
Sometimes all a maintainer needs is a “thank you” - amingilani
https://github.com/jhund/filterrific/issues/147#issuecomment-341867147
======
deepakkarki
Yup, agreed. 100%

Whenever I find a blog post/video that has information particularly useful to
me, or a side project that has come real handy - the first thing I do is whip
up my mail client and thank the authors. I never realised how much of a
positive impact this has on creators until people started mailing me thanking
me for my work. Brightens up your day really :)

------
ukulele
Irv Grousbeck, one of the legendary professors of entrepreneurship at Stanford
GSB, says it over and over: thanks and praise cost you nothing but mean the
world to colleagues.

And whenever possible, praise in public and critique in private.

~~~
DamonHD
That last line is key, and it's amazing how many 'managers' don't understand
it either!

------
hlieberman
Did you know Debian's reportbug has a feature in it that lets you send kudos
instead of reporting an issue?

`reportbug -k` or `reportbug --kudos`!

~~~
exikyut
There should be a symlink for this to `send-kudos`. That way it's not like
clicking Start to shut down - the way things are now, sending kudos is
currently hidden in the "this is broken" reporter.

------
Mz
It was more than a _thank you._ It also gave some details about how much time
it saved them, etc. That's gold.

Makers sometimes exist in a void. They create and wonder if it is
accomplishing anything. They wonder what it gets used for.

A few words can speak volumes. It creates a dialogue. The maker is no longer
howling into the void, no longer wondering if their felled tree makes any
sound.

That hi 5 is a thunderous clap that takes their one hand silently clapping to
a warm and enthusiastic embrace of connection with another living, breathing
being.

~~~
johnny_reilly
Couldn't say it better myself. I'm the maintainer of a fairly popular open
source utility and the motivation that people provide by actually telling you
the work you're doing is useful to them is invaluable. By contrast, it's worth
saying that abuse or "your things crap, I'll use something else" has exactly
the reverse effect and actually hurts.

Consequently I try hard to encourage people as they work on open source.
Remember, we're doing this for love and we should remember that when we
interact with maintainers who have given us a free gift at no cost to
ourselves. Much love to all OSS contributors!

------
wakamoleguy
This is a great reminder that simple manners and gratitude can go a long way.

What I hope is also apparent is that thank you notes will not be enough on
their own to fix the unfortunate trend of entitlement, underfunding, and
burnout that is attacking open source maintainers. Any step is progress,
though, so long as we don't fool ourselves into thinking it's literally all we
need to do.

~~~
jroseattle
This, a thousand times this.

As an ex-contributor to some old school Apache projects, I know too well the
over-whelming feeling that the marathon of maintenance can elicit. Open source
becomes open-ended.

For sure, start with a thank you. People appreciate thanks for their efforts,
no matter the result. It can make all the difference for some people.

Want to go beyond and be a little helpful? It's easy -- just take a look
around a project and add a contribution. It doesn't have to be an earth-
shattering feature; in fact, it's the mundane that can really make a project
so much better. Add a unit test, fix a bug, update some documentation. There
is always something that can be improved.

------
Caligatio
I maintain a moderately successful JavaScript library and there are a few
things that absolutely make my day: people sending me an email telling me how
they're using it (I see dependent projects on NPM but I love hearing about
cool things!), people saying thanks, and people sending me _any_ donation.
I've had a handful of people send me a few bucks over the years and I was
absolutely floored each time. In total I might be able to buy myself a beer
with the donations but it means a surprisingly large amount knowing someone is
willing to go through the hassle to send you money.

~~~
chiefalchemist
Wouldn't it be great if GitHub and GitLab, etc. had donations baked in?

Say you add a few bucks to your account and you can dole it out as you go.
Receivers can keep it or pledge all or some % to some short list of non-
profits.

Something KISS can't be that difficult to do.

~~~
Caligatio
I don't remember how I stumbled onto it but I ended up using Pledgie who then
uses PayPal under the hood... it sucks. Pledgie takes some reasonable cut but
then PayPal considers it a business transaction and takes like a flat $0.30.
Remember when I said a few low dollar amount donations? I end up losing 20-30%
due to PayPay/Pledgie overhead.

