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 seeing you in IRC for so long, it was great to put a nick to a face at All Things Open. I enjoyed all of our conversations and I learned a lot from you. I hope to take some of the learned wisdom and apply it to other open source communities I'm involved in. In addition to all I learned, I also got to know you better and see your passions in open source. Seeing your ideas and what you bring makes me happy to be a part of the Opensource.com community. Thanks for all that you do for the open source world – we're really lucky to have people like you!
Anonymous message
I recently saw about the work you are doing with LGBTQ content to translate and make it more accessible for Albanians. This work is so important and I wanted to thank you for helping others find their own words, in their own language, to identify as. It's so powerful, when you finally feel like you've found the words to describe what has always been inside. Your work is inspiring, not just in Wikipedia, but also with your journalism. Thanks for all that you do to help others!