20 ms·

Just Wanted to Say Thanks

1244 points by compumike 6y ago

compumike 6y ago
I was surprised to find that someone left a brief "thank you" issue on one of my open source projects (a Kubernetes hairpin proxy to fix issues with cert-manager and LoadBalancers) and it feels great to know that the right people are finding it and resolving the same problem that led me to build it. I humbly hope that sharing this might inspire more humanity and gratitude in the open source community.
- SingAlong 6y ago
  Thank you for sharing this. Even though it is a compliment for you and your project, it made my as a solo maker.
- ryanschneider 6y ago
  With the added benefit that many (like myself) may dig in and learn about the PROXY protocol for the first time. So doubly thanks for sharing this!
  - intsunny 6y ago
    I'm always amazed at how more people do not know about the Proxy protocol. (Also why is this not an RFC?) I suspect one reason is because the cloud vendors push hard for layer 7 routing, and cloud managed cert management. (ie: ALB and ACM.) These have a lot of vendor lock-in, whereas k8s layer 4 ingress and cert-manager do not.
- lukewrites 6y ago
  Similarly, I got a shoutout/tag on a PR that used some of my code. It made my day, and made me assume that the org the engineer works in must be a pretty good place to work.
- m_sahaf 6y ago
  Your Circuit Lab project was great and really helpful when I studied circuit analysis. That's the project I've known you for. Thank you for that!
codazoda 6y ago
I run a website with hundreds of documents simply explaining how I resolved issues. It keeps me going when people simply email me to say thank you. As an example, one of my most popular pages is a set of instructions on how to install 20 year old sewing machine software, that requires hardware keys, on modern Windows machines. https://www.joeldare.com/wiki/installing_husqavarna_3d_embroidery_on_windows_vista https://www.joeldare.com/wiki/installing_husqavarna_3d_embro...
- orion138 6y ago
  Thank you! It’s discoveries like these that make my day - my mom has one of these machines, I taught myself cad on it when I was a kid. I’m sure this will come in handy!
- hycaria 6y ago
  I've wanted to do this for the mundane to complicated issues I've faced, even for myself since sometimes I need to reproduce something (or help someone for the same problem). Never really sure what platform to use or how to do it. Because issues are very broad and it then looks messy. I've looked at your wiki and I'm still unsure how to proceed...
tibra 6y ago
Great to see Vito being mentioned, his blog is also full of super helpful guides! Keep the sharing and gratitude up, it boosts everyone :-)
etherio 6y ago
I did the same a while ago with a really useful tool that had helped me save a lot of time [0]. I think it's a really good idea to provide thanks and gratitude like this because I know its very validating and motivational for someone to reach out and just say thanks. This should be especially true for more niche projects that gather less recognition but you can still find very useful. [0]: https://github.com/geoffreylitt/simple_recommender/issues/7 https://github.com/geoffreylitt/simple_recommender/issues/7
outloudvi 6y ago
It's cool seeing people show their gratitude. This reminded me of an interesting year-ago SATA (Star And Thank Author) license: https://github.com/zTrix/sata-license https://github.com/zTrix/sata-license
- froh 6y ago
  It's a wonderful idea however it should be a nudge and not a requirement. A software with a SATA license as proposed there could not be redistributed by a Linux distro, because the distro could not enforce the SATA with the end user. This is also tracked as an open issue: https://github.com/zTrix/sata-license/issues/5#issuecomment-597012836 https://github.com/zTrix/sata-license/issues/5#issuecomment-...
IThinkImOKAY 6y ago
100 points in 56 minutes. How?
- franky47 6y ago
  'tis the season to be jolly. Happy holidays to all, and especially open-source contributors.
- giancarlostoro 6y ago
  After seeing so many articles on HN about people quitting the OSS community due to toxic members, its refreshing to see something coming from a good note. I am sure others feel the same, and some work on their own open source projects and can appreciate the post. Simple gratitude can go a long way.
altdatathrow 6y ago
Gratitude is so rare they should close this as "could not reproduce"
- mooreds 6y ago
  Hahah. Ha. Oh. I think that we (I include myself) are so wrapped up in our own struggles that we often fail to do the simplest things. Yes, one can't live on "thanks" alone, but we should offer gratitude more often. As someone who occasionally gets thanked for my writing, it is great to know that some of my shouting into the void has actually helped a person. It even helps the thanker: https://time.com/5026174/health-benefits-of-gratitude/ https://time.com/5026174/health-benefits-of-gratitude/
- codegeek 6y ago
  I generally don't do humor on HN but this comment is gold :) Well deserved upvote for you.
apozem 6y ago
What a great compliment. I love how he thanks the maintainer in extremely specific terms, showing exactly how their work helped.
jjordan 6y ago
Maybe GitHub should add an optional "Thanks" feedback channel, perhaps also include a place where users can submit success stories about their use of the given project. This could fill the role of a channel to express gratitude, and provide a place where prospective users could see how others have utilized the project successfully in the real world.
- anchpop 6y ago
  A project I'm affiliated with [0] did this by making an issue titled "feedback please!". Many more people answered than I would have expected! [0]: https://github.com/greg7mdp/sparsepp/issues/17 https://github.com/greg7mdp/sparsepp/issues/17
- AnHonestComment 6y ago
  /docs/anecdotes/name-*.md Accept any reasonable feedback or user stories. At the point this is a problem, you should get actual customer support people.
- d33 6y ago
  Nice! Now if there was a way to make it sticky, it would be perfect. Maybe a new label and milestone to better expose it?
nickjj 6y ago
Another positive variation of saying thanks is bringing to attention a great feature of a tool. The authors of the tool might not be aware at how impactful a feature is and if something like that gets enough upvotes / love then it could help prevent regressions or the feature disappearing at a later point in time. It also lets the authors know you care (see the first reply below). For example: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/327 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/327
inglor 6y ago
As a maintainer “thanks” is actually pretty common. Also companies send you chocolates/swag (but not money) pretty often which is cool. That said it is still very nice. I opened at least 10 such issues myself because they cost me nothing but a few seconds.
- inglor 6y ago
  Also I have to admit I take a lot of pride in thanks on SO questions I have answered and projects I maintain. It’s also a big contrast to the toxic micro celebritism culture we often have.
Jnr 6y ago
Whenever I find a really cool open source software that helps me and is made by individuals without some big company sponsorship, I try to reach out, say thanks and send them some beer money. Obviously it does not help much but I think this is a nice gesture and I wish more people did this.
civilized 6y ago
Some people are pointing out how rare it is for GitHubbers to express gratitude, but GitHub doesn't exactly encourage it. Doesn't it feel inappropriate to express gratitude as an "issue"? Maybe if there was a natural place for these messages they'd be sent more often. To the extent that there are affordances for it (stars, emojis) it is actually quite popular to praise good work on GitHub.
- flafla2 6y ago
