Gitlab now requires phone number/credit card verification
Looks like gitlab now requires account verification for new accounts in addition to email. Either phone number or credit card.
This applies both to accounts created with a working email or by logging in using your github account. You can't even verify your email until you go through step 1.
I don't know when this started, but at least for the last month or two judging from these posts in the forums.
- https://forum.gitlab.com/t/how-to-create-an-account-without-telephone-number-if-an-non-activated-account-has-already-been-created-with-the-same-e-mail-address-that-demands-a-phone-number/93675/2
- https://forum.gitlab.com/t/phone-verification-sms-not-received-unable-to-login-and-register/92202
- https://forum.gitlab.com/t/how-to-create-an-account-without-telephone-number-if-an-non-activated-account-has-already-been-created-with-the-same-e-mail-address-that-demands-a-phone-number/93675/2
Fun fact: I don't even want to host on gitlab, I just wanted to report bugs in some projects. So I'm locked out.
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I'd assume this will be a non issue once they implement ActivityPub. They can enable whatever account restrictions on their gitlab instance, but if I don't want to provide this information to report a bug, then I can use another instance or self host my own, without the account restrictions.
You really think they will add a full ActivityPub implementation? I highly doubt it.
For discussions probably. Not for repos.
From the Summary in the link:
That's great news!
I don’t even really see this as an issue now personally. I guess it’s the principle of the thing.
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I was asking like less then a month ago what's wrong with gitlab when Firefox switched to GitHub, now I know.
only misc. libraries and the android frontend are on github, and firefox/mozilla has never used gitlab
Glad I switched to Forgejo some time ago, never looked back : )
It looks like Gitea. Is it a fork?
Softfork. Basically the version that runs on Codeberg.org
And soon with ActivityPub integration? Pls?
Work in progress, but it's taking longer than I expected.
The forgefed spec itself is a work-in-progress. Not yet ready for a proper implementation.
Well they can just GitOut
How about training HI on Codeberg? ;)
This really sucks for bug reporting. I don't mind this at all for hosting as that cost notable resources (especially their free CI tier) and they can set their own terms, but I want people to be able to report bugs without any trouble. (Although if spam is an issue maybe projects could opt-in to requiring this verification to report bugs).
A work-around is maybe the service desk feature allowing reporting bugs via email but this has issues for proper collaboration:
Maybe I'll just go back to mailing lists... Or GitHub has gotten better recently. But GitLab's CI is so much better.
Thank you for being aware! I've experienced this on github.com. I've tried to submit issues several times to open source projects, complete with proposed code to solve a bug, but github shadowbans my account 6 hours after creating it (because I use a VPN? a third-party email provider? do not provide a phone number? who knows). I can see the issue and pull request when logged in, but they only see a 404 on their project page even if I give them a direct link. I ended up sending them a screenshot of the issue page just to convince them this was even possible. Sad to hear gitlab does it even worse now by making phone mandatory.
Kbin uses Gitlab so it's too bad.
Not really. The official repository (with issue management) is located on Codeberg. GitHub serves as a mirror in case of any issues with the primary service.
https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core
Well what would you know about it, ernest.
Hopefully the move to https://codeberg.org
Time to delete my account, before it is considered "suspicious" and I can't even log in without verification.
sorry but deleting the account is absolutely ridiculous.
mark it inactive but just deleting someone's entire git history because they didn't put in a phone number or credit card is so dumb.
i don't even need a phone number or credit card for my github account.
Based on the image text this is for new accounts only. My account has neither phone nor credit card and I’ve not been asked to re-verify. Maybe they’re having problems with bots at the moment.
I have to go through the ridiculous cloudfare verification page now. How do they have a bot issue?
Probably people trying to mine Crypto on the CI runners again
I think this is for new accounts only, if you already have an account, your E-Mail will already be verified
Good thing it's only deleting your account if it's a new account that you didn't finish the registration process for
Just tried this out using a typical temporary email address (temp-mail.org) and a VPN (AirVPN).
I was only asked to confirm my e-mail address within 3 days, never for a phone address or any banking details.
Judging by the first post you've linked to, it's only necessary for paid accounts or free trials.
The person in the second post is trying to register via GitHub / Google, well... sucks for them.
I've tried a few times in the past 2 weeks. Using a good email account and also with github, no luck though. Maybe its doing some "smart" heuristics to trigger it.
I just retried now, using that temp mail (but no vpn) and got the exact same phone verification. Maybe my IP address is evil :D
Why GitLab!?
