GitHub

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GitHub is a specialized content hosting silo for code, issues, comments, and static content that has some aspects of a commons, and through free domain mapping, a content hosting service as well.

See github-pages for how to setup a static Github pages site!

Features

star a repo: serves as a personal bookmark and ranking the popularity of the repo
watch a repo: receive notifications of updates to the repo
issue posts
- reply to an issue
- reacji to an issue, limited to a curated set of 6, with hover text equivalents in parens:
  - 👍(+1), 👎(-1), 😆(Laugh), 🎉(Hooray), 😕(Confused), ❤️(Heart)
. . .

POSSE to GitHub

For POSSEing source code to github, see git.

While git is inherently distributed, all the extra functionality (issues, pull requests, etc.) that GitHub adds on top is not. GitHub has a nice API for interacting with repositories, which makes it pretty easy to POSSE issues, comments on issues, stars, and maybe more.

POSSE note to GitHub

Plain text notes can be POSSEd to GitHub as a gist.

No known examples of anyone doing this yet.

Be the first and add your permalinks here!

POSSE an issue

An issue post that is in reply to a particular GitHub repo can (and should) be POSSEd to GitHub as a new issue on that GitHub repo.

See examples of POSSEing issues to GitHub:

issue#IndieWeb_Examples

POSSE reply to repo

A reply to a GitHub repo path, may make sense to be POSSEd as a comment on that path, e.g. if it is a gist. If the reply is an issue, see above POSSE an issue.

POSSE reply to issue

A reply to a specific GitHub issue can (and should) be POSSEd as a new comment on that issue.

POSSE star of repo

A star on a GitHub repo can (and should) be POSSEd as a like of the repo.

Backfeed

If you POSSE to GitHub in any of the above ways, you should backfeed any replies on your post's GitHub POSSE copy back to your own post so that you can:

keep a copy of people's comments on your post
view follow-ups to your post on your post, instead of having to visit GitHub's site
reply to follow-ups to your post, from your site, instead of using GitHub's UI

Bridgy backfeed supports:

comments on issues and PRs
emoji reactions to issues and PRs

Additional backfeed to consider implementing

tag-of: username1 added the abc label n hours[or days] ago
untag-of: username1 removed the abc label n hours[or days] ago
????: closed this in linkedPullRequest n hours[or days] ago

IndieWeb Examples

Aaron Parecki

Aaron Parecki is manually POSSEing comments on GitHub issues from his own site to GitHub. E.g.:

http://aaronparecki.com/replies/2013/08/14/6/mailpile (original)
- https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/issues/48#issuecomment-22682787 (POSSE copy on GitHub)

Colin Tedford

Colin Tedford manually POSSEs Github issues, and manually POSSEs and backfeeds comments on GitHub issues (it's just occasional bug reports, so not as onerous as it might be if he were a developer).

http://colintedford.com/2015/02/02.0338-easy-syntax-not-working/ (original, w/ comments)
- https://github.com/glensc/dokuwiki-plugin-pageredirect/issues/18 (POSSE copy on Github)

Chris Aldrich

Chris Aldrich is occasionally automatically POSSEing comments on GitHub issues from his Known site to GitHub. E.g.:

original: http://stream.boffosocko.com/2017/miklb-i-would-generally-agree-with-you-but-im-thinking
- POSSE: https://github.com/dshanske/indieweb-post-kinds/issues/84#issuecomment-292446828

He does this with the Known plugin to POSSE to GitHub.

Tantek

Main article: issue#Tantek

Tantek Çelik has started POSSEing new GitHub issues (since 2018-02-21) and comments on GitHub issues (since 2018-02-19) via Bridgy Publish.

Bridgy

Bridgy can POSSE issues, comments, stars, and emoji reactions to GitHub, as well as backfeed comments and reactions.

Known

Known has a plugin for automatic POSSEing to GitHub:

https://github.com/mapkyca/KnownGithub

Silopub

silo.pub supports creating issues, commenting on issues and pull requests, and starring repositories since 2016-04-22

Porting to the IndieWeb

Example github activity Atom feed whereby you can export or PESOS your activities from:

https://github.com/tantek.atom (for account name "tantek")

If you want a feed of activity by others on your repositories, it looks like you can get it through your "Personal News Feed". "Your personal News Feed shows activity—other than your own!—on repositories you watch. […] To subscribe to your personal News Feed in your favorite RSS reader, click Subscribe to News Feed under your list of repositories." https://help.github.com/articles/news-feed/

Using Github for comments

Some people use Github to gather comments for their blog posts. For each post, an issue is opened. Comments are fetched via the Github API and displayed below the blog post

Examples:

http://donw.io/post/github-comments/
jordaneldredge.com blog post and comment-tracking issue jordaneldredge.com#9

OAuth UI

If you deploy an application that uses GitHub's API and needs to request the user's permission, it will display an OAuth permissions page that looks like *you* (the author of the application) are asking permission.

E.g. Bridgy's GitHub permission initially had a "Authorize snarfed" green button (fixed shortly thereafter, says "Authorize bridgy" since 2018-02-20)

(Old example from 2018-02-09.)

The solution is to deploy the application from a GitHub organization account for your application, either with the same name as your application, or whatever organization your application is a part of, that you're asking your users to "trust".

Bridgy for GitHub now does this ("Authorize bridgy" green button), using the https://github.org/bridgy organization. Example prompt below with updated green button. The real prompt has the real logo and omits "local" / "localhost:8080":

Self-hosted alternatives

Main article: git#Software

There are some self-hosted alternatives to GitHub. Gitlab and Gogs support issue tracking and project management as well.

GitLab: full-featured GitHub replacement
Gogs: full-featured GitHub replacement
Gitolite: web interface for managing repositories, with fine-grained access controls
Gitweb: simple web interface for browsing git repositories
Formerly Gitorious (acquired by GitLab in March 2015)
Formerly Gitosis (deprecated long ago in favor of gitolite)

Issues

Account reuse is potential security issue

2018-02-07 GitHub allows account deletion, recreation by another party, with library dependency:

Criticism

DMCA harassment

You can lose your data due to unjustified DMCA takedowns:

Takedown and Apology
Github has since improved this process by defining how they are handled better, specifically allowing for the owner to make needed corrections or to move hosts. https://github.com/blog/1908-a-better-dmca-process

DDoS collateral damage

Github is sometimes the target of DDoS attacks, apparently targeted at specific projects. While GitHub seems to be handling the attacks in such a way as to keep access working, this is a vulnerability of any centralized service, that it attracts attacks unrelated to your use of it, that jeopardize your use of it (collateral damage). Most recent first

2016-10-21 DDos attack on DYN affects Twitter, Spotify, Reddit, GitHub, effectively taking them all offline.

2015-03-26 DDoS attack [1] via unsuspecting browsers executing scripts from (MitM) faked Baidu requests[2].

March 2017 Terms of Service Update

In March 2017, GitHub updated their terms of service. Several people are upset about the change, which may affect GPL and similarly licensed software.

Downtime

Occassionally GitHub fails to handle requests:

No server is currently available to service your request.

Sorry about that. Please try refreshing and contact us if the problem persists.