Frequently Asked Questions
The FAQ portion of this site aims to answer common questions posed by new Organization members.
About VT Organization Membership
About Repositories
About Teams
About Permission Levels
About Projects
Have a question that isn’t answered here? Contact us, at github-g@vt.edu.
About VT Organization Membership
Q: How do I become a member of the VT GitHub Organization?
A: Membership to the VT GitHub Organization is limited to current and former Virginia Tech staff and students, through invitation only. To register for membership, visit the Virginia Tech GitHub Page and navigate to the Join Organization section. Once there, enter your GitHub account username and VT email address. A verification email will be sent to the supplied VT email address. Once verified, an invitation to join the VT Organization will be sent to the email address associated with your GitHub account.
Note: Verification emails will only be sent to @vt.edu email addresses.
Q: As a member, what can and can’t I do?
A: You can view the profiles and public teams of other members. You can apply for your repository to be added to the Organization; refer to About Repositories. You can create Teams; refer to About Teams. You can create Organization Projects; refer to About Projects. You cannot create/transfer repositories from your account directly to the Organization. You cannot invite other users to the Organization. You cannot push to repositories that you do not have write access to.
About Repositories
Q: How do I add my repository into the VT GitHub Organization?
A: Public VT GitHub Organization members can only add a repository by emailing an application for their repository to the owners of the VT Organization through the Add Repository section. If the application is approved, an owner from the VT Organization will fork your repository into the organization. Since all permissions are wiped when the repository is forked, the owner will grant you admin privileges to the forked repository. If the application is denied, an owner for the VT GitHub Organization will provide you with an explanation of why your repository was denied in an email response.
Note: Before submitting an application, members should verify that their prospective repository meets the policies required by the VT GitHub Organization.
Q: Can I add a repository that is private?
A: Typically, no. The VT GitHub Organization is meant for public repositories. Private repositories should be stored at code.vt.edu. However, there may be some exceptions to this rule.
Q: What is code.vt.edu?
A: Code.vt.edu, previously known as git.it.vt.edu, supports collaborative software development in both functional and distributed teams with mature and capable tools such as distributed development workflows, wikis, issue tracking, CI/CD, and Docker repository hosting. The self-service model developed has created a friction-free process to easily request and quickly deliver these services to faculty and staff.
Q: Am I required to provide an open-source software license for the repository I would like to add to the VT Organization?
A: See this Licensing section.
Q: As a VT Organization member, can I create a repository within the organization?
A: No, repositories can not be created within the organization. Repositories can only be added to the organization through forking by a VT Organization owner.
Q: As a VT Organization member, can I delete a repository within the organization?
A: As a member, you can only delete a repository to which you have admin permissions to.
Q: As a VT organization member and the admin of a forked repository on the Organization, how can I manage permissions to the repository?
A: As an admin, you can manage permissions by creating new teams or adding existing teams to a repository. More information about GitHub Teams can be found here. An admin can also add individual collaborators to a repository with read, write, or admin privileges. Unlike VT Organization teams, individual collaborators do not need to be members within the VT Organization.
Q: What are featured repositories?
A: Featured repositories show up at the top of the Organization’s Home page as well as part of the Organization’s ‘Pinned Repositories’ section on GitHub and offer an increase in exposure. Featured repositories are also tweeted about via our @VT_GitHub_Org (follow us!) Twitter account. Newly featured repositories will stay featured for 10 days. There can only be a max of six featured repositories at a time. Repositories that are currently featured should not apply for additional featured-time, but should instead wait until after their featured-time expires. The goal of this Organization is to give exposure to VT code projects, so a queue of featured repositories may be formed simply through an excess of feature-worthy applications.
Q: How do I get my repository featured?
A: To request your repository to be featured, you will need to apply through the Featured Repositories webpage. While it is not necessary, a repository README would help Organization users understand the purpose of your repository. Consider member demand for featured repositories when applying for featured Repositories; don’t feel discouraged if your repository does not get featured after your first attempt!
About Teams
Q: What is a GitHub team?
A: Teams are a way for organization members to manage permissions to repositories within the organization.
Q: Who can create a team?
A: Any VT Organization member can create a team.
Q: Who can edit a team’s settings (ie. team name, description, visibility)?
A: Only the team’s maintainers can edit the team’s settings.
Q: Who can delete a team?
A: Only the team’s maintainers can delete a team.
Q: What are the different roles within a team?
A: There are two different roles within a team, team members and team maintainers
Q: What can a team member do within a team?
A: A team member has access to each of the team’s repositories based on permission levels set by an admin of the repository. The admin of the repository can be, but does not have to be, a member or maintainer of the team.
Q: How do I become a team member?
A: You can become a team member by being manually added by a team maintainer or by going to the team page and requesting membership. A team maintainer would then approve or deny your request.
Q: What can a team maintainer do within a team?
A: A team maintainer is a team member with elevated permissions around who is in the team and what repositories the team contributes to. A team maintainer can add an organization member to the team as well as remove a team member from the team. Team maintainers can promote other team members to team maintainers. A team maintainer can also add a repository to the team of which the maintainer has admin access to.
Q: How do I become a team maintainer?
A: You can become a team maintainer by getting one of the current team maintainers to promote you. As expected, when you create your own team you become the team maintainer of your new team by default.
Q: Can I be on multiple teams within the VT Organization?
A: Yes, you can be on as many teams as you want.
Q: Can I be a team maintainer of multiple teams within the VT Organization?
A: Yes, you can.
About Permission Levels
Q: What are Permission Levels?
A: Permission Levels are the set of permissions a user/team has. Note that Permission Levels can be given to both individual users, as well as teams. More information can be found here.
Q: What does the admin permission entail?
A: Admin permission gives the team/collaborator the ability to modify (add/remove/change) the access rights of their repository and thereby give rights to organization members as well as organization teams. Admin permission also gives the team/collaborator the write permission.
Q: What does the write permission entail?
A: Write permission gives the team/collaborator the ability to read, clone, and push to the repository.
Q: What does the read permission entail?
A: Read permission gives the team/collaborator the ability to read and clone the repository.
About Projects
Q: What are projects?
A: Projects help you organize and prioritize your work. Projects are made up of issues, pull requests, and notes that are categorized as cards in columns of your choosing. Cards can be moved from column to column and reordered according to your needs. More information can be found here.
Q: What’s the difference between Organization projects and Team projects?
A: Organization projects can be viewed and edited by any member within the organization. Team projects can be viewed by any member within a team and edited by any member within that team that has write or admin permissions.