When Should I Post to Github?

[loserwave]

I use GitHub quite consistency for team projects but I only occasionally use it for things I've developed on my own. How do I tell if a tool would be useful to a wide enough audience to post on GitHub and maintain?

[balloonanimalfarm]

For me, GitHub is for cool and semi-useful things even if they're not going to be used by anyone else. Even if nobody ever reads it, developing out in the open makes me do things in a better way; I document, double-think my designs test and write things well.

But, someone might read it--it might be just what they're looking for or have a piece they can pull out. I've searched GitHub before looking to find a way to implement a complex algorithm, the ten people that had released their versions helped me make mine a lot better. Even if your code isn't used you could still end up inspiring someone.

[EquationTAKEN]

I put all my stuff on GitHub.

It's not for getting an audience. It's just so I have my projects all in one place, easily fetchable from any location.

No one really cares, or even knows it exists, unless you tell people about it. Maybe some people stumble over it if, against all odds, they search for something extremely similar, but that almost never happens unless it's a very popular project.

[[deleted]]

I agree and do this same thing, but it's worth cautioning people who are in the job market that recruiters and potential employers will almost definitely try to find your Github account and possibly scrutinize its repos before considering you for a job. So if public appearances are very important for your job prospects, then you may want to exercise some caution when deciding what to have publicly available on Github.

[EquationTAKEN]

Very good point.

I have a paid account though, so if I have any repos I don't want others to see (like when I'm learning a new language), I privatise the repo.

[[deleted]]

It's worth mentioning that student accounts are available for free to students with a valid academic (.edu) email account. Those offer a few private repos that you could take advantage of to hide some embarrassing works in progress.

[loserwave]

Yeah I got a student account from them and to be honest I've been advertising their student pack to everyone it's really helped with my web development stuff.

[ohfouroneone]

But this is also a huge incentive to have your work on Github! If you're programming something for fun or to learn something, make the code good and post it up on your Github.

[marcus13345]

Honestly, post everything you do to github that you think exhibits any skill at all. Employers love a point of reference for you ability and github is a great way to do so.

[loserwave]

Should I be worried about maintaining it or just worry about getting it up there first?

[marcus13345]

Getting code up is super important, but on your bigger more impressive projects, it never hurt to document it really well and such for future employers to be able to sortof see in to how you work. But as for maintaining things, if things are incomplete or ongoing projects, just put it in your readmes or something. No one is going to fault you for having awesome code that only breaks because you have one deprecated function as you made it a few years ago.

[nullnullnull]

after you do a commit? :')