Just a random question.

Is it wrong to ask people star your repo if it's good enough?

If it's good enough and useful enough, I don't think so

But, you know, the line between helping somebody with something and spamming/advertising is thin

@asgs What's the best way to put up OS project forward to developers?

@F1973 Exactly this

Do stars matter?

Allow me to rephrase your question:
is it wrong for you to be a beggar?

@iiii Mostly people don't bother to look into code until they have large base, isnt it?

@imshravan I don't understand what you are trying to tell with this.

@netikras Allow me to help around with same.

If you ask people to review, and don't have recorded review, how will one ever know about the project?

Stars are mere part that says Project is legit.

If you say it's begging, I say asking for recorded feedback.

@iiii People don't look at project or the code, until many people have starred it or given review on it.

@imshravan stars are glorified bookmarks.

Who the fuck cares about stars? Or rather, why?

@iiii As much as stars act as bookmarks, it also plays a important factor as useful metric for a projects popularity..

Stars are routinely used as a proxy for a project popularity

@imshravan it really doesn't. The only thing it shows is some sort of popularity,but popularity does not equal to quality in the slightest.

@iiii I have been working on OS projects for a while. TBH, that's what I have noticed in the culture.

@imshravan in any way, begging for those tokens is not the way to go.

@iiii Point taken.

It does matter at some places, for example, there are repositories/websites which list good projects, and they have a criteria for minimum number of stars to be eligible. Also, people obviously judge by number of stars, also because it represents it's trustworthiness.

There is nothing wrong in saying
"Like this Project, Star it on Github"

I don't consider this begging, nothing wrong in trying to promote a project.

No one noticed wrong tag, we are evolving.

@theabbie if they demand minimal amount of stars, I would really be very suspicious of such list.

@iiii Legit Stars represent Trustworthiness, For example, https://javascripting.com/submit/ automatically checks minimum 80 stars to even submit for review. Popularity is represented by stars, the opposite may not necessarily be true. But internet numbers do affect thought process. I won't use a project with 0 stars even if it might be the best in the world. expecting it to gain popularity automatically is like expecting to get hired without applying. Possible but not feasible.

@theabbie popularity does not represent quality. that's the catch

@iiii For example, this

https://github.com/sindresorhus/...

It requires minimum 40 stars, stars are important. There are better ways to get stars rather than begging directly. Nothing wrong in just asking to star.

@theabbie

if everyone "won't use a project with 0 stars" then any new project is essentially doomed right from the beginning. it's a classic Catch-22: to get stars, someone has to use it, but no one uses it because it has no stars

@theabbie stars are meaningless. End of story.

@theabbie if someone makes those arbitrary rules, does not mean that start are essentially an important thing.

@iiii But OP is sure that his project is good, his project won't get popular if he doesn't tell people about it. And it's more like a reminder to star it if you like it. That's one way to support a Project.

@theabbie the word of mouth is much more important than just an amount of bookmarks. collaboration with other more known projects and validation by those would be much more productive than hoarding stars.

@100110111 All internet points are meaningless, But stars are supposed to be a way to support a project (other than being bookmarks), And, asking to star is similar to asking to support. What's wrong in asking for Support?

@iiii OP didn't say he's hoarding for stars. He's not texting Random people to star his repo. He might be posting it to relevant places and writing "star it if you like it".

digging up Github's definition (and intention) shows that they have a stupid dual definition in the first place:

it's either a bookmark, or an "internet point"

@theabbie if you need to remind people to do something, that means they don't usually do that in the first place. how could that be?

@iiii It's just a way to appreciate, you like it, you star it. more stars means more people appreciate it. Promotion isn't unethical.

@theabbie it’s meaningless. Popularity as a measure of quality is fucked up.

@theabbie it's just meaningless

@iiii Starring is not the most usual action a person thinks of, but if the repo says star it if you like it, I feel like I should star it, I would have forgot if it didn't remind me.

Similar to asking to like a video or subscribe a channel, Every list on internet sorts using these internet points.

@100110111 How do you appreciate an open-source project?

@theabbie Exactly! Thanks for the insight :)

@theabbie well I might star it, who knows. Doesn’t make likes/stars any more meaningless. I’d rather spread the word of a good open source project

@imshravan Still, don't beg, let your project speak for itself. Just let more people know about it and let them decide.

@theabbie so you're basically just doing what you were told?

@100110111 People do judge by stars, that's a psychological fact, OP wants to trigger this human nature. as long as he is not doing something unethical, he can ask people to star.

@iiii I did it because it was deserving, also, as you pointed out, it's just bookmark, so, I bookmark it to use it in future.

@theabbie wait someone actually even notices wether a repo has 0 or 10 000 stars? Weird...

@100110111 I doubt that because 1000 is displayed as 1k. So it's not that different compared to just 1.

@100110111 When there are hundreds of projects for same thing and it isn't feasible to check all of them, anyone will sort it in descending order of popularity (stars) and then check.

@theabbie you would. Not anyone.

@100110111 It's more like, everyone would, you would not

@theabbie no. Not everyone will. You are assuming too much, as always. Just because you do something or because you have an opinion, doesn’t mean everyone else, most people or even anyone else would.

