
Ask HN: What is your dumbest project on Github? - pjungwir
Since people are mocking strangers' code on Github, maybe in solidarity we should share our own most embarrassing contributions to Open Source/Free Software. I see a lot of people saying they are hesitant to contribute things now, which is a terrible shame. Perhaps we can encourage others by showing that none of us are perfect.
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minimaxir
URL says it all.

[https://github.com/minimaxir/display-justin-timberlake-
sexin...](https://github.com/minimaxir/display-justin-timberlake-sexiness)

~~~
skinofstars
Thanks, I've just added that to all Google searches. Brilliant!

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zenojevski
A (general purpose) migration tool written in bash.

<https://github.com/zenoamaro/rash>

Honestly, I planned to do much more work on it before showing it to someone,
like tests (yes) and a real launch script, and then it would probably become
less ridicolous. Or maybe not.

But even then, why not? I had fun building it, and I learned a lot. And if
there's something in the world that I like, it's a fun toy.

~~~
CptCodeMonkey
I've seen a bash migration thing in a production environment before but yours
is a lot cleaner and well organized.

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jakebasile
I wrote my own dotfile backup tool[1]. I am, as far as I know, the only one
that uses it. Untold millions of these exist, I'm sure there are many that do
it better.

Now that I think about it, most of my stuff on GitHub is, well, not necessary.
I always think to myself "I enjoyed writing it, maybe someone somewhere can
find it useful."

[1]:<https://github.com/jakebasile/dotback>

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ao5357
Mine is intentionally bad: <https://github.com/ao5357/retina-spacer-gif>

Perhaps other projects are unintentionally bad, but the above-linked was
intended to be funny.

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Jemaclus
I tried to make a PHP-based (it's my primary language at work, so easy enough
to dabble in) version of the classic BBS game TradeWars.
(<https://github.com/brianseitel/oasis-wars>)

I got universe generation down (though it's slow), and I started on populating
it with ports, but I couldn't quite figure out how to properly figure out how
much the traders should charge for goods.

Anyway, it was fun while it lasted, but I got distracted by other projects.
Maybe some day I'll come back and work on it some more...

~~~
tlack
This project is definitely not dumb to me. I have many fond memories of TW2002
and I still can't find anything online that matches its level of involvement
(fairly low with the turn limiting) and excitement. EVE is out of the question
- it's just too much for me.

I seem to recall finding a text file years ago that laid out the algorithm for
port material buy/sell pricing. Can't seem to locate it now but if I find it
I'll report back.

Keep up the good work. :)

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mc
Funny you ask, last night, I got Wordpress running on Heroku.

<https://github.com/mchung/heroku-buildpack-wordpress>

Why? For the lulz.

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krapp
I made a watermarking plugin for jQuery/canvas mostly because someone asked if
it was possible to do entirely in javascript (for a Business Catalyst client,
so no backend was available) and after I explained why it was a terrible idea
I went ahead and tried it anyway.

Most of my projects are like that... experiments and self-education which are
probably useful just to myself.

<https://github.com/kennethrapp/cmark>

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hamax
Most of my personal projects are at least a bit embarrassing, but those two
are the worst:

XML to LaTeX parser (failed proof of concept) <https://github.com/hamaxx/lml>

And shell simulator in JS (just for fun project)
<https://github.com/hamaxx/jsbash>

~~~
pjungwir
Wow, this reminds me: it's not on Github, but I have a project that uses XSLT
to convert a data.xml file into both LaTeX and HTML versions of my resume. On
the one hand it's useful enough that I still use it, but on the other it's
pretty hideous. The XSLT looks for special XML elements representing
characters that will need to be escaped for either LaTeX or HTML, like
<underline/> and <amp/>. Pretty ironic that I generate my resume with code I
wouldn't want an employer to see. Maybe I should put it on Github after
all.... In my defense it looks like it dates from 2006.

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robotmay
Regrettably, this is my most popular piece of code I've released: a ruby gem
for parsing a goddamn stupid text format used only by the website Rightmove. I
pity the poor fools who have needed to use it.

<https://github.com/robotmay/blm>

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whichdan
<https://github.com/DanL/shortener>

A URL shortening API using Django. I had more-or-less never used Django before
this. If I'm committing any Pythonic sins, by all means, elucidate me.

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pantoine
<https://github.com/PAntoine/look>

There is many, many, many reasons this is bad. Just look at the command line.

PS: It also duplicates several unix CLI functions, just like the project in
question.

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eduardordm
ActiveRecord, except it isn't active (nor record). Not an actual project, just
a piece of code.

<https://github.com/eduardordm/inactiverecord>

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pjungwir
I'll go first. Here is a command-line utility in C that counts:

<https://github.com/pjungwir/range>

I thought I had a worse example, but it turns out it's not on Github . . .
yet. :-)

~~~
krallja
Awesome - it's like `seq(1)` but with other bases.

~~~
pjungwir
It's not totally useless, but then neither are search/replace. I'm pretty sure
I hadn't seen seq when I wrote it. Perhaps the most embarrassing thing about
it is how over-engineered it is. But I don't get to write C very often, so I
wanted to enjoy it as long as possible. :-) What's wrong with sharing
something like that with the world?

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endgame
<http://code.google.com/p/endgames-stuff>

Where I store little throwaways. Metscrape2 is probably the most interesting.

