No longer able to make public gists private — message to GitHub

No longer able to make public gists secret.md

We've been able to toggle visibility of gists since 2014 (https://github.com/blog/1837-change-the-visibility-of-your-gists), but I just noticed that I can no longer make public gists private. That is, when I edit private gists I still see the "Make Public" button, but not the other way round — there's only a "Delete" button when I edit public gists; the "Make Secret" which should be next to it (as shown in the screencast in the linked blog post) is nowhere to be found. I made a screenshot and a screencast demonstrating the issue, both of which are attached. Could you please confirm this issue? Was this an intentional change, and why? Thank you for your attention.


reply.md

Hi Zhiming,

Thanks for writing in!

We had to remove that functionality because it was misleading. Turning a public gist into a secret one doesn't change the URL, which means anybody with the old public URL can still access it.

We may consider improving this in the future, but for now, you will have to delete the public gist, and create a new secret one with the same content.

Creating a new secret gist gives it a new unique URL. You can share that URL with just the people you want to be able to see the gist.

Please let me know if you have any other issues!

Cheers,
Antonio
GitHub Support

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Hey Github, pls add the feature back ! it is much needed

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Try to make some noise over at https://github.community/t/make-public-gists-private/196652 as well.

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I agree. Why does Github force us to do the extra work to make a new one? Why do they have to remove the option altogether, why not leave it for us in case we actually do want that functionality?
All they have to do is add a little note about how anyone with the gist link can still see it, and everyone's informed.

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This is just zmwangx's gist where the message with support was documented

Complaints here does not reach GitHub support in any way.

There is https://github.community/t/make-public-gists-private/196652 and maybe also other places where this is better to report/request?

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GitHub, seriously? You can just make a function to reset the link.

I have the same concern. I need the feature.

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lol half a decade later…

Don't worry folks, the feature is coming, and decade now. /s

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Need this feature
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➕1️⃣

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Not surprised by this. It is clown-world since GH was bought out.

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Please put the button back and add a warning message instead.

Please put the button back and add a warning message instead.

Whom do you think you are addressing?

I guess GitHub doesn't have talented enough developers who can undertake even complex tasks such as generating a new link when clicking a button.

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....come on github! seriously?!

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Please put the button back and add a warning message instead.

Whom do you think you are addressing?

THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND, of course

Please delete this gist. LOL

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+1 please add a button to switch gist privacy with a function that will regenerate file link and show a warning message indicating that link will be changed

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+1!

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