Ask HN: Why don’t GitHub readme pages include screenshots?

#1

Post by lgpants » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 12:16 PM UTC

I frequently come across GitHub projects that don’t include any screenshots and the project will contain UI elements. I’m wondering if there is a reason why so many don’t include screenshots?

For example sidebery[1] didn’t have it. I use it and it’s great but it’s hard to get a sense of what it does Without actually showing a screenshot.

1. https://github.com/mbnuqw/sidebery

Re: Ask HN: Why don’t GitHub readme pages include screenshots?

#2

Post by jjgreen » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 12:20 PM UTC

The GitHub repo is mainly for devs, there's a link to the addon page there, it seems reasonable that a dev would know to click on it.

Re: Ask HN: Why don’t GitHub readme pages include screenshots?

#3

Post by gerimate » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 12:47 PM UTC

As someone who's responsible to maintain docs and readmes I try to avoid working with screenshots as there might be some minor UI changes time to time which might be distracting or confusing.

Re: Ask HN: Why don’t GitHub readme pages include screenshots?

#4

Post by lgpants » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 1:31 PM UTC

gerimate wrote: post #3

As someone who's responsible to maintain docs and readmes I try to avoid working with screenshots as there might be some minor UI changes time to time which might be distracting or confusing.

That makes sense, I’ve also written a lot of docs and screenshots are a pain to maintain but also users and myself find them so useful.

Re: Ask HN: Why don’t GitHub readme pages include screenshots?

#5

Post by devonnull » Thu, Jul 20, 2023, 7:47 PM UTC

As other commenters posted, maintaining screenshots is a pain. Especially with software that's regularly changing.

That said, there are more than a few GitHub readmes that contain screens. Sometimes quite a few screens. Here's an example: https://github.com/gsantner/markor