Ask HN: How to indicate a project's status on GitHub?

by alexose on 1/4/2025, 5:41:03 PM with 4 comments
What the most accepted/idiomatic way to indicate a project's status on GitHub?

I often come across incomplete, unmaintained, or derelict projects on GitHub that would benefit from some kind of badge or status indicator. But, it seems rude to put up a PR with this if there's no established convention.

Do folks have thoughts on this? Is it a problem worth solving?

Thanks in advance, and happy 2025 to you all!

  • by not_your_vase on 1/4/2025, 6:20:45 PM

    I read the last commit date as a status indicator - it's subjective, but it works fairly well.

    Of course it doesn't always mean a lot... I have 40-something public repos, and I haven't touched like 30 in the past year, but I use most of them, and for some of them I would even give support on request. But if someone would open a PR, with adding a random project dead note in the readme, I wouldn't be particularly happy about it. (But I would have no problem if someone opened an issue asking a question, like a "welfare check")

    But for projects that are used by more than 5 people, I think commit date's a reasonable indicator, and personally wouldn't try getting anything more.

    Of course, there is also an official indicator, used sometimes: the archival of the repo, which makes it read-only.

  • by JTyQZSnP3cQGa8B on 1/4/2025, 5:53:58 PM

    IMHO it's unrelated to GitHub, and it's a fear created (in part) by its "social media" side. Stop thinking if it's rude, and open an issue or a PR to ask any question.

  • by efortis on 1/4/2025, 6:35:43 PM

    I'd say semver with a 0 major, e.g. 0.20.3

  • by akerl_ on 1/4/2025, 7:11:56 PM

    How do incomplete, unmaintained, or derelict projects benefit from a badge or status indicator?