Ability to Watch a project but only for releases

[schrepfler]

I'm often interested in watching a project but I'm not really interested in all the conversations and issues it might have, I'm mostly interested in releases coming out. Would it be possible to have more options under the Watch project button?

[Googliola]

I agree with all of the above. All the suggested workarounds above seem unnecessarily complicated to me when a simple button would do the trick. Please somebody @github address this minor feature enhancement.

[dplewis]

+1

[endrep0]

+1

[Yann-R]

+1

[jwbowen]

+1

I've scripted "monitors" for particular projects in the past (i.e. periodic web scraping), but an official option would be awesome.

This would help maintainers of other projects quite a bit.

[necramirez]

I used to use IFTTT, but I don't want the notifications in my email inbox. I want them in my Github notifications, so I can use something like Gitify (https://github.com/manosim/gitify), which leverages the Github Notifications API.

[jfmmm]

Made the error of watching the npm repo to know about new beta releases.. came back a few hours later to 25 messages in my inbox... we need that feature now!

[BlueMilkApps]

+1, how is this not a thing?

[wsxarcher]

Please add it.

[RishabhTayal]

I think this is a very useful feature. I am making an iOS app which let's you "watch" a repository for releases and notifies via push notification if there is a new release available. Looking for interested testers to test and contributors to contribute towards the app.

https://github.com/RishabhTayal/GHReleases

[TranQuangTienSA]

+1

[maxmoeschinger]

+1000

[James-E-A]

Amidst the endless torrent of "+1" emails I'm getting due to being subscribed to this thread (PLZ STAHP, GITHUB DOES NOT READ THEM OR CARE),

one email stands alone

That ☝️ may be the indefinite workaround. 9.9/10 would recommend

(Now seriously, just switch to Releaser and please stop with the +1 emails)

[ghost]

PLZ STAHP, GITHUB DOES NOT READ THEM OR CARE

If so, then why haven't you pressed the button yet?

[James-E-A]

In case there's any legitimate activity, such as GitHub saying "o ya we did this"

~James

On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 12:14 PM, Oleksii Vilchanskyi < notifications@github.com> wrote:

PLZ STAHP, GITHUB DOES NOT READ THEM OR CARE

If so, then why haven't you already pressed the button?

[image: screenshot_20170711_191220] https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/10786469/28080657-01274062-666d-11e7-811f-1315e8884fa3.png

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/410#issuecomment-314511712, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACpbzutTItE15h3dfafhvtC4BFV-66jNks5sM611gaJpZM4FFYmR .

[mikeshow]

Still waiting...

[azban]

@mikeshow congrats!

[Richard87]

Thanks @JamesTheAwesomeDude ! I see that it have helped a few people already, and my boss just agreed to sponsor a upgrade to the system, so I hope to make it slighly more responsive soon!

That :point_up: may be the indefinite workaround. 9.9/10 would recommend (Now seriously, just switch to Releaser and please stop with the +1 emails)

And for the rest of you, you can get email notifications about new releases at https://releaser.richardhagen.no!

[Yann-R]

Hi @JamesTheAwesomeDude

endless torrent of "+1" ... (PLZ STAHP, GITHUB DOES NOT READ THEM OR CARE),

Yes, indeed, certainly without effect. But is it normal?

If github pay not attention to all this "endless" feedbacks (correctly placed in a dedicated thread), if people have to stop hoping, what do you propose instead? (Only wait? Or only write directly to github support and have no way to "quantify" if the purpose is shared with other users?)

I can understand the people just extending this thread of endless waiting just by expressing +1. (a little hopeless spasm ;-))

[ghost]

@Yann-R

correctly placed in a dedicated thread

Uhh, well, this is more like some guy's initiative and hope that GitHub staff will care enough one day to visit some guy's repo and browse through some issues (which might actually happen, otherwise it wouldn't have existed).

The biggest issue with GitHub as a company, in comparison to GitLab, for example, is their lack of dogfooding (or even almost total absence). GitLab uses full GitLab's functionality to develop itself, so people there can clearly set their goals, openly accept bug reports, spot the disadvantages of the ecosystem while being part of it and thus more than motivated to improve it as soon as possible, push the functionality forward for their satisfaction and for the great good.

On the other hand, GitHub uses some "bug and feature tracker" that's not even opened for public access. In reality it might not even exist, honestly. Nobody can guarantee that one's message to support@github.com goes somewhere further after one receives a templated/scripted reply. Or even if it does exist, I doubt they are using their own product - GitHub Issues - for this, because it is hardly ever scalable and arrangeable (which is another thing they don't bother changing and why big projects will never move onto GitHub).

Then there's an unclear financial state with unclear future, while other similar projects are either dead (Google Code), or nearly dead (SourceForge), or found their niche (GitLab, BitBucket).

So, @JamesTheAwesomeDude definitely has some rationale behind it, although probably disclosing their thoughts in a slightly more expressive way than we would have expected.

[Yann-R]

So, @JamesTheAwesomeDude definitely has some rationale behind it, although probably disclosing their thoughts in a slightly more expressive way than we would have expected.

Surely, but if you re-read my message, you'll see this was not my point. If I try to rephrase it, I could say "if you want people to stop adding +1, what do you propose instead?".

Neither he nor you proposed a little way to keep some hope, that why my questions are still open. From my point of view, whilst all you wrote is true, I consider that "many" users posting +1 here, and "a few" users writing directly to Github support and give them a link to this thread (as they wrote above) is rather one thing of the best we can do for this issue... (and so I won't ask people to stop adding +1)

[schrepfler]

For all the people which hate the +1's, github should also add a specific notification interest not for comments but only if an issue is resolved/closed.

