Social Coding

Do the social features matter?
The social graph
The feed
Stars (likes)
GitHub star growth is primarily linear, even for the fastest-growing repositories. So virality happens, but always off-platform (a viral blog post, etc
GitHub is removing the trending tab at the end of this month due to low usage
Anecdotally, developers choose libraries in part based on social proof from other developers
Chat, a key component of social, is important for open-source projects. Most of the activity happens off GitHub (in Slack or Discord
GitHub profiles are sometimes used for recruiting and resumes. However, professional networks are rarely reflected on the GitHub follower model compared to LinkedIn (or Twitter
Software as a Service businesses with network effects are rare, but when they work, they grow huge (e.g., Figma, Slack)