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> As a GitHub user, I was always seeking green squares to try to make sure I had activity every day. This led me to change my workflow to generate more green sq

> As a GitHub user, I was always seeking green squares to try to make sure I had activity every day. This led me to change my workflow to generate more green squares, not for whatever is maximally effective. Having visible stars and followers also turns it into a sort of popularity contest. There's a dopamine hit when you get one of those, so it creates a strong reward function for attention-seeking behavior. > Another big reason is that Sourcehut is explicitly designed to not dispense dopamine. My brain's response to dopamine is widely exploited by our industry, which is why I'm not on any social media anymore. GitHub dispenses a lot of dopamine and it makes me change how I work to get those nice little green squares. Sourcehut rejects features that are only for dopamine hits without utility on their own, and is generally designed in a humane way that doesn't exploit human psychology. This makes my life tangibly better. This is enough to get me to switch as well. I did not know about Sourcehut but I will be checking them out today.

Macha 3y ago
For OSS, Codeberg is also an option. It's based on Forgejo (a fork of Gitea) so it's much more traditional a forge in terms of contribution models than Sourcehut's email first model which can be off-putting for many.
- dealuromanet 3y ago
  Thank you for the recommendation, my friend. I will check out Codeberg as well.
arrowsmith 3y ago
> GitHub dispenses a lot of dopamine and it makes me change how I work to get those nice little green squares. Yerwhat? This is not remotely my experience with GitHub at all. I never look at my green squares. In fact I rarely even look at anyone's profile page (why would I?) I use GitHub every day and it has never once occurred to me that anyone could think of GitHub as addictive/gamified or a "dopamine dispenser".
- bshipp 3y ago
  If the green squares were sufficient to give me a dopamine hit, my half-abandoned repos with stars, pull requests, and conversations would be a much higher priority in my life. As it stands, responding to user requests on Github just feels exactly like work.
- hot_gril 3y ago
  Yeah, if Github squares are affecting your health, a better policy is self-control. Otherwise your next issue might be unit tests displaying green checkmarks and repos showing coverage percentages.

Macha 3y ago

For OSS, Codeberg is also an option. It's based on Forgejo (a fork of Gitea) so it's much more traditional a forge in terms of contribution models than Sourcehut's email first model which can be off-putting for many.

dealuromanet 3y ago
Thank you for the recommendation, my friend. I will check out Codeberg as well.

arrowsmith 3y ago

> GitHub dispenses a lot of dopamine and it makes me change how I work to get those nice little green squares. Yerwhat? This is not remotely my experience with GitHub at all. I never look at my green squares. In fact I rarely even look at anyone's profile page (why would I?) I use GitHub every day and it has never once occurred to me that anyone could think of GitHub as addictive/gamified or a "dopamine dispenser".

bshipp 3y ago
If the green squares were sufficient to give me a dopamine hit, my half-abandoned repos with stars, pull requests, and conversations would be a much higher priority in my life. As it stands, responding to user requests on Github just feels exactly like work.
hot_gril 3y ago
Yeah, if Github squares are affecting your health, a better policy is self-control. Otherwise your next issue might be unit tests displaying green checkmarks and repos showing coverage percentages.