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As much as I love GitHub, I think the exploration paradigm could use a little work -- it seems to have something of a flywheel effect, where popular repositorie

by jmduke 13y ago

As much as I love GitHub, I think the exploration paradigm could use a little work -- it seems to have something of a flywheel effect, where popular repositories receive more exposure, thus more stars/forks/watches, thus appear as 'trending', thus become more popular. (For example: currently trending as #3 in Python today is the official Django repository; and trending as #2 today is the official AirBNB javascript style guide, which has been boasting around 4,000 stars and hasn't been updated in around ten years.) I'd kill for a GitHub StumbleUpon: click a button (filtering for, say, vertical or programming language) and get transported to a repository that has a baseline level of merit (say, at least three stars).

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- jmduke 13y ago
  Well, that was a double whammy of me typing 'ten years' instead of 'ten months' and also reading the wrong commit timestamp. I think my point is still valid, but thanks for pointing that out -- awesome work, btw!
  - _harry 13y ago
    I deleted my comment because I realized it was tangential to your point and don't want to sidetrack discussion. Carry on!
hashtree 13y ago
I've found one of the best ways to do the "stubmleupon" concept is to follow dozens of devs who star interesting repos (sometimes solely for that reason) and check your news stream often. I follow devs from a wide variety of backgrounds, which yields numerous libraries that I might not otherwise be aware of (and sometimes months ahead of HN exposure). One of the best things I've done with my GitHub account. A solid example is: https://github.com/fogus https://github.com/fogus
- jpadvo 13y ago
  How do you find these devs who star interesting repos? Edit: after some thought and poking around, one way to find these devs is to just look at the profiles of devs who run projects you use. If they've starred a lot of repos, see if they star things you would be interested in. If so, follow them. Easy.
  - hashtree 13y ago
    Your example is spot on. Additionally, I use twitter, authors of books, authors of research papers, see who these devs follow, and numerous other ways of traversing the GitHub social graph.
- samirahmed 13y ago
  this is exactly what i do too. Another great person to follow is Ilya Grigorik ... https://github.com/igrigorik https://github.com/igrigorik He spents a lot of time following repos, and literally built the github archive just to keep up with this.
  - mh- 13y ago
    for the interested: http://www.githubarchive.org/ http://www.githubarchive.org/ http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=439aa16a39e4b10e0b65ff2ef&id=0b82fec5c2 http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=439aa16a39e4b10e0b6...
- fogus 13y ago
  Thanks! I use the same technique as you and have found many interesting repositories via https://github.com/swannodette https://github.com/swannodette and https://github.com/namin https://github.com/namin.
mattgreenrocks 13y ago
Many open-source news sites suffer from the same flaw. It's lazy to call something like this 'exploration' when you're re-hashing the same projects over and over. Edit: sorry if I sound harsh on it. I think it's very necessary! But there needs to be more thought on how to find new and interesting projects.
aaronbrethorst 13y ago
Check out my site, Cocoa Controls (and sign up for my weekly newsletter), which does roughly what you want for iOS content. I curate everything that shows up on there, and—in a lot of cases—the content I post initially has zero watchers/zero forks on GitHub. http://www.cocoacontrols.com http://www.cocoacontrols.com
- xauronx 13y ago
  So, I really really love cocoacontrols. Thought you should know. Awesome work.
  - aaronbrethorst 13y ago
    thanks, that always makes me happy to hear! :)
- conesus 13y ago
  Have to agree, Cocoa Controls is one of the first blogs I read daily on NewsBlur.
subsection1h 13y ago
> click a button (filtering for, say, vertical or programming > language) and get transported to a repository that has a baseline > level of merit (say, at least three stars). Below is a search for repos with at least three stars sorted by date updated. You can filter by language by clicking a language listed on the left side of the page. https://github.com/search?q=stars%3A%3E2&s=updated https://github.com/search?q=stars%3A%3E2&s=updated

by jmduke 13y ago

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jmduke 13y ago
Well, that was a double whammy of me typing 'ten years' instead of 'ten months' and also reading the wrong commit timestamp. I think my point is still valid, but thanks for pointing that out -- awesome work, btw!
- _harry 13y ago
  I deleted my comment because I realized it was tangential to your point and don't want to sidetrack discussion. Carry on!

hashtree 13y ago

I've found one of the best ways to do the "stubmleupon" concept is to follow dozens of devs who star interesting repos (sometimes solely for that reason) and check your news stream often. I follow devs from a wide variety of backgrounds, which yields numerous libraries that I might not otherwise be aware of (and sometimes months ahead of HN exposure). One of the best things I've done with my GitHub account. A solid example is: https://github.com/fogus https://github.com/fogus

jpadvo 13y ago
How do you find these devs who star interesting repos? Edit: after some thought and poking around, one way to find these devs is to just look at the profiles of devs who run projects you use. If they've starred a lot of repos, see if they star things you would be interested in. If so, follow them. Easy.
- hashtree 13y ago
  Your example is spot on. Additionally, I use twitter, authors of books, authors of research papers, see who these devs follow, and numerous other ways of traversing the GitHub social graph.
samirahmed 13y ago
this is exactly what i do too. Another great person to follow is Ilya Grigorik ... https://github.com/igrigorik https://github.com/igrigorik He spents a lot of time following repos, and literally built the github archive just to keep up with this.
- mh- 13y ago
  for the interested: http://www.githubarchive.org/ http://www.githubarchive.org/ http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=439aa16a39e4b10e0b65ff2ef&id=0b82fec5c2 http://us5.campaign-archive2.com/home/?u=439aa16a39e4b10e0b6...
fogus 13y ago
Thanks! I use the same technique as you and have found many interesting repositories via https://github.com/swannodette https://github.com/swannodette and https://github.com/namin https://github.com/namin.

mattgreenrocks 13y ago

Many open-source news sites suffer from the same flaw. It's lazy to call something like this 'exploration' when you're re-hashing the same projects over and over. Edit: sorry if I sound harsh on it. I think it's very necessary! But there needs to be more thought on how to find new and interesting projects.

aaronbrethorst 13y ago

Check out my site, Cocoa Controls (and sign up for my weekly newsletter), which does roughly what you want for iOS content. I curate everything that shows up on there, and—in a lot of cases—the content I post initially has zero watchers/zero forks on GitHub. http://www.cocoacontrols.com http://www.cocoacontrols.com

xauronx 13y ago
So, I really really love cocoacontrols. Thought you should know. Awesome work.
- aaronbrethorst 13y ago
  thanks, that always makes me happy to hear! :)
conesus 13y ago
Have to agree, Cocoa Controls is one of the first blogs I read daily on NewsBlur.

subsection1h 13y ago

> click a button (filtering for, say, vertical or programming > language) and get transported to a repository that has a baseline > level of merit (say, at least three stars). Below is a search for repos with at least three stars sorted by date updated. You can filter by language by clicking a language listed on the left side of the page. https://github.com/search?q=stars%3A%3E2&s=updated https://github.com/search?q=stars%3A%3E2&s=updated