It’s a little thing that over time leads to a friendlier, more humane Internet. Here are a few examples.
Blog posts that helped you#
Imagine you are reading a blog post and you find it useful. Or, you agree with it, but find one part of the argument lacking. Before we proceed, leave a comment!
As a writer, receiving feedback on my work is welcome and rare. This blog gets thousands of readers every month, and yet that’s a tiny fraction of the amount of direct feedback I’ve received over the years.
I want to hear it! The praise is encouraging. Criticism is often enlightening. If it’s something small or different, it’s almost always interesting.
When in doubt, get in touch.
Something that helped you#
Imagine you’re stuck with a tough bug and searching the Internet for help. You find the solution to your problem in the forum post, hidden on the second page of results at the bottom of the page. Before you celebrate and move on, stop by and leave a message!
It could be as simple as “It worked!” Or even an emoji. Leave something that shows you were there and that the solution helped you.
Something that didn’t help you#
Imagine you are about to quit a software tool. The docs looked promising, but it doesn’t satisfy your use case, and you’re moving on. Before doing so, leave a friendly message letting the provider know you’re leaving and why.
This could be as simple as “I couldn’t get a single sign-on to work. The authentication console is different from the screenshots in the docs.” Leave a stack trace. Share the source code or a link to a repository that reproduces the issue.
Tell them it didn’t work and why.
why bother#
Being troubled by this? Why not just consume and move on? If you do this no one will immediately care and it is an investment of your personal time.
First of all, it is overall positive and affirming. Despite its scale, the Internet can be a lonely place. Most creators create in a vacuum. The solution to a difficult problem you found was on a forgotten webpage. The project you’re leaving may be a pothole and the maintainer will feel good knowing someone tried it, regardless of the outcome. Leaving something adds a little humanity to the internet.
Second, it highlights the signal in a sea of noise. That solution? This helped you, so it’s probably a useful idea. Help others find it.
Third, you are creating a learning exit that shows you are present and doing actual work with the software. And if you create an account at the place you’re commenting you now have a profile you can access that collects the things you find notable. My Stack Overflow account is essentially an index of upvoted hacks and great answers to esoteric questions. This is valuable.
Leave a mark.
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