# Appendix AE: GitHub Social — Stars, Following, and Finding Your Community > > **Episode coming soon:** GitHub Social - a conversational audio overview of this appendix. Listen before reading to preview the concepts, or after to reinforce what you learned. ## GitHub Is More Than a Code Host — It's a Community > **Who this is for:** You have learned the basics of GitHub and want to know how to use it as a social platform — discovering interesting projects, following developers whose work you admire, and building a presence in the open source community. This appendix covers the social layer of GitHub that most tutorials skip entirely. GitHub has over 100 million developers on it. The social features — stars, follows, Explore, Topics, trending repos — are how you find the interesting ones, stay connected to projects you care about, and make yourself visible to the community. --- ## Table of Contents 1. [Stars — Bookmarking and Signaling Projects You Love](#1-stars--bookmarking-and-signaling-projects-you-love) 2. [Watching Repositories — Staying in the Loop](#2-watching-repositories--staying-in-the-loop) 3. [Following People — Building Your Developer Network](#3-following-people--building-your-developer-network) 4. [Your Home Feed — What You See When You Log In](#4-your-home-feed--what-you-see-when-you-log-in) 5. [GitHub Explore — Discovering New Projects](#5-github-explore--discovering-new-projects) 6. [Trending — What's Popular Right Now](#6-trending--whats-popular-right-now) 7. [Topics — Finding Projects by Category](#7-topics--finding-projects-by-category) 8. [GitHub Lists — Organizing Your Stars](#8-github-lists--organizing-your-stars) 9. [Finding Accessible and Inclusive Projects](#9-finding-accessible-and-inclusive-projects) 10. [Building Your Own Presence](#10-building-your-own-presence) 11. [The GitHub CLI for Social Features](#11-the-github-cli-for-social-features) 12. [Screen Reader Navigation Guide](#12-screen-reader-navigation-guide) --- ## 1. Stars — Bookmarking and Signaling Projects You Love ### What a star is A star is GitHub's version of a bookmark combined with a "like." When you star a repository: - It saves to your starred list at `github.com/username?tab=stars` — easy to find later - It signals to the maintainer that their work is valued - It contributes to the project's star count, which helps others discover it - It may appear in your followers' feeds ### Why star count matters to projects Star counts are a social proof signal — developers browsing for tools often sort by stars to find well-regarded projects. A project going from 10 stars to 1,000 stars can dramatically change how many contributors it attracts. Your star genuinely matters. ### How to star a repository #### GitHub.com On any repository page, the **Star** button is in the top-right area of the repository header, next to Fork. - Click **Star** to star the repository — the button changes to **Starred** with a filled star icon - Click the **dropdown arrow** next to Star to choose a List to organize it into (see [Section 8](#8-github-lists--organizing-your-stars)) - Click **Starred** to unstar #### Keyboard shortcut On a repository page, press `g` then `s` to toggle the star. #### Screen reader navigation - NVDA/JAWS: The Star button is in the page region after the repository title heading. Navigate by button (`B`) or Tab to find it. It's announced as "Star this repository" or "Unstar this repository." - VoiceOver: `VO+Command+J` to jump to buttons, or `Tab` through the header area. The button label changes between "Star" and "Starred." #### GitHub CLI ```bash # Star a repository gh api user/starred/owner/repo --method PUT # Unstar a repository gh api user/starred/owner/repo --method DELETE # List your starred repositories gh api user/starred --jq '.[].full_name' # Check if you've starred a repo gh api user/starred/owner/repo --silent && echo "Starred" || echo "Not starred" ``` ### Viewing your stars Go to `github.com/username?tab=stars` — or click your avatar → **Your stars**. You'll see all your starred repositories sorted by most recently starred. Use the search box to filter by name, and the language filter to narrow by programming language. --- ## 2. Watching Repositories — Staying in the Loop ### What watching does When you watch a repository, GitHub sends you notifications about activity in it — new issues, pull requests, releases, and more. Unlike stars (which are passive bookmarks), watching is active — you're opting into the conversation. ### Watch levels GitHub gives you granular control over how much you hear from a repo: | Level | What you receive | |-------|-----------------| | **Not watching** | Only notified if you're mentioned or have participated | | **Participating and @mentions** | Notified for threads you're in or @mentioned in (default for repos you contribute to) | | **All Activity** | Every issue, PR, comment, and release — for very active repos this can be noisy | | **Releases only** | Only new releases — great for tools you use and want to know when they update | | **Ignore** | Never notified, even if mentioned (useful for very noisy forks) | ### How to watch a repository On any repository page, the **Watch** button is next to the Star button in the header. 