# Post a quick Thank You



## rambler

How about a hyperlink at the bottom of a thread, visible only to the original author, that says something like “Post a quick Thank You”. When clicked, the system would add a post that says “Thank you!”, but it would not mark the thread as “updated”.

Why? Well, I often like to thank the person (or persons) who took the time to post replies to my question. Such an update causes my thread to “float to the top” of the list of threads in that particular forum. Other people, seeing that a new post has been added to my thread, may be disappointed to see only a mundane “thank you”.

Just a suggestion.


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## Rayines

Hallo rambler: We generally take it for granted that the person who receives the answers is grateful. You can either thank for the first helpful answer you receive, or wait for two, three of four of them, and then express your gratitude. I know I'm not giving a solution for your question, but I think everybody (or almost ) has gone through this situation, and this is the way it's generally solved. (It's not necessary to give me the thanks  ).


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## rambler

Ok, as long as no one thinks I'm ungrateful.


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## KateNicole

I suppose you could just PM the person that helped you, too.  I get those every now and then.


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## Whodunit

KateNicole said:
			
		

> I suppose you could just PM the person that helped you, too. I get those every now and then.


 
That's annoying sometimes. I mean for the person sending the "thank you". Many mods have over 8000 posts. I guess half of those posts were indeed very helpful ones that "_helped_" a person (not only corrected or suggested a post of his).

When I post a "thank you" after three or four messages that indeed helped me, I have to add something informative or something that could lead to more interest in that topic; otherwise my quick "thank you" will be deleted. Still, I'd like to thank you all the persons who helped me. If I wrote a PM to all of them, I'd immediately reach number 100 in the upper right corner (the limit of possible PM's) and would permanently be busy deleting all those "thank you's". 

I concur with rambler's idea, as long as it doesn't boost up your post account.


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## fille anglaise

I can see your point that people might be disappointed if a new message is just a thank you, rambler, but on the other hand the people who had posted in the thread to help you would probably never see the thank you if the thread weren't marked as updated.

I have no idea if this would work, but would it be possible to have a system a bit like the private messaging one where you could sent someone a thank you, and a message would come up on their screen saying "so-and-so has sent you a thank you for your help in thread such-and-such"?



			
				Whodunit said:
			
		

> That's annoying sometimes. I mean for the person sending the "thank you". Many mods have over 8000 posts. I guess half of those posts were indeed very helpful ones that "_helped_" a person (not only corrected or suggested a post of his).
> 
> When I post a "thank you" after three or four messages that indeed helped me, I have to add something informative or something that could lead to more interest in that topic; otherwise my quick "thank you" will be deleted. Still, I'd like to thank you all the persons who helped me. If I wrote a PM to all of them, I'd immediately reach number 100 in the upper right corner (the limit of possible PM's) and would permanently be busy deleting all those "thank you's".
> 
> I concur with rambler's idea, as long as it doesn't boost up your post account.


 
Surely you can choose not to check the "Add a copy of this message to my sent items" box, and then it shouldn't take up your PM space.

Do posts really get deleted if they only say "Thank you"?


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## ElaineG

> Do posts really get deleted if they only say "Thank you"?


 
No, as long as the thanking is done sensibly and in context.


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## fenixpollo

Whodunit said:
			
		

> otherwise my quick "thank you" will be deleted.


 It seems a little overzealous to me to suppress a simple 'thank you' in the name of keeping down the chat.  I'm glad that this practice is merely mod preference and that it isn't practiced by the mods in the forums where I spend most of my time.  The thing I love about this place is the collaboration.  The 'thank yous' remind us that we're not machines that solve language problems, but people who help each other out and who are grateful when someone helps us.


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## panjandrum

Strange thank-yous appear from time to time.

Thanks posted in response to every reply are strange.

Thanks from A, without further explanation, in a thread that A has not posted in, are strange.

Strange thank-yous could provoke a moderator to deep thought (not always a good thing) leading to possible deletion.

But to be honest, most of the time I would simply end up puzzled - and pass on.  I need the time to count the birds in the garden, not to delete thanks posts.


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## blue-eyes

> The thing I love about this place is the collaboration. The 'thank yous' remind us that we're not machines that solve language problems, but people who help each other out and who are grateful when someone helps us.



I couldn't agree more.  No-one posts just to receive a thank you in return, but its nice to see your effort is appreciated.

saludos@todos


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## Agnès E.

This is pretty obvious. 

I use to merge series of _thank-you_ posts addressed to each members having participated in the thread, in order to create one single thank you post. This prevents confusion in the thread and artificial length of the discussion, while maintaining the nice and polite atmosphere that is so appreciated here.


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## skye

Maybe we could have something like post count: every time you received a thank you, it would add to your thank you count. It's just an idea, and not even a very good one I know.


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## fenixpollo

We used to have something like that (see this thread and others), but we got rid of it.  This isn't a popularity contest, but a resource and a place for collaboration.


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