  It would make a lot of sense for Github to support discussion forums natively, separate from issues. Or perhaps user reviews.
  - OJFord 6y ago
    It does, in beta as of a year or so ago, and out of beta a few weeks ago. You can turn them on or off per repository.
    - scoot 6y ago
      The trouble with GitHub discussions is that GitHub couldn't decide if it wanted discussions, or Stack Overflow style Q&A with upvotes, so it morphed into this awkward hybrid.
      - cutemonster 6y ago
        What's awkward about it? (I haven't used it yet)
- colonwqbang 6y ago
  I don't know why this is on HN; is it really considered so unusual for a someone to express gratitude to an open-source project? Concretely, you answered your own question. The "star" button is the default way of saying "thanks" to a project which was useful to you.
  - 6y ago
liminal 6y ago
I've found the 'heart' emoji on Github to be incredibly useful and also always a bit surprising. I'm taken aback by the expression of humanity alongside dry technical try-not-to-waste-someone's-time mumbo jumbo. But how else to express gratitude for someone being willing to volunteer their time on the never ending upgrade treadmill and long tail of bugs that haunt popular software?
whatl3y 6y ago
This inspired me so I will find more time to do this as well. Went ahead and started at one of my favorite projects that I use across several professional and personal projects :) https://github.com/actionhero/node-resque/issues/496 https://github.com/actionhero/node-resque/issues/496
- evantahler 6y ago
  Thank you! I guess I’ll chime in and say - as an OSS maintainer, please flood my inbox with messages like this. It really makes my day!
pkfrank 6y ago
A great reminder that showing a bit of gratitude goes a long way, especially to the the oftentimes-thankless builders and maintainers of the OSS we all rely on.
yeray 6y ago
Perfect timing to plug my latest project currently in beta https://shoutouts.dev/ https://shoutouts.dev/ Any and all feedback is welcome :)
- cuu508 6y ago
  When logging in with GitHub, it asks for the following permissions: * Verify your GitHub identity * Know which resources you can access * Act on your behalf What does the last one mean, and why is it needed?
  - yeray 6y ago
    That's just a misconfiguration of the GitHub app I haven't gone around to fix yet. We certainly don't act on your behalf, we only check basic information.
    - fvv 6y ago
      Blocking issue for me , btw great idea !
    - applecrazy 6y ago
      I had that issue too when building something w/ GitHub auth. Instead of making your app a GitHub App, make it an OAuth App (which should only ask for profile data). Edit: see https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/developers/apps/creating-an-oauth-app https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/developers/a...
      - yeray 6y ago
        That was it, all fixed now. Thanks for the suggestion :)
    - cuu508 6y ago
      Thanks, I see. It's a blocking issue for me too.
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
>On a wider note, my guess is that it would be healthy for the open source community at large to practice more gratitude. I try my part to give kudos, where possible. Most of my kudos are around getting questions answered and problems solved, in venues like SO. I tend to avoid using dependencies. When I do use them, I often try to share use cases, and spread the word. The obverse, is that, when I find something to be unsuitable, or bad (in a totally subjective way), I generally don't bitch about it. I just leave it alone, and look for something else. I am very hard on myself; but it isn't helpful for me to apply that to others.
elliottcarlson 6y ago
A game developer released their game as open source after the Steam discovery algorithm killed traffic to their game [1]. It was nice to see a thank you on their GitHub [2], and I recommend people try to support developers with both gratitude, and when possible financially if it is a project that truly helps you. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18589545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18589545 [2] https://github.com/egordorichev/BurningKnight/issues/223 https://github.com/egordorichev/BurningKnight/issues/223
susam 6y ago
Here is one I received last year: https://github.com/susam/uncap/issues/9 https://github.com/susam/uncap/issues/9. The comment began with, "I just wanted to say thanks for the wonderful software." It made my day! The GitHub user interface should encourage this as a feature.
- AntonyGarand 6y ago
  Taking this opportunity to say Thank you as well! I've been using it for years on all of my machines, such a great piece of software, didn't expect to see it on here
  - susam 6y ago
    I am glad you like Uncap. A comment like this provides good motivation to continue working on and maintaining an open source project in my free time. Thank you for posting this comment.
- pabs3 6y ago
  The restic issue template has a question about this: > Did restic help you today? Did it make you happy in any way? https://github.com/restic/restic/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/Feature.md https://github.com/restic/restic/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_T...
nicbou 6y ago
I've been on the receiving end of such gratitude, and it always brightens my day. It's easy to think your hard work isn't noticed, until you realize how seldom you acknowledge other people's work. Unfortunately, explicit gratitude is very rare. Donations are even rarer. The "ask a question" and "support this site" buttons on my website are next to each other. I get 15 questions for every donation. About 30€ per 100 000 visitors, from 1-3 visitors. Those who email me with questions never donate. I'm not complaining about any of this, just illustrating my point: you can't use gratitude as a metric for the value of your work. Critics, on the other hand, are disproportionately loud. As a community moderator, I learned that for every complainer, there are dozens of quietly happy users. You can only tell by the votes. No one will create a thread to say "everything is fine, keep it up". If someone made your day easier, or if they created something good, take a minute to thank them. If they saved you a ton of work, consider a small donation. A lot of people are tirelessly, thanklessly creating things that benefit you. It costs nothing to acknowledge it. Never let a compliment go unused. In the last few years, I became better at expressing my gratitude to creators, maintainers, colleagues and friends.
- delgaudm 6y ago
  >Those who email me with questions never donate. Can you ask them to? It's not exactly the same problem, but I have a modestly successful youtube channel, and I get unsolicited email questions seeking help every day, and I personally try and answer all that I can. I've used the following technique and it helped me receive donations to offset the support effort. I added a quiet but clear call to action my support replies. It's in a smaller font and below the actual support reply, but it significantly increased the number of donations, and it helps offset my support time. I went from getting no donations, to donations on over 80% of the support questions I answer. Maybe this would work for you too. Here is what I add at the bottom of help questions I receive: ---- As you might expect, I get a lot of requests for help. If you found my response helpful, a small donation for my time is totally optional, but appreciated so that I can continue to offer it as a service. http://buymeacoffee.com/boothjunkie http://buymeacoffee.com/boothjunkie
  - qmarchi 6y ago
remram 6y ago
There was an attempt with https://saythanks.io/ https://saythanks.io/, however it doesn't offer a way to distinguish projects (so you get thank you notes but you don't know which project it's for) and they are not public. I'm sure something similar with more customization options would go a long way (even though the best you can hope for is that it dies when GitHub replaces it by a built-in option).
