That explains what starring is and why people do it, but not why you're actively trying to make it happen.
Isn't it something that should be happening organically - and not be something you're actively pushing for and chasing? Doing that seems to lower it to the level of fishing for likes on Facebook or Instagram, robbing it of any real meaning as the indicator you describe
Generally you don't actively make it happen - sure, projects will grow with popularity eventually, but not all of us have that long of a time to "lock-in" to a project. Giving it an initial push will allow for more attention and usage.
I guess this point is very subjective, as it really just depends on the goal of your project. Are you just trying to get stars to put it on your resume? Or are you just trying to have fun working on your project and get some people to try it out.
I agree. Getting appreciated at early stages is very important to stay motivated. Pushing your project isn't just a way to get stars but also a way to get feedback.
As for usefulness... who cares? The most enjoyable projects (for me at least - and I'm not the only one) are usually those that are essentially toys - you make them and play with them because it's fun and interesting.
Programming shouldn't be a chore, or something you feel you have to do, or motivate yourself to do. The learning and discovery should be driven by curiosity and real enjoyment, not the expectation of validation or reward
Programming shouldn't be a chore, or something you feel you have to do, or motivate yourself to do. The learning and discovery should be driven by curiosity and real enjoyment, not the expectation of validation or reward
I totally agree! I think most, if not all of us program like this. But your argument goes astray when you claim that "if you have fun programming, then you are just a validation seeker and shouldn't care about usefulness." This is just completely false! A significant portion of developers, myself included, love their work and help others (in fact, I worked on a OSS project non-stop for ~9 months without much external feedback just because I enjoyed it), but also want feedback and validation.
I encourage you to try to make a bigger project that isn't a toy to try it out to understand my perspective - if you haven't already.
Nah man, it's no "bad thing", and there's no judgement here, only something you need to weigh up for yourself. GitHub stars are the Instagram Likes of the developer world. We each have to consider whether we are deriving our self-worth intrinsically or from metrics like stars. And moreover, does the hussle to accumulate stars/views/likes positively or negatively affect your relationship with your digital devices, and your ability to connect sincerely with the world around you. (I'm not implying an answer to that question; only commending you to ask it personally).
You don't want to get stars... You want to get visibility. You don't want to spend a whole lot of time creating an open source project and have nobody use it.
For me it's about time. Why put an unnecessary amounts of time to mature a project that isn't going to get any traction, or get any use? I generally only try to push projects where I feel there is an unfilled niche that no one else is filling.
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I'm curious.... Why do you want to try to actively get people to star your project?
For me, it provides validation that my project is useful. Otherwise, it's just a metric of "new activity," and can help find contributors.
For others, it depends.
That explains what starring is and why people do it, but not why you're actively trying to make it happen.
Isn't it something that should be happening organically - and not be something you're actively pushing for and chasing? Doing that seems to lower it to the level of fishing for likes on Facebook or Instagram, robbing it of any real meaning as the indicator you describe
Generally you don't actively make it happen - sure, projects will grow with popularity eventually, but not all of us have that long of a time to "lock-in" to a project. Giving it an initial push will allow for more attention and usage.
I guess this point is very subjective, as it really just depends on the goal of your project. Are you just trying to get stars to put it on your resume? Or are you just trying to have fun working on your project and get some people to try it out.
I agree. Getting appreciated at early stages is very important to stay motivated. Pushing your project isn't just a way to get stars but also a way to get feedback.
I think if you need stars as validation to stay motivated, you should probably be doing something else.
Feedback is useful, but that is an entirely separate thing to stars
As for usefulness... who cares? The most enjoyable projects (for me at least - and I'm not the only one) are usually those that are essentially toys - you make them and play with them because it's fun and interesting.
Programming shouldn't be a chore, or something you feel you have to do, or motivate yourself to do. The learning and discovery should be driven by curiosity and real enjoyment, not the expectation of validation or reward
I totally agree! I think most, if not all of us program like this. But your argument goes astray when you claim that "if you have fun programming, then you are just a validation seeker and shouldn't care about usefulness." This is just completely false! A significant portion of developers, myself included, love their work and help others (in fact, I worked on a OSS project non-stop for ~9 months without much external feedback just because I enjoyed it), but also want feedback and validation.
I encourage you to try to make a bigger project that isn't a toy to try it out to understand my perspective - if you haven't already.
Public approval gives the brain the gOoOd cHEmiCaLS 🧠📈⭐⭐⭐
I guess so - but does it make it a bad thing?
Nah man, it's no "bad thing", and there's no judgement here, only something you need to weigh up for yourself. GitHub stars are the Instagram Likes of the developer world. We each have to consider whether we are deriving our self-worth intrinsically or from metrics like stars. And moreover, does the hussle to accumulate stars/views/likes positively or negatively affect your relationship with your digital devices, and your ability to connect sincerely with the world around you. (I'm not implying an answer to that question; only commending you to ask it personally).
You don't want to get stars... You want to get visibility. You don't want to spend a whole lot of time creating an open source project and have nobody use it.
Why not?
It's similar to writing an article for others. Why would you not care if nobody sees it if you literally wrote it for other people to see?
For me, getting stars seems like a bit too specific
That's a good suggestion, I adjusted the article title so it more accurately represents the article's content.
For me it's about time. Why put an unnecessary amounts of time to mature a project that isn't going to get any traction, or get any use? I generally only try to push projects where I feel there is an unfilled niche that no one else is filling.