This change is quite devastating for open source projects. All new contributors now cannot run a pipeline when they submit an MR, even after I added them as developers of the project. I reported it here: Pipeline for new open source contributors does not run, but got no response.
Does anyone know if hosting our own runners will fix this issue for new contributors? It seems the pipeline itself will not run, not just individual jobs.
What is disappointing to me is that I tested this exact use case before choosing GitLab as our place to host our open source project about three years ago. Now this feature was taken away. I don’t want to be asking every new open source contributor to submit their credit card: that’s an unnecessary barrier to entry. My goal is to grow the contributor base, and this feature is a major roadblock.
Is there a plan to fix it?
Is gitlab.com meant for hosting open source projects (among other things)? I am fine if the answer is no. In that case we can investigate self hosting (assuming this feature can be turned off) or moving to another service. However, I would appreciate some response from GitLab, the company, about the direction and recommendations for open source projects that host at gitlab.com.