What are Open-Source Happiness Packets?
People are generally much more loved than we think we are. But while it's easy for many to complain when they don't like something, we're often fairly silent when things are good. Open-source communities are no different, especially when our main communication channels are textual and virtual.
However, the feeling that you made a difference, that your work matters and has value, and that the people you work with are happy to work with you, is an awesome and important feeling. With Open-Source Happiness Packets, we're trying to spread that feeling.
How does it work?
Openly expressing appreciation, gratitude, or happiness to other people can be difficult. This is especially true when you don't know them very well. Many of us come from cultures in which people are not open by default about such feelings, and naturally feel uncomfortable or even creepy to share them.
Open-Source Happiness Packets is a very simple platform to anonymously reach out to the people that you appreciate or to whom you are thankful in your open-source community. Your message can be sent anonymously if you feel uncomfortable to share your name with the recipient. Of course, we encourage you to share your name, but it's completely optional!
Happiness Archive
If both the sender and the recipient agree, we can publish the Happiness Packet on the website. With this, we're building an archive of open-source happiness that people and communities can use to draw inspiration.
As an example, here are two random messages from our archive:
Anonymous message
After hearing about everything you're trying to at Brown University, it was fantastic to have a chance to meet you in person and hear more about your story. You had a lot of unique insight and thoughts that you brought to the table, and I really appreciate your energy and participation in everything that happened this weekend. Furthermore, it's really amazing that we have people like you involved in this program. It's really inspiring to get to work with people like you, and I'm happy that I had the chance to get to know you in person. We're really lucky to have people like you in open source. I hope I'm lucky enough to see you again soon and hear about the awesome community you are building!
Anonymous message
Ahoj Petře,
díky za tvou energii a podporu včera na DjangoGirls! Doufám, že jsem nebyla příliš grumpy a chtěla jsem říct, že jsem fakt spokojená, že jsem se s tvou pomocí dopracovala až ke konci. <3 ... Tedy né ke konci, zdaleka to nekončí, ale ke konci základů! Těším se na další progress. :)
Zdravím z CZ.NICu!
Nora