# Suggestion for members: Make thanking people a habit.



## Romeel

Hello

I urge fellow members to thank whoever answers their questions, even if the answer is not correct! In most cases whoever answered your question made an effort to convey the information as best they could, don't skimp on thanking them either by writing in a post or via reactions button.

I'm writing this because I see many of my fellow members not doing so, some of them even without any response to their thread. On the one hand, this behavior is not in the interest of the one who does this, and on the other hand, the one who answered does not know whether who asked benefited from his answer or not!

Thank you


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## Yendred

Thank you for your wise suggestion


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## rotan

It's kinda like greeting every person you meet
I mean it's not impolite, but it has little to no purpose or contribution to anything


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## Paulfromitaly

rotan said:


> I mean it's not impolite, but it has little to no purpose or contribution to anything





> *The Forums promote learning and maintain an atmosphere that is serious, academic and collaborative, with a respectful, helpful and cordial tone.*
> 
> *Be helpful and polite. *


I would expect everyone to say PLEASE and THANK YOU, especially those who are seeking help.
Maybe it has no propose for you, but it has for me, seeing that I'm not that inclined to help people who can't even be bothered to ask politely.


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## rotan

Many of my answers were (and many certainly will be) left with no reaction, and I still help people wherever I feel my contribution could be useful, because why not? After all, isn't that the purpose of our presence here?
And if it turns out that others' answers are more useful, I'm just as happy, the most important thing is that people get help they need
Their gratitude is the last thing I think of, let alone forced one


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## Romeel

So we have four types of members:
1. The giver who has no limits.
2. Thankful and polite.
3. Who are in between?
4. The ignorant person who takes what he wants and moves to another thread. Not even bothering himself to respond to the topic that he started, neither by accepting nor rejecting. 

Therefore, we urge whoever thinks he is in the last group, please try to move yourself to a better one.


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## Roymalika

I even thank those people who come to my threads and ask native speakers their questions. Most of the members don't. I find this impolite.


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## rotan

You want people to sound like bots? Come on
Some things, while not impolite, are excessive and simply not needed, like the mentioned greeting every single person you meet
It's not impolite if you do that, but ironically it's even less impolite if you don't - same here, it's not like it stops people from helping each other
("Oh I'm not helping them, they didn't thank me the other day" - said no one ever)
...or leaves them hanging for entire days thinking "did I actually help"
They move on just as the "ungrateful" ones do

Well, at least unless you openly voice unhelpfulness:
Thank you, but I didn't find your answer useful" - great motivation for helping in the future 👍
(I don't care, but others may)

If it ain't broke don't fix it


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## elroy

Romeel said:


> I urge fellow members to thank whoever answers their questions, even if the answer is not correct!





Romeel said:


> on the other hand, the one who answered does not know whether who asked benefited from his answer or not!


If the question asker thanks all respondents regardless, how will they know if their answer was helpful/useful?


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## Romeel

rotan said:


> You want people to sound like bots? Come on


I think it is the other way around, robots don't have feelings!


rotan said:


> Some things, while not impolite, are excessive and simply not needed, like the mentioned greeting every single person you meet


I didn't say it is greeting but I think you should thanks the person who spend the time to answer your question.



rotan said:


> It's not impolite if you do that, but ironically it's even less impolite if you don't - same here, it's not like it stops people from helping each other
> 
> ("Oh I'm not helping them, they didn't thank me the other day" - said no one ever)
> ...or leaves them hanging for entire days thinking "did I actually help"
> They move on just as the "ungrateful" ones do


I agree with you members should help grateful and ungrateful members!
But I urge both parties to show its positive side:
Whoever answers should give without limits without conditionsو and the questioner should thank those who helped him



rotan said:


> Well, at least unless you openly voice unhelpfulness:
> Thank you, but I didn't find your answer useful" - great motivation for helping in the future 👍
> (I don't care, but others may)


I agree.


rotan said:


> If it ain't broke don't fix it


But if you can make it better, why not?



elroy said:


> If the question asker thanks all respondents regardless, how will they know if their answer was helpful/useful?


Thanks does not mean agreeing to the answer. but I think we should differentiate between each of the following cases:
Sometimes several answers are correct. He should thanks everyone!

