
Introducing Topics - shayfrendt
https://github.com/blog/2309-introducing-topics
======
securingsincity
I tagged a few of my repos. What I'd be excited for is topics that are not
simply languages or frameworks but concepts. As an example my feature toggle
library in elixir should be tagged with feature-toggle which if you are
looking for that kind of tool in that language here it is. I could see this
being really helpful for "how have others solved X problem in Y language so I
don't have to?"

~~~
BHSPitMonkey
Languages and frameworks can be pretty reliably determined by tools (GitHub
already classifies repos by languages since as long as I can recall); I agree
with tagging that reflects concepts/functionality, especially for projects
that aren't libraries / dev tools (in which case the underlying languages are
merely implementation details).

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orb_yt
I like this feature, it's very reminiscent of StackOverflow's tags. I do
however think this would be better used as a menu or at the bottom of the
page, out of the way, as this information will not be relevant on most
repository visits. It adds unneeded complexity to the top and most important
part of the page where before it felt simple.

~~~
stared
One key feature of Stack Overflow tags (and I do have a "taxonomist" badge on
a few Stack Exchange sites :)) is that is it bottom-up, but supervised:

\- only power-enough users can create new tags (synonyms are mapped, useless
tags are pruned),

\- questions are mercilessly re-tagged they don't follow tagging standards,

\- there is requirement of at least 1 tag, and a limit of max 5 tags.

Exactly because of that I was able to create a graph from tag coincidences:
[http://p.migdal.pl/tagoverflow/](http://p.migdal.pl/tagoverflow/).

I tried to do a similar thing for many other systems (with wild tags, e.g.
Twitter hashtags) and results were never satisfactory.

~~~
michaelmior
Another nice thing about the SO implementation is that the number of questions
with a given tag is given while tagging. This avoids people creating tags
which are essential synonyms. I already see this as a problem on GitHub based
on the suggested tags.

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bluetidepro
This is awesome, it's basically just tags for a repo to make GitHub search
better. Love this update. I also wonder if they could just make their search
smarter, too, or suggest tags based on a repo's readme, wiki, etc. (assuming
it was public). But either way, this is a great update. Loving all the stuff
GitHub is adding/changing lately.

~~~
unwiredben
I went to tag some of my repos and found it suggesting a few useful and a few
not-so-useful tags for them. Having a tag that's just my repo's unique name
wasn't great, but identifying that some of my repos are Pebble applications
was good.

~~~
bluetidepro
Oh, great to know! That's awesome they are helpful.

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obilgic
I'm skeptical if topics are going to be helpful. They seem very arbitrary and
redundant so far.

~~~
detaro
I think it's too early to say much about how they are actually used (e.g. I
just checked a relatively specific keyword and only one guy has started
tagging his projects), but yes, I expect the first medium posts on "how we
tagged our repo with unrelated cool keywords and got 1000 stars and sooo much
attention" next week... :/

I think they are going to be mostly valuable in relatively niche topics, where
they'll make it easier to find projects in the same space.

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voltagex_
Hoping people can tag as "unmaintained" and "looking-for-contributors" or
similar

~~~
pluma
[https://twitter.com/jbscript/status/826722110965886976](https://twitter.com/jbscript/status/826722110965886976)

Looks like it.

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Walkman
I hope awesome-list owners all agree with a master topic and each of them will
use that!

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sergiotapia
Love this feature! I wish there was a way to browse topics and see which ones
are used more. It would help you tag your repos to topics that exist already
instead of creating a new topic with only yourself.

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hitekker
Why are they calling tags, "topics"?

~~~
iverjo
Probably to avoid confusion, as git (and github) already had a concept of tags

[https://help.github.com/articles/working-with-
tags/](https://help.github.com/articles/working-with-tags/)

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dhatch387
It's surprising that GitHub is significantly putting out much more innovation
after the open-source repos moving to GitLab fiasco of a year or so ago. Are
there any changes that can explain this besides more incentive?

~~~
brwnll
\- Out with flat org structure based purely on meritocracy, in with
supervisors and middle managers. This has ticked off many people in the old
guard.

\- Its once famous remote-employee culture has been rolled back. Senior
managers are no longer allowed to live afar and must report to the office.
This was one reason why some senior execs departed or were asked to leave, one
person close to the company told us.

\- GitHub has hit "hypergrowth," growing from about 300 to nearly 500
employees in less than a year, with over 70 people joining last quarter alone.

[http://www.businessinsider.com/github-the-full-inside-
story-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/github-the-full-inside-story-2016-2)

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luhn
It looks like topics are completely unmoderated—In only a cursory use I've
already seen several redundant tags. It makes discovery much more painful when
there are several overlapping GitHub topics for each conceptual topic.

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BinaryIdiot
I tagged my library as SuperAwesomeUltraJavaScriptLibrary. I hope it helps my
discoverability :)

In all seriousness I thought tags were like the "old" thing going away. I'm
curious how this will help discoverability, if at all.

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devdoomari
awesome feature! I've always wanted something like 'tagging' on github :)

btw, can you implement tagging when I star/fork a repo? ps: have a look at
[https://getpocket.com's](https://getpocket.com's) tagged-bookmark feature

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dolftax
Topics are neat way of tagging repositories. But are they being reviewed
periodically? (or) Is it going to be like LinkedIn skills? Say, tags like
'`node` `node.js` `nodejs`' will reduce the impact of the solution for the
problem Github is trying to solve.

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voltagex_
Can I have a way to sort / categorise my repos now? I can create organisations
but then I lose the private repos that I pay for.

