Ask HN: How do you reconcile private repos and having a good GitHub portfolio?

3 points by armatav 7y ago ↗ HN

This is something weird I've run into.

Most of my personal projects are big full stack things that I put onto the App Stores and they handle loads of user data, and usually I like to keep those locked in private repositories because, well, that's what I do with all my projects. (Feel free to point out how that's bad, but I think it feels weird to throw commits at a public repository for a side project, and it actually makes me not continue with them for some reason)

Most places ask to see your GitHub, and with the exception of one really simple fork and issue fix, mine's just "empty" looking.

In reality there's like ten trillion lines of code everywhere, and fully complete projects there, some of which usage.

Shouldn't there be some way to open your repositories temporarily to employers or something? How do you reconcile this?

2 comments

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gtirloni 7y ago ↗

1) Change your profile settings to also count commits to private repos

2) Invite said companies to your repos temporarily while you show them your work. Consider the code open sourced after that point since you can't guarantee how it will be used (have a license in place before doing so).

woah 7y ago ↗

I don’t think there’s a huge amount of benefit to OSS from open sourcing apps (vs libraries). That being said, it doesn’t sound like you have any particularly good reason to keep your stuff closed. You may want to think about what the gain is exactly and open your repos up for your own self interest.