On the Symfony blog there's a post that reminds you, at a time of year when giving is top of mind of a lot of people, to say thank you to the libraries you depend on.

If you're like me, you build apps that depend on a lot of great PHP libraries that are maintained by countless talented developers. That's amazing! The PHP community has come so far! And while I try my best to contribute back, it's tough to show appreciation for all these efforts.

Sometimes, I just want to send some ???? and shout THANKS!

To make it easier, they've released the Thanks composer plugin that will star every package your project depends on automatically to show them your appreciation. It may seem like a little thing to do but project maintainers love to know that their work is appreciated. If you want to show even more appreciation consider emailing the team or individuals working on the project and let them know.

It's easy to get discouraged when working on an Open Source project and hearing back from the users of the library can do wonders for the maintainers and contributors.