I wish I had known that there are no private github gists. Wish this was made more clear...

Agreed. Calling them "secret" seems ambiguous at best, outright misleading at worst, and definitely worth an added warning.

They have never offered them. I would assume the lack of them ever having existed would indicate they do not exist.

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

From the guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html