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Why do developer companies keep thinking they are aocial twitter-facebook-like things? It goes from small things like hiding exact timestamps behind meaningles

Why do developer companies keep thinking they are aocial twitter-facebook-like things? It goes from small things like hiding exact timestamps behind meaningless "2d ago" to this bullshit

pizza234 5y ago
> Why do developer companies keep thinking they are aocial twitter-facebook-like things? Because open source is significantly social in nature; it's not just an available blob of code. I don't necessarily agree with their direction, but the social aspect is certainly a foundational component.
- cassianoleal 5y ago
  I think the issue is not with it being social in general, but rather with it becoming a similar flavour of social to the likes of Facebook, Twitter, etc. Github has always been a social tool without the need for a newsfeed-type thing.
  - chockchocschoir 5y ago
    > Github has always been a social tool without the need for a newsfeed-type thing. GitHub has always had various activity feeds. Here are two early screenshots from 2008: > Project and Developer News Feeds - Keep tabs on your favorite projects and the people that work on them. https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115832/http://github.com/images/modules/home/medium_screens/dashboard.png https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115832/http://github.com... > Public Developer Profiles - See what other developers are working on and how many commits they've made https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115936/http://github.com/images/modules/home/medium_screens/user.png https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115936/http://github.com... From https://web.archive.org/web/20081111061111/http://github.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20081111061111/http://github.com...
    - cassianoleal 5y ago
      Are any of those algorithmically selected? If not, then my argument stands. Sure, the one sentence you picked, taken out of context, makes it look like I'm generally against feeds. When you put it in the broad context of my comment though, you can easily see that it's the AI bit that's the problem.
      - chockchocschoir 5y ago
        The other sentence in your comment was: > I think the issue is not with it being social in general, but rather with it becoming a similar flavour of social to the likes of Facebook, Twitter, etc. I'm sorry I didn't understand you were using "flavour" to indicate AI, I just thought you were referencing social features in general, it wasn't that clear to me, sorry for that.
        cassianoleal 5y ago
        Yeah, that's cool. I guess I could have been more precise in my phrasing.
charcircuit 5y ago
Because "2d ago" provides a better user experience even for developers.
- AlexandrB 5y ago
  Depends on what you're doing. If you're just browsing a repo, it's fine. If you're debugging something and need a timestamp for when a change went in, it's abysmal.
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    I should have specified on average. I do not often need to lookup the exact timestamp of a commit.
  - eminence32 5y ago
    Just a note for the audience in general: In github, if you hover your mouse over a time like "2 days ago", the tooltip will give you the exact timestamp. However, I can't find any way to easily copy this into your clipboard (for that I guess you have to go to your old friend "git show" or "git log")
    - dmitriid 5y ago
      I've seen "but you can hover your mouse" as an excuse by CorcleCI, for example. And it doesn't fly. It's an extra interaction that is cumbersome and non-persistent.
- prepend 5y ago
  I prefer a time stamp since there’s less ambiguity. I became less annoyed with GitHub when I learned that they put the timestamp in the mouse over hovertext.
chockchocschoir 5y ago
> Why do developer companies keep thinking they are aocial twitter-facebook-like things? Because that's been their main selling point since day one. Git hosting + social coding platform. I guess because they became the leading code hosting platform in the world, they think that that's because of their social features. What you're seeing today is just a continuation of what they always have been doing.

Why do developer companies keep thinking they are aocial twitter-facebook-like things? It goes from small things like hiding exact timestamps behind meaningless "2d ago" to this bullshit

pizza234 5y ago

> Why do developer companies keep thinking they are aocial twitter-facebook-like things? Because open source is significantly social in nature; it's not just an available blob of code. I don't necessarily agree with their direction, but the social aspect is certainly a foundational component.

cassianoleal 5y ago
I think the issue is not with it being social in general, but rather with it becoming a similar flavour of social to the likes of Facebook, Twitter, etc. Github has always been a social tool without the need for a newsfeed-type thing.
- chockchocschoir 5y ago
  > Github has always been a social tool without the need for a newsfeed-type thing. GitHub has always had various activity feeds. Here are two early screenshots from 2008: > Project and Developer News Feeds - Keep tabs on your favorite projects and the people that work on them. https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115832/http://github.com/images/modules/home/medium_screens/dashboard.png https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115832/http://github.com... > Public Developer Profiles - See what other developers are working on and how many commits they've made https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115936/http://github.com/images/modules/home/medium_screens/user.png https://web.archive.org/web/20081113115936/http://github.com... From https://web.archive.org/web/20081111061111/http://github.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20081111061111/http://github.com...
  - cassianoleal 5y ago
    Are any of those algorithmically selected? If not, then my argument stands. Sure, the one sentence you picked, taken out of context, makes it look like I'm generally against feeds. When you put it in the broad context of my comment though, you can easily see that it's the AI bit that's the problem.
    - chockchocschoir 5y ago
      The other sentence in your comment was: > I think the issue is not with it being social in general, but rather with it becoming a similar flavour of social to the likes of Facebook, Twitter, etc. I'm sorry I didn't understand you were using "flavour" to indicate AI, I just thought you were referencing social features in general, it wasn't that clear to me, sorry for that.
      - cassianoleal 5y ago
        Yeah, that's cool. I guess I could have been more precise in my phrasing.

charcircuit 5y ago

Because "2d ago" provides a better user experience even for developers.

AlexandrB 5y ago
Depends on what you're doing. If you're just browsing a repo, it's fine. If you're debugging something and need a timestamp for when a change went in, it's abysmal.
- charcircuit 5y ago
  I should have specified on average. I do not often need to lookup the exact timestamp of a commit.
- eminence32 5y ago
  Just a note for the audience in general: In github, if you hover your mouse over a time like "2 days ago", the tooltip will give you the exact timestamp. However, I can't find any way to easily copy this into your clipboard (for that I guess you have to go to your old friend "git show" or "git log")
  - dmitriid 5y ago
    I've seen "but you can hover your mouse" as an excuse by CorcleCI, for example. And it doesn't fly. It's an extra interaction that is cumbersome and non-persistent.
prepend 5y ago
I prefer a time stamp since there’s less ambiguity. I became less annoyed with GitHub when I learned that they put the timestamp in the mouse over hovertext.

chockchocschoir 5y ago

> Why do developer companies keep thinking they are aocial twitter-facebook-like things? Because that's been their main selling point since day one. Git hosting + social coding platform. I guess because they became the leading code hosting platform in the world, they think that that's because of their social features. What you're seeing today is just a continuation of what they always have been doing.