Build the code, thank the contributors!
Tags: opensource, github, webdev
Published: 2019-05-24 02:20:17

---
title: Build the code, thank the contributors!
published: true
description: Building community through code is at the heart of GitHub, but being a good human through good manners is the first step to continuing that effort. Say thank you to your contributors. It takes a few moments, they will thank you with more commits.
tags: opensource,github,webdev
cover_image: https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/gtsksk2fwpsoqtr2brzc.png
---

The [GitHub event](https://github.blog/2019-05-23-building-an-interconnected-community-together/) announced a great new feature - GitHub Sponsors. [GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors) is a new way to financially support the developers who build the open source software you use every day. See the [full announcement blog post]((https://github.blog/2019-05-23-announcing-github-sponsors-a-new-way-to-contribute-to-open-source/)) for more information.

#### Recognizing Contributors
Recently, [Brian Clark](https://twitter.com/_clarkio) introduced me to **all-contributors** ([https://github.com/all-contributors/all-contributors](https://github.com/all-contributors/all-contributors)) an awesome way to recognize contributors to your project.

![all contributors table image](https://tattoocoder.com/content/images/2019/05/Screen-Shot-2019-05-23-at-9.52.10-PM.png)

The [installation](https://allcontributors.org/docs/en/bot/installation) is super easy. Enable the bot on your repository, and you're ready to go. 

> Good practice is to have a CONTRIBUTING.md in your repo not only to encourage good practices but to also set expectations and standards.

![add bot to repo image](https://tattoocoder.com/content/images/2019/05/Screen-Shot-2019-05-23-at-9.29.05-PM.png)

**Adding contributors**

There are a few ways in which our contributors get added to the table on the README.

First, this is a go forward bot for contributions/commits; therefore they are added as commits happen.

For other ad-hoc acknowledgments, you may comment on a PR or Issue.

![simple add example](https://tattoocoder.com/content/images/2019/05/Screen-Shot-2019-05-23-at-9.43.59-PM.png)

The comment may also be a bit more intentional. Per the docs, it uses [basic Natural Language Processing](https://github.com/all-contributors/all-contributors-bot/blob/master/src/tasks/processIssueComment/utils/parse-comment/index.js).

Here, I added [Jen Looper](https://twitter.com/jenlooper) for her design work.

![nlp example](https://tattoocoder.com/content/images/2019/05/Screen-Shot-2019-05-23-at-9.39.41-PM.png)

In either case, a PR is opened to add the user/contributor to the **README** and **.all-contributorsrc** files for the attributions.

![PR image](https://tattoocoder.com/content/images/2019/05/Screen-Shot-2019-05-23-at-9.43.27-PM.png)

Building community through code is at the heart of GitHub, but being a good human through good manners is the first step to continuing that effort. Say thank you to your contributors. It takes a few moments, they will thank you with more commits.

...this has been cross posted from: http://tattoocoder.com/build-the-code-thank-the-contributors/