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This is what I wonder. I've opened "thank you" issues before, and wondered "how much will this annoy the owner/watchers?" For anyone tasked with maintaining a r

This is what I wonder. I've opened "thank you" issues before, and wondered "how much will this annoy the owner/watchers?" For anyone tasked with maintaining a repo, any email notification of new issues must come with a certain level of dread. At least that's what it's like for me, even if I sincerely appreciate and enjoy receiving issues! I do, then, immediately close "thank you" issues so owners are not tasked with responding in any way, but still... And for any watcher, I imagine they are interested in notifications relevant to actual issues, not thank yous. My opinion is the current best way to say thank you is probably a star. Beyond that, it would be nice if GitHub added a way to leave a thank you or testimonial or something like that. Or even a formal "the repo is in use by such and such app/company."

dheera 6y ago
I think it depends on the scale of the project. If it's a project that isn't full of all kinds of bug reports and issues already, thank you notes aren't a bad thing. As a developer what I like even more than thank yous are thank yous that explain how my code helped you in some specific way.
- leeoniya 6y ago
  > As a developer what I like even more than thank yous are thank yous that explain how my code helped you in some specific way. i'll second this. post some screenshots of the thing you've made with my thing, or how it's improved the user experience or performance improvement metrics. what has my project unlocked for you, e.g. new use cases that were not possible before. compare it to what was there previously. i build open source stuff to scratch my own itches. knowing that it scratches the itches of 10k people instead of just 1 is the best outcome -- maximized impact. just a thanks is nice but ultimately lowest effort and not that gratifying.
Twirrim 6y ago
> I've opened "thank you" issues before, and wondered "how much will this annoy the owner/watchers?" I've deliberately not opened "Thank you" issues, because I didn't want to annoy the owner/watchers. Certainly frustrating there is no way to express gratitude.
rglullis 6y ago
I star projects that have caught my attention and might be relevant for my work, or that I will need to reference later. I don't see how this relates to a display of gratitude.
- the_arun 6y ago
  Wouldn’t “star” express gratitude?
  - rglullis 6y ago
    Interest, relevance? Yes. Gratitude, not so much.
  - bamboleo 6y ago
    Might thought exactly. I wonder if GitHub would change Star to Thanks. Unstar however would become “No thanks”
  - corobo 6y ago
    Saying "thank you" expresses an infinite amount more gratitude than someone taking half a second to click a button. Please don't boil positivity down into just another dopamine fix. It's so fucking fake. Star too, donate too, whatever you'd like to do normally too but nothing beats actually using your words
    - the_arun 6y ago
      If you put it that way, I think GitHub could enable a platform feature to collect finance contributions from fans/users. Heck, even licensing costs. That makes open source programmers earn some money as well - of course along with a text field to say “thanks”.
      - from 6y ago
        https://github.com/sponsors https://github.com/sponsors Github launched Github Sponsors in 2019. It does basically everything you described aside from the "thanks" part.
atoav 6y ago
While opening an issue might be the lowest effort option I think there are two better options: 1. If you just wanna thank them, write an email 2. If you want to do so publicly, do so on a public channel (e.g. Blog post, HN, youtube channel, etc)
- hombre_fatal 6y ago
  #1 only targets one person. #2 possibly won’t even be seen by the target. Opening an issue is seen by the whole team and becomes a place for the community to weigh in. Seems ideal until Github provides better.
  - darkerside 6y ago
    So do both, letting them know about #2 in #1?
  - judge2020 6y ago
    > l until Github provides better. https://github.blog/changelog/2020-12-08-github-discussions-now-available-as-a-public-beta/ https://github.blog/changelog/2020-12-08-github-discussions-...
  - atoav 6y ago
    #1 can be written to more than one person #2 can be combined with #1 to let them know
- dmitryminkovsky 6y ago
  I do that sometimes. I sent an email recently to thank the author of XLD [0], an excellent piece of software hosted on Sourceforge, where I don’t have an account. I wouldn’t say it’s about low effort, so much as not taxing the recipient: with an email a person may feel more compelled to reply than with an opened and immediately closed issue. [0] https://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html https://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html
Xevi 6y ago
I always look for a Twitter account or something to send my gratitude to. It feels like a more natural place to do it than in an issue. The only downside is that a tweet only goes to one person, while if you open an issue, all contributors can see it more easily.
chrisweekly 6y ago
Opening and then closing "thank you" issues solves the annoyance problem, doesn't it? It's a NOOP for the maintainer, but it gets the message across. /$0.02
- qwertox 6y ago
  Sure, but it's not an issue with the project, it's a message to the developer(s). While it is a NOOP, it is not something which should appear in the ("technical") stats.
qwertox 6y ago
What I usually do is append something like "thank you for the effort" (and sometimes explain how good this project is for my use case) when I open a new issue or comment on an existing one.