frakkingcylons 6y ago
I once got a similar kind of thank-you issue from someone at Google who had used my project for a Cloud Next demo (with the link to the demo using my project!). It was probably the most gratifying and kind interaction I’ve had from open source. I would love it if GitHub had a separate feature for people to express their thanks. Makes me happy just thinking about it.
Waterluvian 6y ago
While I can't work for free, coworkers and managers stopping and saying, "I really appreciate what you've built; it makes my job easier" is what fuels me and makes me love my job. It feels kind of childish but honestly, I just need some kind words every so often to let me know my work matters and is noticed.
tardismechanic 6y ago
GitHub Discussions seems to be a great place for this sort of stuff going forward, instead of issues https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/discussions https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/discussions
oshea64bit 6y ago
Maybe rebranding GitHub Sponsors as not just a means of giving money but one-off "thank you" messages would be a decent approach to encouraging gratitude in open source.
- vidarh 6y ago
  There's Ko-fi [1] which seems to be positioning itself pretty much as a low-pressure "buy someone a coffee" option for showing support more than as about the money. I'm very interested in to what extent that influences donations. [1] https://ko-fi.com/ https://ko-fi.com/
6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago
I’ve learned that when I have a positive thought about someone, it’s generally worth communicating it. If I think a coworker saved me on some project, I tell them. If my partner is making me feel warm and fuzzy, I tell her. If someone impresses me, I say so. I don’t think people express these things nearly as often as they feel them, and I expect that many of the positive things that do end up communicated have another motive behind them. Simple earnest positive comments are very much worthwhile.
- rualca 6y ago
  > I don’t think people express these things nearly as often as they feel them, and I expect that many of the positive things that do end up communicated have another motive behind them. I have the displeasure of working with a team member who does the exact opposite: at every chance he gets, he expressed his displeasure regarding other team members to management. Once I confronted him about that behavior and he stated that those who fix problems get promoted while those who create them get passed over, and he believed that by pointing other people's flaws he would improve his chances of moving upward. I firmly believe that's the main reason most people don't praise anyone else. If they do, they are calling out their competitor's positive contributions, while no one reciprocates in kind.
  - NicoJuicy 6y ago
    I can confirm that some people think like this ( not me). I delegated some areas during a big event and I took one of those persons asside because he was too rude. He said that he pointed out mistakes ( which was correct, but they were new) and that they would remember it better if he was this direct. I just mentioned that he should not be this rude and just explain them what they did wrong and he adjusted. It was literally his mindset ( he adjusted that evening, not his mindset)
    - deleted 6y ago
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  - dietr1ch 6y ago
Arathorn 6y ago
I think we've only had one 'thank you' GitHub issue for Matrix/Element (Riot) in 6 years, but it was hugely appreciated and continues to make folks smile when they make a coffee in the office (back when we had an office): https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/8752 https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/8752
fossuser 6y ago
It's fun to email the people that write libraries or little tools you find useful and say thanks. Most of the time they appreciate it and it's pretty easy to do.
chrisweekly 6y ago
Expressing gratitude is one of the surest paths to a better day. One of my all-time favorite books -- "How to Want What You Have" by Tim Miller, PhD -- has as its central thesis the idea that: 1. Most people are relatively unhappy; 2. The root cause is our tendency always to want More [money/power, love, recognition] -- which stems from evolutionarily adaptive traits; 3. The remedy is to live in the present moment -- which one can learn to do by deliberately practicing three closely-related things: 1. Compassion 2. Attention 3. Gratitude The book is (sadly, inexplicably) out of print, but it's popular enough there are plenty of used copies for sale. I first encountered HTWWYH in a 5th-edition hardcover, and it was transformative. Highest posaible recommendation.
- devilduck 6y ago
  Buddhism was right all along
- Spearchucker 6y ago
  I will find a copy of the book to see what I can learn from it. Until now I've learnt that one cannot attain happiness as a state. It's fleeting. I stumble across it in moments, and it's gone again. And so I try to be content, which is much more persistent.
  - deleted 6y ago
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- cosmojg 6y ago
  I found it in the Internet Archive's collection if anyone wants to try borrowing a digital copy for free: https://archive.org/details/howtowantwhatyou00mill https://archive.org/details/howtowantwhatyou00mill
  - 867-5309 6y ago
    also plenty of secondhand physical copies: https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/how-to-want-what-you-have-discovering-the-magic-and-grandeur-of-ordinary-existence-0805033173 https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/how-to-want-...
franklampard 6y ago
Issue: I need to say thank you. That’s funny.
xyst 6y ago
aww that's so cute. If only gratitude could pay the bills, I would forgo all health benefits, and salary and focus all efforts on FOSS
offtop5 6y ago
It's free to say something nice. with all the recent negativity on github, where people will get in the nasty arguments about code their ultimately getting for free, this was something very refreshing to read.
francislavoie 6y ago
I woke up to this excellent message on Christmas eve. What a nice gift https://caddy.community/t/docker-multiple-containers-with-ssl/10904/9 https://caddy.community/t/docker-multiple-containers-with-ss...
dano 6y ago
Mike is a good guy. He's completely genuine, smart, and very personable.
brunojppb 6y ago
This is exactly what we need in our industry as a whole. Please, express your gratitude to your teammates about every positive action you notice around. It helps to build up morale and stronger bonds and also has literally zero costs. This is great to see.
corobo 6y ago
Personally I think the Facebooks of the world ruined thanks. I have no actual data but I swear people used to be more open with their thanks before everything was boiled down to one-click feedback (likes)
loopback_device 6y ago
HN comments: 110 People who said thank you: 5
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
richardfey 6y ago
On a side topic: any idea why the self-check can't be disabled in cert-manager? It seems like the project would not even exist otherwise.
codykochmann 6y ago
Github should natively cook in a project/user based tipping system to help people show their appreciation. This feels lazy to say but I know for a fact I would send tips way more frequently if they made tipping a one click experience. I know there are third party tools that let projects cook tip functionality into their projects. With how difficult it is to find time to write open source software alone, time put towards setting that up winds up feeling like me prioritizing thirsting for tips and donations over finishing whatever the original goal of the project was. I know for a fact I'm not the only one who feels that way.
