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Seanpm2001_GitHub-Account-Flagged-2022July19th

Information about my main GitHub account @seanpm2001 which was flagged on 2022 July 19th.

Context

/Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/FlaggedBanner/Dark/PNG/FlaggedBanner_DarkMode.png /Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/FlaggedBanner/LightTritanopia/PNG/FlaggedBanner_Tritanopia_Light.png /Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/FlaggedBanner/LightProtanopia/PNG/FlaggedBanner_ProtanopiaLight.png

Click/tap here to expand/collapse this image (profile during suspension)

/Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/Profile/PNG/Profile_Seanpm2001_Flagged_2022July19th.png

On 2022, Tuesday, July 19th, upon starting my computer, I found that my main account had been flagged. It retained functionality, except for images not rendering (but none of the files being corrupted) and my entire account being hidden from public view. I have sent a repeal on 2022, July 19th, but as of 8:00 pm PST on 2022 July 27th, I have received no response.

Click/tap here to expand/collapse this image (appeal message 1)

/Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/AppealMessage/2022.07.19/Redacted/PNG/Appeal1_Redacted.png

On 2022 July 22nd, I sent another appeal message, as the previous email I used was incorrect. I won't put the image here, as it is pretty much the same, but here is the message sent image:

Click/tap here to expand/collapse this image (message sent response)

/Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/AppealSent/AppealSent_LightMode_1080p.png

Click/tap here to expand/collapse this table
Date Flagged?
2022, Friday, July 1st ❌
2022, Saturday, July 2nd ❌
2022, Sunday, July 3rd ❌
2022, Monday, July 4th ❌
2022, Tuesday, July 5th ❌
2022, Wednesday, July 6th ❌
2022, Thursday, July 7th ❌
2022, Friday, July 8th ❌
2022, Saturday, July 9th ❌
2022, Sunday, July 10th ❌
2022, Monday, July 11th ❌
2022, Tuesday, July 12th ❌
2022, Wednesday, July 13th ❌
2022, Thursday, July 14th ❌
2022, Friday, July 15th ❌
2022, Saturday, July 16th ❌
2022, Sunday, July 17th ❌
2022, Monday, July 18th ❌
2022, Tuesday, July 19th (day 1) ✔️
2022, Wednesday, July 20th (day 2) ✔️
2022, Thursday, July 21st (day 3) ✔️
2022, Friday, July 22nd (day 4) ✔️
2022, Saturday, July 23rd (day 5) ✔️
2022, Sunday, July 24th (day 6) ✔️
2022, Monday, July 25th (day 7) ✔️
2022, Tuesday, July 26th (day 8) ✔️
2022, Wednesday, July 27th (day 9) ✔️
2022, Thursday, July 28th TBD
2022, Friday, July 29th TBD
2022, Saturday, July 30th TBD
2022, Sunday, July 31st TBD

Usage of alt account

I was advised to make a message via my alt account. I have been hesitant to do so, as I fear it could get unfairly blocked as well. I am not attempting to circumvent the block, I just needed to message my followers what has happened.

I have plans for after my main account is unflagged, to fork important projects from my main account to my alt account, so that people won't lose all access when this happens. I have already started doing common forks from my alt account, but the main part requires my main account to be up and running first.

Alt account discovery

/Organization_Flags/Seanwallawalla-software/2022July19th/Banner/DarkMode/Seanwallawalla-Software_FlaggedBanner_DarkMode.png /Organization_Flags/Seanwallawalla-software/2022July19th/Banner/LightMode/Tritanopia/Seanwallawalla-Software_FlaggedBanner_LightMode_Tritanopia.png /Organization_Flags/Seanwallawalla-software/2022July19th/Banner/LightMode/Protanopia/Seanwallawalla-Software_FlaggedBanner_LightMode_Protanopia.png

It might be related to the flag on my main account, but my first and main GitHub organization was also flagged.

Screenshot 1 Screenshot 2
/Organization_Flags/Seanwallawalla-software/2022July19th/View/Seanwallawalla-Software_OrganizationFlagged_Screenshot1_LightMode_1080p.png /Organization_Flags/Seanwallawalla-software/2022July19th/View/Seanwallawalla-Software_OrganizationFlagged_Screenshot2_LightMode_1080p.png

Stress

I have been under significant stress during this time period. Things are being delayed, and my future is uncertain. There are many examples of people cloning/forking my repositories, but my official projects are not publicly available at the moment. Additionally, I have received followers while my account was blocked, which I find odd.

Original follower count at start of flag/suspension Gaining a follower during flag/suspension
Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/Follows_DuringSuspension/PNG/483FollowersDuringSuspension.png /Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/Follows_DuringSuspension/PNG/GainingAFollowerDuringSuspension.png

It has been extremely stressful for me. On 2022 July 22nd, I reached a bad milestone: I had never been so stressed in my life until that day, and my morale was the lowest it had ever been.

Odd restrictions

I am restricted from searching repository source code by language while logged in, but if I log out/go into private browsing mode, it works just fine.

/Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/Can'tSearchPublicRepositories/PNG/XMBC_SCSearch_Denied_2022July19th.png

Spammy

/Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/Labels/Spammy/PNG/SpammyLabel.png

Upon going to any of my issues or pull requests, I noticed that a label Spammy is applied to all my posts. This is additionally what it says:

/Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/Labels/Spammy/Cropped/PNG/SpammyUsermark_Cropped_2022July19th.png

GitHub customer support

GitHub customer support has been exceedingly poor. The contact form is taking a very long time, I am not being told why I was flagged, I can't email GitHub (they just blocked my email address when I tried) the forum appears to be moving to GitHub discussions (which will just make it impossible for people with this problem to reach out) and I have not been able to interact with an actual person (not even a bot)

Negative impact

The flag has had a highly negative impact on my life and my future. Several opportunities have been missed, and most of my work is now hidden, with other unofficial reproductions now being the only source, most of them are incomplete and infringing.

Thousands of projects have been affected by this. Additionally, contributions to other repositories are now no longer crediting me, and I have missed out on a lot of people discovering my projects.

Inability to use third party programs

I tried to migrate to GitLab in the meantime, and GitHub finally gave me the reason why my account was flagged:

/Seanpm2001_Flagged/2022/July19th/No3rdPartySupport/YouAreMarkedAsSpam_Can'tConnectGitLab_2022July22nd_LightMode_1080p.png

Codespaces workaround

I can still view image files sparsely by switching over to codespaces (shortcut: .) but not all images load here. It is better than GitHub, where none currently load.

Upload functionality diminishing

Starting on 2022 July 26th, drag and drop upload functionality has a new flaw, it is likely unrelated to the flag. Now each time I go to upload, the drag and drop is denied, and the black GitHub favicon is shown, instead of the white one. I then have to re-drop the files to upload them. This doesn't apply if I upload indirectly (clicking the upload button, rather than just dragging and dropping onto the repository when it isn't in upload mode)

Attempting to continue normally

Despite the account not being visible publicly, and several things being broken, I have continued to work somewhat normally. I can't let it derail all my progress. During the first 3 days of the flag, I did image file uploads in full, but as of 2022 July 22nd, I have finally made the decision to stop Git-image part A work, but still do Git-image part B work. I have also been rethinking how I will operate after this is over.

What was done, and what should have been done

What GitHub did

  1. GitHub flagged my account and restricted personal view of my own content for both me and others (and also did unnecessary restrictions that can be circumvented by logging out/browsing in private browsing mode)

  2. GitHub let a machine be the sole judge of the decision and didn't bother to have a human check first

  3. GitHub gave virtually no information on why I was flagged

  4. Despite giving no response for 8 days and counting, the decision was not reversed

  5. No error logs were made

  6. GitHub shut down their forum a few days later, and moved it to GitHub discussions, making it impossible for flagged users to communicate their problem directly

  7. GitHub did little to give users a voice, and made it harder by not listening

What I would do differently

I have learned a lot about what not to do when flagging/blocking/suspending a user from a platform, and I came up with some guidelines last night (2022, Sunday, July 24th, draft V2):

Running an online service

Avoiding GitHubs 2022 July 19th mistake
Basic guidelines

  1. If a user is flagged/blocked/suspended, they will still be able to access all content in their account (same as GitHub)

  2. A user will be reviewed by a machine first. They will not be blocked yet. A human will then review

  3. If/when a problem is detected, a detailed error log will be given

  1. The error log will have 2 formats: simple and advanced. The simple view will tell of the general problem (with more context than GitHub) and the advanced view will tell you of each individual problem, and how to fix it (along with an auto-fix icon, a button to download the log with a dropdown for simple..log, advanced..log, and all..log, and a button for sending an appeal)

  1. If no response is given from the appeal within 12 hours, the user will automatically be unblocked, their content will be publicly reinstated, and the user will be granted immunity for a set amount of time.

  2. Logs will be kept privately by default, and the user has the choice to cite it if needed for their followers

  3. There will always be a forum that doesn't require an account to be unsuspended to use (even an account terminated from the service can still use the forum, albeit with some limitations that won't prevent them from reporting their problem)

  4. There will be a strong user voice, where the user can make their voice heard

Additional notes

These rules and guidelines come from a bad personal experience I (@seanpm2001) had with GitHub on 2022 July 19th. I have learned a lot about how NOT to run a service. I feel these 7 rules will be more fair to the user and the community as a whole. Revisions are allowed, but cannot be determimental to the existing rules, features, and functionality.

These rules were made during my first flag/suspension from GitHub, which as of writing this (2022, Monday, July 25th at 12:00 am) is still ongoing. I have extensively researched the issue, and hope to have corrected all flaws with this process, but there might be more, so this is still just a draft.

GitHub pro

It has been decided that when I get my account back, I will pay the $7.00/month ($84.00/year) for GitHub Pro. This way, I can get better support, and also have the Pro label.

