A little incident that took place last week got me thinking about gratitude on the web. Without getting too far into it, some people I know launched a site that was heavily inspired by a thing I made last year. Great stuff, except that they made no mention of my work on their site or the announcements around it. I’m not upset; the world is a slightly better place for both of these sites existing. But I am confused.
It seems so obvious to me that you’d link to the site that inspired you. For those of us who make free things for the web, gratitude is the only currency we have. And unlike other forms of currency, which you have less of after you spend, when you give gratitude, you wind up with more than when you started. A tweet mentioning my work would have earned a retweet to all of my followers and a congratulatory reply. Share the love is all I’m saying. Otherwise, what’s the point?