- brainbag 6y ago
  The subscription sponsorship like GitHub and OpenCollective offer are nice, but I encounter one-off opportunities much more frequently. There's been so many times I've wanted to just send somebody a tip because they gave a useful answer in a comment, a package's readme was really good, I liked the library but ended up not using it, etc. I know there's a few sites that do this already, but I rarely see them used.
gist 6y ago
The magic of a story on HN at the top and not having a clue why. Would be a nice feature to HN to a pinned summary field at the top (and no don't call it 'tl;dr' either that is another 'what does that mean' to many people'). Not to mention that to an outsider the actual post in itself does not appear to be anything remarkable in any way. Who is vito botta, who is compumike? Why are they so special? Are they special? To much info to consume in this day an age...
adamwathan 6y ago
This thread motivated me to add a new "kind words" category to the Tailwind CSS discussions area on GitHub — maybe other projects can do the same: https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/discussions/categories/kind-words https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/discussions/cate... Managing OSS stuff really is brutal, and the amount of negative stuff you hear is hugely disproportionate to the amount of positive stuff. Anything to encourage the happy users to speak up once in a while can go a long way toward preventing OSS maintainers from burning out.
- tompazourek 6y ago
  The Tailwind project is a great example of modern OSS done right. It's managed and organized very well, and not to forget about all the related quality content (videos, streams). You and your colleagues are a great inspiration. Sorry to hear that you're getting so much discouraging feedback.
- denki39 6y ago
  Wow, it's really great doing so. Thank you for informing.
- ezequiel-garzon 6y ago
  Pretty impressive community reaction in 15 hours! You guys rock!
ImaCake 6y ago
Here is another example of some gratitude supplied to someone who wrote a useful python library for a very painful exercise in bioinformatics [0]. Scroll to the comments to see the thankyou notes left by grateful scientists. I have personally used this because I found the other tools available to be a bit fickle about the files they needed while this simple python script was a breeze to use for me (since I know python already). Github page is here [1] for those who need to remap an arbitrary list of human genome coordinates and don't want to bother with the UCSC tool. 0. http://fouryears.eu/2013/02/25/the-curse-of-genomic-coordinates/ http://fouryears.eu/2013/02/25/the-curse-of-genomic-coordina... 1. https://github.com/konstantint/pyliftover https://github.com/konstantint/pyliftover
parsecs 6y ago
I used the discussions feature to express my thanks a few days ago. Might be better than opening an issue? https://github.com/TG9541/stm8ef/discussions/386 https://github.com/TG9541/stm8ef/discussions/386
zuhayeer 6y ago
It feels really great to be on the receiving end of such gratitude, and honestly feels pretty great (if not greater) to give it out too. One thing I also love to do, is talk people up outside of their presence. It takes nothing to mention how someone may have helped you and it's a great excuse to just spread positive energy.
smurf_t 6y ago
Thanks to those who worked tirelessly to work on Open Source projects.
gfxgirl 6y ago
I've thought about trying to start some movement, not sure how to spread the word, that each open source project on github should make a "thank you" issue and pin it as a place for people to say thank you. AFAIK It's frowned on to say thank you in issues but it also sucks to have projects with 100s or 1000s of stars/forks and not a single thank you what so ever. Medium has the "claps" but I think it would be even nicer when you clicked it it prompted for a comment.
- mihaifm 6y ago
  It always bothered me that Github uses “Issues” for the name of the discussion board, as if encountering problems is the only reason to engage in conversation with the author.
  - asicsp 6y ago
    GitHub now has a separate Discussions feature for that (still in beta I think): >Discussions is the space for your community to have conversations, ask questions and post answers without opening issues.
- deleted 6y ago
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wslack 6y ago
Expressing thanks when things are good is all too rare.
pabs3 6y ago
I like the approach taken by the restic project to inject a little gratitude into issues, their issue template asks: > Did restic help you today? Did it make you happy in any way? https://github.com/restic/restic/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/Feature.md https://github.com/restic/restic/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_T...
coldsmoke 6y ago
There is a Swedish podcast (Snedtänkt) that has a lovely email address for contacting the show (I've translated from Swedish) - preferablyonlypositiveresponse@[email provider]. Not sure if it actually works, but I think it might prime people into a more positive mindset. On a similar note I loved that emails from Readmill came from pleasereply@readmill.com as a contrast to the usual user hostile noreply addresses most companies use.
deleted 6y ago
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tempestn 6y ago
I certainly feel the same way answering support emails for our sites. Understandably most of the emails are due to having some sort of problem, and many of the senders are frustrated. Even the positive ones are usually feature requests. Which is totally fine, and appreciated. But still, that occasional email sent just to say 'thanks' is always a treasure.
MattyRad 6y ago
Is there a better, more canonical way to leave positive feedback, other than opening a Github issue? For projects that have gitter/slack/chat, I've jumped in and said thanks. I've also considered sending thanks through the email addresses provided in package control (although it seems a bit weird emailing strangers, especially when you're not explicitly seeking a response). Starring a repo is also an (admittedly small) way to show thanks. What are some other ways to reach out?
- whofw 6y ago
  Hah, it's funny that you say this. I just opened GitHub to see that they've added a new "Discussions" feature to repositories, which they describe as "...space for your community to have conversations, ask questions and post answers without opening issues" and appears to be a mini-forum of sorts.
koliber 6y ago
Gratitude is a powerful force. It is sadly missing in many communities, organizations, and interactions.
gigatexal 6y ago
We need more of this. We need more of everything in OSS (funding, testing, support, etc) but the simple "thank you for your time, your efforts, your well crafted PR, your project that helps me accomplish X, Y, Z..." go a long, long way. I try to do this at work. Anytime I get help on something big or small I always say thanks, thanks for taking the time, thanks for explaining it, etc, because I know they're busy just as I am. To all the people out there working on code that we all use and build on top off thank you!
- lytefm 6y ago
  Absolutely. I've maintained a fork of an abandoned OSS project mainly because I needed it for myself and it was easy to just do it on GitHub. Turns out some folks noticed, starred the repo, used the code and someone opened a „Thank you” - Issue earlier this year. That was a main reason for me to actually publish the code on NPM, work towards a stable version and write some documentation at some point.
  - gigatexal 6y ago
    That’s awesome! Thanks for doing that.
ncrmro 6y ago
Vitabotta has a cool tutorial for the old rancher OS to get it running on wireguard which I found super helpful.

