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.
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.
firefox were using self-hosted mercurial + git with sync
they just dropped mercurial, they're still not on github
only misc. libraries and the android frontend are on github, and firefox/mozilla has never used gitlab
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:
The reporter's email is shared.
The issue is private by default.
Can't collaborate on an existing issue.
Maybe I'll just go back to mailing lists... Or GitHub has gotten better recently. But GitLab's CI is so much better.
I want people to be able to report bugs without any trouble.
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.
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.
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
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)
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.
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?
Impossible in some countries, like Germany with mandatory ID validaion. Luckily, our Pirate Party leader, a telecommunications expert, blocked this proposal here.
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.
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.
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.