting ads? That just increases the spam output. Sure, Microslop may think this helps boost their revenue but many people hate ad-spam. After I started to use ublock origin, there was no way back to the unsafe ads-down-the-turtles approach anymore. Ads waste people's time and money.

the microsoft playbook

Yet Sourceforge has been putting ads on open source projects for decades.