The corollary is that if you find that post, say something. Drop the author a note, leave a comment. No one else does. For every YT celebrity, there are thousands of people posting good content on the internet and not knowing if it's being seen or appreciated by anyone.
I run a tiny blog. Every now and then, I check the server logs. Specifically, the user agent strings. While crawling feeds, most feed readers adjust their user agent string to include how many of their users have subscribed to that specific feed. That way, I know that at least 9 people on this planet see my posts. Myself included, that's 10! :)
About two years ago I wanted to replay a game demo I remembered from an old (early 00') computer magazine demo disc. The actual game was nowhere to be found anywhere on the internet, but I did locate the developer and sent him an email.
Turns out the game was never actually released - its only public existence was as a demo game alongside a bunch of other games and software. He still had the installer for the game, which was small enough to fit as an attachment in the reply he gave.
He didn't say, but I got the distinct feeling that I might have made his day asking about that game he made more than 20 years ago.
100 upvotes, if I could. There is too little positive feedback in peoples' lives, if any. For this reason, I habitually cold email people who's stuff has moved me in some way (think, feel, pause etc...). Universe knows, I need it too :D So I put a "standing invitation" [1] front-and-center on my site, copying Derek Sivers and patio11. I get maybe a handful of "hello from an Internet stranger" emails, but every time it makes my day / week / longer if the conversation rambles on languidly. Email is so great for slow-mo thoughtful banter.
Glad to hear that other people do this as well. I very rarely get a response (not the intent), but hope it makes at least someone's day.
I've done this for a few books, two video games, and a composer. One of the smaller indie studios wrote me back a nice email about how much it meant to them.
A guy posted about how to fix a broken car socket (cigarette lighter or whatever you call them) on a 1999 Honda Civic. Apparently there's little... Transistors or something under the glove box. Never knew they were there. It was like a 50 cent fix. Would never have known if this person hadn't posted. I did drop him a note of thanks
Quite right. My late father used to do free audiobook recordings for LibriVox¹ and while I know he enjoyed their forums, after he died we discovered a little clutch of hand written letters from people who had enjoyed his recordings. It warms my heart to know how pleased that would have made him and was one of the brighter moments when clearing out the family home.
These signs of appreciation are, themselves, truly appreciated.
There was a blog I followed and really admired ten or fifteen years ago. One day I was reading one of his posts and in the middle of it was an exuberant note of thanks for an article I wrote doing a close read of Ruby's TSort package.
Super niche, mostly irrelevant to all but a vanishingly small number of people, and yet I had proof that someone I admired found it useful.
It's been years, and it still makes me smile when I think of it.
You never know what impact you might make on others.
Yes please! This sort of feedback keeps me going through the harder times. I could have sold out a million times if it wasn't for the feedback of grateful readers keeping me on the right path. A kind comment never fails to make my day!
I made it a habit of showing gratitude to content creators, as well as to open source maintainers.
I did this recently when a blog post described the exact, very niche issue I was having with a production server. This post described the symptoms of the issue clearly and included a flow-chart of required fixes. There was no preamble, just clear guidance. It was more an incident management manual than a blog post, and it saved me a lot of Googling under considerable stress.
I sent the author a quick thank you, explaining how it helped me in my hour of need. Exactly as others have said here, it goes a long way to making the effort of blogging worthwhile!
I reached out to a person on Gemini in 2021 and we've spoken basically every day since.
You never know what kind of connections are out there unless you try.
Total party skills, arguably the most balanced astute commentary of current events… definitely that I’ve come across. Hidden behind a game master facade.
