25 Great Things to Add to Your GitHub Faces Site

[jbampton]

25 Great Things to Add to Your GitHub Faces Site

Data & Content Enhancements (5 Ideas)

• 1. Top Languages: Fetch the top 3-5 most used programming languages for each user based on their public repository statistics. Display this on the user card and add it as a new, powerful filtering dimension.

• 2. Total GitHub Stars: Calculate and display the total number of stars across all of a user's public repositories, as this is a key metric of project popularity. Add sorting by "Most Stars."

• 3. Recent Activity Score/Last Commit Date: Display the timestamp of the user's most recent public repository commit. This helps quickly gauge activity levels and allows for a "Most Recently Active" sort option.

• 4. GitHub Achievements/Badges: Implement logic to detect and display notable GitHub achievements (e.g., Arctic Code Vault Contributor, Pull Request merged, Sponsor badges) right on the user card.

• 5. Custom Vetting/Quality Score: Create a composite score (e.g., A+, B, C) based on a combination of metrics like Followers/Repo Ratio, activity level, and star count to provide an easily digestible metric of a user's influence or profile completeness.

User Experience & Interactivity (8 Ideas)

• 6. User Profile Modal/Drawer: Instead of redirecting to GitHub, clicking a user's card opens a modal/drawer that displays all their detailed stats, full bio, and a list of their recent or starred repositories.

• 7. "Compare Users" Feature: Allow visitors to select 2-3 developers to compare their key metrics (Followers, Repos, Stars, Location) side-by-side in a dynamic comparison table.

• 8. Persistent Filters: Save the user's current search query, filters, and sort settings in the browser's local storage so they are preserved when they return to the site or refresh the page.

• 9. Shareable Filter Links: Automatically generate a unique, clean, and shareable URL for the current filter/sort configuration (e.g., .../index.html?sort=followers&min_repos=100).

• 10. Dark Mode Toggle: Implement a simple switch to allow users to toggle between your current light theme and a dedicated dark theme.

• 11. User Location Mapping: Integrate a simple, privacy-friendly map visualization (like Leaflet.js or Mapbox) that plots the geographic location of all users, allowing for visual exploration.

• 12. Keyboard Navigation: Enable users to navigate the grid and filter options using the keyboard (e.g., using arrow keys and the Tab key for a smooth experience).

• 13. Clear Filter/Sort Indicator: Display the active sort criteria and filters prominently (e.g., a badge that says "Sorted by: Followers Desc" and a list of active filters) outside of the hidden filter drawer.

Performance & Technology (4 Ideas)

• 14. Web Worker for Filtering: Since your site is heavily reliant on client-side JS for processing a large dataset (400 users), offload the complex search, sorting, and filtering logic to a Web Worker to keep the main thread responsive and prevent UI lag (jank).

• 15. Avatar Lazy Loading: Implement native browser lazy loading (loading="lazy") or an Intersection Observer-based solution for the user avatars to significantly improve initial page load speed, especially on mobile devices.

• 16. Pre-computed Subsets: For common filters (like "Top 50 Followers"), pre-compute the sorted/filtered data on the build step and include these smaller, optimized JSON files. The site can load these instantly before loading the main, large dataset.

• 17. Lighthouse/Performance Auditing in CI: Integrate a performance auditing tool (like GitHub Action for Lighthouse or sitespeed.io) into your GitHub Actions workflow to automatically check page speed and accessibility with every deployment.

Community & Engagement (8 Ideas)

• 18. User Nomination Form: Add a simple mechanism (e.g., linking to a dedicated GitHub Issue template or a simple form) that allows visitors to suggest other great GitHub users to be added to the list, expanding the user base beyond the initial 400.

• 19. "Trending" Feature: Store follower counts from the previous week and implement a sort/filter option based on the highest percentage increase in followers since the last data fetch.

• 20. RSS Feed: Create a simple RSS feed generated during the Python script run that announces users who have recently been added to the list.

• 21. Monthly Highlight/Featured User: Select a user each month to feature prominently at the top, perhaps rotating based on who has the highest engagement or recently released a popular project.

• 22. Data Export/API Endpoint: Offer a simple "Download Data" button that exports the currently filtered list (or the full list) as a JSON or CSV file.

• 23. Embeddable Widgets: Allow users to generate HTML snippets to embed a "Top 10" list or a small user card on their own website.

• 24. Open Source Contribution Tracker: For users who are maintainers of large projects, display a simple metric of their recent commit/issue activity within the past month.

• 25. "Random User" Button: A prominent button that selects and displays a random user from the dataset, encouraging serendipitous discovery.