A good thank-you, for this archive, is specific and finished. You do not have to be a writer. You have to remember.
Not a list. Not a category. One person, one specific thing they did. If you are thinking of more than one, write more than one entry — one per page.
Where you were. What they did. Enough that a stranger reading it in fifty years can picture it.
Not what you would say in a card. What you would say to them now, if you could. Why it mattered. What you have done since because of it.
Your name, your initials, "a stranger you helped," "the young woman from the bus" — whatever feels right. You are signing for the version of you who was there.
The archive is public and permanent. That changes what is safe to write.
Leave out full names of recipients, unless you have their permission. If you write "Mary Henderson at 14 Beale Road, summer 1998," Mary is now permanently identified in a public archive. Most recipients will not mind being thanked. Some will not want to be the subject of a public page. Default to description.
Leave out anything that could harm a third party. "I want to thank the doctor who told me my mother had been lying to me about her illness" is not a thank-you for this archive. Whatever it is, please send it somewhere it can be read by someone who can help with it.
Leave out anything you do not mean. Sarcasm reads strangely once it is inscribed. So do jokes. So do thank-yous you are writing because you feel you should, rather than because you mean it. Wait until you do.
When you have written your thank-you, see the Submit page for how to send it. We read every submission. Submissions that fit the archive are inscribed on BSV and added to the directory. Submissions that don't fit are returned with a short note explaining why.
From the moment a thank-you is inscribed, the page exists permanently at its own address. You can share that address. You can print it. You can give it as a gift. The person you are thanking may or may not ever read it. The thank-you exists either way.