Today I realized you can't star an achived repo in GitHub anymore

GitHub intentionally disables the ability to star archived repositories to maintain clarity around project status and ensure signals like stars remain meaningful for active projects. Here’s a breakdown of why this happens and what you can do instead:

Reasons GitHub Disables Starring Archived Repos

1. ·Preservation of Active Signals – Stars indicate interest in potentially usable code. Archived repos are read-only, and allowing stars could blur the distinction between maintained and historical projects.
2. ·Data Hygiene for Discovery – GitHub’s recommendation algorithms (Trending, Explore) rely on stars to surface active projects. Including archived repos would inflate metrics for code that won’t receive updates.
3. ·UI Consistency – Archived repos already restrict issues, PRs, and wiki edits. Removing the star button aligns with the read-only nature of archived projects.
4. ·Encouraging Project Continuation – If maintainers want engagement, they should un-archive or encourage forks rather than leave repos in a deprecated-but-starable state.

Workarounds If You Want to Save or Signal Interest

• ·Fork the Repo – This creates a copy under your account that can be starred.
• ·Watch the Repo – You’ll get notifications if it’s ever un-archived.
• ·Use GitHub’s Saved Feature – The Save button (bookmark icon) works on archived repos and adds them to your personal Saved list.
• ·Star via API (if needed) – The GitHub API still allows starring archived repos (e.g., via curl).
• ·Clone or Download – Preserve a local copy with git clone or a ZIP download.

Impact & Best Practices

• ·For Users: Avoid relying on stars for archived projects—use forks, saves, or clones instead.
• ·For Maintainers: If a project is still useful but no longer maintained, link to a successor repo or a well-maintained fork in the README.