5 ms·

I don't know about you, but I use stars as a kind of bookmark, nothing more. I see many instances where projects see the accumulation of stars as an accomplishm

I don't know about you, but I use stars as a kind of bookmark, nothing more. I see many instances where projects see the accumulation of stars as an accomplishment, or milestone the project achieves. Does it mean more to other people?

themihai 10y ago
It usually does because it means the project is important/useful for more people. Google does the same with the clicks(the more clicks the more important...among other things)
- moondev 10y ago
  No doubt. Very helpfull when evaluating projects in an unfamiliar domain
- eatbitseveryday 10y ago
  > Google does the same with the clicks(the more clicks the more important...among other things) I politely disagree that this is a way of measuring importance. If I don't click or load a page, I cannot evaluate it, because I cannot view the document.
  - themihai 10y ago
    Yeah but if that's your last click Google may consider you found what you was looking for. That being said perhaps a comparison with backlinks would make more sense.
lopatin 10y ago
It's kind of like saying that a birthday is just another day. Not worth celebrating because it's not a true sign of maturity but simply a measure of how many years old you are. And you would technically have a point in saying that. But you would also be a jerk.
Ensorceled 10y ago
I'm not sure why you think having 50K people think your project is worthy of a bookmark ISN'T an accomplishment. Seems pretty noteworthy all by itself.
- amorphid 10y ago
  I use stars as a metric in deciding which unfamiliar library seems to be real. It's right up where with number of downloads, and most recent commits. Not a perfect system. Just a sniff test.
  - mipmap04 10y ago
    I'd say it's a fairly reliable metric. Plus, it tends to lead me towards thinking "If all these other people could use this for their needs, I bet I can too".
    - ino 10y ago
      If you star the official fb php SDK for example, it's just to keep up with having to rewrite the fb part of your app every couple of months because you've composer updated the sdk (Best practice, lol). It's unbelievable the number and pace of breaking changes. As an advice, it's less work to disregard the sdk and implement using curl. Very sloppy and unprofessional from a company that was born, grew and even made their own php.
      - mipmap04 10y ago
        Well, they do carry the motto "move fast and break things". I suppose that's the price of admission for playing with FB.
- eatbitseveryday 10y ago
  You're assuming bookmarks are made because people find it "good". I may come across something poorly done, bookmark it either because I intend to improve it later, or maybe it's a good example of bad design, or ... etc.
Waterluvian 10y ago
For me stars is a way to decide how much to scrutinize a package before using it.
Kiro 10y ago
That gives the stars more credibility IMO. A bookmark means more than a simple like.
carsongross 10y ago
It may be silly and unscientific, but it means a lot to me for intercooler.js. Its the easiest way for me to see if my work is appreciated and gives me a general (though no doubt completely incorrect) way to compare with the big guys (React, Angular): "Hey, for every 50 people who have heard of react, a person has heard of intercooler.js". So it serves as an motivation and rationalization tool, however silly it might be.
- mbrock 10y ago
  One of my repositories got two stars and I was like wooooooah people totally care about my stuff!
  - shakna 10y ago
    What project are you most proud of?
- BinaryIdiot 10y ago
  It does. When I started msngr.js I made a post on HN about it. It got a bunch of stars but didn't break 100. Then, over the next 6 months it got up to 200! I don't even know where the people came from! It was pretty exciting. Unfortunately it's been about a year now and the needle has barely moved and I never get feedback though I can see through npm that people are installing msngr.js but I don't know if or how they're using it.
  - no_news_is 10y ago
    I just gotta say, both you and the parent poster made a really cool thing that I just found out about from these posts, and I will definitely be using both. Thanks!
    - BinaryIdiot 10y ago
      Hey cool thanks! :)
WickyNilliams 10y ago
I have two projects which between them total around 11.5k stars. It serves as a decent estimation of an answer to "are people using my stuff?". When one of the projects got picked up by a large HN-style site (Designer News, IIRC), I was alerted to it by spotting the number of stars skyrocketing. It can be useful beyond vanity/bookmarking

themihai 10y ago

It usually does because it means the project is important/useful for more people. Google does the same with the clicks(the more clicks the more important...among other things)

moondev 10y ago
No doubt. Very helpfull when evaluating projects in an unfamiliar domain
eatbitseveryday 10y ago
> Google does the same with the clicks(the more clicks the more important...among other things) I politely disagree that this is a way of measuring importance. If I don't click or load a page, I cannot evaluate it, because I cannot view the document.
- themihai 10y ago
  Yeah but if that's your last click Google may consider you found what you was looking for. That being said perhaps a comparison with backlinks would make more sense.

lopatin 10y ago

It's kind of like saying that a birthday is just another day. Not worth celebrating because it's not a true sign of maturity but simply a measure of how many years old you are. And you would technically have a point in saying that. But you would also be a jerk.

Ensorceled 10y ago

I'm not sure why you think having 50K people think your project is worthy of a bookmark ISN'T an accomplishment. Seems pretty noteworthy all by itself.

amorphid 10y ago
I use stars as a metric in deciding which unfamiliar library seems to be real. It's right up where with number of downloads, and most recent commits. Not a perfect system. Just a sniff test.
- mipmap04 10y ago
  I'd say it's a fairly reliable metric. Plus, it tends to lead me towards thinking "If all these other people could use this for their needs, I bet I can too".
  - ino 10y ago
    If you star the official fb php SDK for example, it's just to keep up with having to rewrite the fb part of your app every couple of months because you've composer updated the sdk (Best practice, lol). It's unbelievable the number and pace of breaking changes. As an advice, it's less work to disregard the sdk and implement using curl. Very sloppy and unprofessional from a company that was born, grew and even made their own php.
    - mipmap04 10y ago
      Well, they do carry the motto "move fast and break things". I suppose that's the price of admission for playing with FB.
eatbitseveryday 10y ago
You're assuming bookmarks are made because people find it "good". I may come across something poorly done, bookmark it either because I intend to improve it later, or maybe it's a good example of bad design, or ... etc.

Waterluvian 10y ago

For me stars is a way to decide how much to scrutinize a package before using it.

Kiro 10y ago

That gives the stars more credibility IMO. A bookmark means more than a simple like.

carsongross 10y ago

It may be silly and unscientific, but it means a lot to me for intercooler.js. Its the easiest way for me to see if my work is appreciated and gives me a general (though no doubt completely incorrect) way to compare with the big guys (React, Angular): "Hey, for every 50 people who have heard of react, a person has heard of intercooler.js". So it serves as an motivation and rationalization tool, however silly it might be.

mbrock 10y ago
One of my repositories got two stars and I was like wooooooah people totally care about my stuff!
- shakna 10y ago
  What project are you most proud of?
BinaryIdiot 10y ago
It does. When I started msngr.js I made a post on HN about it. It got a bunch of stars but didn't break 100. Then, over the next 6 months it got up to 200! I don't even know where the people came from! It was pretty exciting. Unfortunately it's been about a year now and the needle has barely moved and I never get feedback though I can see through npm that people are installing msngr.js but I don't know if or how they're using it.
- no_news_is 10y ago
  I just gotta say, both you and the parent poster made a really cool thing that I just found out about from these posts, and I will definitely be using both. Thanks!
  - BinaryIdiot 10y ago
    Hey cool thanks! :)

WickyNilliams 10y ago

I have two projects which between them total around 11.5k stars. It serves as a decent estimation of an answer to "are people using my stuff?". When one of the projects got picked up by a large HN-style site (Designer News, IIRC), I was alerted to it by spotting the number of stars skyrocketing. It can be useful beyond vanity/bookmarking