[dkersten]

The problem with stuff like stars or even lists of "who uses this" is that they need to be refreshed every so often. Just because someone used your project ten years ago, doesn't mean they're using it today. Maybe a list with a "latest update" date and gently asking and reminding people to update it each year if they're still using the project would help...

As for cloning, I don't clone projects I use every day. Maybe I cloned them once a year ago. Maybe I'm using a package from somewhere and not interacting with your repo at all.

The cross-referencing sounds like a useful metric though, at least for open source use, but many projects are more useful in non-open-source environments (eg how many open source projects are using something like http://riemann.io/ ?)