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Do GitHub stars ⭐️ = Money 💰?

Nevo David on September 30, 2023

Novu got 20k stars in one year, but what about customers? Many open-source companies/libraries, Novu among them, are starting out by col...
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Ben Sinclair

What do you think about it?

I think it sounds like an advert for a newsletter, but I'm not really sure why people are interested in newsletters these days! There's not much that's topical that people can't find for themselves so easily that it makes curated lists redundant.

If you have something to say in your newsletter that you don't already say in your series of posts here on DEV, why not give a bit more insight into the differences? Perhaps a link so people can read the latest newsletter in their browser without having to subscribe?

Subscribing to someone's newsletter is a pretty big personal barrier for a lot of people.

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Imam Ali Mustofa

Can I buy a GitHub Star? Yes, I can! 🤣

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Nevo David

But can you sell it? :D

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Acid Coder

if it can be brought, then it definitely can be sold

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Imam Ali Mustofa

Hmmm... nice question. I am a broker... 😁

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Artak Avetyan

not sure that buying stars works :)

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Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

Do GitHub stars ⭐️ = Money 💰?

No, stars are a bookmarking tool

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Nevo David

Yes, you bookmark good things.
It shows growth for the maintainer

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Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

Not necessarily, I've bookmarked repos as examples of laughably bad code, and other similar reasons.

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Nevo David

And the majority?
Also, for that you have the "watch" option.

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Jon Randy 🎖️ • Edited

The majority - quite honestly - are probably things I came across that looked vaguely interesting and meant to look at or evaluate later but never got around to... much like the act of bookmarking sites in browsers (that similarly use ⭐ as an icon for bookmarks)

You can even make lists within your GitHub stars to organise your 'bookmarks' - something you would never do with 'likes'. It's clear it was never intended as a 'like' feature.

Watching, on the other hand, is a different feature - for following activity on a repo

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Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard

Counter argument : GitHub stars won't pay your rents and your clients don't care about them.

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Saurabh Rai

Interesting article. It answers some burning questions in every open-source creator and maintainer's mind.

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Nevo David

Main questions I am usually being asked

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Saurabh Rai

Because people have these questions. They want someone to answer it.

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Yeom suyun

GitHub stars, like money, tend to be self-replicating once they reach a certain level.
In the case of GitHub stars, I think it is because the number itself leads to improved accessibility, as mentioned in the article.

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Vsevolod • Edited

Since this is the case, give me a star too on Gentle, promise-based HTTP client for Deno and Node.js.. Will be very happy ^_^

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chturner94

Starred

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Vsevolod

^_^ thank you!

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Smitter

I relate github stars to your reputation. A good reputation won't pay you any money but somehow it can complete the money puzzle for you.

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Nathan Tarbert

Really good info, thanks @nevodavid!

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stephanhuewe

I'm just interested in getting the badge... So 12 stars would be OK.
github.com/stephanhuewe/netBlockchain