Sometimes the questioner does not know the correct answer. Here he also thanks everyone and then inquires about which one is correct?

Sometimes the questioner knows the correct answer from the wrong one. He can thank the one who answered incorrectly by replying and then indicate that the answer is wrong. Or use Agree reaction button to the correct answers Thank you for others


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## rotan

Cool, but why are you saying we *should*?

If I tell you you should call everyone Sir/Madam in every post, will you follow? Or better yet, do you fall in your 4th category for not doing so?

Anyway, the fact that someone doesn't thank you in front of millions doesn't mean they are not grateful

And no, you don't have to indicate the (un)helpfulness of someone's answer, the forum has been proving you otherwise for ages
Nobody would ever help you here if you had


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## Romeel

rotan said:


> Cool, but why are you saying we *should*?


Yes you are right..



rotan said:


> And no, you don't have to indicate the (un)helpfulness of someone's answer, the forum has been proving you otherwise for ages
> Nobody would ever help you here if you had


What I mean is that you need to politely discuss the answer to make things clear to him and to the readers


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## rotan

Romeel said:


> What I mean is that you need to politely discuss the answer to make things clear to him and to the readers


No one is asking for it, so how is that an issue?


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## Romeel

rotan said:


> No one is asking for it, so how is that an issue?


I think there is a misunderstanding between us.

What I mean for example, if I asked a question and someone answered and I am sure that his answer is wrong, it is better to correct the answer, because this answer will be read by everyone and they may think that it is correct.

You know the forum rules. It is not permissible to ask about something that was asked about before! Many will be satisfied reading this wrong answer.


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## rotan

Romeel said:


> What I mean for example, if I asked a question and someone answered and I am sure that his answer is wrong, it is better to correct the answer, because this answer will be read by everyone and they may think that it is correct.


But you still claim we should thank them for that answer... 🤨
And I still don't get it, you can often see people discussing issues among themselves on what is fine to say and what is not, no one takes every single answer for granted


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## Romeel

rotan said:


> But you still claim we should thank them for that answer... 🤨


I really can't understand why _thanks _should be linked to successful help/answer?! Isn't his attempt to help enough to thank him?!


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## rotan

Well, if you put it that way, I will completely butcher every answer from now on
Because why not? People will still thank me for my 'effort' since you're urging them to do so
It's a win-win situation 💪


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## 2PieRad

rotan said:


> greeting every person you meet


Greet every rando you pass on the street or greet everyone you actually engage and interact with? Am I the crazy one here because I think I kinda do do the latter? 🤔

That being said, for sure, I have better things to worry about than people thanking each other on WRF. We're all (more or less) faceless randos to each other, and behind the veil of anonymity, I find it far easier to treat others with less civility online than I do in real life. 👍 Sure, an expression of gratitude tickles my ego, but I'm sufficiently motivated to "help", when I can go back to my own post (oftentimes repeatedly) and gloat to myself over how good my response was, how knowledgeable I've shown myself to be, and how my answer will help many people to come. I'm pretty sure I care less about "helping" strangers on the internet, and more about convincing myself that I'm being "helpful". The "helping others" is just a byproduct.🙃



rotan said:


> "Oh I'm not helping them, they didn't thank me the other day" - said no one ever


Hehe, really? Maybe not those exact words, but I know I, on countless occasions in my life, have consciously or unconsciously decided not to go out of my way to help someone who was being a douche nozzle to everyone, whereas I would've readily helped a more pleasant person in the same context. Isn't that how most all people are? Or am I the crazy one again? 🤷‍♂️


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## rotan

All I'm saying is he is insisting on something not essential to keep the forum alive


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## Paulfromitaly

rotan said:


> All I'm saying is he is insisting on something not essential to keep the forum alive


It's one thing to systematically post "thank you" messages or add "thank you" reactions to each and every reply to your questions in order to win people's sympathy - that's slimy to say the least.
It's another thing to say HI, PLEASE and THANK YOU when you're seeking people's help - that's "courtesy & good manners" and to me it's essential and very welcome.


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## rotan

So how does that forum even exist if few people do *the essential *thing


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## 2PieRad

rotan said:


> So how does that forum even exist if few people do *the essential *thing


My (partial) motivation to contribute to its existence I mentioned above:


2PieRad said:


> I'm sufficiently motivated to "help", when I can go back to my own post (oftentimes repeatedly) and gloat to myself over how good my response was, how knowledgeable I've shown myself to be, and how my answer will help many people to come.


