
Let's Make GitHub Better, Together - DanielRibeiro
http://shurcool.github.io/bettertogether/
======
pearkes
It appears this repository[1] was forked from a repo that also had a bunch of
suggestions:

<http://letsmake.github.io/bettertogether/>

This original repo[2] was made by someone who appears to now work at
GitHub.[3]

[1] <https://github.com/shurcool/bettertogether>

[2] <https://github.com/letsmake/bettertogether>

[3] <https://github.com/gjtorikian>

~~~
gjtorikian
Indeed, I created the original "letsmake/bettertogether" site and posted it
here on HN around December 2012. It went to the front page, and I was hired by
GitHub in 2013.

A few Hubbers did see the site, but that is, of course, half the story, and I
can honestly say that that wasn't the reason I got hired. I did also send in a
resume weeks earlier, which did also get seen. It was the right place, the
right time, and the right skills.

I would suspect--and this is just my opinion--that anyone attempting to create
a site to highlight suggestions won't impress anyone. It worked once, and
you'll need your own way to stand out. Uniqueness is what's valued here, not
number of HN points or comments.

I'm going to mark my repo as Private to discourage copycats. I apologize for
that.

~~~
BinaryBullet
I remember seeing your original post in December. One of the
comments/suggestions was about the Ace editor (and not being able to choose a
theme). I ended up making this on that day:

<https://github.com/skratchdot/github-editor-theme.user.js>

I have a few other user scripts that I like to use as well when browsing
Github:

[https://github.com/skratchdot/github-repo-filter-
info.user.j...](https://github.com/skratchdot/github-repo-filter-
info.user.js/)

<https://github.com/skratchdot/github-repo-counts.user.js/>

<https://github.com/skratchdot/github-code-search.user.js/>

[https://github.com/skratchdot/github-get-missing-
description...](https://github.com/skratchdot/github-get-missing-
descriptions.user.js/)

------
ultimoo
I like all three suggestions.

But why is this the #1 story on the hn frontpage?

I _love_ github and use it quite a bit, but why nitpick over every tiny github
issue/feature on the hn frontpage?

~~~
lloeki
Because of the positive attitude.

There's too much venting on the front page. We're not all whiners that keep on
ranting about how this and that is crap (hyperbole, but there's truth in
that).

We're supposed to be the builders of the future, so instead of grinding axes,
let's go and chop some wood.

And let's talk about trains that arrive on time for once.

~~~
PommeDeTerre
It seems more like a politically-correct attitude to me, rather than a
positive one.

Instead of just stating the problems and some possible solutions, it wraps it
up with faux sentiment about "loving" GitHub, and making it sound like GitHub
is a poor soul suffering from some medical condition.

GitHub is merely a tool, hopefully just one among many in any given
developer's toolbox. It seems kind of weird to me to think of it as anything
but a tool, and especially weird to tread so lightly or carefully when
discussing its flaws.

~~~
tericho
Go outside dude

------
TazeTSchnitzel
It's a shame we can't go to <https://github.com/github/github/issues> to
report these things.

~~~
binderbizingdos
yeah, it's kinda weird that they "promote" open source using closed source SW.
at least they could have issues. I think to make the github code open source
would have been something they should have done years ago. now gitlab has
rewritten almost the whole functionality from scratch.

if you look at what happens with gitlab, just imagine how much it would
advance github itself it they would have a repo for which people could open
PRs

~~~
wise_young_man
If that were to happen, why would anyone buy Github enterprise or even pay for
a pro account? Their business model relies on closed source for their
proprietary code.

~~~
emillon
They could still sell support. The "open source, closed addons, paying
support" business model can work great (Red Hat, VMWare, certain Oracle
products...).