1244 points by compumike 6y ago

I was surprised to find that someone left a brief "thank you" issue on one of my open source projects (a Kubernetes hairpin proxy to fix issues with cert-manager and LoadBalancers) and it feels great to know that the right people are finding it and resolving the same problem that led me to build it. I humbly hope that sharing this might inspire more humanity and gratitude in the open source community.

SingAlong 6y ago
Thank you for sharing this. Even though it is a compliment for you and your project, it made my as a solo maker.
ryanschneider 6y ago
With the added benefit that many (like myself) may dig in and learn about the PROXY protocol for the first time. So doubly thanks for sharing this!
- intsunny 6y ago
  I'm always amazed at how more people do not know about the Proxy protocol. (Also why is this not an RFC?) I suspect one reason is because the cloud vendors push hard for layer 7 routing, and cloud managed cert management. (ie: ALB and ACM.) These have a lot of vendor lock-in, whereas k8s layer 4 ingress and cert-manager do not.
lukewrites 6y ago
Similarly, I got a shoutout/tag on a PR that used some of my code. It made my day, and made me assume that the org the engineer works in must be a pretty good place to work.
m_sahaf 6y ago
Your Circuit Lab project was great and really helpful when I studied circuit analysis. That's the project I've known you for. Thank you for that!

codazoda 6y ago

I run a website with hundreds of documents simply explaining how I resolved issues. It keeps me going when people simply email me to say thank you. As an example, one of my most popular pages is a set of instructions on how to install 20 year old sewing machine software, that requires hardware keys, on modern Windows machines. https://www.joeldare.com/wiki/installing_husqavarna_3d_embroidery_on_windows_vista https://www.joeldare.com/wiki/installing_husqavarna_3d_embro...

orion138 6y ago
Thank you! It’s discoveries like these that make my day - my mom has one of these machines, I taught myself cad on it when I was a kid. I’m sure this will come in handy!
hycaria 6y ago
I've wanted to do this for the mundane to complicated issues I've faced, even for myself since sometimes I need to reproduce something (or help someone for the same problem). Never really sure what platform to use or how to do it. Because issues are very broad and it then looks messy. I've looked at your wiki and I'm still unsure how to proceed...

tibra 6y ago

Great to see Vito being mentioned, his blog is also full of super helpful guides! Keep the sharing and gratitude up, it boosts everyone :-)

etherio 6y ago

I did the same a while ago with a really useful tool that had helped me save a lot of time [0]. I think it's a really good idea to provide thanks and gratitude like this because I know its very validating and motivational for someone to reach out and just say thanks. This should be especially true for more niche projects that gather less recognition but you can still find very useful. [0]: https://github.com/geoffreylitt/simple_recommender/issues/7 https://github.com/geoffreylitt/simple_recommender/issues/7

outloudvi 6y ago

It's cool seeing people show their gratitude. This reminded me of an interesting year-ago SATA (Star And Thank Author) license: https://github.com/zTrix/sata-license https://github.com/zTrix/sata-license

froh 6y ago
It's a wonderful idea however it should be a nudge and not a requirement. A software with a SATA license as proposed there could not be redistributed by a Linux distro, because the distro could not enforce the SATA with the end user. This is also tracked as an open issue: https://github.com/zTrix/sata-license/issues/5#issuecomment-597012836 https://github.com/zTrix/sata-license/issues/5#issuecomment-...

IThinkImOKAY 6y ago

100 points in 56 minutes. How?

franky47 6y ago
'tis the season to be jolly. Happy holidays to all, and especially open-source contributors.
giancarlostoro 6y ago
After seeing so many articles on HN about people quitting the OSS community due to toxic members, its refreshing to see something coming from a good note. I am sure others feel the same, and some work on their own open source projects and can appreciate the post. Simple gratitude can go a long way.

altdatathrow 6y ago

Gratitude is so rare they should close this as "could not reproduce"

mooreds 6y ago
Hahah. Ha. Oh. I think that we (I include myself) are so wrapped up in our own struggles that we often fail to do the simplest things. Yes, one can't live on "thanks" alone, but we should offer gratitude more often. As someone who occasionally gets thanked for my writing, it is great to know that some of my shouting into the void has actually helped a person. It even helps the thanker: https://time.com/5026174/health-benefits-of-gratitude/ https://time.com/5026174/health-benefits-of-gratitude/
codegeek 6y ago
I generally don't do humor on HN but this comment is gold :) Well deserved upvote for you.

apozem 6y ago

What a great compliment. I love how he thanks the maintainer in extremely specific terms, showing exactly how their work helped.

jjordan 6y ago

Maybe GitHub should add an optional "Thanks" feedback channel, perhaps also include a place where users can submit success stories about their use of the given project. This could fill the role of a channel to express gratitude, and provide a place where prospective users could see how others have utilized the project successfully in the real world.

anchpop 6y ago
A project I'm affiliated with [0] did this by making an issue titled "feedback please!". Many more people answered than I would have expected! [0]: https://github.com/greg7mdp/sparsepp/issues/17 https://github.com/greg7mdp/sparsepp/issues/17
AnHonestComment 6y ago
/docs/anecdotes/name-*.md Accept any reasonable feedback or user stories. At the point this is a problem, you should get actual customer support people.
d33 6y ago
Nice! Now if there was a way to make it sticky, it would be perfect. Maybe a new label and milestone to better expose it?

nickjj 6y ago

Another positive variation of saying thanks is bringing to attention a great feature of a tool. The authors of the tool might not be aware at how impactful a feature is and if something like that gets enough upvotes / love then it could help prevent regressions or the feature disappearing at a later point in time. It also lets the authors know you care (see the first reply below). For example: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/327 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/327

inglor 6y ago

As a maintainer “thanks” is actually pretty common. Also companies send you chocolates/swag (but not money) pretty often which is cool. That said it is still very nice. I opened at least 10 such issues myself because they cost me nothing but a few seconds.

inglor 6y ago
Also I have to admit I take a lot of pride in thanks on SO questions I have answered and projects I maintain. It’s also a big contrast to the toxic micro celebritism culture we often have.

