Ask HN: What are the benefits of having a project webpage vs. GitHub README?

3 points by aelsabbahy 9 years ago | 7 comments

Aside from Google Analytics are there any other benefits to having a project webpage for an open source project?

Are there any guides or statistics on the impact of having a webpage vs just a github repo?

I'm artistically challenged, so I prefer to just have a README.md, but wondering if I'm missing out by not doing so? I'm currently at ~450 stars with just readme and an asciicast gif: https://github.com/aelsabbahy/goss

However, I noticed other open source projects in this same category have webpages.

detaro 9 years ago |

If you ever want/have to move off GitHub, it's easier if people link to a domain you own instead of GitHub. Or if you want to establish a site later, e.g. with more detailed information.

aelsabbahy 9 years ago | |

So right now I have a simple 302 redirect from a domain I own. I guess my question is more about the benefits of having a "site with more detailed information" vs readme + docs in markdown format in the repo itself?

detaro 9 years ago | | |

Readmes and most docs on GitHub are fairly linear, a normal site with navigation menu is IMHO easier to navigate. I want to be able to search docs once they are longer than a single page.

What I mean with linear:

With the repo you linked, I have to scroll past the file list, then the readme-header, then your twitter links, then the gif to even get to the introduction which tells me what I'm looking at. Next is installation, which has to be in the readme, but I don't care right now because I still want to see more details. With e.g. a navigation bar on the side I could have simply clicked on "Introduction" and then "quickstart" to get what I want.

And all GitHub repos look the same, so I won't recognize the site by it's design if I find it again a while later. Nothing memorable there.

That doesn't mean that a site should be a high priority for you, but these are some reasons why you might want one.

CroMkd 9 years ago |

I think that a project webpage gives a more attractive impression to other people.

aelsabbahy 9 years ago | |

Does it though? I feel I usually prefer to go to a github page of a project and will only resort to their website if the documentation only lives there. Maybe I'm in the minority :(