> the needs of enterprise customers differ from the needs of open source communities
Indeed, but GitHub's "social" features cater neither to enterprise customers nor to open source communities, but to a (hypothetical?) group of people that want a blend of software engineering and Instagram-style popularity chasing, with a bit of cartoon cuteness sprinkled on top.
I honestly found the introduction of the "achievements" section on user pages to be borderline insulting. I'm building cool stuff, not playing an RPG. Who does GitHub think their userbase is?
Stars at some point served as "social proof" of something (eyeballs, users, interest), but Goodhart's law struck.
At least three investor groups are explicitly looking at lists of the most starred / forked projects and throwing money at those with "Instagram-style popularity", so we've reached the stage where people can trade in the "internet points" for real money.
Indeed, but GitHub's "social" features cater neither to enterprise customers nor to open source communities, but to a (hypothetical?) group of people that want a blend of software engineering and Instagram-style popularity chasing, with a bit of cartoon cuteness sprinkled on top.
I honestly found the introduction of the "achievements" section on user pages to be borderline insulting. I'm building cool stuff, not playing an RPG. Who does GitHub think their userbase is?