Jnr 6y ago

Whenever I find a really cool open source software that helps me and is made by individuals without some big company sponsorship, I try to reach out, say thanks and send them some beer money. Obviously it does not help much but I think this is a nice gesture and I wish more people did this.

civilized 6y ago

Some people are pointing out how rare it is for GitHubbers to express gratitude, but GitHub doesn't exactly encourage it. Doesn't it feel inappropriate to express gratitude as an "issue"? Maybe if there was a natural place for these messages they'd be sent more often. To the extent that there are affordances for it (stars, emojis) it is actually quite popular to praise good work on GitHub.

flafla2 6y ago
It would make a lot of sense for Github to support discussion forums natively, separate from issues. Or perhaps user reviews.
- OJFord 6y ago
  It does, in beta as of a year or so ago, and out of beta a few weeks ago. You can turn them on or off per repository.
  - scoot 6y ago
    The trouble with GitHub discussions is that GitHub couldn't decide if it wanted discussions, or Stack Overflow style Q&A with upvotes, so it morphed into this awkward hybrid.
    - cutemonster 6y ago
      What's awkward about it? (I haven't used it yet)
colonwqbang 6y ago
I don't know why this is on HN; is it really considered so unusual for a someone to express gratitude to an open-source project? Concretely, you answered your own question. The "star" button is the default way of saying "thanks" to a project which was useful to you.
- 6y ago

liminal 6y ago

I've found the 'heart' emoji on Github to be incredibly useful and also always a bit surprising. I'm taken aback by the expression of humanity alongside dry technical try-not-to-waste-someone's-time mumbo jumbo. But how else to express gratitude for someone being willing to volunteer their time on the never ending upgrade treadmill and long tail of bugs that haunt popular software?

whatl3y 6y ago

This inspired me so I will find more time to do this as well. Went ahead and started at one of my favorite projects that I use across several professional and personal projects :) https://github.com/actionhero/node-resque/issues/496 https://github.com/actionhero/node-resque/issues/496

evantahler 6y ago
Thank you! I guess I’ll chime in and say - as an OSS maintainer, please flood my inbox with messages like this. It really makes my day!

pkfrank 6y ago

A great reminder that showing a bit of gratitude goes a long way, especially to the the oftentimes-thankless builders and maintainers of the OSS we all rely on.

yeray 6y ago

Perfect timing to plug my latest project currently in beta https://shoutouts.dev/ https://shoutouts.dev/ Any and all feedback is welcome :)

cuu508 6y ago
When logging in with GitHub, it asks for the following permissions: * Verify your GitHub identity * Know which resources you can access * Act on your behalf What does the last one mean, and why is it needed?
- yeray 6y ago
  That's just a misconfiguration of the GitHub app I haven't gone around to fix yet. We certainly don't act on your behalf, we only check basic information.
  - fvv 6y ago
    Blocking issue for me , btw great idea !
  - applecrazy 6y ago
    I had that issue too when building something w/ GitHub auth. Instead of making your app a GitHub App, make it an OAuth App (which should only ask for profile data). Edit: see https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/developers/apps/creating-an-oauth-app https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/developers/a...
    - yeray 6y ago
      That was it, all fixed now. Thanks for the suggestion :)
  - cuu508 6y ago
    Thanks, I see. It's a blocking issue for me too.

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago

>On a wider note, my guess is that it would be healthy for the open source community at large to practice more gratitude. I try my part to give kudos, where possible. Most of my kudos are around getting questions answered and problems solved, in venues like SO. I tend to avoid using dependencies. When I do use them, I often try to share use cases, and spread the word. The obverse, is that, when I find something to be unsuitable, or bad (in a totally subjective way), I generally don't bitch about it. I just leave it alone, and look for something else. I am very hard on myself; but it isn't helpful for me to apply that to others.

elliottcarlson 6y ago

A game developer released their game as open source after the Steam discovery algorithm killed traffic to their game [1]. It was nice to see a thank you on their GitHub [2], and I recommend people try to support developers with both gratitude, and when possible financially if it is a project that truly helps you. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18589545 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18589545 [2] https://github.com/egordorichev/BurningKnight/issues/223 https://github.com/egordorichev/BurningKnight/issues/223

susam 6y ago

Here is one I received last year: https://github.com/susam/uncap/issues/9 https://github.com/susam/uncap/issues/9. The comment began with, "I just wanted to say thanks for the wonderful software." It made my day! The GitHub user interface should encourage this as a feature.

AntonyGarand 6y ago
Taking this opportunity to say Thank you as well! I've been using it for years on all of my machines, such a great piece of software, didn't expect to see it on here
- susam 6y ago
  I am glad you like Uncap. A comment like this provides good motivation to continue working on and maintaining an open source project in my free time. Thank you for posting this comment.
pabs3 6y ago
The restic issue template has a question about this: > Did restic help you today? Did it make you happy in any way? https://github.com/restic/restic/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/Feature.md https://github.com/restic/restic/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_T...

nicbou 6y ago

I've been on the receiving end of such gratitude, and it always brightens my day. It's easy to think your hard work isn't noticed, until you realize how seldom you acknowledge other people's work. Unfortunately, explicit gratitude is very rare. Donations are even rarer. The "ask a question" and "support this site" buttons on my website are next to each other. I get 15 questions for every donation. About 30€ per 100 000 visitors, from 1-3 visitors. Those who email me with questions never donate. I'm not complaining about any of this, just illustrating my point: you can't use gratitude as a metric for the value of your work. Critics, on the other hand, are disproportionately loud. As a community moderator, I learned that for every complainer, there are dozens of quietly happy users. You can only tell by the votes. No one will create a thread to say "everything is fine, keep it up". If someone made your day easier, or if they created something good, take a minute to thank them. If they saved you a ton of work, consider a small donation. A lot of people are tirelessly, thanklessly creating things that benefit you. It costs nothing to acknowledge it. Never let a compliment go unused. In the last few years, I became better at expressing my gratitude to creators, maintainers, colleagues and friends.

delgaudm 6y ago
>Those who email me with questions never donate. Can you ask them to? It's not exactly the same problem, but I have a modestly successful youtube channel, and I get unsolicited email questions seeking help every day, and I personally try and answer all that I can. I've used the following technique and it helped me receive donations to offset the support effort. I added a quiet but clear call to action my support replies. It's in a smaller font and below the actual support reply, but it significantly increased the number of donations, and it helps offset my support time. I went from getting no donations, to donations on over 80% of the support questions I answer. Maybe this would work for you too. Here is what I add at the bottom of help questions I receive: ---- As you might expect, I get a lot of requests for help. If you found my response helpful, a small donation for my time is totally optional, but appreciated so that I can continue to offer it as a service. http://buymeacoffee.com/boothjunkie http://buymeacoffee.com/boothjunkie
- qmarchi 6y ago

remram 6y ago

There was an attempt with https://saythanks.io/ https://saythanks.io/, however it doesn't offer a way to distinguish projects (so you get thank you notes but you don't know which project it's for) and they are not public. I'm sure something similar with more customization options would go a long way (even though the best you can hope for is that it dies when GitHub replaces it by a built-in option).

frakkingcylons 6y ago

I once got a similar kind of thank-you issue from someone at Google who had used my project for a Cloud Next demo (with the link to the demo using my project!). It was probably the most gratifying and kind interaction I’ve had from open source. I would love it if GitHub had a separate feature for people to express their thanks. Makes me happy just thinking about it.

