Re:Ask HN: Are GitHub, GitLab, and similars just a fad?
by jimsmart on Monday July 05, 2021 @08:51PM
(#27743270)
^^ this.
I've open-sourced some subcomponents of other (closed source) projects — sometimes they've been personal projects, sometimes projects for clients (either way, usually hosted as a private project on GH) — because I figured these things might be useful to someone else.
Nothing big nor overly exciting mind — but the majority of them have gained a small handful of stars, a couple of them have been forked, and a couple of them have had issues filed and/or pull requests.
The OP asks: "perhaps it's just that I'm getting older?" — IDK how age factors into all this, but I was 50 on my last birthday! O_o
Re:Ask HN: Are GitHub, GitLab, and similars just a fad?
by jimsmart on Tuesday July 06, 2021 @07:17AM
(#27746829)
I would appreciate a reply instead of downvotes, but hey.
The OP asks "why are people doing it? [using GH]", and I answered — including addressing their question as to whether it might be age related.
Maybe your writing an app that deals with some obscure data feed and feeds it into some home automation. Maybe the data comes in a format your language doesn't have a good library for right now. If its easy enough (as github and all try to make it) maybe you publish it as an experimental library for your language.
Someone else looking for that functionality for a work project sees your contribution and either contributes or forks and develops a better tested / maintained version.
If your submitting code for vanity, I can see less use, but a lot of it is public because traditionally Github would charge for private repos... people got used to just making anything that wasn't commercially sensitive open.