Nathanael's comments

Author here! Hope you enjoy this piece & happy to answer questions and receive feedback.

Hello hacker friends! I wrote this. I hope you'll find it a little helpful and a little funny. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on the topic. Cheers.

Hi friends! Author here, happy to answer questions and comments. :-)

Author here! Happy to answer questions/comments. :-)

I assure you they are not empty words. I mean them, and I suspect those who choose to use the badges do too.

While I am wary of the messages coming out of corporations, I do believe it’s possible for them to be nice, at least in some cases. In my view the intention behind the gesture is an important consideration. Did the person or group responsible for adding the message on the cup intend to increase sales? Or was kindness the motivation? Maybe it was both, and I think that already counts for something.

Thanks Jay! I strongly suspected some people would find the gesture meaningful but it’s nice to get confirmation on here. :-)

Hey Tim! Thank you for your comment. I did talk about brightening people’s day as a possible benefit on this thread, however there is a deeper aspiration behind the project which informs the choice of content. My goal is to express (and make it easy for others to express) that we are all good enough as we are, or as Mr. Rogers put it, we’re special—-just because we’re us.

One thing I’ve realized based on yours and other people’s feedback is that this intention is not clear. In fact it’s not really explained on the Badges page. If the people using the badges understand and share this intention then I think it helps with the authenticity issue you mentioned. So that’s one action item for me.

I’ve also realized that some people don’t think it’s possible to communicate this message via an internet badge, and while I understand their skepticism I simply disagree.

So, to actually answer your question, I’m open to adding different types of phrases and endpoints, but I consider arbitrary jokes or puns to be out of the scope of this particular project at the moment, though I will keep the idea in mind. :-)

You say seeing a badge like this on a website is just noise for you, fair enough. I simply have a different experience with this sort of thing. One example I used in another comment on this thread is random graffiti with a kind message. Those can and have brightened my day, and I don’t feel they are cheapened by the fact that everyone on the street sees them.

Though I can tell you “I like your shoes” isn’t in the rotation, things like “you are a special person” are, and I get that it can sound dishonest, but I genuinely believe everyone is special and that some people will receive that message in the way that I intend it. There are also messages like “may you be happy” or “thank you for being here” and perhaps you would agree that these can genuinely be addressed to strangers. I’m certainly grateful for anyone who visits my GitHub repos, or who takes a look at this project and gives me feedback, so thank you. :)

I see your point, thanks for the feedback. :)

You’re most welcome! Thank you for your comment, it made my day. :)

Can it mean more when someone who knows us intimately gives us a compliment? Absolutely. Can it mean less when it’s coming from a corporation whose primary intention is to receive your money? Yes, I think so too. Is knowledge a requisite for kindness? I don’t know you @nicbou but I know you deserve kindness, because everyone does.

If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying false praise is not kind. I see how that can be true. Telling someone they’re the best ice skater in the world when they’re not, for example, could be detrimental to them because of the unrealistic dreams or expectations that might create. I’m being very careful in curating the content of the badges and I don’t believe any of it would fall in the category of false or misleading praise. If you see one though let me know and I’ll consider changing or removing it.

Sent!

I agree that’s not always a wise thing to say. I disagree with the implication that it’s what I’m doing. I don’t believe @aflag was requesting an apology or that I’ve done something that would require one here. Context matters, sometimes “I’m sorry” expresses compassion rather than remorse.

Yay, I'm glad you like it!

Hey Razengan! I agree a message like "You got this!" may not always be well received, especially by people suffering from a deep depression. Most of them are more neutral, or at least they seem so to me, like "May you be happy" for example.

For people who are not feeling particularly depressed in the moment where they see one of these badges, I believe it could have an uplifting, positive effect. A small one, probably, but that's good enough for me.

Ultimately, I can't control how people react to these, but I am careful about curating the messages and I do intend for them to express genuine kindness.

I also agree that this is not a cure-all. No such claim was made, in fact. I do think we could use more kindness at core levels of society, as you say.

Yes, in part, the API is but not the underlying data (at this time): https://github.com/kindspeech/api

That's awesome! I'm going to reach out about getting my hands on some of those stickers if the offer is open. ;)

Hey DoreenMichele, thank you for sharing your story, helping that woman was indeed a very kind act in my book. However, I do believe there are other ways to express kindness as well, even if they are not as effortful or if the results aren't immediately apparent.

Hey FruityCoconut, I'm sorry this offended you. It was not my intention.