# Scoring Popularity in GitHub

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.04865 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.04865/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 10 Nov 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Descriptor: C++ Self-Admitted Technical Debt Dataset (CppSATD)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.01136/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Popularity and engagement are the currencies of social media platforms, serving as powerful reinforcement mechanisms to keep users online. Social coding platforms such as GitHub serve a dual purpose: they are practical tools that facilitate asynchronous, distributed collaborations between software developers while also supporting passive social media style interactions. There are several mechanisms for "liking" content on GitHub: 1) forking repositories to copy their content 2) watching repositories to be notified of updates and 3) starring to express approval. This paper presents a study of popularity in GitHub and examines the relationship between these three quantitative measures of popularity. We introduce a weight-based popularity score (WTPS) that is extracted from the history line of other popularity indicators.