An experiment in gratitude

I don’t know about you but most of my software projects would have been impossible without heavy reliance on open source software.

Over the years, every time I npm/brew/cpan installed a package, I also wished I could somehow thank its author/s. The had just saved me days/weeks/months of work. Of course, I never got around to it.

With the launch of my last project, I decided it was time for change.

I tracked down the authors of the packages that were critical to the project, sent them a nice thank you email and snail mailed them a box of craft chocolate as a token of my gratitude and appreciation.

The response has been so great that I am inspired to carry on.

So, I plan to send a box of chocolate to ~100 open source authors over the next year. Roughly 2 authors / week.

I want a low key, yet tangible gift so I have chosen a “year of chocolate” boxes from Askinosie Chocolate [http://bit.ly/1HpQGrH]. Chocolate is informal and easy to share with others. The folks at Askinosie are awesome in their own unique way. They share their profits back with the cocoa farmers and I figured their award winning craft chocolate would be a hit with most people.

I am aiming for lone/small team authors (eg petka / bluebirdjs) vs the more established projects that are already well recognized (eg react, backbone,… as awesome as they are).

Has there been a library that was critical to your project and you’d like to thank its author(s)? Feel free to suggest ideas. I will post my progress on HN every few weeks.