muesliIf you, your project or your team depends on an open source project, don’t hesitate to mail its creators and tell them that you do!
You have no idea how useful such endorsements are when maintainers want to justify their time commitments!
Also, as a maintainer you're used to hearing your project being criticized all the time, because people usually only take the time to mail you when they're facing a problem they can't solve.
Sometimes, just sometimes, someone will send you a short, sweet mail saying "Hey, I'm using this and it's great. Thank you for making this!".
Be that kind of positivity in life! ❤️
kline 🏴@fribbledom (and if you are writing in with an issue, be sure to mention why the project means so much to you. Chances are you've found the project worthwhile outside this one snag, but the emails don't usually reflect that)
kayenne@fribbledom huh, a monorepo makes this a lot easier because you have a canonical list of all the 3rd party software you use
marius@fribbledom thank you for making thunder Christian. I've been using it for quite a while now. :)
Naeva@fribbledom hey so I like to send fanmail but I worry about cluttering peoples inboxes/wasting their attention during "work time"
Any suggestions as far as subject lines to to make it clear what the email contains?
Don't sweat it too much, really! These mails are a motivational boost that easily makes up for the time lost in reading them 😄
Mention the project name, so something like 'Thank you for making $project!" definitely works.
Julian Andres Klode 🏳️🌈@fribbledom I find those rather annoying. I quickly glance at them and delete them.
By all means, send a toot or a tweet, but an email to the author does not provide any value and wastes time on having to delete it, when I'm already swamped in emails.
Really? These 10 out of the >10.000 mails I get each year are not what I'm considering the clutter.
That said, a toot/tweet obviously works just as well.
@fribbledom I'm ... just annoyed by email in general
María Pérez 
Daniil Baturin@fribbledom @juliank Social media posts about projects you are using are better than email to maintainers because they also create social confirmation and help new people, potential contributors, discover the project.
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@juliank @fribbledom BTW I would love to have a 'search' feature in your blog. Thank you for writing I find it as a good source of information for me.
オチュー (stop colonialism 🇵🇸)@fribbledom To me the compliment have to be somwhat specific. Positive like "it's great thanks" doesn't mean much. It's smalltalk ?
Report a bug or suggest something while you are at it. Never ask for something, just give something. Use the occasion to be constructive.
You could also make some small inspiring story. Or attach some drawing you did. Submit a song. Fanart. Your implementation of the software. A meme. Anything that is not "words throw away in 5min" is great. Or money.
Jens Finkhäuser ¯\_(ツ)_/¯@fribbledom Better still, use one of those coffee/donation buttons.
I mean, I honestly don't expect this from individual users.
But when I see who is using a project of mine, I also see a bunch businesses and government agencies. It would be nice if they were decent enough to shoot me a dollar or five a month.
Le sigh.
But yes, reaching out with a quick note is definitely appreciated!
El JoaI see your toot is not about money at all ( and still that mail would be very helpfull / motivating, thats what I take from it ).
But the comments quickly turn into that direction. .. its kind of sad, that your point cant stand on its own.
( and I coul immagine that this - beeing asked for money as a predictable next step - could keep someone from writing this " hey, I use your product, it's great!" email. )
Carl Cravens@El_joa @fribbledom And not every developer wants money... I have offered developers of small tools fifty bucks (of company money) and had it refused, because they didn't want to give out a payment information or bother with a single donation, etc. Not everyone is in it for the money, or feels money makes a difference in their project.