I then tried adding a Bitcoin donation link in markdown in my README (before
the transaction fees got silly) but the GitHub and NPM don't know what to do
with it.

~~~
chiefalchemist
Yeah. Too many steps and too much financial overhead. On the other hand, if
you could "deposit" say $25 to your account then the transaction fees only
occur once.

Moi? I'd be willing to pay that (as opposed to sticking GH or GL with it). A
dollar here. Two bucks there. Couldn't hurt.

Plus, the number of donations could be a public signal. Stars? They're like
Likes (easy and free). Helpful but not as good as how many put their money
where there mouse is.

------
cx1000
The ted talk "What makes us feel good about our work?" illustrates this
perfectly.
[https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good...](https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work/details)

> Now there's good news and bad news here. The bad news is that ignoring the
> performance of people is almost as bad as shredding their effort in front of
> their eyes. Ignoring gets you a whole way out there. The good news is that
> by simply looking at something that somebody has done, scanning it and
> saying "Uh huh," that seems to be quite sufficient to dramatically improve
> people's motivations. So the good news is that adding motivation doesn't
> seem to be so difficult. The bad news is that eliminating motivations seems
> to be incredibly easy, and if we don't think about it carefully, we might
> overdo it. So this is all in terms of negative motivation, or eliminating
> negative motivation.

Which brings us to the totally free, and very low friction way to say thanks:
[http://saythanks.io](http://saythanks.io)

> SayThanks.io provides a handy URL for you to share with your open source
> projects— it encourages users to send a simple thank you note to you, the
> creator of that project.

> This simple link can be added to READMEs and project documentation.

> Then, you can enjoy a nice inbox of very small but thoughtful messages from
> the happy users of the software that you've toiled over. :)

------
aaronbrethorst
I maintain an open source app that gets about 180,000 MAU, and can confirm
that I see probably a 10:1 or worse ratio of ‘your thing is broken’ emails to
‘thank you’s.

The grumpy emails take a meaningful toll on me. I don’t get paid for my work,
so why would I continue given that the primary output (user feedback) I get to
my input (time and energy/nights and weekends) is negative?

Long story short: send a thank you message, apropos of nothing, to your
favorite OSS project. They’ll greatly appreciate hearing it.

Postscript: as luck would have it, the app I work on is consumer-focused, and
my partner is a daily user of it. I probably would be less likely to continue
working on it if she didn’t rely on it on a day to day basis.

~~~
chias
10:1 is an amazing ratio. Either your work is of exceptional quality or your
userbase / following is very positive and supportive (or both!). Either case
takes skill and hard work, so my hat is off to you :)

------
giis
I'm running free Linux terminal site for 7 years now. Before that written few
open-source tools.

Receiving a mail from user with simple message like "Thanks for the your
effort" will give great source of energy and motivation to carry on.

Because from time to time, like everything some doubts arise like "is this
project still useful to others?". Thank you notes will help to clear those
doubts :D

------
userbinator
Good idea to do for projects with a small number of users and a more "personal
atmosphere", but like many things, does not scale --- I'm pretty sure Linus
Torvalds would rather not have an additional million "thank you for Linux"
emails on top of the volume of communication he normally receives, for
example.

------
olalonde
And on the other end of the scale, here's what not to say :)
[https://github.com/remy/nodemon/issues/824#issuecomment-2178...](https://github.com/remy/nodemon/issues/824#issuecomment-217861542)

~~~
hennsen
Not sure if that can be said in general.

The maintainer is cited complaining about people using a +1 - which is there
to notify that a bug bites me too or i agree with something someone else
wrote. If the problem (which i looked not into now in detail, i just state
this as general rule) is already described in excess, why should someone add
more text?

If even someone already sent a PR and it’s not merged because the maintainer
has other priorities?

Then i agree with the content(maybe not exactly the form) of the message: if
you have no sufficient capacity anymore or will to continuously and properly
maintain a widely used open source tool, hand over responsibility and power
over publication and source control to someone or better a team that has.

Great power comes with great responsibility.

What is actually true is that comments that really say „go and fix that asap
(i need that for my work which earns me money)“ are pretty egoistic.

Especially without offering any kind of help - be it detailed report and
analysis, a patch or even less a readily prepared Pull Request including tests
and adhering to the projects Coding and Contribution standards - that is
really gross and against the spirit that we create Open Source together,
there’s no producer/consumer relation. And sure it’s said too many people
behave as it was.

