

GitHub's Explore Email - Chris911
https://github.com/explore/subscribe

======
jmduke
As much as I love GitHub, I think the exploration paradigm could use a little
work -- it seems to have something of a flywheel effect, where popular
repositories receive more exposure, thus more stars/forks/watches, thus appear
as 'trending', thus become more popular. (For example: currently trending as
#3 in Python today is the official Django repository; and trending as #2 today
is the official AirBNB javascript style guide, which has been boasting around
4,000 stars and hasn't been updated in around ten years.)

I'd kill for a GitHub StumbleUpon: click a button (filtering for, say,
vertical or programming language) and get transported to a repository that has
a baseline level of merit (say, at least three stars).

~~~
hashtree
I've found one of the best ways to do the "stubmleupon" concept is to follow
dozens of devs who star interesting repos (sometimes solely for that reason)
and check your news stream often. I follow devs from a wide variety of
backgrounds, which yields numerous libraries that I might not otherwise be
aware of (and sometimes months ahead of HN exposure). One of the best things
I've done with my GitHub account.

A solid example is: [https://github.com/fogus](https://github.com/fogus)

~~~
samirahmed
this is exactly what i do too.

Another great person to follow is Ilya Grigorik ...
[https://github.com/igrigorik](https://github.com/igrigorik)

He spents a lot of time following repos, and literally built the github
archive just to keep up with this.

~~~
mh-
for the interested:

[http://www.githubarchive.org/](http://www.githubarchive.org/)

[http://us5.campaign-
archive2.com/home/?u=439aa16a39e4b10e0b6...](http://us5.campaign-
archive2.com/home/?u=439aa16a39e4b10e0b65ff2ef&id=0b82fec5c2)

------
unknownian
Anyone else disappointed in the Explore page's redesign? It's harder to
navigate and they deleted the Languages portal.

~~~
diggan
You're probably looking at the wrong page. Have a look here instead:
[https://github.com/trending?l=javascript](https://github.com/trending?l=javascript)

~~~
hk__2
You can’t see the list of the most popular languages anymore.

~~~
subsection1h
The following search displays the top 10 languages on the left side of the
page:

[https://github.com/search?q=stars%3A%3E=0](https://github.com/search?q=stars%3A%3E=0)

------
daGrevis
A bit confusing that there isn't any submit button or other indicator that
shows me that my preference is saved.

Otherwise, a cool feature; didn't know about it until now.

~~~
sbarre
You do get immediate feedback "Subscribed!" directly below the radio button
when you click it, and the box you choose turns green.

It felt pretty obvious to me.

~~~
riffraff
the box turning green feels as having selected something, not actually
submitted, and the "Subscribed!" line is far from the where you did the
action, and disappears after a moment.

I don't know if this is a good design or not, just sharing my opinion as
someone else who took a bit to understand I had actually subscribed.

I also was sort of expecting the example to change :/

~~~
LordIllidan
I had the exact same feeling - I was unsure of whether I should be seeing a
"save" button or not - and I didn't know whether the site had saved my
response automatically.

It's a very subtle approach, but it's a little too subtle for my taste.

------
diggan
Like it! Let's hope it comes in right time (before morning/during night in
Spain) so I can read it with the morning coffee.

However, I would have loved to select which language/languages I'm interested
in since if a project is in Python it's not as interesting for me as if it was
in JavaScript.

~~~
dewski
We deliver these emails in the user's time zone so you'll receive it at 9am
local time and have something fresh to start the day with.

~~~
vbsteven
I'm also an advocate of receiving the email sooner. Why not send it shortly
after midnight in the users timezone so it sits in the users inbox when he
wakes up.

At 9AM I'm already at work, had 2 cups of coffee, finished my morning tech
news and started getting in the zone.

