Earlier this month, I received the Rainbow badge in Fedora Badges. Rainbow is the fifth badge in a series for receiving “karma cookies” from others in IRC. Every time I receive a new badge in this series, I like to reflect back on the past and where my Fedora journey has taken me since October 2015.
What is a rainbow cookie?
If you’re not aware already, Fedora has a unique system of rewarding positive contributions in the community through karma cookies.
Karma cookies are a unique way of rewarding positive interactions and actions in Fedora with a friendly, quantifiable number. In any official Fedora IRC channel, Fedora contributors can give any other contributor Karma by adding ‘++’ after their nick (e.g. mattdm++ or puiterwijk++).
This “positive” karma cookies are distributed by zodbot, Fedora’s IRC bot. A contributor can give another contributor a “karma cookie” once a release cycle before they are able to give another one. For reaching certain milestones of karma cookies, contributors are awarded badges via Fedora Badges. Fedora uses this as a method to promote positive behavior in the community as well as help support and build community in Fedora. This reflects upon the “Friends” part of the Four Foundations of Fedora. I love the concept of karma cookies and I think it’s a small and great way for us to share our appreciation for other contributors in the project.
The Rainbow badge is awarded after receiving 100 karma cookies across all Fedora releases.
Thank you!
I did spend a lot of time giving thanks and appreciation in my Flock 2016 write-up, so I think it would be better to point there for a longer, more verbose expression of gratitude.
https://blog.justinwflory.com/2016/08/fedora-flock-2016/
I am still appreciative and thankful of all the people who have spared their time for helping get me started in Fedora. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe it hasn’t yet been a full year since my first contributions. The opportunities and friendships that being a member of the Fedora community have provided are irreplaceable. I hope that I am able to continue making an impact on Fedora far into the future and share some cookies with some other contributors. And as always, I hope to pay forward the kindness and guidance that others have bestowed to me towards others who are entering our project.
Thanks to all the mentors both past and present, friends, and fellow community members who have participated in my journey so far.