Wow, I never looked at that page before. It's creepy from the top:
you look lovely today, btw.
to the bottom:
you need help
Well, which is it? Do I look lovely, or do I need help? What possible business is it of yours, dear npm? And what about the person who just suffered a facial injury and is very aware of how unlovely they look at the moment?
At least Slack rotates through a few different sayings that tend to be goofy instead of creepy - and you can change them.
This stuff has been around for a long time, it's just cheekier now. Ever install a Windows app and the last setup page says, "Congratulations! You have successfully installed $APP." Congratulations? For what? You congratulate people for an achievement. Are you saying that it was an achievement on my part to successfully install your app? Was the more likely outcome that I would fail to install it? :-0
> Was the more likely outcome that I would fail to install it?
Hilarious.
Well, I think all these things are suspicious and maybe (I don't know) even bad in nature, but they have levels of badness, "you look lovely today, btw" is considerably worse than any form of birthday congratulations -- although I'm also suspicious of the second, which, here in Brazil, is a little more common thing to say than "happy birthday" (people just say "congratulations!").
Like the AMC theatres pre-show messages where it says something along the lines of "Thank you for being _absolutely amazing!_"
Makes me cringe SO HARD every time. Why are we telling people they're amazing for existing? Haven't we identified the issue with much of today's youth is that their egos were often overinflated by their parents, teachers, etc, leading to problems of entitlement and whatever else that entails?
I suspect it's because people feel better about themselves and have a happier outlook when they receive compliments. These warm fuzzies are associated with the product / setting, positively affecting people's opinion of the service.
I'm not sure why you're confused -- is it because things aren't the way that you think they should be? To me, the explanation above is pretty concise and fits the situation neatly.
I guess I wasn't seriously questioning the reasons why they would do it. It does make sense but isn't there some point where complimenting your customers to make them feel all warm could go "too far"? I'm pretty laid back with not very high expectations of customer service (not a pessimistic person, just easy to please) and it just comes off as rather excessive, at least with the way it's presented.
This probably comes off as looking the gift horse in the mouth but at some point it does come off as excessive, like when I get bum rushed to be helped the second I look at a product in a department store.
I've participated in internet communities where people say these things to each other, and while it seemed insincere to me, I didn't worry about it much. It wasn't until I saw little fights and disagreements erupt that I really solidified my distaste for it; these people were just as nasty as anyone else on the internet, they just happened to cover themselves with a paper-thin veneer of sweetness.
I think it's nauseating when websites have non-ironic conversational copy ("Hey there! How are you feeling today?" as a prompt to write a status update on Facebook).
But on the NPM site I think it's different, it's a joke. It says "you look lovely today, btw". That's clearly mockery/irony. The help section is headed "you need help", for example.
See https://www.npmjs.com/login, for example.