Social Coding

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)