Poll: Do you use GitHub stars for bookmarking or for “Liking”?

[eatitraw]

The intended purpose of stars is bookmarking. "Starring a repository allows you to keep track of projects that you find interesting, even if you aren't associated with the project." [1]

However, I rarely browse my list of starred repos. I use star as a way to show my appreciation. It is sort of "Like" button for me.

[1] https://help.github.com/articles/about-stars/

[Daiz]

Primarily bookmarking. I just really wish you could create categories for your own stars (similar to how you can create your own playlists on YouTube for example), because it's really annoying having everything from "just something fun" to "actually useful for work" in just one big star pile that you can barely do anything about.

[popasmurf]

This already exists, check out http://astralapp.com/

[dimatura]

I have the same problem. I usually end up bookmarking to pinboard instead, where I can add tags.

Also, I often find bookmarking at the repo level too coarse - often I am only interested in a specific file or class.

[bnycum]

Here's what I did because I had the same thoughts. I just save everything to delicious as a bookmark, then first tag everything with 'github' then any other tags after that.

[tomkinstinch]

Categorization like this would be great.

I'd also like to be able to bin things as "useful today" vs "something under development to keep an eye on for the future."

[peterjmag]

I voted for bookmarking, but I use it for a bit of both, confusingly.

I feel like what I'm missing is some sort of mechanism for privately bookmarking repositories, perhaps with optional tagging or personal notes. I usually star a repo with a particular purpose in mind, e.g. "oh this could be an interesting way to solve problem X at work" or "ah finally, an MIT-licensed alternative to Project Y". As it stands, there's not really any good way to store that kind of info.

(On a related note, I don't really like the fact that your starred repos can't be made private.)

[INTPenis]

Bookmarking is liking. Bookmarking means "I like this and I want to look closer at it later when I have the time" to me.

[S_A_P]

I rarely can keep up with/remember bookmarks so I usually will fork a repo that I "like", even if I dont do anything with the code. This may not work for everyone, but in my case seeing it in my repo list happens much more frequently than visiting my list of bookmarks.

[jonbaer]

Good point, almost like an "I approve for use" type of situation, I began using Watch for a while but didn't seem to get the same notifications. I do however wish there was some alternative view to your star(ed) collection (breakup by tech/domain) because you can't really organize. Something similar to explore (https://github.com/explore) but your own items based from what you have approved.

[hanula]

I made something simple for this: http://stuff.hanula.com/starhub/ and me too, I also wish GH had some easier way to navigate and arrange your bookmarks. StarHub was primarily built for fast search.

[arihant]

I feel stupid. I never even thought of it as a bookmarking tool. When I have to bookmark, I just bookmark the repo page in the browser. I never thought of GitHub stars as anything more than a "Kudos, Good job" tool.

[popasmurf]

I've replied to someones comment with this already, I think it deserves more attention though. For those of you using Stars for bookmarking check out http://astralapp.com/ for organisational purposes.

[izietto]

There should be a "Both" option IMHO

[davegaeddert]

I give a repo a star if it's something I use or think there's a pretty good chance I'll use in the future (bookmarking). It also means I like to stay up-to-date with their development, as least at the surface level. I built http://sibbell.com for exactly that purpose - it will notify you any time a repo that you star (or watch) has a new release. I don't like to "watch" repos on GitHub though because on a project of any size, you get flooded with emails...

[jqueryin]

Interesting poll. I can only imagine you have a use case for building something. I'm in the same boat.

If anybody is interested on working on a Github star related project with me, let me know. It'll have a huge impact on how individuals use Github. I intend on this being for-profit with Stripe payments.

I've been working on it in stealth as my pet project but it's closing in on being publicly available.

It uses Laravel 4.2, MySQL, supervisord, and beanstalkd for those interested.

Contact info in my profile.

[eatitraw]

> I can only imagine you have a use case for building something.

Not really! It's just simple curiosity.

[Naushad]

Bookmarking, for liking, i "Watch"

[nezo]

I mainly use it as a like button, but if I'm really interested by a project I might instead start Watching it.

[jrslv]

I'm using astralapp.com, which is a nice application for viewing, searching and tagging my favs.

[dhagz]

I guess bookmarking primarily. I'm either going to use it or I'm currently using it.

I think "Watching" a repo is more like "Liking" it, since that give you updates on the repo's status. But it stinks since you can't fine-tune what updates you get.

[soegaard]

Both

[thebouv]

Both, really. I like this enough to look at it again when I have time.

I rarely "watch" a project however.

[perlgeek]

I don't use them at all. I like github for contributing, but I don't really buy into the "social" of it aspect beyond that. And my browser history / address bar completion have substituted bookmarks for me.

[wildpeaks]

For liking / encouraging the author to continue development. I'd use the browser bookmarks or my wiki for bookmarking things instead.

[yellowapple]

If I want to bookmark something, I just use the bookmarking features of my browser.

In which case, I generally only star things I like (and even then).

[txdv]

Isn't it really the same?

If you bookmark something then you are ultimately thinking that at least it is worthy your attention, hence, liking?

[emiunet]

I bookmark something most likely because I like it. However, I may like many things but still do not bookmark them.

[chrisseaton]

You could be bookmarking it because you think it's infringing on someone's copyright and need to go back and take another look.