August Challenge: Support a Creator

James Montemagno — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 20:45:44 GMT

In June, I gave a challenge to my readers to delete a social media app from their phone for a month. It has been two months and I am happy to say I will never install Twitter on my phone ever again! Heather has also gone strong and finds no need to install Facebook back on to her iPhone! I figured for August I would do something a little bit different and put out a challenge to give back to the community of creators out there. I have been using open source software for years, watching & reading amazing content, and now have the ability to interact with amazing people in real-time on Twitch and YouTube. So, let's go forth and support these creators that are out there every day creating awesome things.

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Let's start with a few ways you can throw a few dollar bills to a creator to help them out. If you are into watching streamers, you can subscribe to their channel or throw a few bits their way. I actively try to subscribe to 3 Twitch channels each month:

GitHub now allows developers to add a beautiful little "Sponsor" button on any GitHub repo where developers can add their BuyMeACoffee, Patreon, or other ways to contribute.

Just a few coffees can go a long way, and look at how happy this contribution screen is:

If your creator isn't on GitHub then make sure to look at their website and surely you will be able to find a way to support them!

SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON

I don't want you to read this article and think that you have to spend money to support a creator. In fact, you don't have to spend any money at all! Every creator out there always asks for those follows, likes, stars, or subscriptions. On Twitch a follow and notification toggle will be sure you get notified when they go live. It also helps the streamer hit specific goals that the platform has set. So jam on that follow button!

Send a Pull Request

There is nothing like doing a little work on code to help support a creator and a project. I absolutely LOVE pull requests to any of my GitHub repos regardless if they are large features, bug fixes, or just a fix for one of my many typos!

Share The Content

I know this may sound silly, but a great way to support a creator is just to tell other people about them and why you enjoy their content. At the end of every Merge Conflict we ask for you to tell a friend about the podcast to help grow our audience. The best recommendation of blogs, podcasts, videos, etc is word of mouth!

You can also share their content online or give them a nice re-tweet. Look at this rad re-tweet with a comment about a recent Xamarin Show episode:

When I saw this tweet it really made my night.

Say Hello & Thanks

Say hey! I am serious, when people say hello and they enjoy a project or video that I worked on it absolutely sparks joy and keeps me going.

Go Forth and Support!

Those are just a few of my ideas. What do you do to support those creators out there? Leave comments below!

June Challenge: Delete a Social Media App

James Montemagno — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 19:36:08 GMT

It is hard today not to hear about how social media is "ruining our lives" from a news report or article. While I don't think that is the case, I do think there are way too many signals and notifications that are distracting us daily. I have slowly been trying to step back from social media over the past few years. Thus far I have turned off all notifications on my phone, made Facebook only for Family and work purposes such as .NET Community Standups, and I disabled my Instagram account. So far I am pretty happy with the results of this and I find myself scrolling less and less. However, on a recent trip out to the Olympic Peninsula, something stood out besides the beautiful landscape.

We found ourselves randomly scrolling through random feeds of apps on our weekend getaway during some of our downtimes. This isn't an issue at all, but we started to question why we were doing it. I mean is there something so important on Twitter that I must know right now? For Heather, it was her Facebook feed where she gets the same scrolling satisfaction that I get. We don't ever really post anything from our phones except for a response here or there. This all could have waited until the next time we were at a computer. So that is when we thought.... what if we just deleted the app from our phones? Like why not? We would keep our accounts as we do like the platforms, but if the icon didn't exist to launch the app then we wouldn't have the urge. So, we did it!

Today is day two of a Twitter-less phone and thus far I am doing just fine. So, this starts my "Monthly Challenge" series, where I challenge myself and all of you to do something unique and different. This month it is to delete just ONE social media app from your phone. At this point, most articles would say something like "share what you did on social media"... but don't. Don't do anything different than you normally would. I hope you join me for this challenge and for future challenges that I will kick off at the beginning of each month. Cheers <3

Monthly Challenge - James Montemagno