1. Click **Watch** to open the dropdown 2. Choose your notification level 3. The button updates to show your current setting > **Tip:** For most repositories you contribute to, **"Participating and @mentions"** is the right level — you hear about threads you're in without inbox overload. Use **"Releases only"** for dependencies and tools you use but don't contribute to. #### GitHub CLI ```bash # Watch a repository (all activity) gh api repos/owner/repo/subscription --method PUT --field subscribed=true # Watch releases only (requires GitHub.com — not available via API alone) # Use the web UI for granular watch levels # Ignore a repository gh api repos/owner/repo/subscription --method PUT --field ignored=true # List repositories you're watching gh api user/subscriptions --jq '.[].full_name' # Stop watching a repository gh api repos/owner/repo/subscription --method DELETE ``` --- ## 3. Following People — Building Your Developer Network ### What following does When you follow a developer on GitHub: - Their public activity appears in your home feed - You see when they star a repository, create a new repo, or get a new follower - They receive a notification that you followed them - You appear in their followers list Following is one-way (like Twitter/X) — they don't need to follow you back. ### Who to follow **Start with people whose work you already use:** - Maintainers of tools and libraries you use daily - Authors of blog posts or talks that helped you learn - Developers in accessibility, open source, or your tech stack **Find them by:** - Visiting the **Contributors** tab of a repository you love: `github.com/owner/repo/graphs/contributors` - Checking who opened issues or PRs you found valuable - Looking at who your existing follows follow ### How to follow someone On any user profile page (`github.com/username`), click the **Follow** button below their avatar. The button changes to **Following**. To unfollow: click **Following** → it changes back to **Follow**. #### Screen reader navigation - Navigate to the profile page - The Follow/Following button is near the top of the page, below the avatar and bio - NVDA/JAWS: press `B` to jump to buttons; the button is labelled "Follow [username]" - VoiceOver: Tab to the button or use `VO+Command+J` #### GitHub CLI ```bash # Follow a user gh api user/following/username --method PUT # Unfollow a user gh api user/following/username --method DELETE # List who you're following gh api user/following --jq '.[].login' # List your followers gh api user/followers --jq '.[].login' # Check if you follow a specific person gh api user/following/username --silent && echo "Following" || echo "Not following" # See who a user follows (useful for discovering new people) gh api users/username/following --jq '.[].login' ``` ### Viewing someone's profile A GitHub profile shows: - **Pinned repositories** — the 6 repos they've chosen to highlight - **Contribution graph** — a visual grid of their activity over the past year (green squares = more activity) - **Recent activity** — PRs opened, issues commented on, repos starred - **Repositories** — all their public repos - **Stars** — repos they've starred (great for discovery) - **Followers / Following** counts > **Screen reader tip:** The contribution graph is a visual calendar that screen readers may announce as a table or grid. Navigate with arrow keys to read individual day entries — each cell describes the date and number of contributions. --- ## 4. Your Home Feed — What You See When You Log In When you go to `github.com` while logged in, your **home feed** shows activity from people and repositories you follow or watch. ### What appears in your feed - Repositories starred by people you follow — "Jane starred awesome-accessibility" - New repositories created by people you follow - Releases from repositories you watch - Public activity from people you follow (PRs opened, issues commented on) - **"For you" recommendations** — GitHub suggests repos and people based on your activity ### Your feed is a discovery tool One of the best ways to find new interesting projects is to follow a few active developers in your area of interest and watch what they star. If 5 people you respect all starred the same new tool this week, it's probably worth a look. ### Customising your feed There's no fine-grained feed filter — you control the feed by controlling who you follow and what you watch. Unfollow noisy accounts, follow more focused ones. --- ## 5. GitHub Explore — Discovering New Projects **GitHub Explore** at [github.com/explore](https://github.com/explore) is the discovery hub — curated collections, trending repos, and personalised recommendations. ### What Explore shows - **Trending** — most-starred repos this week (see [Section 6](#6-trending--whats-popular-right-now)) - **Topics** — browse by subject area (see [Section 7](#7-topics--finding-projects-by-category)) - **Collections** — curated lists of thematically related repos (e.g., "Tools for