~~~
dessant
I think the maintainer was referring to +1 comments, which are so annoying
that they must have been one of the main reasons GitHub introduced reactions.

~~~
hennsen
You’re right and given the context and previously written stuff the maintainer
also invited people to contribute instead of just requiring him to work for
them for free...

------
steveadoo
I just started one of my first open source projects in the last few months and
I've fixed ~3 issues so far. A thank you would be amazing. I'm not going to
STOP fixing issues, but a thank you would really motivate me to keep it up.
Kudos to this guy.

~~~
chris_wot
What is the project?

------
mherrmann
I think it's the same for startups. Sometimes you aren't making enough money
yet. Maybe your spouse is telling you you should work on something else. But
if users keep taking the time to write in and say thank you, you need to
persevere. That's my situation at least [1].

[1]: [https://fman.io/blog/motivation/](https://fman.io/blog/motivation/)

~~~
jhgjklj
Wrong comparison. In this case making money is enough of a motivation. But in
case of open source contributions its more of a sacrifice.

------
elnygren
And sometimes a maintainer really needs to get paid. I think it would be
wonderful if we could come up with better and more popular ways of "paying
what you want / can". Or, even "paying if you are using this commercially".

Or in other words: saying "thank you" in a language called cash.

~~~
bartvk
This. Every year, I donate to Karabiner-Elements. It's the best open source
keyboard remapping software for Mac, and its primary developer Takayama
Fumihiko has tirelessly maintained it for many years before open sourcing it.

[https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/pricing.html](https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/pricing.html)

------
Flimm
pipenv[1] and other GitHub repos have a little badge in the REAMDE.md entitled
"say thanks", which takes you to a simple form [2] where you can say thanks. I
thought it was a cool idea.

[1] -
[https://github.com/kennethreitz/pipenv](https://github.com/kennethreitz/pipenv)
[2] - [https://saythanks.io](https://saythanks.io)

------
jrimbault
It's not the first time I think Github should have something other than stars
or issues. When I want to thank someone I don't want to open an "Issue" and a
github star isn't at all what I want to accomplish here.

------
diminish
Idea: Let's create a Thank you day for all creators and maintainers by opening
one issue for whatever we use. Let's star them and like them.

Or is it a bad idea for some reason?

~~~
iridium
I have to disagree. However well intended, It sets up an unnecessary
expectation, similar to your birthday.

If you’ve ever gone through a birthday where nobody wished you, I don’t think
you would want a maintainer to ever feel that.

------
dajohnson89
I know a few open source developers that are overjoyed when their github repo
gets a few stars. If you see a repo you like, star it. it'll make someone
happy.

~~~
MoOmer
Aye, it means that at least someone is using it. Even if it’s pretty niche,
and just a helpful tiny application.

Was pretty happy that someone else found [https://github.com/momer/solr-index-
fetch](https://github.com/momer/solr-index-fetch) useful for example :)

------
dhimes
Damn. Thank you for posting this. I can't believe what a clueless dipshit I've
been all these years. The only times I recall thanking someone is when I've
sent a donation and _they_ wrote back thanking _me._

------
iUsedToCode
I'm using ouicards[0] in my project (example: [1]). First thing i did was
writing a 'thank you' email to the author. They saved me many hours and gave
me a jump start with design, which is always the most difficult thing for me
personally. I did change many parts, but it was a breeze.

Based on this work i maintain a basic gun knowledge course, which sees more
than 5k trainees a year. Now in Poland a lot more people can pass the official
exam (it has two parts: theory, taken care of by my course, and shooting,
which requires additional classes at a gun range), since learning is faster,
simpler and more thorough.

[0]
[https://github.com/carlsednaoui/ouicards](https://github.com/carlsednaoui/ouicards)

[1] [https://patentstrzelecki.eu/testy/uobia-
pozwolenie](https://patentstrzelecki.eu/testy/uobia-pozwolenie)

------
JohnTHaller
Thank yous do help a lot. And they help outweigh the nasty stuff many
maintainers get (harassment, death threats, rape threats, doxing, etc).

~~~
Markoff
why would anyone do this to dev? I mean I can bitch about aspects of some app,
but can't imagine why would anyone do any of those

real question for me would be if devs prefer donation/buying the app or thank
you, which one is more helpful

~~~
JohnTHaller
I've gotten all of the above. The doxing and subtle suggestion that people
call me and wait for me outside my office was due to a warez project violating
the license of my software to illegally package commercial software and me
DMCAing their files on anonymous file hosting services (some of which properly
responded). The death threats were due to my calling out a smaller closed
source project stealing some of our work but stripping off the GPL text,
copyright, source code, and branding. I can't recall offhand what the two rape
threats were over but it was likely one of those two. The harassment is just
in general and relatively constant.

