Creating a repo via the Github API and HTTParty

httparty.rb

class Github
  include HTTParty
  base_uri 'https://api.github.com'
end

Github.post("/user/repos", :query => {
      :access_token => @token
    },
    :body => {
      :name => name,
      :description => "Reop description",
      :homepage => "http://mysite.com",
      :public => true,
      :has_issues => false,
      :has_wiki => false,
      :has_downloads => false
    }.to_json)

Why does body need the .to_json?

@uri sorry this came 2 years late..
For POST, PATCH, PUT, and DELETE requests, parameters not included in the URL should be encoded as JSON with a Content-Type of ‘application/json’:

according to github api