Reminds me of a woman I knew at a job. Very knowledgeable of the rules and quite the stickler for them too. Despite her knowledge, she never worked as a trainer (likely because the company knew she lacked the other necessary qualities to be a good trainer.) But she would love mentoring new hires. Clearly not because she cared about mentoring and helping them, but because she enjoyed talking _at _them constantly (and everyone else), offering her a unique chance to show off to everyone how she knew everything about everything. I’m sure we can all think of a few people like her in our own respective lives.

The company continued to “exist”, no problem. But I’m sure it comes as no surprise when I say that she was quite obviously unhappy at work, didn’t have many friends at work, made most people who had to work with her equally unhappy, and detracted from company culture as a whole.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Romeel said:


> _f I asked a question and someone answered and I am sure that his answer is wrong, it is better to correct the answer, because this answer will be read by everyone and they may think that it is correct._


You can do both, for example, "Thank you for your reply, but I disagree because..."

Edit: Under Rule 7 *Be helpful and polite.* we read "The use of "Hello", "Hi", and "Thank you" is always welcome." — 'welcome', not 'mandatory'. It's only a few keystrokes, though, so why not? At the least, it encourages participation, perhaps especially by new members.


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## rotan

I don't know
I've been here for like 18 months now and this is literally the first time I've seen a public cry on showing no gratitude (proving how much people actually (don't) care about it)


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## 2PieRad

Yeah, I'm honestly not too sure what OP wants. Thanking every single post including wrong answers? 🤔mmmmmmeh. Showing general manners and civility towards others? mmmmeh sure. But again, it's easier for me to skip that part when it comes to strangers online, behind my veil of anonymity. Cuz, I'm obviously a busy person. The seconds I would've spent being pleasant to others, I'm definitely using productively in other ways. 🙃 Hardly a behaviour I reserve solely for this tiny corner of the internet that is WRF. But I have a suspicion that the other numerous corners of the internet that have since devolved into cesspools of toxic garbage, did so (in part) because their members gradually lost this basic civility towards each other.

That being said, I think I actually do care enough sometimes when people are ungrateful after I've helped them, as I find myself mumbling in my head, in my most sarcastically catty voice, "uh, you're welcome, (you ungrateful c**t)". Again, I would've thought everyone on Earth did this from time to time, but alas I might once again be the crazy one. 🤷‍♂️ Then again, I think I tend to let things like that go fairly easily, and rarely am I motivated enough to complain to my friends later about it, or go online to post about it in order to garner sympathy. Of course, when a lack of gratitude happens online as opposed to in real life, I find it usually doesn't bother me at all. Likely because it's so easy to forget people online are actually human beings with like real human feelings and stuff like that. 😅


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## Romeel

What I ask of my fellow members as follows "to thank those who try to help you!" I didn't ask them to send thanks to every post, nor did I ask them to send an excessive thanks!


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## rotan

Sure, but why put someone in a particular group of yours straight away if they don't do that?
That's as if I came up with a thread saying "Why are you guys who are interested in football aren't participating in my thread?" And put them in my "ignorants" group lol
They're not harming anyone with that, it's up to them
Just as not doing what you're insisting on doesn't harm anyone either


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## velisarius

When a thread-opener fails to thank me or react in any way, especially when I'm the only one who tried to answer their question, I'm left wondering whether the OP doesn't accept my answer, doesn't understand it, or just wants more responses. That's fair enough, but the lack of feedback can be disconcerting. 

It's even worse when the OP (apparently unsatisfied) opens another thread on the exact same subject, in hopes of better answers. They think we don't notice, but we do.


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

velisarius said:


> When a thread-opener fails to thank me or react in any way, especially when I'm the only one who tried to answer their question, I'm left wondering whether the OP doesn't accept my answer, doesn't understand it, or just wants more responses. That's fair enough, but the lack of feedback can be disconcerting.
> 
> It's even worse when the OP (apparently unsatisfied) opens another thread on the exact same subject, in hopes of better answers. They think we don't notice, but we do.



Yes, they might be waiting for more responses because of the "No Flooding" rule.