Waterluvian 6y ago

While I can't work for free, coworkers and managers stopping and saying, "I really appreciate what you've built; it makes my job easier" is what fuels me and makes me love my job. It feels kind of childish but honestly, I just need some kind words every so often to let me know my work matters and is noticed.

tardismechanic 6y ago

GitHub Discussions seems to be a great place for this sort of stuff going forward, instead of issues https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/discussions https://docs.github.com/en/free-pro-team@latest/discussions

oshea64bit 6y ago

Maybe rebranding GitHub Sponsors as not just a means of giving money but one-off "thank you" messages would be a decent approach to encouraging gratitude in open source.

vidarh 6y ago
There's Ko-fi [1] which seems to be positioning itself pretty much as a low-pressure "buy someone a coffee" option for showing support more than as about the money. I'm very interested in to what extent that influences donations. [1] https://ko-fi.com/ https://ko-fi.com/

6gvONxR4sf7o 6y ago

I’ve learned that when I have a positive thought about someone, it’s generally worth communicating it. If I think a coworker saved me on some project, I tell them. If my partner is making me feel warm and fuzzy, I tell her. If someone impresses me, I say so. I don’t think people express these things nearly as often as they feel them, and I expect that many of the positive things that do end up communicated have another motive behind them. Simple earnest positive comments are very much worthwhile.

rualca 6y ago
> I don’t think people express these things nearly as often as they feel them, and I expect that many of the positive things that do end up communicated have another motive behind them. I have the displeasure of working with a team member who does the exact opposite: at every chance he gets, he expressed his displeasure regarding other team members to management. Once I confronted him about that behavior and he stated that those who fix problems get promoted while those who create them get passed over, and he believed that by pointing other people's flaws he would improve his chances of moving upward. I firmly believe that's the main reason most people don't praise anyone else. If they do, they are calling out their competitor's positive contributions, while no one reciprocates in kind.
- NicoJuicy 6y ago
  I can confirm that some people think like this ( not me). I delegated some areas during a big event and I took one of those persons asside because he was too rude. He said that he pointed out mistakes ( which was correct, but they were new) and that they would remember it better if he was this direct. I just mentioned that he should not be this rude and just explain them what they did wrong and he adjusted. It was literally his mindset ( he adjusted that evening, not his mindset)
  - deleted 6y ago
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- dietr1ch 6y ago

Arathorn 6y ago

I think we've only had one 'thank you' GitHub issue for Matrix/Element (Riot) in 6 years, but it was hugely appreciated and continues to make folks smile when they make a coffee in the office (back when we had an office): https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/8752 https://github.com/vector-im/element-web/issues/8752

fossuser 6y ago

It's fun to email the people that write libraries or little tools you find useful and say thanks. Most of the time they appreciate it and it's pretty easy to do.

chrisweekly 6y ago

Expressing gratitude is one of the surest paths to a better day. One of my all-time favorite books -- "How to Want What You Have" by Tim Miller, PhD -- has as its central thesis the idea that: 1. Most people are relatively unhappy; 2. The root cause is our tendency always to want More [money/power, love, recognition] -- which stems from evolutionarily adaptive traits; 3. The remedy is to live in the present moment -- which one can learn to do by deliberately practicing three closely-related things: 1. Compassion 2. Attention 3. Gratitude The book is (sadly, inexplicably) out of print, but it's popular enough there are plenty of used copies for sale. I first encountered HTWWYH in a 5th-edition hardcover, and it was transformative. Highest posaible recommendation.

devilduck 6y ago
Buddhism was right all along
Spearchucker 6y ago
I will find a copy of the book to see what I can learn from it. Until now I've learnt that one cannot attain happiness as a state. It's fleeting. I stumble across it in moments, and it's gone again. And so I try to be content, which is much more persistent.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
cosmojg 6y ago
I found it in the Internet Archive's collection if anyone wants to try borrowing a digital copy for free: https://archive.org/details/howtowantwhatyou00mill https://archive.org/details/howtowantwhatyou00mill
- 867-5309 6y ago
  also plenty of secondhand physical copies: https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/how-to-want-what-you-have-discovering-the-magic-and-grandeur-of-ordinary-existence-0805033173 https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/how-to-want-...

franklampard 6y ago

Issue: I need to say thank you. That’s funny.

xyst 6y ago

aww that's so cute. If only gratitude could pay the bills, I would forgo all health benefits, and salary and focus all efforts on FOSS

offtop5 6y ago

It's free to say something nice. with all the recent negativity on github, where people will get in the nasty arguments about code their ultimately getting for free, this was something very refreshing to read.

francislavoie 6y ago

I woke up to this excellent message on Christmas eve. What a nice gift https://caddy.community/t/docker-multiple-containers-with-ssl/10904/9 https://caddy.community/t/docker-multiple-containers-with-ss...

dano 6y ago

Mike is a good guy. He's completely genuine, smart, and very personable.

brunojppb 6y ago

This is exactly what we need in our industry as a whole. Please, express your gratitude to your teammates about every positive action you notice around. It helps to build up morale and stronger bonds and also has literally zero costs. This is great to see.

corobo 6y ago

Personally I think the Facebooks of the world ruined thanks. I have no actual data but I swear people used to be more open with their thanks before everything was boiled down to one-click feedback (likes)

loopback_device 6y ago

HN comments: 110 People who said thank you: 5

deleted 6y ago
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richardfey 6y ago

On a side topic: any idea why the self-check can't be disabled in cert-manager? It seems like the project would not even exist otherwise.

codykochmann 6y ago

Github should natively cook in a project/user based tipping system to help people show their appreciation. This feels lazy to say but I know for a fact I would send tips way more frequently if they made tipping a one click experience. I know there are third party tools that let projects cook tip functionality into their projects. With how difficult it is to find time to write open source software alone, time put towards setting that up winds up feeling like me prioritizing thirsting for tips and donations over finishing whatever the original goal of the project was. I know for a fact I'm not the only one who feels that way.

