From time to time I lurk in various IRC channels, in the process of getting help, or to give back to those that have assisted me. In general I consider the philosophy the benefited should give back -not necessarily to the benefactor- . In the IRC paradigm I consider that people that get help from a support channel should also stick around to give support to others for lesser matters. Something like a upload/download ratio in bit-torrent terms.
So to get back to my lurking; Some months ago, I hanged out after being benefited in a gentoo related room, when a person who wishes to remain anonymous joined. It didn’t took long until he seeked for help/support, so I helped him. It was a bit unfortunate that I spent more than 3 hours in his case but after those long 3 hours he was good to go. He asked me for my mail, and reluctantly I gave it to him. At the end of December I received an even more peculiar email which can be concluded into the following “Best Wishes what’s your t-shirt size, and where do you live?”. After a couple of mails which reminded me of the exotic nature of the person’s case, and that made me confident that he is neither from Nigeria nor a scummer a I send those information.
After a while and much to my surprise a package arrived from cafepress. It contained an analog clock and a T-shirt with a Gentoo insignia, along with some other advertising stuff from cafepress. I searched the box for information about the box’ origin and all I found is a receipt containing the text “Happy new year with Gentoo :D”
I wrote this post for two reasons.
- After dealing with online communities for more than a decade in one form or another, I’ve never came across any such behavior, so I wanted to share with you. The few people that I discussed about this in the past few days, after the package delivery were also amazed and considered this an extraordinary behavior. What is actually came out of those discussions was that such actions are highly motivational, and a good example to follow in our online affairs.
- The other is to express my gratitude to M.K. that bought and sent those.
Thank you dude
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