If your account is downgraded automatically, Github will extort you for access to your private repositories. You don't get the option to just set them to public and stay on the free tier, Github simply forces you to pay up to get them back or lose them permanently.
Found this out when my old student account lapsed after I left college. Luckily, they screwed up and unlocked my private repos when attempting to charge me (there was no credit card on my Github account and never was -- nice work, Github) and I was able to pull my private repos and move everything to Gitlab.
Zero regrets. Extortion is never acceptable, especially when it's policy.
So if I don't pay the cable bill and my internet gets shut off, can I reasonably say I am being extorted by the cable company? That's a little hyperbolic. Plus, this isn't even how GH operates anymore, since they now offer free private repos.
Free accounts are now allowed unlimited numbers of private repos with limited collaboration.
But I would also not classify as removing access when you stop paying as extortion. You know when your account is paid up to. You would therefore know when you'd have featureful access to. It's not their fault you can't plan ahead is it?
Found this out when my old student account lapsed after I left college. Luckily, they screwed up and unlocked my private repos when attempting to charge me (there was no credit card on my Github account and never was -- nice work, Github) and I was able to pull my private repos and move everything to Gitlab.
Zero regrets. Extortion is never acceptable, especially when it's policy.