GitHub isn't fun anymore • Hacker News Board

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#171

Post by Insanity » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:15 AM UTC

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #131

Insanity wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YMMV, but for me it does tend to show interesting projects that I otherwise would not have learned about.

This may also highlight one of the contrasts between my approach, and that of many of today’s engineers. I am almost exclusively a Principal author of my work; with dozens of repos, and six figures of LoC (probably seven figures, if we include the code not available in public repos). I think I may have one forked repo; an embedded Web server library that I needed to tweak a bit to make work for my ffmpeg wrapper proj…

That's a fair point - and indeed I like those projects, not not just for finding good dependencies. I don't actually use that many external libs - but it's basically a version of "Show HN".

The projects can have interesting code to read or just show off a cool idea or a different way of implementing something than I'm used to.

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#172

Post by majewsky » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:15 AM UTC

marcus_holmes wrote: post #148

deanclatworthy wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t really get the impression here that Jared wanted a social network. He just wanted a better mechanism for discovering good quality and interesting projects. Popularity is often one good signal.

I'm not sure Github stars were/are ever an indicator of "good quality" or even "interesting". And I think the Web Development community could do with a decent break from "new" as well. What would be great is if we could just prune some of the gajillion frameworks and libraries already out there, and spend some time to make the ones we keep decently robust and elegant.

GitHub stars suffer from the same problem as likes on Twitter or Facebook. A social network would actually need three separate kinds of positive interactions:

- a like ("I want to let the creator know I like this.")

- a share ("I want my followers to know about this.")

- a bookmark ("I want to be able to find this again later.")

Most social networks only have the first two. GitHub, even worse, only has one. (I personally use stars exclusively as bookmarks, btw.)

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#173

Post by xgenecloud » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:15 AM UTC

>> No offense to Stripe, but the notion that stripe-samples/subscriptions, which has 13 total stars with exactly zero new stars today is the new JavaScript “hotness” is a joke. This is totally useless to everyone.

THIS.

The new algorithm is not only horrendous but SUPER FLAWED!

Here is what happened.

After receiving 900+ stars within a week of launch - we never make it to 'Trending' weekly or monthly!! We were their trending for 3 days. Then all of a sudden we are gone. The rest of the repos which were trending with us with as little as 50 stars are in weekly/monthly trending!!!

Can you please help explain this @Github ?

When contacted Github support about this flaw - the reply was short (they dont wanna reveal their buggy algorithm! I was asking to look at the problem not to defend their solution)

Stars not only tell how cool a open source project is but also makes the new open source developers produce valuable work without next to nothing in return.

Just taking out this small dopamine rush translates to this - a good company (Github) was acquired by an old-enterprise.

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#174

Post by eeZah7Ux » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:16 AM UTC

GitHub was never fun: it killed the decentralized aspect of git. It also killed git-based bug trackers and wikis.

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#175

Post by iotxnz » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:16 AM UTC

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #110

Good, let the people using github for fun leave. Github is not meant to be fun, it's meant to be like a pen. A good pen can be enjoyable. Beautiful. You can feel attachement to it. But it is not built to be played with. By that I mean it's not its primary function, even if a creative or bored mind can use it for that. A good pen fullfills its intended purpose when it disapears from your mind while you use it, yieldin…

So do I, and I dread every second I have to interact with that horrible site. A pen does not spam you with "trending" stuff, rearranges its interface regularly or track your activity for the whole world to see.

Before the usual "just leave" comments: GH is a monopoly and one can be forced to use it, unless leaving includes leaving projects or even jobs.

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#176

Post by Carpetsmoker » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:17 AM UTC

tomcooks wrote: post #114

unixhero wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but why?

For starters, it's not owned by a gigagroup

Instead it's owned by an abrasive difficult to deal with developer who will argue "you're just doing it wrong" with paying customers. Clearly things aren't exactly roses and sunshine here either.

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#177

Post by unsigner » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:17 AM UTC

This reads like satire on the culture of trend-chasing, framework-of-the-week young developers that dominate in certain circles. Life imitates The Onion, Poe's law and all that.

If you're not one of them, and feel alone and outdated - don't. There's enough graybeards toiling away at the boring software that supports the world, oblivious of what killed last week's React killer. This too shall pass.

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#178

Post by gspr » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

Carpetsmoker wrote: post #176

tomcooks wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For starters, it's not owned by a gigagroup

Instead it's owned by an abrasive difficult to deal with developer who will argue "you're just doing it wrong" with paying customers. Clearly things aren't exactly roses and sunshine here either.

Example?

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#179

Post by amelius » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

nikanj wrote: post #44

root_axis wrote: post #18

Hard pass on the suggestion to add more social network features. Such features are only conducive to drama and anxiety, we need less of that not more.

Social network features are such a 2015 me-too fad feature anyway. What they should add is AI, or maybe blockchain.

They should add cross referencing (click on a symbol and jump to the definition, even if it is in a different repo).

Re: GitHub isn't fun anymore

#180

Post by Carpetsmoker » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #110

Good, let the people using github for fun leave. Github is not meant to be fun, it's meant to be like a pen. A good pen can be enjoyable. Beautiful. You can feel attachement to it. But it is not built to be played with. By that I mean it's not its primary function, even if a creative or bored mind can use it for that. A good pen fullfills its intended purpose when it disapears from your mind while you use it, yieldin…

A lot of people (who may not even be professional programmers) are using GitHub for their hobby, i.e. "for fun". I don't think this is an invalid use case.