Free Knowledge Culture Calendar/November 17

Today in 1999 SourceForge.net was launched; the first significant product of its kind: an Internet platform that provides infrastructure for Free Software development, complete with hosting as well as development and collaboration tools.

Under frequently changing ownership and management, SourceForge was working on its own demise with questionable monetization attempts that cost trust and got the site onto on advertising and malware blocklists. For example, it was known for misleading advertisements with fake “download” buttons that were bigger and in more prominent locations than the real one, and incentivized developers to bundle their software with installers for pseudo-free spyware. When one day SourceForge seized several popular accounts and offered the software in question bundled with spyware, masses of users migrated to the now-dominant competitor Github.