[nicbou]

I'm not a big fan of this. If a friend tells me I'm a good person, it means a lot. If a Starbucks coffee cup does it, it means precisely nothing. You don't know that; you're just saying it to be nice. It is not any sort of assessment, just empty words. At best it's nice, but it's not kind.

[purplecats]

> If a Starbucks coffee cup does it, it means precisely nothing. You don't know that; you're just saying it to be nice.

It's actually worse than this. They're not doing it out of the kindness of their heart to be nice to you. They're doing it to manipulate your emotions to force a positive responsive with their interactions such that it increases your likelihood of paying them more money in the future.

They're not being nice to you, they're manipulating you.

[Nathanael]

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.

[Nathanael]

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.

[nicbou]

I think you're missing the point. These messages are meaningless because they're robbed of any context or compassion. I won't feel wonderful and loved because a random string generator on a GitHub readme page tells me so.

If you tell me "I like your shoes", it will brighten my week. If I see you walking from person to person, telling every single one of them that you like their shoes, it won't feel like much of a compliment. It's not nice nor thoughtful. It's just noise.

You have the right spirit for trying to make the world a little brighter, but I don't think mass-producing generic compliments is the way to go.

[Nathanael]

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. :)