Open Source", "Accessibility Projects") - **"For you" personalised recommendations** — based on your stars, follows, and language preferences ### Navigating Explore with a screen reader 1. Go to [github.com/explore](https://github.com/explore) 2. The page uses landmark regions — jump to `main` to skip navigation 3. Collections and trending repos are listed as article/heading groups 4. Use heading navigation (`H`) to jump between sections 5. Each repo entry has a heading (repo name as a link), language badge, star count, and description --- ## 6. Trending — What's Popular Right Now **GitHub Trending** at [github.com/trending](https://github.com/trending) shows repositories gaining the most stars over a time period. It's one of the best places to discover new tools before everyone else knows about them. ### Filtering trending Use the dropdowns at the top of the page to filter by: | Filter | Options | |--------|---------| | **Language** | Any programming language, or "All languages" | | **Time period** | Today, This week, This month | ### Trending developers Switch to [github.com/trending/developers](https://github.com/trending/developers) to see which developers are gaining the most followers — another great way to find people to follow. ### GitHub CLI ```bash # Trending repos aren't in the official API, but you can get recently starred popular repos: gh search repos --sort stars --order desc --limit 20 --language markdown # Trending in a specific language gh search repos --sort stars --order desc --limit 20 --language python ``` --- ## 7. Topics — Finding Projects by Category Every repository can be tagged with **topics** — keywords like `accessibility`, `screen-reader`, `wcag`, `python`, `machine-learning`. Topics are how maintainers categorise their work so others can discover it. ### Browsing topics Click any topic tag on a repository page to see all repos tagged with that topic. Or go directly: ``` https://github.com/topics/accessibility https://github.com/topics/screen-reader https://github.com/topics/good-first-issue ``` ### Useful topics for this community | Topic | What you'll find | |-------|-----------------| | `accessibility` | Tools, frameworks, and guides focused on a11y | | `screen-reader` | Projects specifically for screen reader users | | `wcag` | WCAG compliance tools and resources | | `a11y` | Short form of accessibility — many projects use this | | `good-first-issue` | Projects that welcome newcomers | | `help-wanted` | Projects actively looking for contributors | | `open-source` | General open source projects | | `assistive-technology` | AT tools and resources | ### GitHub CLI ```bash # Search for repos with a specific topic gh search repos --topic accessibility --limit 20 gh search repos --topic screen-reader --stars ">50" # Add a topic to your own repository gh api repos/owner/repo/topics --method PUT --field names[]="accessibility" --field names[]="screen-reader" ``` --- ## 8. GitHub Lists — Organizing Your Stars Lists let you group your starred repositories into named collections — like playlists for code. Instead of one big pile of stars, you can have "Accessibility Tools," "Learning Resources," "Projects I Contribute To," etc. ### Creating a list 1. Go to your stars: `github.com/username?tab=stars` 2. Select **"Create list"** (top right of the stars page) 3. Give it a name and optional description 4. Select **"Create"** Or create a list while starring: 1. On a repo page, click the **dropdown arrow** next to the Star button 2. Select **"Create a list"** or add to an existing list ### Adding repos to lists - From any repo page: Star dropdown → check the list name - From your stars page: click the list icon on any starred repo row ### Viewing and sharing lists Your lists are public at `github.com/username?tab=stars` — anyone can browse them. This is useful for sharing curated resources with your community. ### GitHub CLI ```bash # Lists are managed through the GitHub web interface only # You can view stars via CLI: gh api user/starred --jq '.[] | {name: .full_name, description: .description}' | head -20 ``` --- ## 9. Finding Accessible and Inclusive Projects If you're specifically looking for projects that welcome contributors with disabilities, or that focus on accessibility work, here are the best ways to find them. ### Search strategies ```bash # Search for accessibility-focused repos gh search repos "accessibility" --topic a11y --stars ">100" # Find repos with good first issues in accessibility gh search issues "accessibility" --label "good first issue" --state open # Find issues tagged both "accessibility" and "help wanted" gh search issues --label "accessibility" --label "help wanted" --state open ``` On GitHub.com: - [github.com/topics/accessibility](https://github.com/topics/accessibility) - [github.com/topics/wcag](https://github.com/topics/wcag) - [github.com/topics/screen-reader](https://github.com/topics/screen-reader) ### Organisations to follow GitHub organisations are collections of repos grouped by a team or company. You can follow an org to get notified of their public activity. Notable