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## wildan1

From the viewpoint of a moderator of the very busy French-English Forums (the Vocabulary Forum, especially), please remember that when you post a simple "Thank you" message with no further question or comment because you have your answer, it still "bumps" your thread to the top of page 1, which pushes down other, newer threads that are still waiting for help or need further help.

But--for a while now, the Forum has the "Reactions" option on the bottom right of each post display, allowing you to express your agreement or approval (  ) AND YOUR THANKS (  ) to any member's post.

The advantage to thanking in this way is that your thread is not bumped to the top of the page--it stays where it is.

That is being a good Forum member--letting others still needing help have their posts stay on page 1, where they'll get much more attention.

For a more detailed expression of thanks, you also can convey that by private messaging to the member(s) you want to thank.

wildan1, FR-EN Moderator


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## Romeel

wildan1 said:


> From the viewpoint of a moderator of the very busy French-English Forums (the Vocabulary Forum, especially), please remember that when you post a simple "Thank you" message with no further question or comment because you have your answer, it still "bumps" your thread to the top of page 1, which pushes down other, newer threads that are still waiting for help or need further help.
> 
> But--for a while now, the Forum has the "Reactions" option on the bottom right of each post display, allowing you to express your agreement or approval (  ) AND YOUR THANKS (  ) to any member's post.
> 
> The advantage to thanking in this way is that your thread is not bumped to the top of the page--it stays where it is.
> 
> That is being a good Forum member--letting others still needing help have their posts stay on page 1, where they'll get much more attention.
> 
> For a more detailed expression of thanks, you also can convey that by private messaging to the member(s) you want to thank.
> 
> wildan1, FR-EN Moderator


I usually use the Reactions button, and this is a good suggestion, but sometimes I need another opinion, so I have to raise the post by replying in writing.


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## rarabara

hey , in real life I commonly & easily  thank to anyone who I know with a slightly smiling face. people are feeling good with that.
Also, sometimes I believe that this is the best thing I implement in real life. Ok @Romeel , I shall probably do the same here.

haha ha thank you😃


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## elroy

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> Yes, they might be waiting for more responses because of the "No Flooding" rule.


I don’t understand.  Can you elaborate?


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

elroy said:


> I don’t understand.  Can you elaborate?



What I meant was that members (especially if they are working to a deadline) may need information in a short period of time, and if they don't receive any replies to their post, may hesitate to request others to provide suggestions for fear of violating the "No flooding" rule but on te other hand might, as veli said, open another thread (which violates (I think) another rule; they might even risk asking again ("flooding") because they haven't received satisfactory input. I also agree with her that lack of feedback can be frustrating.


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## elroy

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> if they don't receive any replies to their post, may hesitate to request others to provide suggestions for fear of violating the "No flooding" rule


This is what I don't understand.  Posting in a thread you've already opened rarely leads to violating the "No flooding" rule.  This would only happen if the thread was not on the front page, there were already five of your threads on the front page, and by posting in this thread you would be bumping it to the front page, thus increasing the number of your front-page threads to six.  Were you thinking of that very particular scenario?


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

elroy said:


> This is what I don't understand.  Posting in a thread you've already opened rarely leads to violating the "No flooding" rule.  This would only happen if the thread was not on the front page, there were already five of your threads on the front page, and by posting in this thread you would be bumping it to the front page, thus increasing the number of your front-page threads to six.  Were you thinking of that very particular scenario?



I suppose I must have (misunderstood the rule)...


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## Peterdg

There is not only a "no flooding rule" but there is also a "no bumping rule".


> No bumping. If nobody responds to your question, do not post again to simply request help – instead, post more information or context to help us to help you. If your question receives no reply, you can use the "Report" link in the bottom of your post to request moderator assistance.


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## elroy

Ah, that must be what @ain'ttranslationfun? was thinking of!


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

elroy said:


> Ah, that must be what @ain'ttranslationfun? was thinking of!



Yes, that must have been it!  

, Peterdg!


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## swift

Peterdg said:


> There is not only a "no flooding rule" but there is also a "no bumping rule".


And that’s the point @wildan1 was making, I believe:


wildan1 said:


> The advantage to thanking in this way is that your thread is not bumped to the top of the page--it stays where it is.


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