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Collaborating with the GitHub Community

Forking GitHub Repositories

On GitHub, forking is a feature that lets users create their own copies of repositories they like and want to contribute to by allowing them to experiment with the repository freely. By linking to the base repository, users can create pull requests from the forked repository to the base one.

A screenshot of the top bar of a repository. On the top right, there is a Fork button that lets the users create their own copy of the repository.

The GitHub Community

The GitHub community is useful for connecting developers and open-source projects by making it easy for code to be shared and searched for by using GitHub Trending or Explore pages. Developers can make modifications to a project easily with by forking open projects.

The image shows GitHub's trending page in November 2021, full of recent popular projects from around the world.

GitHub Profiles

A great way to make your GitHub profile standout is to have several projects, all with well written and easy to read README documents. This stands out to recruiters by showing you want to make your projects as accessible to other people as possible.

A diagram imitation of a GitHub profile, which includes the user photo, different projects stored in different repositories called Code Art, JavaScript Tools, and Personal Website. At the bottom, there is a contribution counter to show how often the user works on their code.

Open Source Projects on GitHub

Open source projects are projects that anyone can contribute to, whether it’s adding code, reporting bugs, or helping document features. Developers can make their own contributions to these projects and add to the discussion.

Google's almost 2000 open repositories. At the top of the Google organization's page, the description says Google hearts Open Source.
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