accessibility-focused organisations on GitHub: - [github.com/Community-Access](https://github.com/Community-Access) — the organisation behind this workshop - Search for `org:github accessibility` to find GitHub's own accessibility work - Many assistive technology companies have open source components on GitHub — search for your AT provider ### Looking at who your community follows If you follow someone doing accessibility work, browse **their stars** and **their following list** — this is one of the fastest ways to discover the accessibility community on GitHub. --- ## 10. Building Your Own Presence Being visible on GitHub matters when you want to collaborate with others, get hired, or establish yourself as a contributor. ### Your contribution graph The green grid on your profile shows your public contribution activity over the past year. Contributions count when you: - Push commits to a public repo - Open, comment on, or close issues or PRs in a public repo - Review a PR in a public repo > **Note:** Contributions to private repos only appear as grey squares unless the repo is made public later. Commits only count if they're made with the email address associated with your GitHub account. ### Pinning repositories Pin up to 6 repositories (your own or repos you've contributed to) on your profile: 1. Go to your profile (`github.com/username`) 2. Select **"Customize your pins"** above the pinned repos section 3. Check up to 6 repos to pin — prioritise your best work and most active contributions ### Your profile README Create a special repository named exactly the same as your username (`github.com/username/username`) and its `README.md` will appear at the top of your profile page. This is your chance to introduce yourself, list your skills, and share what you're working on. See [Appendix R: Profile, Sponsors, and Wikis](appendix-r-github-profile-sponsors-wikis.md) for a full guide on building a great profile README. ### Activity tips - **Comment thoughtfully on issues** — even "I can reproduce this on Windows 11 with NVDA" is a valued contribution that shows on your profile - **Star generously** — it signals your interests and others see it in their feeds - **Follow people in your area** — they often follow back, growing your network organically --- ## 11. The GitHub CLI for Social Features ```bash # --- Following --- gh api user/following/username --method PUT # Follow someone gh api user/following/username --method DELETE # Unfollow gh api user/following --jq '.[].login' # List who you follow gh api user/followers --jq '.[].login' # List your followers # --- Stars --- gh api user/starred/owner/repo --method PUT # Star a repo gh api user/starred/owner/repo --method DELETE # Unstar a repo gh api user/starred --jq '.[].full_name' # List your stars # --- Discovery --- gh search repos --topic accessibility --limit 20 # Browse by topic gh search repos --sort stars --order desc --limit 20 # Popular repos gh search users "accessibility developer" --limit 10 # Find people # --- Watching --- gh api repos/owner/repo/subscription \ --method PUT --field subscribed=true # Watch a repo gh api user/subscriptions --jq '.[].full_name' # List watched repos ``` --- ## 12. Screen Reader Navigation Guide ### Following a user 1. Navigate to `github.com/username` 2. Press `H` to jump through headings to find the user's name at the top 3. Tab forward — the Follow/Following button is within the first few interactive elements after the avatar/bio area 4. Press `Enter` or `Space` to follow; the button label updates to "Following [username]" ### Starring a repository 1. Navigate to any repository page 2. The Star button is in the repository header, near the Fork button 3. Press `B` (NVDA/JAWS) to navigate by button, or Tab through the header 4. The button is announced as "Star this repository" or "Unstar this repository" 5. After starring, the button label changes and a count updates ### Browsing your stars 1. Go to `github.com/username?tab=stars` 2. Jump to `main` landmark to skip navigation 3. Each starred repo is a heading (H3) with a link — navigate with `H` or `3` 4. Below each heading: description text, language, star count, and list controls ### Exploring topics 1. Go to `github.com/topics/accessibility` (or any topic) 2. Jump to `main` landmark 3. Repos are listed as article regions with H3 headings 4. Each entry has: repo name (link), owner, description, language, star count, and a Star button ### GitHub Explore and Trending 1. Go to `github.com/explore` or `github.com/trending` 2. Use `H` to navigate between sections and repo entries 3. Trending page has language and time period filter dropdowns near the top — Tab to find them 4. Each trending repo row has: rank position, repo name (link), description, star count, and "Stars today" count --- *Related appendices: [Appendix R: Profile, Sponsors, and Wikis](appendix-r-github-profile-sponsors-wikis.md) · [Appendix J: Advanced Search](appendix-j-advanced-search.md) · [Appendix T: Contributing to Open Source](appendix-t-contributing-to-open-source.md) · [Appendix AC: GitHub CLI Reference](appendix-ac-github-cli.md)*