Ben Balter
@ben.balter.com
Director of Hubber Enablement at @GitHub. Previously @GitHub Engineering, Security, Trust & Safety leader, and before that @PIFgov. Legacy blue check in Washington, D.C.
Archived more than 4,000 inactive Slack channels today with a quick GitHub Action Copilot and I whipped up. I hope to open source “Slack Stale Archiver” after it’s been running for a bit. Encouraging people to post their favorite animated GIF to keep the channel active has been the best part so far.
April 9, 2025 at 10:36 PM
Archived more than 4,000 inactive Slack channels today with a quick GitHub Action Copilot and I whipped up. I hope to open source “Slack Stale Archiver” after it’s been running for a bit. Encouraging people to post their favorite animated GIF to keep the channel active has been the best part so far.
If you’re at GitHub Universe, come say hey! 👋
October 29, 2024 at 5:28 PM
If you’re at GitHub Universe, come say hey! 👋
As a #PiDay-adjacent project, I hooked up an RGB LED matrix to an old Raspberry Pi, got it to pull events from my calendar, & now it sits over my shoulder in meetings, subtly counting down the time remaining at set intervals to keep things on track. Code: https://github.com/benbalter/meeting-matrix
November 16, 2024 at 2:19 AM
As a #PiDay-adjacent project, I hooked up an RGB LED matrix to an old Raspberry Pi, got it to pull events from my calendar, & now it sits over my shoulder in meetings, subtly counting down the time remaining at set intervals to keep things on track. Code: https://github.com/benbalter/meeting-matrix
At long last, the feature that absolutely no one has been asking for is finally here: http://ben.balter.com now natively supports dark mode based on your browser/OS preference, in case you're looking for some late-night reading.
November 16, 2024 at 2:18 AM
At long last, the feature that absolutely no one has been asking for is finally here: http://ben.balter.com now natively supports dark mode based on your browser/OS preference, in case you're looking for some late-night reading.
As gyms closed a year ago, I got a bike to stay active & get outside safely. Nearly 1k miles later, I've stuck to my goal of biking at least 1x/week (including a few not-so-fun 30°F weeks) & discovered parts of DC I didn't know existed. Here's to moar #bikedc in the year to come.
November 16, 2024 at 2:18 AM
As gyms closed a year ago, I got a bike to stay active & get outside safely. Nearly 1k miles later, I've stuck to my goal of biking at least 1x/week (including a few not-so-fun 30°F weeks) & discovered parts of DC I didn't know existed. Here's to moar #bikedc in the year to come.
How we work is as important as what we work on. Sharing some team values we captured a while back, that continue to ring true today:
November 16, 2024 at 2:15 AM
How we work is as important as what we work on. Sharing some team values we captured a while back, that continue to ring true today:
One of my favorite aspects of Product Management is creating experiences that feel intuitive and natural for users, but that actually absorb a lot of complexity on their behalf. It's far from perfect, but here's an example of how blocking a user affects comments on GitHub:
November 16, 2024 at 2:15 AM
One of my favorite aspects of Product Management is creating experiences that feel intuitive and natural for users, but that actually absorb a lot of complexity on their behalf. It's far from perfect, but here's an example of how blocking a user affects comments on GitHub:
Friendly reminder that open source is run by volunteer humans who donate their time, passion, and expertise. If there's a project you ❤️, consider letting the maintainer know. Posts like these can make contributing to the open source community difficult some days...
November 16, 2024 at 2:15 AM
Friendly reminder that open source is run by volunteer humans who donate their time, passion, and expertise. If there's a project you ❤️, consider letting the maintainer know. Posts like these can make contributing to the open source community difficult some days...
Contributors can now report disruptive comments to open source maintainers for review. Excited for how this feature could help improve communities on GitHub, but even more excited to finally close out a 2 year old issue and a 3.5 year moderation initiative https://t.co/RHs43G62KB
November 16, 2024 at 2:15 AM
Contributors can now report disruptive comments to open source maintainers for review. Excited for how this feature could help improve communities on GitHub, but even more excited to finally close out a 2 year old issue and a 3.5 year moderation initiative https://t.co/RHs43G62KB
If you're at #OSCON and are interested in learning about growing a safe, productive, and welcoming community around your open source project, please come check out my talk at 2:35 in E145/146: https://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/oscon-or/public/schedule/detail/76027
November 16, 2024 at 2:15 AM
If you're at #OSCON and are interested in learning about growing a safe, productive, and welcoming community around your open source project, please come check out my talk at 2:35 in E145/146: https://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/oscon-or/public/schedule/detail/76027
If you’d like early access to the new triage or maintainer roles on @GitHub (https://github.blog/changelog/2019-05-23-triage-and-maintain-roles-beta/) please let me know! (or find me at the Ask Product booth at #GitHubSatellite). Excited to hear what you think.