dheera 6y ago

I think it depends on the scale of the project. If it's a project that isn't full of all kinds of bug reports and issues already, thank you notes aren't a bad thing. As a developer what I like even more than thank yous are thank yous that explain how my code helped you in some specific way.

leeoniya 6y ago
> As a developer what I like even more than thank yous are thank yous that explain how my code helped you in some specific way. i'll second this. post some screenshots of the thing you've made with my thing, or how it's improved the user experience or performance improvement metrics. what has my project unlocked for you, e.g. new use cases that were not possible before. compare it to what was there previously. i build open source stuff to scratch my own itches. knowing that it scratches the itches of 10k people instead of just 1 is the best outcome -- maximized impact. just a thanks is nice but ultimately lowest effort and not that gratifying.

Twirrim 6y ago

> I've opened "thank you" issues before, and wondered "how much will this annoy the owner/watchers?" I've deliberately not opened "Thank you" issues, because I didn't want to annoy the owner/watchers. Certainly frustrating there is no way to express gratitude.

rglullis 6y ago

I star projects that have caught my attention and might be relevant for my work, or that I will need to reference later. I don't see how this relates to a display of gratitude.

the_arun 6y ago
Wouldn’t “star” express gratitude?
- rglullis 6y ago
  Interest, relevance? Yes. Gratitude, not so much.
- bamboleo 6y ago
  Might thought exactly. I wonder if GitHub would change Star to Thanks. Unstar however would become “No thanks”
- corobo 6y ago
  Saying "thank you" expresses an infinite amount more gratitude than someone taking half a second to click a button. Please don't boil positivity down into just another dopamine fix. It's so fucking fake. Star too, donate too, whatever you'd like to do normally too but nothing beats actually using your words
  - the_arun 6y ago
    If you put it that way, I think GitHub could enable a platform feature to collect finance contributions from fans/users. Heck, even licensing costs. That makes open source programmers earn some money as well - of course along with a text field to say “thanks”.
    - from 6y ago
      https://github.com/sponsors https://github.com/sponsors Github launched Github Sponsors in 2019. It does basically everything you described aside from the "thanks" part.

atoav 6y ago

While opening an issue might be the lowest effort option I think there are two better options: 1. If you just wanna thank them, write an email 2. If you want to do so publicly, do so on a public channel (e.g. Blog post, HN, youtube channel, etc)

hombre_fatal 6y ago
#1 only targets one person. #2 possibly won’t even be seen by the target. Opening an issue is seen by the whole team and becomes a place for the community to weigh in. Seems ideal until Github provides better.
- darkerside 6y ago
  So do both, letting them know about #2 in #1?
- judge2020 6y ago
  > l until Github provides better. https://github.blog/changelog/2020-12-08-github-discussions-now-available-as-a-public-beta/ https://github.blog/changelog/2020-12-08-github-discussions-...
- atoav 6y ago
  #1 can be written to more than one person #2 can be combined with #1 to let them know
dmitryminkovsky 6y ago
I do that sometimes. I sent an email recently to thank the author of XLD [0], an excellent piece of software hosted on Sourceforge, where I don’t have an account. I wouldn’t say it’s about low effort, so much as not taxing the recipient: with an email a person may feel more compelled to reply than with an opened and immediately closed issue. [0] https://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html https://tmkk.undo.jp/xld/index_e.html

Xevi 6y ago

I always look for a Twitter account or something to send my gratitude to. It feels like a more natural place to do it than in an issue. The only downside is that a tweet only goes to one person, while if you open an issue, all contributors can see it more easily.

chrisweekly 6y ago

Opening and then closing "thank you" issues solves the annoyance problem, doesn't it? It's a NOOP for the maintainer, but it gets the message across. /$0.02

qwertox 6y ago
Sure, but it's not an issue with the project, it's a message to the developer(s). While it is a NOOP, it is not something which should appear in the ("technical") stats.

qwertox 6y ago

What I usually do is append something like "thank you for the effort" (and sometimes explain how good this project is for my use case) when I open a new issue or comment on an existing one.