Ask HN: Does Your GitHub Repo Need a Landing Page | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does Your GitHub Repo Need a Landing Page

3 pointshelghardt4 comments

There are over 28 million public Github repos. Most of them don't have landing pages.

The README is great for explaining how it works, but it is not doing a great job to express the value proposition for potential end users.

I can see the value of a landing page. It opens your project to a wider audience, explains it in simple terms, invites users to engage (maybe through Discord invite) and possibly open monetization opportunities.

It is interesting to see what AutoGPT is doing on their site: https://news.agpt.co/

What do you think - is it valuable to have a landing page for a GitHub repo?

I wrote more about it in my blog: https://aisuperfounder.substack.com/p/why-your-github-repo-deserves-a-landing

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I'm really not fond of that agpt landing page. So many red flags; the AI-generated background, mailing letter box with accompanying email-beggar text, the Discord button (!!!) being given as much space as the Github repo click-through... it's a mess. The whole website feels more boilerplate than content. I mean, look at these quotes!

> With the help of the incredible open-source community, we’re making approximately a month’s progress every 48 hours.

> Auto-GPT is pushing for the best, autonomous AI assistant for every device for every person. In the near future, we want you to be able to accomplish more everyday.

> We have come to define ourselves by what we do. If this can be automated, how may we then define ourselves? By what we create!

Every line of copy I read from that site makes me feel like I'm getting dumber instead of learning about their product. If you are building a landing page for a serious software project, you need a more professional approach. You can be playful if you want, but the landing page somehow manages to be less informative than the Github repo in the example you've listed.

Since everyone will ask, here are some software project landing pages that strike me as well-designed:

https://julialang.org/

https://nixos.org/

https://www.scheme.org/

Great points!

The ones you listed are quite detailed. It seems to lean more toward augmenting the README.

The trade off between keeping it simple and detailed comes with who you intend to attract.

My assumption is that developers will prefer the README anyway, while the landing page may be for non-developers. Especially projects like AutoGPT where there is an end user/non-dev value proposition.

What kind of non-developer would find that website useful, though?

Someone that sees a demo recording on AutoGPT in action and then curious how it works.

By reading more on the site they get an understanding from a site that is simpler to digest.

What I have seen is they then try to ask a developer friend to help them set it up on their computer. They were sold on the pretty stuff, not the README.

Now they try stay up to date on the high-level developments. When the new UI is being shipped, interesting things other people do with the code, when a hosted option is coming, etc.

The hardcore dev part is out of their reach, but they find the use cases/demos interesting.

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