Hi! My name is Jorge, but people usually call me Marvil. I like making 3D models/renders/animations and coding apps. Check out my latest one at my website. I've moved my repositories over to my self-hosted Forgejo instance at https://code.marvil.co/.

Forgejo is an open-source, lightweight Git service.

I've decided to migrate my code repositories from GitHub to a self-hosted Forgejo instance (at https://code.marvil.co/) for several reasons:

GitHub, owned by Microsoft since 2018, has been involved in several controversies that raise serious human rights issues. A major one is their contracts with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has participated in widespread abuse; like family separation, and poor detention conditions. In 2019, GitHub renewed a $200,000 contract with ICE despite employee protests and open letters arguing that it made the company complicit in these violations. Employees and activists called for cancellation, but GitHub defended the deal, claiming it was for non-enforcement tools—though critics saw it as indirect support for harmful policies.

Additionally, GitHub has faced allegations of workplace discrimination. In 2014, a high-profile scandal involved claims of gender discrimination and harassment, leading to the resignation of co-founder Tom Preston-Werner after an investigation. This highlighted broader cultural issues in tech, including unequal treatment and a lack of accountability.

GitHub's operations, tied to Microsoft's massive data centers and AI tools like Copilot, contribute to significant environmental harm. AI training and cloud services have high energy demands, leading to increased carbon emissions. While GitHub has initiatives like the Green Software Foundation, critics argue these don't offset the overall impact of enabling energy-intensive tech without stronger mitigations.

Beyond ethics, GitHub's centralization poses risks related to data loss and censorship. Projects like Zig and Dillo have migrated to alternatives like Codeberg (a hosted Forgejo instance) for these reasons, emphasizing self-reliance. Forgejo's federated features (via ActivityPub) enable better interoperability across instances, reducing dependency on any single provider.

GitHub's AI tools, like Copilot, have also drawn criticism for disregarding copyrights by training on open-source code without proper attribution or consent. As someone who values open-source ethics, this was a tipping point.

Self-hosting Forgejo is straightforward, cost-effective, and empowers me to own my workflow. If you're considering a similar move, I recommend starting with Codeberg for its stability, community support, and ease of use. I'm using Forgejo for its customizability.

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