Making the helpers happy

Thanks, but no thanks.

Folks, while I'm sure people appreciate it when you say "Thank you" in a posted response it sort of defeats the way the forum system has been set up.

What I usually see is...

Person 1 asks a question (post 1)
Person 2 gives an answer (post 2)
Person 1 says thank you (post 3)

There are TWO better ways to say thanks to someone who helps you.

1) there is a button at the end of the post that they made that says "Thanks". Click on that button and they get a thank you from you posted to the bottom of the message automagically. In addition the system keeps track of the thanks that they get.

2) At the top of the post that Person 2 made you will see something that looks like a scale. If you click that you create something called "reputation points" for that person.

So rather than taking the time to create a post that says "thank you", use the forum tools.

As to why that is better... again two reasons.

The first is that it doesn't create new posts for Person 2 to read in that thread. The second has to do with what you see when they post to a thread. You can see how many posts a person has made for which they have been thanked, and you can see something called "rep power". Think of these as symbols of trust, so hen you see someone with a higher rep power make a post, or more thank yous, you know that they are active and generally give useful information.

So, make the helpers happy. Give "thanks" and "reputation" forum links a click when someone helps you out.