Would you expect a thank you when reporting an issue or adding a pull request to an open source project that has been merged/dealt with so obviously a positive contribution?
It seems rare that I will get a thank you from a maintainer for contributing in whatever way.
I don't know, just seems like it should be common courtesy that is missing.
Is it just me? What do you think?
A few private betas, Bootstrap icon, MJML... 🙃 I think I will have to spend more time in your friendly repos! 😄
It is not that I contribute for the thanks but it does feel like it would be nice to receive some acknowledgement rather than just a message to say resolved or merging.
Having said that, I think being an open source maintainer themselves is a pretty thankless task all round.
Totally disagree here. Merging is an action of acceptance but not thankfulness. Merging is also only the positive action. But you should also thank a contributor if the changes aren't accepted and for sure also a simple issue writer which is most times the base for improvements or fixes.
And one of the super-gigantic-enormous differences is that acceptance/merging/rejecting is a top-to-down activity, you create some kind of hierarchy with it. Because without this hierarchy you wouldn't be able to merge/reject it.
But thanking is an eye-to-eye-level or even down-to-top activity.
That's why I will always fight for a more thankful and welcoming dev-community! 💙
I agreed with @Adam here. In some projects, reporting an issue sometimes it even feels like a hostile moment; you are afraid of getting scolded for not being smart enough or for not being able to understand the procedure to report the issue (which is often very confusing).
I believe it doesn't matter how big a project is; if the person reporting the issue or asking for help (because after all, you need help) is doing it with proper courtesy, then the answer should be with equal courtesy.
I thank all contributions to my repos. It's called manners.
I think you make a good point. I would never contribute and expect to be thanked for it. Though, it would be nice to hear some sort of appreciation.
I think @Gummibeer said it better than I can
Personally, if I had contributors, I would thank them. Anything someone does to help the project move forward is positive in my book. Therefore, I would make sure to thank them.
If made something I cared about and someone else helped improve it in a way I care about (if it's a giant project and someone corrected a tiny typo, I won't send them a handwritten letter about how much I appreciate them as a human being, it has to be genuine or it's patronizing IMO), I probably would thank them, partially in the hopes of encouraging their future contributions, and not just to my projects, but open source in general.
It's a simple and easy thing to do, if there's a text field right there, etc. and every now and then, when you give someone recognition for a small contribution, they might decide to make that big contribution they had in the back of their head for a while. The worst that can happen is nothing, you just paid your dues of basic courtesy. Again, that's referring to a contribution where someone actually took some meaningful chunk out of their day to help out. If they spent 4 hours doing it, I can spend 40 seconds thanking them briefly, which is still infinitely more than just nothing at all.