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docs: add an honest repository discoverability guide with metadata examples

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#39 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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A pull request for this has already been merged.

  • #40 by @drevendev — merged

Assessment

Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
github, markdown
Domain
documentation

Research direction

Add guides/discoverability.md and link it from a sensible public handbook index. Start by reviewing the three cited primary sources and the README and handbook navigation; verify citation freshness, local links, and existing repository checks. Done means the guide includes concrete good and bad examples, accurate topic-selection rationale, a metadata verification checklist, and dated citations, with no repository settings changes; pull request #40 is already open.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

Problem and source research

BeautifulRepo teaches reader-first repository presentation, but its handbook lacks a concise, practical explanation of repository discovery surfaces: About description, topic tags, optional homepage and social preview. This is distinct from #20, which tracks changing this repository's actual About settings (an owner-authorized administrative action). A source-backed research note dated 2026-10-07 identified the reusable teaching opportunity.

Scope

Publish guides/discoverability.md as a reader-facing maintenance recipe with:

  • Alignment between README's actual promise and a short repository description, including a good/bad example.
  • A restrained set of accurate GitHub topics, with an explicit warning against event/vanity tagging.
  • When a homepage and social preview help—and when an empty value is honest.
  • A no-cost verification checklist that uses publicly visible GitHub metadata, not stars, fictional traffic or external outreach.
  • Date-stamped primary citations and limitations: Open Source Guides, Finding Users, GitHub repository topics, and GitHub social previews.

Acceptance

  • Add concrete good/bad descriptions and topic-selection rationale, not just an external-links list.
  • Link from a sensible public handbook index without duplicating all README navigation.
  • Verify reference freshness at implementation time, test local links and existing repository checks.
  • Do not change repository settings, enable Pages, create a website, publish an announcement or imply permission to promote externally.

Related: #20 (repo metadata), #21 (evidence-first README), #33 (readiness acceptance). The guide itself is not an additional provider merge gate.

Dominant language
Python
Stars
2
Forks
0
Avg merge
15h
Merged PRs (30d)
37

Getting set up

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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