
If a project helps you, please give it a star - nanxiao
https://nanxiao.me/en/if-a-project-helps-you-please-give-it-a-star/
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benatkin
I often notice interesting but not very useful projects getting a lot of stars
because they generated some discussion on HN. I think reviews would be better.
I've used the reviews, both the number of reviews and the average, on the
WordPress Plugin Directory to decide what plugin to install, and find them to
be reasonably accurate. Something like this for other platforms besides WP
would be great.

~~~
Deimorz
This is definitely true. My SubredditSimulator repo has 433 stars:
[https://github.com/Deimos/SubredditSimulator](https://github.com/Deimos/SubredditSimulator)

That's not an incredibly high number, but it's still a pretty good amount.
Despite that, in over 3 years, it has never had a real issue submitted, never
had a single pull request, and as far as I know there isn't even another
instance of the code running anywhere. So it certainly doesn't seem to be a
"useful" project to anyone else by any measure, and the stars came entirely
from attention on HN/reddit/etc. without any connection to whether that repo
actually has any _value_ to anyone.

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sdrothrock
Do stars really "help" that much? This sort of reads like projection more than
anything.

~~~
stuntkite
I think it does kind of in the way they say, but the real issue is that github
has been a frozen project for like a decade. It's terrible at sorting,
aggregation, ranking, sharing, and recovery of interesting things. It barely
extends the existing git features. I'm not going to hold my breath for MS to
make it actually better, but I am 100% certain that the inertia of open source
projects would be greatly helped by a thoughtful way to just do and display
basic tagging and project exploration history.

Yes I know github tags exist (and git tags and branches), and I've found
things that I wouldn't of found otherwise, but personal and maybe color coded
tagging of my own stars and forks. Maybe a view timelines of my own
exploration and groups them by the stats created by other people's tags. To
say nothing of producing a feed that was even just a rip off of 2005
facebook's wall with accessory discussion. This could totally still be kept in
repo if need be.

Long story long, stars is all we got. They suck. So do forks. It's probably
not going to improve when it merges with Skype. What are we doing next?

~~~
threeseed
Have you signed up to the Dashboard beta ?

There are some discovery elements to it. It's definitely an area they should
improve in but I am not sure necessarily how many people are looking to
discover new open source projects.

~~~
stuntkite
I haven't! I guess I should check that out.

Really on the projects? Because I look at dozens weekly. Finding "that thing I
saw that one time" is more often than not a painfully futile exercise on
github. I can usually suss it out via google, but I think that says all I'm
trying to say right there.

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Springtime
Personally I use the stars as a kind of bookmarking system, rather than purely
a like system, given they reside and are searchable in the starred section of
one's profile. I'll link a project to others if I find it useful.

If I've created something I usually appreciate written praise/thanks from
users and peers more but I also understand how even little gestures can make a
difference.

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minikomi
I have a project with over 2000 stars[1], but I don't maintain it any more and
it's not indicative of how I code at the moment. I guess it's nice to have,
but what really is the worth of the stars?

[1][https://github.com/minikomi/Bootstrap-Form-
Builder](https://github.com/minikomi/Bootstrap-Form-Builder)

edit: and, 1060 forks..

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superflit
This type of problem falls on what I call the "conversion" problem.

Having a customer where I did some work with e-mail campaigns with several
products and different populations, it was almost constant for these values:

10-15% open the e-mail.

1-3% Convert or create an action.

And I do extrapolate these numbers for the whole population. It come to be the
1-3% that "do something" and that 10-15% who reads and leave for later.

Parents and teaching meeting? 10-15% will think about going...1-3% will go and
take some action (volunteer, raise). Same on other activities. I am not
blaming or judging, but we can't always be on 1-3% every time all the time.

So expect 1-2% of visitors giving stars for you.

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l0b0
Maybe I'm weird, but stars are never a motivation in themselves. They show
someone _may_ be using the project, but that's it. Admittedly I haven't
received many star ratings, but even a single issue filed is more motivating
than all the stars I ever got.

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adamnemecek
It’s crazy how stars can really boost ones career.

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nawfalhasan
I don't star projects if they help me or if I use them. I star if I like them.

