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Should we have a day where we, as a community, go out of our way and thank our maintainers? (reddthat.com)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Was reading this article, and it got me thinking. There's lots of people who are happy to complain at length, but what if we made it a point to pick a particular day each year to express our collective gratitude for the work people do for FOSS?

Whether in the form of donations or kind words (maybe even joining a project), it might be something that helps keep people going on the things they love but for which they don't get a lot of appreciation.

Curious to hear y'all's thoughts.

Edit: Someone mentioned I Love Free Software Day, which is cool that it exists. I like the idea behind it, but I'm hesitant to piggyback upon a well-known holiday, for fear of being wholly overshadowed (Valentine's Day is already stressful enough for some people).

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

With money? Yeah. Otherwise, don't bother.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (2 children)

While I understand the sentiment, I have run across developers that explicitly state they don't want money as thanks. They want encouragement or volunteers, instead.

Also, if that's how we approached it, the poor among us would be excluded, and that's far from my goal with this idea.

[–] JustAnotherKay 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I haven't put out any FOSS yet because I'm still writing a lot of "wtf is this" code but once I can I really want to try to hold myself to the idea of "I do this in my free time, so I provide it for free"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

There's that old adage:

Cheap

Quick

Good

You can pick two.

Seems people mostly want Cheap and Good, so they just have to deal with results not being quick.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

You don't think money is encouraging? You can also hire people with that money, instead of volunteeras. Idk what devs you've been listening to, but I haven't hear anyone who actively refuses donations or tips for their project.

My point is, if you appreciate someone, put your money where your words are. Anyone can get "encouragement" for free.

Volunteering is good too, I guess, but in general I don't think people should work for free. At all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

You don't think money is encouraging?

I didn't say that. I said that some developers don't want it. We shouldn't assume money is the best way to encourage them.

in general I don't think people should work for free. At all.

And that's great you think that way. My goal here isn't to gatekeep what valid encouragement is. If people feel strongly that it's money or nothing, that's their business, but I don't want people who can't donate to feel discouraged from participating in this endeavor.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I see what you're saying. I guess I'm a bit biased from having had a conversation in the previous days with someone whose idea of "helping" a dev was hounding them with complaints, telling them how to do their job and them blasting them on social media when they answered with a ban.

I guess we agree that it's up to each dev to clarify what kind of support, if any, they are looking for.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

You don't think money is encouraging?

They never said this. Please don't straw man.