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Comment on Github reviews as a way to improve code quality?

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This doesn't sit well with me. We are talking about open source software! Let's assume I have some cool little gem I wrote that works well for me, but maybe not the ideal solution for everyone. However, there is enough utility in it that I want to push it up to github. Someone can take it and make it better, using my base as a start.

I believe the above scenario is common. But now I have to fear being reviewed on something that wasn't meant to be a complete work anyway? You don't like it...branch it and make it better! The community will win! People will end up using your version instead of mine if I don't pull the changes back in. Isn't that the way this is supposed to work?

Maybe I'm misunderstanding this post entirely. It's hard enough for a lot of us to post our work publicly - then to have it scrutinized and attached to my github profile seems unfavorable to me. You don't like my stuff - don't use it! Have I done something incorrectly? Email me and let me know! Github seems to be doing just fine w/o this feature and the good projects somehow rise to the top.

BTW - I'm not opposed to being critiqued on my code. I just don't know if a public rating system is the way to do it! And I do believe I would be more reluctant to release anything if I felt it could be rightly criticized for things I know it lacked. Make sense?

Maybe a simple:

  - tests [5 stars]
  - documentation [5 stars]
  - code quality [5 stars]
  - usefulness [5 stars]
And, rating could simply get enabled/disabled if you don't think it has value for a quicky hacky project.

But I get your point, I've got the real bad habit of not wanting to upload not finished stuff.. and since code is rarely finished, I tend to upload way less project than I should. A rating system might only get the matter worst.

You make a good point. It's very easy for people to take things out of context ... and for that matter having a single rating on a scale of 1-5 implies that everybody sees it the same way and so could wind up penalizing little gems that work well in very specific circumstances.

As somebody who loves to reuse code I do like the basic idea of having a way to find out what others think of it. The simplicity of a 1-5 scale has a lot of appeal, but my gut instinct is the downsides may outweigh the advantages.

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