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6.13.2020 git

GitHub has added profiles, here are the most creative ones so far!

Creative Github Profiles

GitHub has released a new feature allowing people to display a readme markdown file on their profile, while it seems like a small feature at first, people are turning this simple readme into some incredibly creative and funny profiles!

Firstly, you’re going to want to know how to add one of these onto your GitHub profile, which involves creating a repository with the name matching your profile. While I could walk you through it, Monica Powell has created a perfect step by step guide to get you going!

Now, we know that we’re working with a simple readme, which seems limiting, but within tight limits are where creativity grows… here are some noteworthy creations!

Marcy Sutton was quick to the races! With a beautifully made custom banner that adds a professional and creative flair that makes the profile come alive.

Here’s an old classic that we will never forget, and that will hopefully never go out of fashion, the visitor counter!

Ryan Lanciaux has created a fantastic guide, as well as a forkable glitch repository that you can use to add your own visitor counter, cleverly, when the image is requested the server can increment a counter, which then itself will update how the image is rendered on its next request!

Some people are using a clever combination of the profile image, and images sitting within the readme creating a neat dynamic expanding across the page. MedElBoudali’s being a personal favorite of mine.

The nature of the readme is of course creating a space for some unique ASCII art as well, whether it be a placeholder or not, it will always stand out from the crowd.

Nate Moore has impressively (really impressively!!) managed to create a “now playing” widget connected to Spotify, serving up a dynamically rendered SVG that updates with the current song, as well as a progress bar… which honestly is far beyond what I thought would be possible, and we’re only into the first few days of having this feature.

Simon Willison has created a GitHub readme that will self-update with various updates to projects and their blog, for the most part utilizing the GitHub API and some nifty python code.

Tim Burgan has created life! A chess game, set up in a way that makes it easy for you to create new issue requests on the repository with the move, as the move is taken the board will update with the game displayed for all, as well as the historical movements of the game.

All in all, we’ve got some real ingenuity flowing out of the community right now, bringing some of the good vibes that remind me in a small way of the early web, when everyone is learning from each other and pushing their little corner of the internet to nicer and better things.