Microsoft

I have become openly critical of Microsoft and GitHub for the first time. This has stemmed from this issue, and the failures that have happened.

Conclusion

No conclusion is available, as this is still an ongoing issue.

Aftermath

Aftermath is unavailable, as this is still an ongoing issue.

Sources

Other people dealing with the same problem

https://git.luolix.topmunity/t/flagged-account-aware-of-221-thread-2-questions/1785

https://git.luolix.topmunity/t/my-account-is-flagged/282

https://git.luolix.topmunity/t/why-is-my-account-flagged-as-spam/1333

Related problems

https://git.luolix.topmunity/t/github-us-trade-law-sanctions-appeal-is-bugged/199102/

Forum is moving

https://git.luolix.topmunity/t/the-community-is-moving/261602/

On 2022, July 25th, I archived the questions I deemed important from the GitHub forum, as it appears to be closing down soon. I might re-upload the data here.

Reddit post

I was too late to make the post today. I will try tomorrow.

The contact link

https://github.com/contact

GitHub email address (bot)

mailto:support@github.com

File info

Click/tap here to expand/collapse this section

File type: Markdown (*.md *.mkd *.mdown *.markdown)

File version: 9 (2022, Wednesday, July 27th at 8:00 pm PST)

Line count (including blank lines and compiler line): 446

Current article language: English (EN_USA) / Markdown (CommonMark) / HTML5 (HyperText Markup Language 5.3)

Encoding: UTF-8 (Emoji 12.0 or higher recommended)

All times are UTC-7 (PDT/Pacific Time) (Please also account for DST (Daylight Savings Time) for older/newer entries up until it is abolished/no longer followed)

Note that on 2022, Sunday, March 13th at 2:00 am PST, the time jumped ahead 1 hour to 3:00 am.

You may need special rendering support for the <details> HTML tag being used in this document

File history

Click/tap here to expand/collapse the file history section for this project

Version 1 (2022, Thursday, July 21st at 8:32 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Started the file
  • Added the description section
  • No other changes in version 1

Version 2 (2022, Thursday, July 21st at 8:32 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Added the context section
  • Added the usage of alt account section
  • Added the stress section
  • Added the GitHub customer support section
  • Added the sources section
  • No other changes in version 2

Version 3 (2022, Friday, July 22nd at 3:10 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Referenced several image files
  • Updated the context section
  • Updated the usage of alt account section
    • Added the Alt account discovery subsection
  • Updated the stress section
  • Added the odd restrictions section
  • Updated the GitHub customer support section
  • Added the spammy section
  • Updated the sources section
    • Added the Other people dealing with the same problem subsection
    • Added the related problems subsection
    • Added the forum is moving subsection
    • Added the contact link subsection
    • Added the GitHub email address (bot) subsection
  • Added the file info section
  • Added the file history section
  • No other changes in version 3

Version 3 (2022, Friday, July 22nd at 3:10 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Referenced several image files
  • Updated the context section
  • Updated the usage of alt account section
    • Added the Alt account discovery subsection
  • Updated the stress section
  • Added the odd restrictions section
  • Updated the GitHub customer support section
  • Added the spammy section
  • Updated the sources section
    • Added the Other people dealing with the same problem subsection
    • Added the related problems subsection
    • Added the forum is moving subsection
    • Added the contact link subsection
    • Added the GitHub email address (bot) subsection
  • Added the file info section
  • Added the file history section
  • No other changes in version 3

Version 4 (2022, Saturday, July 23rd at 4:46 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Referenced some new image files
  • Updated the context section
  • Added the Negative impact section
  • Added the Inability to use third party programs section
  • Updated the file info section
  • Updated the file history section
  • No other changes in version 4

Version 5 (2022, Saturday, July 23rd at 9:00 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Referenced some new image files
  • Updated the stress section
  • Added the Attempting to continue normally section
  • Updated the file info section
  • Updated the file history section
  • No other changes in version 5

Version 6 (2022, Sunday, July 24th at 4:40 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Updated the context section
  • Updated the usage of alt account section
  • Updated the file info section
  • Updated the file history section
  • No other changes in version 6

Version 7 (2022, Monday, July 25th at 5:00 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Updated the context section
  • Added the What I would do differently section
  • Added the GitHub Pro section
  • Updated the Forum is moving section
  • Updated the file info section
  • Updated the file history section
  • No other changes in version 7

Version 8 (2022, Tuesday, July 26th at 6:47 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Updated the context section
  • Added the What GitHub did section
  • Added the Conclusion section
  • Updated the file info section
  • Updated the file history section
  • No other changes in version 8

Version 9 (2022, Wednesday, July 27th at 6:47 pm PST)

This version was made by: @seanwallawalla

Changes:

  • Updated the context section
  • Separated the What GitHub did and what I would do differently sections into the what was done, and what should have been done section
  • Added the GitHub codespaces workaround section
  • Added the upload functionality diminishing section
  • Added the Reddit post subsection into the sources section
  • Updated the file info section
  • Updated the file history section
  • No other changes in version 9