[necramirez]

@Yann-R, in response to your question:

If I try to rephrase it, I could say "if you want people to stop adding +1, what do you propose instead?"

@JamesTheAwesomeDude said:

Amidst the endless torrent of "+1" emails I'm getting due to being subscribed to this thread (PLZ STAHP, GITHUB DOES NOT READ THEM OR CARE)

The issue is "the endless torrent of "+1" emails", which is due to people commenting "+1".

So I would rephrase your question as "if you want people to stop adding +1 comments, what do you propose instead?"

I would suggest people use the emoji reaction to 👍 the first post.

[mikeshow]

Personally I'm going to try GitLab.

[BenRacicot]

I would love this feature so I know the minute a version is released. This is half the reason I come here, to read up on versions, changes and roadmaps... However I use Node Package Manager everyday on my project's package.json. Looks like this:

[ghost]

I only want to watch commits to a certain repo.

I want issues and PRs from that repo out of my Github notifications.

[James-E-A]

Ya know, I wonder if you couldn't set up a GitLab mirror of the repo you want to watch and use THAT to drive WHATEVER notifications you want..

https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/workflow/notifications.html

https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/workflow/img/notification_group_settings.png

(I don't know if it mirrors Releases, though)

On Fri, Jul 21, 2017 at 8:48 AM, Ranie Santos notifications@github.com wrote:

I only want to watch commits to a certain repo.

I want issues and PRs from that repo out of my Github notifications.

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/isaacs/github/issues/410#issuecomment-317005694, or mute the thread https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACpbziuA6wfBcbJCKIp0sYkiPCeHkB8cks5sQKw5gaJpZM4FFYmR .

[schrepfler]

Cool tool @BenRacicot but not all software runs or node.

[thorade]

As a workaround, I use this Firefox Addon: http://sneakypete81.github.io/updatescanner/ https://github.com/sneakypete81/updatescanner to monitor the releases page :-(

[AdKiller]

all the brain power at Github still haven't figured this out since 2015...SAD...

[josephcopenhaver]

I think this is a critical feature for collaborations between consumers of projects and project authors that are dependencies.

This would go a very long way towards improving change-management between authors and increase change adoption rates. It would also improve the developer experience and adoption rate of github.com amongst development communities.

Please introduce this feature. Most of us never hit the watch icon with the intent to watch all changes, especially when the repository is a dependency and we are happy with their practices and autonomy!

I know the feature could have more bloat built on top of it to make things more automated but please do not make us wait if we do not have to. Even giving each project it's own release RSS feed endpoint would be AMAZING - it does not need to be emails!

[Qantas94Heavy]

@josephcopenhaver I think there is some form of RSS support already, though obviously full support would be awesome.

[jpcope]

Thanks! Gonna give it a try. Sorry I missed the comment XD.

[coreybrett]

checkout https://libraries.io

[danielmenezesbr]

Blogtrottr delivers updates from all of your favourite news, feeds, and blogs directly to your email inbox. Just include the url (for instance https://github.com/USER/REPO/releases.atom) and your email to receive updates in your email inbox.

In the case of github, this only works for public repositories.

[RPing]

Hi, guys. I made a open source bot called Ver.bot, which can notify you new version releases about GitHub, npm, PyPI projects (It checks weekly). The bot is on Slack, Telegram and Skype. Feel free to try it on https://rping.github.io/Ver.bot-site, and any issue & PR are welcome!

[Dehumanizer77]

I was just thinking about this yesterday, I thought the feature has to be there but I can't find it. I wasn't aware that it's on the wishlist for that long. Seriously, why wasn't it implemented years ago?

[javidcf]

For those who are happy with the Atom solution, note that it is possible to use it with private repositories too if you use the format https://github.com/<user>/<repo>/releases.atom?token=<URL encoded auth token>. You can get a full valid URL by logging into GitHub and navigating to the releases page of the repo (https://github.com/<user>/<repo>/releases), then looking at the source code of the page and finding the corresponding <link> element (search for releases.atom); that URL can be used directly in any feed reader.

[ozbillwang]

thanks @javidcf

[vfeskov]

Hi peeps! I made yet another webservice that allows it, it's super simple: https://winabeer.com And when you're logged in: Emails look like this:

[aaroneg]

This. What's taking so long github? this is something that should have been implemented years ago.

[jonsagara]

Please make it happen, GitHub.

[shreyasbharath]

Wow, I can't believe this is not a feature yet! Please GitHub, do it!

[victorclaessen]

Would be useful.

[doctorcolinsmith]

Two weeks ago, I had a discussion with a large vendor about how their GitHub releases were not properly announced. This feature would save me the grief of bugging them about release announcements at our next meeting.

[linesr]

It has seriously been two and a half years and it hasn't become a thing yet?

[Perlovka]

+1

[crimx]

Hey guys, I made a "polyfill":joy: based on @maidmaid 's proposal.

It's a Chrome extension / Firefox Add-on.

Instead of subscribing atom feeds, it uses Github api and takes advantage of 403 cache. Very light-weight and fast.

https://github.com/crimx/ext-github-release-notifier

[scytho]

That so reminds me of MathWorks not being able for years to give MatLab’s built-in editor the ability to change character set. Basic feature, missed by many, annoying ignorance.

[ERnsTL]

Greetings everyone who wants this feature - I just contacted Github directly using the Contact Github link at the bottom of this page and mentioned also the URL of this issue.

They responded quickly and said,

Thanks for reaching out! I would be happy to add your +1 to the feature on our internal request list.

Also:

We don't discuss our roadmap publicly, so I can't say if or when it will be implemented, but your suggestion has definitely been noted.

I suggest everyone to contact them also so that we get many +1s on their internal feature request list, which seems to be their way of prioritizing feature requests. It takes just a minute for a short message and can't hurt.