Congratulations for your effort and your new experience. Contributing to any open source coding community is a great thing.
Don't worry, in time you will learn what kind of communication is appreciated. Do what you think is right, people will give you any time to adapt. If something really goes wrong, people will inform you.
Anonymous Bulk Mails
From my experience, I receive change notification mails like this:
In order to send mails to the developer list, use this address: ...
In order to remove yourself from the developer list, use this subject: ...
Summary of the day:
[Product name/subject] 5711f6: fixed #17921 (GitHub)
[Product name/subject] af1b16: #18046 - rate calculation: special case (GitHub)
[Product name/subject] #18046 - printing of interest table bugfix (GitHub)
...
Detailled messages:
...
Log Message: ----------- 5711f6: fixed #17921 (GitHub)
Commit: de8c19e04206972fea485a081b179f52ef50275c
https://github.com/The_Application/commit/de8c19e04206972fea485a081b179f52ef50275c
Author: John Doe
Date: 2016-02-24 (Fri, 24 Feb 2016)
Changed paths: M Services/Init/classes/class.asInitialisation.php
Log Message: ----------- Merge pull request #137 from
klees/release_5-1
fixed #17921 (for 5.1)
Mails like these contains author names, but they inform the community about newest code changes: where, what, when, issue number, why. This is broadcasting one-way-communication. No answer is expected. In time, it is natural to read your own name there.
Triggered by such a mail, one might contact a programmer fellow directly by the mail addresses written with a specific subject, but often it's even better to communicate by the issue management tool (e.g. JIRA or Mantis discussion site).
Personalized Bulk Mail
If you receive a mail not that anonymous like my example above, but rather like this:
Dear programmer community
We are pleased to announce the release of version 6.7 of XY. Everybody has worked hard ... bla ...
We would like to thank all the people who have helped... ... ... see list below ... ...
Best,...
John Doe, was coding XY
Sam Sample, was coding XY
... ...
In that case, it is meant rather personal and people probably appreciate if you answer with a short note that you are pleased to be mentioned.
Personal Communication
Further, some times ago, I could document and file a bug in MySQL. Then, a developer from the community answered me and mentioned that the bug was well documented and therefore easy to track. Which is a good thing for any programmer. I answered with some "Glad to help". This communication is just like oil in the wheels, it's friendly, and technically it could be cut.
The Big Silence
Then, sometimes I file some bug and suggest a solution, but don't hear any answer. Anything is possible. Maybe the project got stuck and nobody has time any longer. Then, I do try not to lean on the doorbell, for several reasons.
Edit 1.3.16:
Established Etiquettes
Some communities have worked out communication rules and have made them public. So it could be worth to look around or to ask specifically for the (N)etiquette(s). In fact you are helping if you find and consider them, as open source communities are complex structures. Here are examples:
