100 points in 56 minutes. How?
'tis the season to be jolly. Happy holidays to all, and especially open-source contributors.
Just Wanted to Say Thanks
11–20 of 257 posts
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#12100 points in 56 minutes. How?
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.
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#13What a great compliment. I love how he thanks the maintainer in extremely specific terms, showing exactly how their work helped.
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#14I 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_embro...
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!
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#15Maybe 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.
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#16Another 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
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#17Gratitude is so rare they should close this as "could not reproduce"
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/
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#18Maybe 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.
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!
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#19As 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.
Re: Just Wanted to Say Thanks
#20Whenever 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.