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GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

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Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#101

Post by leshow »

grantcox wrote: post #12
Khao wrote: post #2

Is this an April Fools joke? I've never seen anyone who gave a fuck about their contribution graph and record streak, except for devs who developped clever git repos that make your contribution graph show pixel art (which is pretty awesome). I want to say if you feel pressure when looking at your contribution graph, it's all in your head and you should take a break because you're clearly not thinking straight.

I agree that it's a largely irrelevant / frivolous feature, and if someone cares deeply about it, it's likely a sign of some deeper psychological issue. But deeper psychological issues are real, and gamification definitely pushes a certain agenda. When that agenda (in this case "streaks" and "commits per day") isn't really serving a community, it would be sensible for the community to tweak those rules. Putting some…

This is a really dumb way of thinking about things. If you truly think this person has a mental issue, then tweaking the commit graph on github is not going to do anything about it.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#102

Post by leshow »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #11
Khao wrote: post #2

Is this an April Fools joke? I've never seen anyone who gave a fuck about their contribution graph and record streak, except for devs who developped clever git repos that make your contribution graph show pixel art (which is pretty awesome). I want to say if you feel pressure when looking at your contribution graph, it's all in your head and you should take a break because you're clearly not thinking straight.

People care a ton about their streaks and I have noted that before. It encourages people to not have weekends.

so care less about it. it's a fucking graph

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#103

Post by kedean »

arien wrote: post #35
donatj wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who used to care about streaks, it only takes one small commit and it can be a small reword of a readme ;)

Or a little cronjob that commits harmless changes later in the week? :P I don't care about the contribution streak, but do have friends who comment on theirs on Twitter now and then. I suppose it's just another thing to be proud of...

And then what's the point? You aren't proving anything to the world, and they can trivially see that you didn't do any real work. It's like saying "I'm going to write a part of my novel every day from now on", then every day you type one letter. It's very clearly gaming the system, and for absolutely no gain. You gained no skills, you didn't show yourself to be of value, you don't even get an imaginary reward. The intrinsic reward of tracking systems is lost because deep down you know you didn't do anything.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#104

Post by leshow »

whichdan wrote: post #36

I'm surprised at how dismissive all of the comments have been so far. There are a lot of cultural habits around programming that are exclusionary, and if we're trying to pull more people into the field, discouraging people who can't code every single day could have a negative impact. It's at least worth exploring.

You wouldn't call the amount of stars you have on X video game exclusionary. Why this graph?

Everybody doesn't have to live in a bubble-boy world with all their beautiful feelz.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#105

Post by emodendroket »

sotojuan wrote: post #97
the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is it uncommon to do some free software work in your spare time? No. But life for many people consists of more things than just software development.

Yeah but... how does GitHub streak encourage people who don't want to do open source/for fun projects to do it? Seems like it only encourages people who want to do programming outside of work. We've already concluded that no one cares about your streak except yourself.

It's clearly encouraging that and it creates subtle pressure to do it when all your peers are.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#106

Post by emodendroket »

ihsw wrote: post #45

The problem is people are using it as a signal for measuring someone's worth. There are so many other signals -- learning new programming languages, fixing broken tests, creating awesome new features, cleaning up crufty API libraries, and so forth -- but GitHub isn't showing them on profile pages. Clearly there is a desire for such signals as people are either 1) using it to elevate one's perceived stature 2) using i…

I don't think "obviate" is the right word here, nor do I know how you would measure those other things programmatically.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#107

Post by salvadors »

Symbiote wrote: post #100
cyphar wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it uncommon to do some free software work in your spare time? I usually have a bunch of things I want to fix and spend an hour or two during the weekend when I would normally be just watching YouTube.

If it's "work work" (tasks you're being employed to do) then it's illegal in most of the EU to work every day — see the Working Time Directive¹, which requires at least 24 hours of non-work time every week, for most occupations. I'm paid to work on free software. In the last year, my Github profile shows a single commit on a weekend, when I made a pull request on a browser extension I use. I'd rather spend my weekend…

It's illegal for your employer to require you to work. That's not quite the same thing.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#108

Post by slavik81 »

whichdan wrote: post #36

I'm surprised at how dismissive all of the comments have been so far. There are a lot of cultural habits around programming that are exclusionary, and if we're trying to pull more people into the field, discouraging people who can't code every single day could have a negative impact. It's at least worth exploring.

I use GitHub fairly often, but I don't code every day. When I do, it's not always on GitHub. Even when it is going to go on GitHub, I don't necessarily even push a commit every day.

I don't find it particularly discouraging. It's not something that anybody should be taking seriously. The streak measure is the least useful but, frankly, all the GitHub measures are of rather limited value.

StackOverflow does a much better job of putting relevant information in the public profile, though admittedly they have the benefit of a voting mechanism that helps point out what things you did were actually useful.

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#109

Post by [deleted] »

whichdan wrote: post #36

I'm surprised at how dismissive all of the comments have been so far. There are a lot of cultural habits around programming that are exclusionary, and if we're trying to pull more people into the field, discouraging people who can't code every single day could have a negative impact. It's at least worth exploring.

[deleted]

Re: GitHub contribution graph can be harmful to contributors

#110

Post by mburns »

Smudge wrote: post #93
grantcox wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mental illness" and "psychological problems" both have such unfair negative connotations. But yes, if someone is finding the pressure of an activity graph and "breaking a streak" is negatively impacting their work-life balance, I think they likely have a problem. These problems are quite common, hence the great success of free-to-play, extremely-gamified mobile apps. In many of those cases exploiting the most vulner…

Zach Holman has an interesting writeup on focusing on maintaining that streak, and how it (among other factors) eventually led to burnout: https://zachholman.com/posts/streaks/ Personally, I find the contribution chart both motivating and frustrating. The contribution chart is enough of a signal that I try to make sure it looks healthy each week. But, at the same time, it's far from a perfect tool for assessing how p…

Geoff Greer has a great counterpoint to that article (published around the same time):

http://geoff.greer.fm/2015/01/07/burnout-is-in-the-mind/

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