Is the repo is private then it’s impossible for anyone to “follow” by starring or watching.

There’s also an issue of taking a repo private, making changes when no one gets alerted, and making it public to make it harder for people to know what’s going on.

> There’s also an issue of taking a repo private, making changes when no one gets alerted, and making it public to make it harder for people to know what’s going on.

They could always notify watchers about the repo being made private.