------
limpangel
Let's make our own pages more accessible by using a video format that can be
played on platforms other than Apple. :|

~~~
itafroma
The website is using h.264 at ~3Mbps in a QuickTime movie container in <video>
elements. It'll work for anyone with the following conditions met:

\- Using a browser that supports the QuickTime container format (i.e., has the
QuickTime or compatible plugin installed)

\- Using a browser that supports the <video> element with the h.264 codec (not
Firefox).

\- Using a device that can decode 3Mbps h.264 video (not iOS devices).

This is more for the sibling comments, but on Hacker News, I'd expect people
to take a minute to check _why_ something is or isn't working for them on a
page instead of just commenting what browser/OS combo they're using.

~~~
limpangel
Oh, but I checked why it is not working as soon as I saw "Video format or MIME
type is not supported.". Just to see that the extension of the video file is
_mov_ and of course it would not play in my FF-Win7.

As for your points:

\- installing QuickTime is not an option (in my opinion it's a piece of
bloatware crap that should be retired)

\- why should I not use Firefox? just because it chose to support only open
video formats

\- last time I checked iOS devices sold way more than Macs and I bet a lot of
people check out HN using them

Problem: the page is more or less only addressed to people using MacBooks and
Windows/Chrome !?! (maybe should include that in the HN link to the article)

Solution: it only takes 10-15 minutes to convert the videos to _ogv_ or _webm_
and add new source tags to the code for fallback thus making the page
accessible to the rest of the world

P.S. I did not mean for my first comment to sound like a snarky remark (the
blood rush to the brain took over for a moment). I should have included more
details about the nature of the problem. Cheers.

~~~
itafroma
Like I said, the last line of my comment was more directed towards the sibling
comments: you at least recognized the basic issue, which is a reliance on
Apple—or more specifically, Mac+WebKit—without a concern for cross-
compatibility.

To that point, the list of conditions I presented weren't normative, they were
descriptive. The videos won't work in Firefox because Firefox doesn't support
h.264. Likewise, they won't work on iOS devices because even the latest
generation only decodes 2.5Mbps h.264 video. So 10 comments listing all the
browser combinations people tried is pure noise: taking a minute to look at
the video would've been enough to know which browser/OS combinations were
going to work.

------
jonsterling
Oh boy, another “found some bugs, (by the way, hire me)” post.

------
FiloSottile
Nice finds and good attitude! But why this instead of a mail to
support@github.com?

They have always been really fast and responsive in my experience.

------
laurent123456
There are good points being made, but I think the form is not the best.
Whenever I see videos, I often want to just close the tab since I don't want
to sit through (potentially) minutes of looking at clumsy clicking around
until the point is being made. In the first point, two screenshots (one with
the sidebar, and one with the broken view) would have been enough. For the
second, the text below the video, one short line, is enough. So unless you're
are a good filmmaker, just stick to writing or screenshots, it's short and
more effective.

------
pron
I would add a feature called "announcements" which would allow a project make
infrequent announcements that would show up on the timeline of all the
project's "starrers".

~~~
csense
Have "I'm subscribing to this project's announcements" be a different item
than starring. But when they turn the feature on, make this checked for
everyone's starred repos. And when a user stars a new repo, have that
automatically subscribe the user to the project's announcements.

The reasoning? If you star a project, you're _usually_ interested in the
project's announcements, but not always. In particular, some projects might
have high-volume announcements. That's perfectly okay, if the particular
project culture wants them; but users who view high-volume announcements as
annoyances or even borderline spam can still turn that particular project's
announcements off, and still be able to have it starred.

------
lnanek2
Is this client he is submitting bug reports for open source? I browsed through
<https://github.com/github/> really quick, but didn't see it.

If not, maybe he should be using some open source Git GUI if he wants to work
together. Although I don't know of one offhand. I just use the command line
myself.

~~~
skyebook
Their desktop clients aren't open source. I personally haven't found any open-
source git GUIs that work as well as GitHub for Mac or SourceTree (both of
which are closed-source and now have Windows equivalents)

------
human_error
I feel like GitHub needs something similar to Google Groups for projects. I
think that would come in handy.

------
hkmurakami
love the positive attitude, especially since we all tend to be a bit negative
these days.

