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Github stars are a strikingly fickle metric. There doesn't really seem to be any correlation between # of stars and quality of project or how novel the idea is

Github stars are a strikingly fickle metric. There doesn't really seem to be any correlation between # of stars and quality of project or how novel the idea is or similar. It's just a number, basically

aprdm 9y ago
It's basically a measure for people interested in your project. If people are interested in your project then that's a good indication that you're doing something right or at least solving a problem people care about. I personally like the metric and do use it on my judgment if I should use a project or not. It's like a first filter.
- weberc2 9y ago
  (Disclaimer: This post is about GH stars as a metric. Disputing this metric is not denigrating the project, and I actually think the project is pretty neat.) However, it doesn't tell you how interested someone is in your project--only that they're interested enough to click a button on their mouse. Moreover, it doesn't even tell you much about how interesting your project is; it doesn't tell you what portion of your GH page's visitors thought it was sufficiently interesting to click the button. They might well get another 1K from this HN article; does that mean their project became twice as interesting today?
  - aprdm 9y ago
    From my perspective and how I judge it, yes. If I was investigating some password solution in Go and gloss over a gopass project with 1k stars I would certainly investigate it. If another project only has two stars it would get investigated later in case gopass doesn't meet my requirements. That is not the only metric I use but it is a first pass. I don't think anyone has time to analyze every project out there to see if they're good or not. It's a little like how people filter out some CVs based on X attribute. Which is unfair and it isn't the perfect metric but when the volume is too big you gotta have a first filter. Obviously if someone in my network highly recommend a CV, or, in this case, a Golang pass tool, I would investigate it first
- brian-armstrong 9y ago
  A lot of people use them as a sort of bookmark. I know people who unstar once they've used the project to do what they wanted with it. By that measure, more stars might just mean a project that's interesting sounding but impractical or difficult to actually make something with.

aprdm 9y ago

It's basically a measure for people interested in your project. If people are interested in your project then that's a good indication that you're doing something right or at least solving a problem people care about. I personally like the metric and do use it on my judgment if I should use a project or not. It's like a first filter.

weberc2 9y ago
(Disclaimer: This post is about GH stars as a metric. Disputing this metric is not denigrating the project, and I actually think the project is pretty neat.) However, it doesn't tell you how interested someone is in your project--only that they're interested enough to click a button on their mouse. Moreover, it doesn't even tell you much about how interesting your project is; it doesn't tell you what portion of your GH page's visitors thought it was sufficiently interesting to click the button. They might well get another 1K from this HN article; does that mean their project became twice as interesting today?
- aprdm 9y ago
  From my perspective and how I judge it, yes. If I was investigating some password solution in Go and gloss over a gopass project with 1k stars I would certainly investigate it. If another project only has two stars it would get investigated later in case gopass doesn't meet my requirements. That is not the only metric I use but it is a first pass. I don't think anyone has time to analyze every project out there to see if they're good or not. It's a little like how people filter out some CVs based on X attribute. Which is unfair and it isn't the perfect metric but when the volume is too big you gotta have a first filter. Obviously if someone in my network highly recommend a CV, or, in this case, a Golang pass tool, I would investigate it first
brian-armstrong 9y ago
A lot of people use them as a sort of bookmark. I know people who unstar once they've used the project to do what they wanted with it. By that measure, more stars might just mean a project that's interesting sounding but impractical or difficult to actually make something with.