# Vandolf Estrellado The latest articles on DEV Community by Vandolf Estrellado (@vestrel00). This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles. ## A personal account of how GitHub star counts affect a project maintainer's mental health DevFeed: [A personal account of how GitHub star counts affect a project maintainer's mental health]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Vandolf Estrellado Published: 2022-03-01T02:02:11Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Vandolf Estrellado]() Topics: [GitHub](), [Android]() Tags: [coding](), [community](), [development](), [engineering](), [github](), [inclusive](), [mental-health](), [opinion](), [software]() ### AI overview A developer describes how GitHub star counts have affected his mental health and social and professional life. He explains that a project he has worked on for three years has fewer stars than a newer project with only a fraction of its features, and reflects on whether stars indicate project quality. ### Source excerpt Hi, my name is Vandolf and I have some internal problems. With disasters happening all around the world for the past several years, I really have nothing to complain about. I know that this internal "problem" is laughable and makes me really ashamed that it is even affecting me at all. Yet, for the past six months, this "thing" has been eating me up inside. It has been affecting my social and professional life. If you'd rather read about real problems happening around the world, please click away. Otherwise, stay and you might get some amusement out of it if nothing else. The thing is, I know hardships. I was born and raised in the slums of the Philippines. I know what real hunger is like. I know the feeling of helplessness and acceptance of having no future. I was luckily able to immigrate into the US. I am now living in Hawaii with my wife, son, dogs, and cat with a view of mountains and oceans. I take nothing for granted. I am truly grateful for the life that Android made possible. ❓ So, why is GitHub stars bothering me so much? It's just a number, right? This article is NOT an attempt to get stars. I really just want to discuss what I have been "suffering" from for the past half year. I will NOT provide links to the projects or mention any names. I want this article to be on topic. I want it to be anonymous, yet personal. Please don't dig deeper. I will not answer any comments about specifics. Though, feel free to send me a DM. Maybe we can talk privately. You can even tell me how pathetic I am. GitHub stars. How much does it matter? There have been many articles and discussions that have been written about this topic. This article is not about the value of stars but rather a personal story about it. Anyways, here are some of the good stuff that I've read... Do Github stars matter? Should the Quality of GitHub Projects Be Evaluated by Their Star Count? "GitHub Stars" is a very useful metric. But for what? TLDR; The opinion is split. To some, stars are just publicl ## Does extensive documentation do more harm than good? DevFeed: [Does extensive documentation do more harm than good?]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Vandolf Estrellado Published: 2022-01-03T00:01:33Z Content type: opinion Language: en Sources: [Vandolf Estrellado]() Topics: [Documentation](), [Code](), [GitHub](), [jira]() Tags: [bus-factor](), [code](), [coding](), [community](), [development](), [discuss](), [documentation](), [engineering](), [github](), [inclusive](), [opensource](), [showdev](), [software](), [want]() ### AI overview The author reflects on writing extensive documentation across code, pull requests, issue trackers, open-source discussions, and workplace communications. They question whether the time spent documenting is excessive, while noting that it reduces dependency on their personal knowledge and helps them disconnect from work. ### Source excerpt I feel like I tend to write too much documentation in code, PR descriptions, PR comments, JIRA tickets, markdown files, etc. If I can write documentation on it, then you bet that I am doing it 😆 There are few exceptions where I don't write documentation such as self-explanatory, 1-liner code... I think I do it because I don't like people asking questions. Really anti-social behavior 😊 Some may say that I have obsessive-compulsive disorder. Warning! The following GIFs may cause siezures as they have been sped up to meet maximum file size limits. I'm writing documentation in code, extensively... Useful? Not useful? Who cares? No one? Readable? Beautiful? I'm writing howto pages for all APIs, functions, and entities in the library... Cool? Or insane? Or cool but a waste of time? It looks like this in the mobile GitHub app... Tell me it's not pretty... Tell me! (Please don't tell me). I'm using GitHub Pages as a free website for my hard work on my documentation... Can't really turn down a free domain and 1-click theme changes 😄 I'm writing really long responses in my open source discussion pages, issues, and PRs... Because I want to make my collaborators feel heard and appreciated. These insane tendencies carry over to my professional life. I write really thorough, detailed JIRA tickets, Slack messages, architectural docs, engineering notes, to a point of insanity. Typically, when I post my response to people at work, they usually don't have any follow up questions. They expect that if they ask Vandolf a question, he will answer that question and give every bit of context related to it with links to supporting documents and visual aid (GIFs and videos with callouts) when needed. It is probably starting to annoy some people at work despite them publicly giving me praise for it. I don't have a GIF for this part because I don't want to get fired 🔥 It also carries over to my personal life, which I will not discuss here... So... Lately, I've been wondering if I'm wasting tim ## I spent 3 years writing an Android Contacts API in Kotlin with Java interop. What I've learned... DevFeed: [I spent 3 years writing an Android Contacts API in Kotlin with Java interop. What I've learned...]() Original publisher: [Read original article]() Author: Vandolf Estrellado Published: 2021-11-04T23:13:30Z Content type: article Language: en Sources: [Vandolf Estrellado]() Topics: [Android](), [Kotlin](), [Java](), [API](), [Library](), [Open Source]() Tags: [android](), [api](), [coding](), [community](), [development](), [engineering](), [inclusive](), [java](), [kotlin](), [open-source](), [showdev](), [software]() ### AI overview The author presents an Android Contacts API library built in Kotlin with Java interoperability. The article discusses Android Contacts Provider history and complexity, explains the library, and reflects on mistakes and lessons from developing open-source code privately for three years. ### Source excerpt Hi, my name is Vandolf and I have a problem. I get addicted and obsessed about certain things. It spirals out of control, very quickly. Once I set my sights on something, I don't stop until I finish it, even if it takes years. Sounds like addiction... It is. Before I know it, I've spent three years working on private repositories building something no one knows about. Then, I make it public and write an article about it thinking that it will blow people's minds. Then get shocked that the repo has less than 100 unique visitors in the first month because I think that it will just magically get discovered by everyone... Does this sound relatable to you? Probably not, right? I think I'm insane in some levels. If you are interested in the Contacts API library I've built or the insanity I'm going through, keep reading! I'll split this article in two sections. The Contacts API that I've built. 🔥 The mistakes I made and lessons I learned from writing "open source" code, privately, for three years. 🤦♂ If you are not interested in the first section, I recommend at least reading the second. You might learn something from the mistakes I've made, and hopefully avoid making them yourself! I'm actually a bit hesitant and nervous about posting this as my first article here. I have no reputation here. No one knows me. I'm just a random stranger. However, I know that doing things that are only within my comfort zone will not get me anywhere. So, I'm pushing myself to publish this article 😰 I hope to make connections, and maybe even friends, in this community ❤ The Contacts API that I've built. First, here is the GitHub repo; https://github.com/vestrel00/contacts-android Please take a look at it and let me know what you think? The oldest commit in the repo is 2 years old. However, I have another private repo that has the 3 year old commits. I'm not lying! 😁 Exactly a month ago from today, I have made public the previously private repo and published an article in Medium introducing my