It really sucks that culturally we're wired to only give feedback to developers or projects when things are broken.
A product with 15M users gets 100 complaints and only 1 nice "good job" message per month.
It's really demoralizing that we accepted the fact that "if you don't hear from them it means things are good".
People need positive reinforcement and to know that folks are happy about their work.
I understand it's fashionable to bitch about everything because hate brings views
@alecaddd I will say naming doesn't help. GitHub Issues to me doesn't scream "leave positive message here" and neither does a support page as they are headed towards troubleshooting and help.
But people leave reviews for things they like, maybe that is an avenue to pursue? GitHub stars comes close.
@ShadSterling @Klaus @alecaddd
This is a real problem, yes.
Your solution is how I make my work bearable. If none of the users knows my name, it means I'm good at what I do. It's a coping strategy at best though.
@alecaddd In my experience, developers don't make it easy either. There are clear channels for bug reporting, but positive feedback seems out of place in a bug tracker (like, filing a praise report?). You have to look for an email or a chat, and sometimes those aren't as visible. You can leave a comment in Flathub, but there's nothing to show that the developer has read it.
So please, devs: you want to hear positive feedback? Enable channels for that, like you do for bugs or donations.
@alecaddd Related thread by @sophie:
https://discourse.gnome.org/t/positive-feedback-and-encouragement-for-contributors/
Positive feedback about their project can help contributors. It’s probably easy to back this with references but for now I will just base this on my own experiences and what I have heard and read. My Take on the Current Situation Issues trackers are tailored to bringing up issues. Reviews are meant to judge your work. But I wonder if we are lacking a designated place for people to share positive feedback and appreciation for contributors and the things they have created. Don’t take me wrong, I...
@alecaddd I get annoyed when someone then reports an error and assumes that I must already have 100s of reports about it and wonders why it hasn't been fixed a month ago.
Because nobody reported it a month ago 😔
@alecaddd yess reaching out to the devs of the projects you use is great, especially if the project is small.
Usually they love knowing that their passion project is making a difference to someone other then themself.
@TheFrenchGhosty wow...what an incredibly privileged and toxic statement.
I do thank the people I interact with. I always say hi to the shop workers and thank them when they help me.
I might be crazy in your eyes, but when I pass an intersection where a construction worker stops digging to let me cross, I thank him.
It's called being a decent human being and not assuming that "You're getting money so I can treat you like shit".
What kind of a sad world do you want to live in?
@alecaddd @TheFrenchGhosty You're interacting with shop-workers inter-personally so of course you'll say thanks.
That is not the equivalent of what you're demanding.
The equivalent would be getting in contact with the manufacturers of all the consumer goods you purchase and thanking them for making them. Do you do that?
@uoou @TheFrenchGhosty no, but when something is not working or wrong, I share my feedback with kindness and respect. That’s also a way of thanking people for their work, even when reporting issues.
People, this is a simple concept, be kind and respectful.
What’s so hard and controversial to understand?
@alecaddd @TheFrenchGhosty That is a very different thing from what you were talking about. Of course we should always be civil.
But, particularly when everything's getting worse, people get pissed off when things get shitter. Humans have emotions. Most human interaction isn't mediated by a HR department, thankfully.
Your argument boils down to virtue signaling.
You're a "Director of Product Engineering" at Mozilla (I didn't know that before). Your argument would actually be worth something if you were working for free (and not for 100 000+ a year - and I'm being generous considering you're literally corporate).
I did/do software as volunteer and got thanks. Here's the reality rich guy, a thank is almost worthless to me (and most of those people you mentioned) because it doesn't pay the bills.
You're mad you're not getting thanks, while receiving something (a massive thing) that pays the bills.
You're just massively entitled.
@alecaddd @TheFrenchGhosty To be clear, if I encounter the dev of something I really enjoy using or anything I use where the dev is a *volunteer*, then I'll thank them.
But going out of my way to thank the devs who - as paid work - make the majority of software which gets worse and heavier constantly, no, that's insane.
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