FWIW, I see GitLab and Bitbucket as more focused on the tooling and business-first aspects.
And since creating my first repo there, I’ve always seen GitHub as a social platform for gaining notoriety within the open source community.
That said, I have never thought about it as the fulcrum for social networking along those lines. I have considered developer communities, like this one, or specialized ones, as places to connect, and GH as a "gallery," where we can send people to view our portfolio, after we have connected, or to "vet" contacts, like employers.
My experience with GH, is that the folks that really generate the most energy, are the JavaScript/Python/Full-Stack communities. I am an Apple software specialist, and there's not really the same energy, in that community, on GH, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I don't see it the same way as JS folks.
Umm...yes. Yes, I did. Be nice.
I understood what the author was saying. I never wrote that I disagreed with it; just that I viewed it through a different lens.
It appears that I am not alone in using this lens.
MS used be "new, shiny," but now, they are "blue chip."
I don't equate their properties with "fun," but I do believe they are serious about "let's get some work done," which jives with my lens.