November 16, 2024 at 2:14 AM
If you’d like early access to the new triage or maintainer roles on @GitHub (https://github.blog/changelog/2019-05-23-triage-and-maintain-roles-beta/) please let me know! (or find me at the Ask Product booth at #GitHubSatellite). Excited to hear what you think.
Had a free domain, so spent some time giving my Word (or Google Doc) to Markdown converter some love (including a shiny new privacy policy for transparency). Please enjoy the recently re-homed https://word2md.com/ for all your word-to-markdown converting needs. 🎉
November 16, 2024 at 2:14 AM
Had a free domain, so spent some time giving my Word (or Google Doc) to Markdown converter some love (including a shiny new privacy policy for transparency). Please enjoy the recently re-homed https://word2md.com/ for all your word-to-markdown converting needs. 🎉
Corporate contributions to the third-party open source projects can still be a source of friction and ambiguity. We're beta testing a new platform-agnostic commit pattern we hope can help you contribute on behalf of your employer. We'd love your thoughts. https://t.co/p7LeDEKXO6
November 16, 2024 at 2:14 AM
Corporate contributions to the third-party open source projects can still be a source of friction and ambiguity. We're beta testing a new platform-agnostic commit pattern we hope can help you contribute on behalf of your employer. We'd love your thoughts. https://t.co/p7LeDEKXO6
Just merged this pull request into http://github.com. Feels good to remove legacy code in favor of open source.
November 16, 2024 at 2:13 AM
Just merged this pull request into http://github.com. Feels good to remove legacy code in favor of open source.
Wrote up a quick tutorial for installing @AtomEditor on @googlechrome OS. https://blog.atom.io/2018/10/02/running-atom-on-chome-os.html
November 16, 2024 at 2:13 AM
Wrote up a quick tutorial for installing @AtomEditor on @googlechrome OS. https://blog.atom.io/2018/10/02/running-atom-on-chome-os.html
Got @AtomEditor (and Git) running on my Chromebook thanks to native Linux app support landing in beta (and it's snappy enough to be my day-to-day text editor). Could 2018 finally be the year of Linux on the desktop?
November 16, 2024 at 2:13 AM
Got @AtomEditor (and Git) running on my Chromebook thanks to native Linux app support landing in beta (and it's snappy enough to be my day-to-day text editor). Could 2018 finally be the year of Linux on the desktop?
Organizations can now verify the website that appears on their @GitHub profile. While not much now, really excited for what this feature unlocks. Check out @airbnbeng or @babeljs’s profile to see it in action, or read the changelog to learn more. https://t.co/U12yByK7AW
November 16, 2024 at 2:13 AM
Organizations can now verify the website that appears on their @GitHub profile. While not much now, really excited for what this feature unlocks. Check out @airbnbeng or @babeljs’s profile to see it in action, or read the changelog to learn more. https://t.co/U12yByK7AW
At @githubuniverse? Come find me in the "Ask GitHub" area. Would love to answer product questions and hear how we can make your tools better
November 16, 2024 at 2:11 AM
At @githubuniverse? Come find me in the "Ask GitHub" area. Would love to answer product questions and hear how we can make your tools better
Content as code: GitHub Pages now has tag to push readers to improve the page, used by default theme if open source. https://ben.balter.com/2015/09/13/github-pages-edit-button/
November 16, 2024 at 2:11 AM
Content as code: GitHub Pages now has tag to push readers to improve the page, used by default theme if open source. https://ben.balter.com/2015/09/13/github-pages-edit-button/
Slides from my #WCDC talk "Ten-ish tips for growing an open source community around your WordPress plugin or theme" https://speakerdeck.com/benbalter/growing-open-source-communities-on-github-around-your-wordpress-plugin-or-theme
November 16, 2024 at 2:11 AM
Slides from my #WCDC talk "Ten-ish tips for growing an open source community around your WordPress plugin or theme" https://speakerdeck.com/benbalter/growing-open-source-communities-on-github-around-your-wordpress-plugin-or-theme
Pro-tip: Want to know who has you in their sidebar? Add a @SlackHQ-style notification custom emoji to the team and set it as your status.
November 16, 2024 at 2:11 AM
Pro-tip: Want to know who has you in their sidebar? Add a @SlackHQ-style notification custom emoji to the team and set it as your status.
Confused why evite/event websites don't offer "add to calendar" buttons once you RSVP/register (or send via gratuitous confirmation email).
November 16, 2024 at 2:11 AM
Confused why evite/event websites don't offer "add to calendar" buttons once you RSVP/register (or send via gratuitous confirmation email).
If you use @zoom_us for meetings at work, but hate constantly opening Google Calendar, you may find this CLI helpful https://github.com/benbalter/zoom-launcher
November 16, 2024 at 2:10 AM
If you use @zoom_us for meetings at work, but hate constantly opening Google Calendar, you may find this CLI helpful https://github.com/benbalter/zoom-launcher
Seems even the @washingtonpost print edition isn't immune from encoding challenges...
November 16, 2024 at 2:10 AM
Seems even the @washingtonpost print edition isn't immune from encoding challenges...