brainbag 6y ago
The subscription sponsorship like GitHub and OpenCollective offer are nice, but I encounter one-off opportunities much more frequently. There's been so many times I've wanted to just send somebody a tip because they gave a useful answer in a comment, a package's readme was really good, I liked the library but ended up not using it, etc. I know there's a few sites that do this already, but I rarely see them used.

gist 6y ago

The magic of a story on HN at the top and not having a clue why. Would be a nice feature to HN to a pinned summary field at the top (and no don't call it 'tl;dr' either that is another 'what does that mean' to many people'). Not to mention that to an outsider the actual post in itself does not appear to be anything remarkable in any way. Who is vito botta, who is compumike? Why are they so special? Are they special? To much info to consume in this day an age...

adamwathan 6y ago

This thread motivated me to add a new "kind words" category to the Tailwind CSS discussions area on GitHub — maybe other projects can do the same: https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/discussions/categories/kind-words https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/discussions/cate... Managing OSS stuff really is brutal, and the amount of negative stuff you hear is hugely disproportionate to the amount of positive stuff. Anything to encourage the happy users to speak up once in a while can go a long way toward preventing OSS maintainers from burning out.

tompazourek 6y ago
The Tailwind project is a great example of modern OSS done right. It's managed and organized very well, and not to forget about all the related quality content (videos, streams). You and your colleagues are a great inspiration. Sorry to hear that you're getting so much discouraging feedback.
denki39 6y ago
Wow, it's really great doing so. Thank you for informing.
ezequiel-garzon 6y ago
Pretty impressive community reaction in 15 hours! You guys rock!

ImaCake 6y ago

Here is another example of some gratitude supplied to someone who wrote a useful python library for a very painful exercise in bioinformatics [0]. Scroll to the comments to see the thankyou notes left by grateful scientists. I have personally used this because I found the other tools available to be a bit fickle about the files they needed while this simple python script was a breeze to use for me (since I know python already). Github page is here [1] for those who need to remap an arbitrary list of human genome coordinates and don't want to bother with the UCSC tool. 0. http://fouryears.eu/2013/02/25/the-curse-of-genomic-coordinates/ http://fouryears.eu/2013/02/25/the-curse-of-genomic-coordina... 1. https://github.com/konstantint/pyliftover https://github.com/konstantint/pyliftover

parsecs 6y ago

I used the discussions feature to express my thanks a few days ago. Might be better than opening an issue? https://github.com/TG9541/stm8ef/discussions/386 https://github.com/TG9541/stm8ef/discussions/386

zuhayeer 6y ago

It feels really great to be on the receiving end of such gratitude, and honestly feels pretty great (if not greater) to give it out too. One thing I also love to do, is talk people up outside of their presence. It takes nothing to mention how someone may have helped you and it's a great excuse to just spread positive energy.

smurf_t 6y ago

Thanks to those who worked tirelessly to work on Open Source projects.

gfxgirl 6y ago

I've thought about trying to start some movement, not sure how to spread the word, that each open source project on github should make a "thank you" issue and pin it as a place for people to say thank you. AFAIK It's frowned on to say thank you in issues but it also sucks to have projects with 100s or 1000s of stars/forks and not a single thank you what so ever. Medium has the "claps" but I think it would be even nicer when you clicked it it prompted for a comment.

mihaifm 6y ago
It always bothered me that Github uses “Issues” for the name of the discussion board, as if encountering problems is the only reason to engage in conversation with the author.
- asicsp 6y ago
  GitHub now has a separate Discussions feature for that (still in beta I think): >Discussions is the space for your community to have conversations, ask questions and post answers without opening issues.
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wslack 6y ago

Expressing thanks when things are good is all too rare.

pabs3 6y ago

I like the approach taken by the restic project to inject a little gratitude into issues, their issue template asks: > Did restic help you today? Did it make you happy in any way? https://github.com/restic/restic/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/Feature.md https://github.com/restic/restic/blob/master/.github/ISSUE_T...

coldsmoke 6y ago

There is a Swedish podcast (Snedtänkt) that has a lovely email address for contacting the show (I've translated from Swedish) - preferablyonlypositiveresponse@[email provider]. Not sure if it actually works, but I think it might prime people into a more positive mindset. On a similar note I loved that emails from Readmill came from pleasereply@readmill.com as a contrast to the usual user hostile noreply addresses most companies use.

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tempestn 6y ago

I certainly feel the same way answering support emails for our sites. Understandably most of the emails are due to having some sort of problem, and many of the senders are frustrated. Even the positive ones are usually feature requests. Which is totally fine, and appreciated. But still, that occasional email sent just to say 'thanks' is always a treasure.

MattyRad 6y ago

Is there a better, more canonical way to leave positive feedback, other than opening a Github issue? For projects that have gitter/slack/chat, I've jumped in and said thanks. I've also considered sending thanks through the email addresses provided in package control (although it seems a bit weird emailing strangers, especially when you're not explicitly seeking a response). Starring a repo is also an (admittedly small) way to show thanks. What are some other ways to reach out?

whofw 6y ago
Hah, it's funny that you say this. I just opened GitHub to see that they've added a new "Discussions" feature to repositories, which they describe as "...space for your community to have conversations, ask questions and post answers without opening issues" and appears to be a mini-forum of sorts.

koliber 6y ago

Gratitude is a powerful force. It is sadly missing in many communities, organizations, and interactions.

gigatexal 6y ago

We need more of this. We need more of everything in OSS (funding, testing, support, etc) but the simple "thank you for your time, your efforts, your well crafted PR, your project that helps me accomplish X, Y, Z..." go a long, long way. I try to do this at work. Anytime I get help on something big or small I always say thanks, thanks for taking the time, thanks for explaining it, etc, because I know they're busy just as I am. To all the people out there working on code that we all use and build on top off thank you!

lytefm 6y ago
Absolutely. I've maintained a fork of an abandoned OSS project mainly because I needed it for myself and it was easy to just do it on GitHub. Turns out some folks noticed, starred the repo, used the code and someone opened a „Thank you” - Issue earlier this year. That was a main reason for me to actually publish the code on NPM, work towards a stable version and write some documentation at some point.
- gigatexal 6y ago
  That’s awesome! Thanks for doing that.

ncrmro 6y ago

Vitabotta has a cool tutorial for the old rancher OS to get it running on wireguard which I found super helpful.