I think you still don't understand. When people star a repository in github they don't expect to get subscribed to a mailing list. If you want to send them emails, ask them explicitly to subscribe to a mailing list.
I think you don't have bad intentions. A "thank you" email looks like a nice detail, but I would consider it borderline spam. I'd probably ignore the first one, but if I ever get a second one I'd hit the "mark as spam" button in gmail.
Thanks gus_massa! I was still figuring it out. This is actually my first open-source project, and first time using GitHub.
I wasn't sure of the correct social etiquette there. Yep I made it clear that it was a one-time thank you email, and do think that it borderlines as spam.
Is it ok to view a person's profile individually and send an one-time thank you note? If that is ok, why can't that be automated? Since the intent and purpose and outcome is the same. Just that a computer executes that human intent.
The desire to automate it shows that you don't feel like it is a good use of your time -> why would it be worth the receivers time to read your e-mail, especially since it's not clear what they gain from it? If they are closely interested in your project they'll come back to your repo and see updates, a new way to contact you, ... that way, if not it is just a nuisance for them.
The receiver hasn't given you the ok to e-mail them, and sending mass unsolicited e-mail is basically the definition of spam. If you want a special way to contact users, have them clearly opt-in to it. Could be an e-mail list, could be a github issue that you ask them to subscribe to, ...
I wanted to create a free open-source web automation tool. I find that I could go faster in the iteration with more feedback. So, besides thanking them, I gave my personal email so that more feedback can reach me easily. Besides going through the issues page.. Maybe I'm rushing it.
I would do it manually if I could, really. But it is not humanly possible without stopping work for a couple of days on the repo.