Removal of the 'Thanks' button on discussion boards?

OffGridLiving

Hi, I'm fairly new to this forum but I frequent several others, including some environmental forums where people give advice an assistance on green technologies and the like. I've never seen the 'thanks' button on these or any other forums and thought it was a great idea when I saw it on the Ethical and moneysaving forum. I "thanked" several people who helped me out with advice/information on there.

However, I feel it's being misused on the less help-centric forums, such as the discussion boards. Instead of being used to indicate appreciation for a helpful post, it's used to indicate agreement with someone's statement, often to bolster one groups argument and to indicate disagreement with anothers. It's becoming a form of bullying on these boards and I've even noticed that some members create alternative usernames that are used just to 'thank' themselves and other like-minded people (which is really sad when you think about it. An example of this on the Economy Discussion board is the AE (re-wired). This has obviously been reported in the past because another "Thank puppet" (rewired) was banned and immediately replaced with a new username. On the Economy board they call them "Thank buddies".

Clearly, banning doesn't work because they just create a new AE, so is there any way to remove the 'Thanks' button on certain forums such as discussion time, the arms, debate houseprices and economy and other discussion based forums to stop this misuse and bullying behviour?

torbrex

You have obviously put some effort into researching your subject, a bit obsessive in my opinion, who really cares about post/thanks counts anyway?

There are peeps with thanks in excess of 10 million that seldom venture away from the comp board so their contribution to the money saving aspect of the site as a whole is limited, would you like to see their thanks deleted as well?

OffGridLiving

torbrex wrote: »

You have obviously put some effort into researching your subject, a bit obsessive in my opinion, who really cares about post/thanks counts anyway?

There are peeps with thanks in excess of 10 million that seldom venture away from the comp board so their contribution to the money saving aspect of the site as a whole is limited, would you like to see their thanks deleted as well?

I never said I wanted thanks counts to be deleted, I said I thought the button could be removed in the discussion forums. People will still receive "thanks" when they have helped someone, just not receive thanks when they have supported someone in an argument.

As to your other comments, I haven't 'researched' anything. I noticed someone with zero posts "thank" someone on the forum and I asked about it. I was told about the 'thank buddies' situation. Several posters said they found it annoying and so I thought I'd mention it in here - the feedback board.

For the record, I think post & thank counts are important because it allows newbies like myself to determine whether a reply your receive to a query/question can be relied upon. Someone in the DFW board with 40,000 posts and 30,000 'thanks', would carry more weight than someone with 1 post and zero thanks. However, this is undermined if people are receiving thanks from AEs they have created to thank themselves or they have been "thanked" by people who just hold the same viewpoint in an argument as they do.

torbrex

I actually feel that anyone that holds up the thanks count or for that matter the post count is actually the bully on the boards, that was my reason for posting, just to highlight your contribution to bullying.

Its a button on a forum, nothing more and to read something into other peoples use of the button is a little over the top as far as I am concerned.

HeadAboveWater

torbrex wrote: »

... to read something into other peoples use of the button is a little over the top ...

'Thanks' torbrex

OffGridLiving

torbrex wrote: »

I actually feel that anyone that holds up the thanks count or for that matter the post count is actually the bully on the boards, that was my reason for posting, just to highlight your contribution to bullying.

Its a button on a forum, nothing more and to read something into other peoples use of the button is a little over the top as far as I am concerned.

You're entitled to your view, but equally I'm entitled to mine, hence the point of this feedback board. My view on thanks is that I think post & thank counts are important because it allows newbies like myself to determine whether a reply you receive to a query/question can be relied upon. Someone in the DFW board with 40,000 posts and 30,000 'thanks', would carry more weight than someone with 1000 posts and zero thanks. However, this is undermined if people are receiving thanks from AEs they have created to thank themselves or they have been "thanked" by people who just hold the same viewpoint in an argument as they do.

You have 49,746 'thanks' and so you're either very helpful or you frequent discussion boards (or both). Wouldn't it be great to know for definite that you received all of those thanks for helping people?

HeadAboveWater

OffGridLiving wrote: »

Wouldn't it be great to know for definite that you received all of those thanks for being helpful.

Just because you find something helpful doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else will. And vice-versa. Who's to judge?!

OffGridLiving

HeadAboveWater wrote: »

Just because you find something helpful doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else will. And vice-versa. Who's to judge?!

The person reading the post can judge whether it was helpful or not. The 'thanks' count is just a guide to show whether the poster is generally reliable with their advice. Someone with a high 'thanks' count could generally be relied on to have posted something that helped more than one individual, especially if their post count was 10,000 and their thanks count was 30,000 for instance.

torbrex

OffGridLiving wrote: »

You're entitled to your view. My view on thanks is that I think post & thank counts are important because it allows newbies like myself to determine whether a reply you receive to a query/question can be relied upon. Someone in the DFW board with 40,000 posts and 30,000 'thanks', would carry more weight than someone with 1000 posts and zero thanks. However, this is undermined if people are receiving thanks from AEs they have created to thank themselves or they have been "thanked" by people who just hold the same viewpoint in an argument as they do.

You have 49,746 'thanks' and so you're either very helpful or you frequent discussion boards (or both). Wouldn't it be great to know for definite that you received all of those thanks for helping people?

You set great store by someones post/thank count ahead of what they say in their post and I read the post first and thank or not depending on the content of the post and then look to see who actually posted, one thing I never do is take any notice of how many times they have posted or been thanked as it is irrelevant to the content of the post that I have just read.

There are people around the forum that simply thank a post so that they know where in the thread they had read up to on their previous visit.

OffGridLiving

torbrex wrote: »

You set great store by someones post/thank count ahead of what they say in their post and I read the post first and thank or not depending on the content of the post and then look to see who actually posted, one thing I never do is take any notice of how many times they have posted or been thanked as it is irrelevant to the content of the post that I have just read.

There are people around the forum that simply thank a post so that they know where in the thread they had read up to on their previous visit.

Then you seem to be arguing that the "thanks" count is completely pointless and should be deleted?

If you're correct in how it is used, then I think I'm starting to agree with you. I "thanked" your post because I agree with you.

As an aside, for someone who states that they don't care about the "thanks" button and derides other people that do, you have posted an awful lot on here!

torbrex

OffGridLiving wrote: »

Then you seem to be arguing that the "thanks" count is completely pointless and should be deleted?

I have long advocated that the post count (and thanks as well if you like) should not be displayed so that each post can be read and thanked (or not) on its own merits. This way people like yourself would be forced into making a judgement on the post and not whether the poster has been thanked a certain number of times (or not)

You are also guilty of 'bullying' me by holding my post/thanks count against me, something you would not be able to do were it not on display.