# Tell the speakers that you liked their talks

> Some quick thoughts on Ana Rodrigues's post "Tell the speakers that you liked their talks", and a general initial test for web-based annotations.

- Page: https://blog.chaoticgood.computer/content/annotations/highlights/ohhelloana.blog/Tell-the-speakers-that-you-liked-their-talks
- Author: Spencer Elkington
- Published: 2026-11-06
- Updated: 2026-11-06
- Tags: horticulture/seasons/stamps, writing/annotations, writing/fragments

---

This is largely a test of something that I picked up while reading blogs from my [Wild Web](https://blog.chaoticgood.computer/content/notes/the-wild-web) analysis. Something that is vaguely in the spirit of WebMentions/IndieWeb is posting annotations about other folks web pages, as a form of direct reply.

I’ve created a hacky workaround of the [Hypothes.is browser extension](https://github.com/hypothesis/browser-extension) in Firefox that treats Obsidian as the hypothes.is server. I’ll be giving that a trial run in the coming weeks, to see if I can reliably do web annotations in the same way that I’ve been doing [PDF annotations](https://blog.chaoticgood.computer/content/annotations/valve-handbook).

From [Tell the speakers that you liked their talks](https://ohhelloana.blog/tell-the-speakers/) on ohhelloana.blog

## Annotations

[> [!quote] Quote
>
> Most times, I forget to compliment my own friends who are speaking because, bizarrely, I assume they can read my mind and know that I love their work and I am on the first row cheering them on. I need to live-post more and I need to blog more because I really want people to see the amazing conferences I attend, with fantastic organisers and incredible speakers.](https://ohhelloana.blog/tell-the-speakers/#:~:text=at%20this%20myself.-,Most%20times%2C%20I%20forget%20to,fantastic%20organisers%20and%20incredible%20speakers.,-These%20days%2C%20especially)

I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently, both as part of my Season of Stamps, as well as with all of the news spiraling around about reverse engineering (especially in games, but across software in general).

In the case of code, it’s important to mature past the idea that a project is just code. It’s also the community *around* the project. A game isn’t just a game: it’s the community around the game. And, ultimately, when giving a talk, it isn’t just the talk: it’s also the community and conversation around the talk.

I’ve given enough of these to know how awkward and anticlimactic it can feel when you get to the end and it’s sorta just… over. To me, the actual talk itself feels like just the start. The real fun is when you get to take questions, or talk to other people about it after the fact. It’s that little moment where “my idea” becomes “our ideas” that really brings these types of things to life.

Nov 06, 2026