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Article Publishing
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~ how to make a github project more popular |
A github project receives most of its stars and "Watches" not from the github site directly itself, but indirectly from other sites which link to github, AFAICT - then when people log in to github just to star your project, that's when the winnings occur.
For example, if your github project is discussed on external websites, this is when you will get a whole boat load of stars because people are talking about your project. An example is if your github project is mentioned in a bug report of another project (could be a github project that's not yours), or if some blog is discussing your project, or, stackoverflow answers/questions (really big traffic comes from here).
You'd think that github itself would be where the traffic comes to your project. Github has a search feature, so people find your project that way? Not really... maybe a few people once every few months might stumble on your project that way.. but... From what I can see that's not how most of the stars are obtained. Any project which is discussed externally elsewhere, or inside another github project (such as a popular github compiler project or popular library) that mentions your project, is how you popularize your project. Github itself, although a social network, doesn't bring, AFAICT, many visitors to your project like you'd think it would through it's basic search. Obviously, it depends, as always, and YMMV.
Simply start talking about your project in other external projects or websites if you want traffic to your github project. Does your compiler or tool you use not provide any useful example of how to do a certain task? upload a project on github that demo's what you found useful, then go talk about it in places where people are looking to solve that problem (stackoverflow, github bug reports, blogs, etc), and magically you'll have a whole boat load of stars and watchers on your project.
The main warning being: careful what you wish for. If your project becomes popular, you will have to maintain it, assume no payment or compensation: after all it is open source. So unless you figure a way to attach a ponzi scheme or donation system to your project, just be careful what wishes you make.. because when they come true and all the people start talking about your project, where is your time going to be spent and how will you not waste your life away supporting a free product that has no way of putting bread on your table?
I wish you well in popularizing your github project, just be certain that it is what you really want. Otherwise, you're fucked. So, Later, and have a fucked day.
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