Needs Clarification: Why and When was this Repo transferred?

[coolaj86]

In the wake of the xz / Jia Tan situation, I'm much more cautious about ownership changes and such.

I can confirm via https://web.archive.org/web/20240911185322/https://github.com/its-danny that the original author @its-danny seems to have transferred this repo.

However, can we know why this repo was transferred? Was there any Issue with discussion about it? (I couldn't find one)

How do we know that @cococonscious https://web.archive.org/web/20240911185918/https://github.com/cococonscious is a trustworthy, good actor? This seems to be an account that was just created. Perhaps a new pseudonym for a previous contributor who wishes to remain more anonymous than before? It doesn't mean anything necessarily, but it is a red flag to consider.

To be clear: I'm not making any judgements or accusations. I have no reason to be suspicious. I'm just pointing out obvious and public things and asking for clarity on the change because I'm a maintainer of Webi and I have to do my own due diligence to feel positive about a seemingly-abrupt change in project leadership and possible downstream consequences.

[cococonscious]

Hi AJ, thanks for being cautious.
While I can't answer as to what Danny's personal reasons are exactly, you can find how the transfer was initiated in this comment on an issue: #91 (comment)
Regarding my own trustworthiness: You cannot know that anyone on the internet is trustworthy, you can simply make educated guesses. To help with that: By simply going through my account activity you can see that it is not a new account, but that it's in fact over 3 years old (https://github.com/cococonscious?tab=overview&from=2021-09-01&to=2021-09-30). My account is linked to my real-life identity, which you can see by me using my actual full name and linking both my company, my LinkedIn profile, and the in-person competitions I participated in. I honestly don't know what would increase my trustworthiness any further.

Is there anything else you want to know?

[coolaj86]

Thanks @cococonscious,

Seeing 2 following / 2 followers / 4 repos is what made me think it's a new account, but I see the history in the contributions map now. In the age of Ai and with the number of bots I have to deal with, I don't trust anything I see anymore in regards to profile pictures, bios, etc. I assume everything is fake by default. 🙃

Seeing the convo between you and @its-danny (and this bit of convo between us) satisfies my concern. I'll bring in your PR to Webi shortly.