I Star My Own GitHub Projects
the 0 star club
my github used to be a graveyard. private repos with names like cool-idea-v3, actually-cool-idea, final-cool-idea-for-real. each one abandoned at exactly 42% completion. zero stars, unless you count the star i gave myself (i did) or that one pity star from a friend whose code was somehow worse than mine.
i was the guy who starts things and never finishes them. the repos were my graveyard of good intentions.
the one time i almost contributed
there was this rich text editor i was using. needed a specific feature. forked it. built the feature. worked perfectly... in my fork. did i submit a PR back to the original creator? no. did i even tell them? no. i just... used my fork. moved on.
the thought process was: "what if my code is bad? what if they judge me? what if i have to maintain this?" so i ghosted. the feature died with my fork. classic.
the incident
so there is this guy. i have known of him for a while. and let me tell you — he codes fast. not "describing what i want to claude and praying it works" fast. actual solutions. features that would take me literal months to figure out, he ships in a day or two and open sources it. and it's not just that, it would actually help people. it is equally annoying, inspiring and challenging.
we started working on this fun project together. just messing around. and one day he goes "let's just open source it."
i panicked. i had flashbacks to my 0-star graveyard. i had visions of someone cloning it, adding two lines of css, and becoming a billionaire while i watched from the sidelines.
but i said yes because saying no would mean admitting i was scared.
plot twist: people actually liked it
we pushed it public. and something weird happened — people cared. they starred it. they opened issues. they contributed. the thing grew legs and started walking on its own.
fast forward: we got a ton of feedback from the community. real issues, real feature requests, real bug reports. we iterated on all of it. upgraded the hell out of the platform. now it is actually good — like, 3.5K stars and counting good. go check claraverse if you don't believe me.
and here is the kicker: i maybe contributed 10 to 15% of the actual code. the heavy lifting was done by multiple others. but the win still felt real. the stars are real. the community is real.
my own small win
speaking of stars — i have a solo project with 45 stars. no idea who uses it. zero issues so far. just... 45 stars sitting there.
45 stars!!!
i know, i know — some projects get 120k stars in 3 days. but listen. this is me we are talking about. the guy with the final-cool-idea-for-real trash. 45 stars is astronomical. that is 45 more than any of my private repos ever got.
one step at a time. why rush.
proof that i have real numbers as well hehe. also here's a fun thing, go google "bento generator". i am first or second result. just the domain doing the work.
the billionaire fear was bullshit
remember how i was worried someone would clone it and get rich? yeah that didn't happen. the odds are basically zero. like me becoming a morning person. technically possible, but let us be real.
most people have their own half-finished projects to worry about. they are not lurking in github repos waiting to steal your mediocre side project.
plus, we have AI now. anyone can clone your idea just from screenshots if they really want to. half the work is already automated. the code being public or private barely matters anymore.
and honestly? if someone really wants to clone my project and make money from it, i am happy for you bro. at least you got it to the end user. unlike me :') (the distribution hell is for another story)
the ones who forked it? they either contributed back or let it rot like i used to do. the idea theft thing is a myth we tell ourselves to justify gatekeeping.
so i stopped being precious about my code. i realized that 80 to 90 percent of what i use every day — frameworks, databases, the LLM fixing my grammar in this blog — is open source. i am standing on a mountain of generosity and i was keeping my tiny contributions locked up like secrets.
now?
- i make repos public by default (even the embarrassing ones)
- i submit PRs when i have something real to contribute
the actual takeaway
i didn't start with some noble vision about giving back. i saw someone way better than me open source his work, i tagged along, and i caught the bug. now? i genuinely want to give back.
open source is not about being the best coder in the room. it is about being brave enough to let people see your work while it is still ugly. turns out, ugly code that helps someone is better than perfect code that stays private.
though honestly? it does not even have to be ugly anymore. you can give the heavy lifting to LLMs now. the barrier is basically just your willingness to hit "make public."
just hit the button already.
these kids have nothing to do with open source. i just like taking pictures and forcing them into blog posts. deal with it.
P.S. — i just checked. still 45 stars. refreshed twice to make sure.