Fun fact: I even get hate comments/email when I make a post on our site
encouraging people to donate their organs on the anniversary of donating a
kidney to my dad. Something about my dad buying me off to give him the kidney
and me making tons of money from the project and stashing it overseas or
something. You know, good times.

------
axedwool
Thanks to any maintainers who read this. You do important work.

------
nanis
See also `perldoc perlthanks`[1]:

    
    
        Can you use perlbug to submit a thank-you note?
    
        Yes, you can do this by either using the -T
        option, or by invoking the program as perlthanks.
        Thank-you notes are good. It makes people smile.
    

[1]:[https://perldoc.perl.org/perlthanks.html](https://perldoc.perl.org/perlthanks.html)

------
grifter
Just emailed the maintainers of one of my favorite little python projects
(injector) to thank them. Appreciate this reminder.

------
tehlike
I did this once to one of the driver forces for an internal product i have
been using daily. I learned from someone else that it made their day.

Appreciation, when it is well deserved, increases overall well-being of a
person. We should not forget to do it.

------
xelxebar
Oh. Wow. This is something I haven't done near enough. Time to write a free
emails!

------
cgag
I get the occasional thank you email for a site I run and it always makes my
day and I always try to make that clear.

I've only sent two such emails and got a nice response on one and like a
single word "thanks" or something on another.

------
xchip
LOL I though I was the only weirdo that was opening issues to say thank you!
:D

------
jldugger
In my recent job search, google's email response suggestions have been eerily
positive, upbeat and on target while dealing with recruiters and interview
scheduling. I don't know how fine tuned these things are, but it could
probably help shift the average tone & sentiment of interactions on Github to
preseed comments with suggested response options.

One concern would probably be training suggestions a toxic data set might only
come up with equally toxic options, so some sort of sentiment estimator or
pre-seeding might be in order.

------
jjirsa
Reminds me I have a ton of open patch contributions I need to review.

------
paulryanrogers
Gratitude has its place. Still, doesn't pay the bills. Perhaps Patreon and
GitTip like solutions will prove more sustainable.

~~~
throwawaysml
tl;dr: good idea, but not applicable to many FOSS developers due to local
laws.

Please keep in mind that the legal complexity of accepting donations prevents
many of us from doing so. This is largely a result of local laws and how the
IRS equivalent is set up. Take Germany for instance. The tax code in Germany
discourages freelancing in favor of running a >10 person company or finding
steady employment. The main reason is what taxes one pays for "real employees"
and how that lands in the national support system accounts. This is a valid
justification on the state's part, but a FOSS developer living in Germany who
isn't already doing freelancing and has all the tax complexity and insecurity
taken care of is hard pressed to start accepting random donations. The first
problem you'll encounter is them declaring you a false freelancer if you have
a "single customer receiving bills" or forcing you to deal with freelancing
tax paperwork for accepting a couple hundred bucks a month.

Still it's a good idea and I'd suggest to take out the middleman for those
micropayments. I don't understand what GitTip or Patreon add in value besides
acting as the payment service. I mean, you won't be able to ask for money
back, will you?

Hey, if I could accept donations without concern, I might buy hardware or
expensive hosting services that would benefit the project, but most FOSS
developers do it as a hobby paid out of their regular paycheck.

------
failrate
Oh my god, right. Having someone recognize you for your work is such an
incredible feeling.

------
chad_strategic
I put some creativity into my thank you note...

[https://github.com/dagrha/pypia/issues/22](https://github.com/dagrha/pypia/issues/22)

------
thedarkoverlord
It was so touching to read the thank you note and the response to it.

------
Windson
Feel free to write a thank you letter on
[https://www.thankyouopensource.com/](https://www.thankyouopensource.com/)

------
bluetwo
Good care and feeding for vendors as well.

------
hammerha
@amingilani Thank you for posting this. There are tons of valuable comments
here.

------
firemelt
Like in rails github the most commented issue is thankyou

------
andris9
I’d prefer a usage description in the form of “we’re using this software in X
to do Y and it handles Z payload every day”. A simple thanks is just a
distraction that you need to click through and acknowledge, zero useful.

~~~
haydenlee
Although clearly in this use case it was useful.

