{"type":"post","id":"starsift-check-whether-the-accounts-behind-a-github-4f2a81","slug":"starsift-check-whether-the-accounts-behind-a-github-4f2a81","title":"starsift: Check whether the accounts behind a GitHub repo's stars look real, now that GitHub hides the…","description":"Starsift is a response to a measurement gap: GitHub’s public stargazer identities are no longer available to ordinary users, while star counts remain a widely used proxy for project popularity.","retrieval_nugget":"Starsift is a response to a measurement gap: GitHub’s public stargazer identities are no longer available to ordinary users, while star counts remain a widely used proxy for project popularity.","published_at":"2026-10-19","updated_at":"2026-10-19","record_date":"2026-10-19","date_kind":"published_at","topics":["github"],"source_urls":["https://github.com/intikhab49/starsift"],"schema_version":"newruntime-agent-readable-v0.2","stable_id":"post:starsift-check-whether-the-accounts-behind-a-github-4f2a81","status":"published","visuals":[],"editorial_provenance":{"schema_version":"newruntime-editorial-copy-v1","content_status":"source_grounded_final","final_copy_sha256":"sha256:0c9d26b24368c48852fc121b967e4ee32f38cb28020dd60aefd03725ee8e015a","reviewed_at":"2026-10-19T14:09:32.633Z","source_evidence_count":1,"verified_claim_count":3,"site_analysis_schema_version":"newruntime-site-analysis-v1","site_object_kind":"field_note","observed_fact_count":3,"implication_count":2,"watch_condition_count":2,"related_record_count":0},"analysis":{"schema_version":"newruntime-site-analysis-v1","object_kind":"field_note","thesis":"Starsift turns a missing direct list into a sampled comparison problem, not a definitive authenticity test.","observed_facts":[{"text":"The README says that from June 30, 2026, stargazer lists are limited to repository admins and collaborators; it says the REST endpoint returns 404 and the GraphQL connection is empty for others.","source_urls":["https://github.com/intikhab49/starsift"]},{"text":"A README example from a published suspected-fake-stars dataset reports 34% of sampled accounts deleted or suspended, versus 10% in a time-matched control group.","source_urls":["https://github.com/intikhab49/starsift"]},{"text":"Starsift draws data from repository event feeds, GH Archive, and fork owners, then compares accounts active in the same hours on other repositories.","source_urls":["https://github.com/intikhab49/starsift"]}],"mechanism":"The mechanism is temporal matching: a control group helps distinguish suspicious account patterns from ordinary characteristics of GitHub users.","why_now":"GitHub’s public stargazer identities are no longer available to ordinary users, while star counts remain a widely used proxy for project popularity.","implications":["Popularity audits can continue through public traces, but their conclusions should be framed as risk signals requiring corroboration.","The control-group approach is more informative than treating account age or a star spike alone as proof."],"evidence_boundary":"only sampled windows are checked, and GitHub hides activity from accounts it has flagged.","watch_conditions":["whether independent users reproduce its findings across repositories.","whether the method remains usable as GitHub’s event data access changes."],"related_records":[],"new_branch_reason":"No prior New Runtime record is supplied; this is a distinct tool release addressing the loss of public stargazer identities with a sampled, time-matched audit method."},"editor":{"role":"editor","name":"Andrey Reshetnikov","profile":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.md","profile_json":"https://newruntime.com/owner-profile.json","same_as":["https://www.linkedin.com/in/reshetnikov1/","https://t.me/lapetuse"]},"routes":{"html":"https://newruntime.com/posts/starsift-check-whether-the-accounts-behind-a-github-4f2a81/","markdown":"https://newruntime.com/posts/starsift-check-whether-the-accounts-behind-a-github-4f2a81.md","json":"https://newruntime.com/posts/starsift-check-whether-the-accounts-behind-a-github-4f2a81.json"},"next_reads":[{"type":"topic","path":"/topics/github/","url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/github/","title":"Github","reason":"Explore the github topic hub.","media_type":"text/html","markdown_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/github.md","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/topics/github.json"},{"type":"collection","path":"/posts/","url":"https://newruntime.com/posts/","title":"Field Notes","reason":"Open the latest editorial analysis.","media_type":"text/html","json_url":"https://newruntime.com/posts.json"},{"type":"collection","path":"/source-ledger.json","url":"https://newruntime.com/source-ledger.json","title":"Source Ledger","reason":"Inspect the public source evidence graph.","media_type":"application/json"}]}