~~~
MartinMcGirk
Ideally the user would choose the time the mail gets delivered. I have to have
my phone on during the night in case of emergency and there is nothing more
infuriating to me than a company that sends me email in the middle of the
night, causing my phone to beep and wake me up.

~~~
ultrafez
Take control of your phone: use an app like Tasker to set up profiles to
silence notifications except for ones you specify, like phone calls and
messages from certain numbers.

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j_baker
I really like the way github is doing this. I'm irritated by the way other
sites (linkedin, quora) automatically assume I must want their emails every
_X_ interval. I like that with github I can choose how frequently I get emails
and that it's opt-in.

------
richardburton
I built an iPhone app that shows you all of the trending repositories that use
the languages you like. It's called Repo; if you're interested in checking it
out, you can download it (for free) by going to:

[http://appstore.com/repo](http://appstore.com/repo)

------
jinx_xnij
I really liked the design that you use to choose which level of newsletter
subscription you want to sign up for. Clean, simple, and straightforward.

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Vilkku
Would be pretty great to have this as an RSS feed (one daily/weekly/monthly
item). I hesitate to subscribe to the email, but I wouldn't mind getting a the
daily version in my RSS feeds.

Now that I mention it, some kind of service where I could get all emails from
as RSS would be pretty neat.

EDIT: Seems like there is one!
[http://www.mmmmail.com/](http://www.mmmmail.com/) However, I'm hardly able to
just change my github email to that and have password reset emails etc be
available to the public in the RSS feed. Best solution would be some kind of
Gmail filter, where all emails with a specific tag would be available in the
feed.

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kbar13
Would I just get emails for rethinkdb forever?

<realtalk>Bring back the old trending page!</realtalk>

------
_prometheus
It would be awesome if they tracked something like most used repositories, not
just most starred. Like
[https://sourcegraph.com/repos](https://sourcegraph.com/repos)

------
bloometal
For some reason I have a suspicion that Github Trending is game-able. I
tweeted once about this suspect repo that had 3000+ stars and all it said was
something like "Hello to all github trending viewers" or something along those
lines.

Link to the author of that repo:
[https://github.com/mandatoryprogrammer](https://github.com/mandatoryprogrammer)

What remains of the repo is visible in his profile.

Anybody have a clue as to how he did it?

~~~
MarkTee
The author details how he did it here:

[http://thehackerblog.com/how-i-got-5000-github-followers-
in-...](http://thehackerblog.com/how-i-got-5000-github-followers-in-less-
than-24-hours/)

------
LukeWalsh
Firstly, I really love github explore. Having said that I still have yet to
feel the need for one of these services that blindsides me with content just
because I forgot I need it.

I understand that it drives more traffic to the site, but is it really worth
saving the time of typing
[https://github.com/explore](https://github.com/explore)?

~~~
colinbartlett
I guess that's the reason it's opt-in. Some people want "push" some people
want "pull".

Personally, I intentionally keep my incoming stream very lean. I like
aggregators like this, Ruby Weekly, JS Weekly, etc.

------
vinhnx
I've been subscribing to GithubArchive for awhile now, they send me top new &
watched repos right in my inbox daily. I think we should check it out:

[http://www.githubarchive.org/](http://www.githubarchive.org/)

------
colinbartlett
Kudos for having the smoothest subscription process I've ever seen. One click,
instant!

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himbeere
What about a filter which allows me to exclude repositories that use certain
languages?

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SnacksOnAPlane
Is there a way to set the Explore emails to go to a different address than the
primary? I set my primary as my work address, because most of my repos are
work-related, but I'd like this email to go to my gmail.

------
forlorn
I love to use [http://www.githubarchive.org/](http://www.githubarchive.org/) .
Found it on 'Show HN' half a year ago or so.

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dustin1114
Cool idea. I thought every day wouldn't be as special, so I went for every
week. I'm looking forward to seeing some new projects...maybe some to
contribute to.

------
Xelom
I don't know everyone but exploring github day to day is an entertainment for
me. Your thought about mail is good but doesn't work for some people.

------
esja
I wish GitHub had a page like this:
[http://stackoverflow.com/users](http://stackoverflow.com/users)

~~~
swanson
[https://github.com/search?q=repos%3A%3E0&type=Users&ref=sear...](https://github.com/search?q=repos%3A%3E0&type=Users&ref=searchresults)

Users with at least one repo - sorted by magical "Best Match".

~~~
esja
That's great, thank you!

Just needs a prominent link somewhere and this would be super-useful as a
starting point. Especially in the Enterprise product.

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yawaramin
How about an RSS/Atom feed? I'm not crazy about signing up for another email.

And what happened to the 'Ref Log'?

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xpop2027
Now that is the proper way to get someone to subscribe to emails.. so easy
with great options.

------
zenburnmyface
My email is already too full -- how about a Twitter feed? My friend did this
one:

[https://twitter.com/mathisonian/status/399348431291817985](https://twitter.com/mathisonian/status/399348431291817985)

~~~
binarycrusader
My twitter feed is too full already -- I'll stick with the email. Twitter is
particularly annoying at limiting the amount of entries in my timeline that it
will show from the past as it is.

------
caiob
Super duper. :)

