Contributors to open source software packages often describe feeling discouraged by the lack of positive feedback from users. This paper describes a technology probe, Hug Reports, that provides users a communication affordance within their code editors, through which users can convey appreciation to contributors of packages they use. In our field study, 18 users interacted with the probe for 3 weeks, resulting in messages of appreciation to 550 contributors, 26 of whom participated in subsequent research. Our findings show how locating a communication affordance within the code editor, and allowing users to express appreciation in terms of the abstractions they are exposed to (packages, modules, functions), can support exchanges of appreciation that are meaningful to users and contributors. Findings also revealed the moments in which users expressed appreciation, the two meanings that appreciation took on -- as a measure of utility and as an act of expressive communication -- and how contributors' reactions to appreciation were influenced by their perceived level of contribution. Based on these findings, we discuss opportunities and challenges for designing appreciation systems for open source in particular, and peer production communities more generally.

翻译：开源软件包的贡献者常常因缺乏用户的积极反馈而感到沮丧。本文介绍了一项技术探针——拥抱报告，该工具在用户代码编辑器中提供了一种交流支持机制，使用户能够向他们使用的软件包贡献者传达感激之情。在我们的实地研究中，18名用户使用该探针进行了为期3周的交互，向550名贡献者发送了感谢信息，其中26名贡献者参与了后续研究。我们的研究结果表明，将交流支持机制置于代码编辑器内部，并允许用户根据其接触的抽象概念（软件包、模块、函数）表达感激，能够促成对用户和贡献者都具有意义的感激交流。研究还揭示了用户表达感激的具体情境、感激所承载的两种含义——作为效用衡量标准和表达性沟通行为——以及贡献者对感激的反应如何受其自我认知的贡献程度影响。基于这些发现，我们探讨了为开源社区乃至更广泛的同行生产社区设计感激系统的机遇与挑战。