Thank You

We interrupt your regularly scheduled TWN to bring you this special announcement. Well maybe not regularly scheduled, how about we interrupt this interruption to bring you this special announcement?

Zooko posted on the tahoe-dev mailing list, this message regarding the extended absence of TWN. In it, he expressed his appreciation of my effort in writing TWN and encouraged you, if you felt the same, to contact me as well. You amazed me with the number of emails which filled my inbox stating how much you appreciated TWN. The emails did not stop with just praise. There were offers of assistance, ideas for new stories. This show of support from this community left me utterly speechless. However, I needed to find a way to express my gratitude and respect.

Lacking documentation is a common theme in many open source projects. I don't think this is a result of lack of good documentation writers nor due to concepts which are too difficult to document. Rather I believe that those of us who write are amazed by the community's ability to create. Reporting on the doing, doesn't seem to hold the same thrill as the actual doing. Or at the very least, this is my feeling. This community amazes me in its ability to create and not just with Tahoe-LAFS. This community has spawned companies, amazing spinoff projects and inspired numerous others. The cryptography and security discussions force me to stretch the bounds of my knowledge and imagination. This community makes me better person simply through observation and thank you for it.

Unfortunately, being an observer, occasionally makes me feel as if I am not an essential cog in the machine. You start to wonder if your contribution really provides any value add. After all it isn't a patch which provides a new feature or corrects some long standing bug. Instead it is merely a discourse on your observations. Who is really interested in hearing that? Apparently from your resounding response, you are.

I will be sending personal thank you to each of you who sent me emails over the last several days. I would like to take this opportunity send some special thank yous. First, to Zooko. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to do TWN. This has become one of my favorite activities and your constant support and encouragement has allowed it to become so. You are always willing to provide a hand with ideas and a kind word of support. Thank you. Next to Brian Warner . Brian thanks for your kind words of encouragement. Every time we chat, you have always thanked me for TWN. I highly value our friendship both inside and outside of Tahoe-LAFS. Lastly, thanks to Peter . I read through your interview and was once again inspired. You remind me that I don't need to be a genius programmer to make a meaningful contribution. You showed me that every contribution is important in its own right. I would do well to remember that.

So this Saturday TWN will return with talk of IPv6, birthday parties and the like. Thank you for allowing me the time to express my thanks and for taking the time to express yours.

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The Tahoe-LAFS Weekly News is published once a week by The Tahoe-LAFS Software Foundation, President and Treasurer: Peter Secor . Scribes: Patrick "marlowe" McDonald , Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn , Editor Emeritus: Zooko. View TWN on the web or subscribe to TWN . Send your news stories to marlowe@antagonism.org — submission deadline: Friday night.