OSDN.net is Ending Ad Banners and Starting New File Synchronization Feature with GitHub 
sado) We are proud to announce two major changes on OSDN.net. First, OSDN Division of Appirits Inc. has decided to put an overall end to ad banners that profit the OSDN.net administrator side. Also coming soon is a new synchronization feature with GitHub for File Release and Storage.
In 2000 when the antecedent organization of OSDN was founded, there were three "D" s that were deemed inevitable for the open-source community to work on open-source development: Develop, Distribute, and Discuss. OSDN laid down a basic policy whose aim was to engage in activities to support the three "D"s. It has been over 20 years since then, and the environment surrounding open source has continued to change dramatically. Nonetheless, those three "D"s still remain to be important to the community even now. OSDN offers features that support the three "D"s to all the open-source-loving communities for free, and it is our essential policy to carry on with our commitment to support these activities.
OSDN's activities of the last twenty years were supported by the revenues generated from the ad banners posted on OSDN.net. However, having seen problems after problems of inappropriate and fraudulent advertisements that occurred on our former partner site in the US, and being faced with the excessive evolution of AdTech, it is becoming more and more unavoidable to take actions to ensure privacy protection. It is also true that the ad banners that occupy so much of the space are making it difficult for us to provide ideal UX and UI.
Even after our brand name was changed in 2015, OSDN.net has continued its steady and stable growth. Last month, OSDN.net recorded its highest number of unique users. Yet, Appirits Inc., who recognizes open-source technologies as the foundation of its business, figured that by making OSDN.net free of ad banners which profited the company, Appirits can exhibit its supportive stance toward the open-source community, and it is more important to further foster the growth and development of OSDN.net.
For about half of all the OSDN.net pages, ad banners will be removed immediately, which is scheduled to happen at the end of May. However, there are exceptions of some download pages (pages where downloading of files take place) that are allowed to continue posting ads. Please note that ad banners will continue to appear on OSDN Magazine for some time.
Now here is the reason why there are exceptions to the no more ad policy. We have been offering financial support to some of the open-source projects as a part of our activities, and so we will continue to allow these projects to post ad banners only on their download pages. All the revenues that are generated from the ads posted on these pages will go to the open-source project side.
Moreover, for projects whose scale has reached a certain standard, we are planning to create a mechanism that enables open-source projects to post ad banners or donation guide on their own.
In May 2020, we are introducing a new sync feature with GitHub for File Release and File Storage. This new feature enables the target Release/Tag in the GitHub repository to be automatically synchronized to OSDN.net, and it is available for both File Release and File Storage. This allows users to simultaneously release software via OSDN.net global mirror network when there’s a new release on GitHub.
Under the circumstances in which the novel coronavirus continues to spread around the world, Appirits recognizes that there are more and more roles that open source can and should play, and we will continue to commit ourselves to the growth and development of OSDN.net and support infrastructures dedicated to the open-source community.
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Shuji Sado
General Manager of OSDN Div., Appirits Inc.