That's a good point, but it does raise the question of how best to transmit notes or information with anyone who stumbles on the repo. I understand these platform-specific features to be a way to show you do your homework and can integrate third party tooling or workflows into your own things.

Adding a README.md isn't just GitHub specific, it's a good idea to add it to any project you do.

My memory sucks, that's why I write down what I'm planning to do with a project into the readme. It doesn't need to be super fancy with images and status badges and all that jazz.

This is perfectly enough:

  projectname
  ===========

  This fizzes

  TODO
  ----

  Add buzzing later
  Check if bazzing library is ready for production

This is true, README has a long history.

However, I strongly associate Readme.md, designed for a web based intro view with Github.

It would be interesting to get the real history, because it could be a fluke of timing.

I’d bet if we look back at old source forge projects created pre-github there would be a strong correlation with the markdown version added and the rise of github. (Of course this could be a timing fluke)

Markdown was invented around 2004, Github was founded in 2008.

Which means you may be able to see a correlated acceleration in usage.