A nice video on the use of GitHub for ecological studies. I like its flexibility and multiple working environments. Though I am new to it, I hope to learn more applications of it and have hands-on experience.

• Aside from ecology, I think it can also be used for evolution and numerical taxonomy (systematics) courses and projects, due to its reproducibility, citability, and collaboration.

Really excited to put what knowledge I have and have gained through the video to use!

Recently I used code virtually unchanged from another project. I accessed it through another repository through Virginia Tech. Is "forking" the best way to go, even if I'm not changing it? I might one day if I want to expand the project. Otherwise, I'd just cite where it came from if it makes it into a manuscript, or does git hub also work as sort of a reference database to keep track of code I've used but haven't changed? I hope that made sense.

I appreciate the reassurance that it takes time and everything will be OK. I am hoping github is the kinda thing you have to use for a bit to really understand...

No questions or comments as of now. Looking forward to more coding practice!

Great video, Renata! I'm already anxious about the branches :)

Big question...where is my "terminal" or my "command line" on github online? Do I need github desktop? Also, I did not install Git since it seemed like I needed to install many things on my computer in order to get it and use it, like a terminal emulator?? Sorry, I'm already lost...

However, Renata mentioned that the links will be put in the class notes for this week...where are those?

One thing that was confusing was that this lecture and Issues prompt/link is living on 10/26 in the syllabus, rather than at 10/3, which is today.

Also, I just wanted to use the enhancement Label AND I added a Booyah label for accomplishments.

Great overview of GitHub Renata! I don't really have any questions that come to mind, I've been using GitHub for a while, so I guess I'll just affirm that GitHub is a really nice tool to use for version control and file management for both group and individual projects.

I like to also pair it with GitHub Desktop, which really just adds another level of push-pull checking and a cloned folder of your repo(s) on your computer for easy local use. I found it most useful when I kept working between two separate folders and having to move files that weren't just scripts around, but it's also very nice to just drag and drop a file into the folder, open GitHub Desktop, and hit "commit" and "push" and have that be done. I suppose one question could be, is that an okay/good practice workflow?

Nice speedy little run-though of RMarkdown. We used Markdown a lot in Kate Beard's Spatial Analysis class, so I'm pretty familiar, but excited to see its applications to GitHub pages. No questions at the moment!

Nice, simple breakdown of Github applications and terminology--very helpful! I also think it's super cool how Github can be used to share code linked to manuscripts (now if we could only finagle a way to get whole manuscripts open access on there, too!).

A few questions:

• Any recommendations for how best to organize your repositories? File structure, naming protocols, etc.
• I'm interested in transitioning all my R files onto Github. How did that process look for you all? Did you migrate things over, or just choose to start using git for new projects?

No issues this week, really looking forward to explanding my usage of github!

No questions necessarily... looking forward to some exercises to get used to how things are nested and organized in GitHub. On the surface appears a little confusing if only for the Git vocabulary! I still haven't had too much practice writing code so I'm not too familiar with how collaborative editing and 'versions' work in practice.

Great video, Renata! It's so cool and so useful to have learned now that GitHub allows you to annotate changes made to your files. That'll come in handy for keeping my scatter-brain marginally less scattered!

• I wonder if there are courses out there specific to learning and using GitHub. I suppose this class is, but I wonder how many other classes teach and highlight the power of GitHub. I learned the how-tos and importance of RStudio in a computational biology class, so I'm interested in learning if/how GitHub is used as an educational tool.
• We're using GitHub to study ecology, but I wonder if its uses are virtually infinite!? Seems like there's a platform for nearly anything; and since it's all quite public, there seem to be limitless options of what users can do and collaborate on and build!

A simple short and informative video on rmarkdown and its working environment. Just like GitHub, I hope to learn and have hands-on experience.

A pretty simple video that goes over the applications and benefits of utilizing RMarkdown.

No immediate questions, though I'm sure I'll have a million once we start actually using the tool. Great intro lecture, thanks Renata! Looking forward to getting to work.

I think this video has done a great job at displaying all the benefits of utilizing github for ecology. The video explained how github has all the necessary tools to assist in research and in publishing articles as well. Also being a very accessible site supports the usage of github for ecology as well.

• How many researchers are actually using or know what github is?
• Github has all of these benefits that makes collaboration in research easier, more accessible, and more efficient; why isn't it publicized or more known?