@100110111 Ok, fuck that, stars might be meaningless, but every list will sort by stars, so, OP wants to move up that list. He can ask for stars, I won't get mad if someone asks me to star.

@theabbie maybe you won’t. I would not give stars for anyone who asks just out of principle.

@100110111 Also by your logic, all elections are rigged because votes are just numbers given by people, most votes doesn't mean better leader, but we trust them. In real like, stars matter.

@theabbie again, you’re jumping to conclusions. Stop trying to pretend you have a brain, we all know it’s not there.

@imshravan LinkedIn, twitter, blogs (or even medium posts), meetups, asking friends (and their friends) to try those out and to share along in their network

This is basically advertising no matter how you think about it. You will need to find ways to publicise it and stars are definitely a way to make popular projects even more popular. Getting the initial stars, getting feedback, letting them create issues and send PRs is the first important stuff towards it. The obvious shortcut is if this project is backed by an enterprise company who already have a brand value established or getting collaborators from such enterprises

@100110111 My not having brain doesn't affect reality.

https://opensource.stackexchange.com/...

Here, it says that most people use stars to filter out repos, though bad practice, it's still done. To compete with other projects, it's better to have some stars.

A good project will become popular only if it's discovered, stars help in getting discovered. So, nothing wrong in wanting stars.

@theabbie so you basically linked arguments for why gh stars suck as a metric for anything, EVEN popularity...

@100110111 I never said stars are the best thing. But, having some stars is necessary to kickstart it.

@theabbie .... why do I even try to argue with the stubborn brainless you?

@100110111 You haven't given any valid argument either as to why not ask for stars, it's just your personal hate for stars.

However useless it may look, stars are required.

They don't represent quality, but they do represent that people appreciate it.

@theabbie I mean that’s exactly the thing: there is no reason why stars would be required.

And that there, was the end of my participation in this thread.

@100110111 Okay then, this much is enough.

OPs question wasn't about usefulness of stars anyways, he's clearly eager for stars. He just wanted to know if it's fine to ask for it. and answer to that is, yes, ask for it.

What is a star:
- Starring makes it easy to find a repository or topic again later.
- Starring a repository also shows appreciation to the repository maintainer for their work.

So, sure you can remind someone to star your repo, but if you have to actually ask then your repo is either of no use to that person (see point 1), or doesn't solve anything for said person looking at your repo.

@F1973 don't know about that. People flock of it doesn't have marketing (flashy site) or starts won't be trusted and therefore never gets of the ground although it might be high quality and useful to many.

@iiii some people believe in astrology and shit, so to them stars do matter.

@F1973 OP did say his code is of good quality, He wants stars because he needs exposure. People don't just star for sake of it, they star because they like it, and obviously, it's a bookmark. They bookmark it for future use. stars might be completely useless, but internet doesn't think so. These numbers matter.

Asking for a call to action is completely fine, youtubers asking to subscribe or like is fine, they are not forcing people to do that, it's just a reminder to do that if you feel so. These numbers are used by algorithms everywhere.

More stars = More exposure, OP needs that, he has full right to do so.

@C0D4 Asking for something does make people reconsider, some people browse github repos just like they browse any other social media, they might not need a repo currently, but asking to star does make them reconsider.

Also, OP wants to trigger human nature, existing stars bring more stars. similar to PewDiePie. once it reached no. 1, most people subscribed it just because it's no. 1, not for content.

Asking for call-to-action is fine, it increases the chances.

@F1973 OP is confident about it, we can assume it's a good project, it might be very useful, but he's not some internet celebrity and not the best marketing person, His repo needs the attention, Asking is not begging, especially for such a non-materialistic call-to-action.

Also, OP, can you show us the Repo?

@F1973 I saw OPs GitHub, he makes good stuff

@F1973 😂😅😂🤣😅😂🤣😂
Fuck man, I just spat my coffee on my keyboard reading that.

@wiki call to action

@theabbie Call to action (CTA) is a marketing term for any device designed to prompt an immediate response or encourage an immediate sale. A CTA most often refers to the use of words or phrases that can be incorporated into sales scripts, advertising messages, or web pages, which compel an audience to act in a specific way.

@F1973 Going by the literal meaning, it's a call to do some action, And, his projects are good, no one minds if people ask them to star, this is not even an argument, he can and should ask to star.

@F1973 No one here justified why he shouldn't ask to star. All arguments suggest how useless these stars are, yeah, they are useless, but OP wants that. Let him ask for stars, It's extremely polite to ask for it.

@F1973 My first comment clearly says it's fine to ask that, "Like this project, Star it on GitHub", but then a whole useless discussion on how stars suck started. If he writes "do star my repo" on the README, that is also fine. He won't beg obviously.

All that being said, OP went about it in the right way, it seems.

@F1973 Then maybe a star button would be better, https://buttons.github.io/

No asking, no begging, a button that will remind you. Open-source never said it's wrong to ask for something, especially when it's benefitting the project. Yes, people do star if they like it, but asking will increase the chances.

@F1973 I'll remind you about the whole node community which holds on hype and back rubbing. And those "minimum stars required" lists Abbie has shown.

I wonder how to make a good repo be known if it comes from a single independent developer?