GitHub has alternatives, but no replacement

GitHub dominates open-source collaboration not just as a Git host but as a social layer — shared identities, conventions, and project discovery. Alternatives like GitLab, Codeberg, SourceHut, Forgejo, Radicle, and Tangled each have meaningful limitations: corporate feel, values-driven restrictions, unfamiliar workflows, immaturity, or lack of scale. Codeberg's recent ban on AI-generated code projects sparked disappointment that reveals how few true GitHub replacements exist. Self-hosting solves repository storage but not community. The author argues that any real replacement must treat the social layer — shared identity, discovery, and conventions — as the core product, not an afterthought, and wonders whether a deliberately boring, sustainably funded company (rather than a VC-backed or mission-driven one) could fill that gap.