Because it's a decent competitor to the GitHub monopoly. It also has a few unique features when compared to it. Just guessing why OP uses it though (many people do)
Sorry, I meant "GitLab, why'd you do that!?"
(I'm a GitLab user myself)
Oh right
fuck them
Time to start using GitDirectory named V.01 shared over FTP.
It's a joke, don't use FTP, it's not secure.
Why isn't FTP secure
because it hasn't got an S in it
It's unencrypted, your ISP / Starbucks wifi can read all the files you send. Use SFTP instead.
or FTPS
Not just read but modify even.
Is there any reference for this? I can't find anything relevant. Just curious.
Of FTP not being secure? Check the links in the comments below
FTP it's not encrypted
No. I mean gitdirectory over FTP.
There's no GitDirectory, it's the way we used to share files back then, a shared directory over FTP
I'm aware of FTP. It's still around in certain circles. But for a moment I thought that there was some sort of integration between ftp and git. I guess not.
isn't the official gitlab instance primarily a paid platform? cc verification makes sense then.
I know this sucks. But I imagine this is because of previous abuse by bots or something. Could be simply evil though.
For alternatives, I recommend to use a community-ran Gitea instance. Project Segfault runs one.
https://about.gitea.com/
https://git.projectsegfau.lt/
Also check out Forgejo, it's another git software. Disroot has an instance.
https://forgejo.org
https://git.disroot.org/
Codeberg also uses Forgejo
How many instances will one have to register on? This isn't going to improve until forgefed is done.
explain further please?
You won't be able to contribute to a project on any of those instances, unless you register on it. So if you are a prolific contributor, you might end up signing up on dozens of those instances.
Forgefed is a federation protocol for such instances. It's based on ActivityPub - the same that powers Lemmy and Mastodon. You can have just one account on a single instance and still be able to contribute to projects on multiple others. It's still in the works though. It's expected that at least gitlab, gitea and forgejo will support it.
this is really cool, thanks for the info. federated or decentralized git is long overdue
forgejo for life!
What's the best way to circumvent phone number verification ? My burner YouTube account, which has nothing unsavory on it, has been marked for phone number verification or else I can't login at all.
Of course I'm not giving them my real phone number. What the best way to fake this?
There are paid services that offer phone number masking such as Firefox Relay
I tried VoIP addresses and got the message "we can't use that number". Is Firefox relay immune to that?
get a burner sim. pay cash.
Impossible in some countries, like Germany with mandatory ID validaion. Luckily, our Pirate Party leader, a telecommunications expert, blocked this proposal here.
But using the sim will identify location and IMEI. Anyway that's quite expensive, like 10$ per account ? Ouch !
There are no ways to beat this. They want your real number. That's the point.
There had to way to defeat the pots system, it's an antique, not a security system
Experienced the same issue when I tried to sign up 2-3 months. Went down a rabbit hole and then just decided to not host w/ them.
There is a workaround where you can create an account if it is on a different gitlab instance (ie: I was able to join https://git.joinfirefish.org/ w/o the CC info) but I don't know how useful that is in the grand scheme of things.
Sourcehut. The answer is sourcehut.
You don’t even need an account to submit patches, just configure
git send-email.Some people seem to think that setting up send-email and mailing patches has too much of a learning curve and 'barrier to entry'.
Forgejo?
Get one of those cheap thin-client or micro-ATK type desktop, install as a server and move your online services there. Too bad this isn't that popular yet.
Codeberg looks interesting but it would be nice to see a US based version. Anyway I think its clear gitlab is problematic
Why does it matter where it's based?
Because I don't want to use services that are across that ocean
Honestly, the servers not being in the US is a feature these days - even for US-based customers.
Not really as you don't have control over them whatsoever. I can't vote in Europe
Why does that matter? It doesn't make a difference
I does though, with all of the sketchy laws around tech. The US isn't great but at least I can vote here.
What would you guys recommend for a service to use to verify phone numbers for platforms, on topic, such as gitlab? I know there is some sort of list of voip service providers that most of these platforms blacklist. Where do they get such lists from and how can one view such lists?
Has this already been introduced for existing accounts? Gitlab has been moving in an unsatisfying direction for a while now and these kinds of shenanigans really make me want to move.
CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
They're talking about Gitlab, not Github
Oops, my mistake.
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The three brackets are a nazi dog whistle.
For anyone unfamiliar and wanting more background, and an explanation of why you may see Jewish people add ((( ))) around their own names on social media,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_parentheses
(I agree 100% with the person I am replying to, and I'm sure they know all of this already)
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