Giving People Unnecessary "Thanks"

cockneysean

Hi,

I hope that this is the correct place to post this, I could not see anywhere else that it fits in.

There seem to be a particular circle of users that like to "thank" each other using the system here on MSE seemingly just for the fun of it!

I'm a firm believer in giving credit where credit's due but like I said, there are a select circle of users that just click the thanks button on each others posts no matter what they seem to say.

Has anyone else noticed this? I'm not really having a rant I just wanted to point this out as it makes some people look more useful than they really are!

jackieb

Do you want to have it removed altogether or just have people sanctioned for thanking others? Does it really matter?

cockneysean

Like I said in the OP, I just wanted to mention it is all. Why on earth would I want people to be sanctioned for it? The main reason I pointed it out was that I saw some one line posts that added no value at all to the threads that they were in yet they still received thanks.

torbrex

Like the actual postcount it is a meaningless number, if you are looking at these numbers instead of the actual post content then you will never get the advice you are looking for.

grumbler

On some boards the culture of pointless thanking is so perverted that they routinely keep thanking new spammers making short pointless posts purely for building the post count.

I agree, the 'Thanked' number has been absolutely devalued on some boards and is pretty much meaningless within the entire forum as a result.

grumbler wrote: »

What's wrong with this board?
A new spammer came yesterday and posted 44 pointless and useless posts in 50 minutes just to build the post count. This one was thanked two times :eek:

grumbler wrote: »

...As I said, something is wrong with this board.

... I just was surprised that yesterday's spammer was thanked 5 times and checked the thanked posts. The one in questions certainly wasn't useful in the slightest.

youngsaver1995 wrote: »

I think you're over-reacting. This thread is excellent, and frankly the only reason that I signed up, and continue to post on, this forum. When somebody is thanked in this thread for their post, it isn't always because they made a useful post to others, but rather posted about something that has recently happened to them financially, like achieving a savings target. I personally see no reason not to use the thanks button for that, because somebody has achieved something. Of course, looking at it from another perspective, when reading about other people achieving savings goals, that can be very motivating to the reader, in making them want to work hard to save money. I think thats why this topic works so well, because in hearing about others doing so well, you too want to do well in saving money. Therefore you could be thanking them for the motivational aspect of their post.

LOL. They just keep thanking everyone posting in that thread regardless of what was posted actually. You'll struggle to find a post thanked less than 6 times.

I wonder if this is why the number of thanked post under avatars is disabled on that particular board.

cockneysean

Yep, it's just I have noticed that it is the same circle of people that thank each other in all posts that they make.

It detracts from the proper purpose and the spirit of the thanks system and makes the whole thing pointless. I know that nothing that can be done about it, but I thought that I would make a mention of it just to see what others opinions were on the matter.

fivetide

There are quite a few cliques. There are also plenty who simply see what they want to and will just hit thanks whenever.

There are many more that don't thank someone for useful advice then go on to say exactly the same thing in a thread.

Not worth worrying about really.

cockneysean

Certainly, I agree with you 100%. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, that's for sure, it's just a shame that the system isn't used how it is intended.

It's a pointless exercise clicking the thanks button on a post just because one of your forum buddies has posted it. There are various posts which don't even relate to the thread subject matter where thanks have been given.

And I know what you mean about people repeating others info like it is their own, but that comes across as funny more than anything else and makes the user in question just look rather dim.

fivetide

cockneysean wrote: »

And I know what you mean about people repeating others info like it is their own, but that comes across as funny more than anything else and makes the user in question just look rather dim.

You see what happens there is it'll be someone who has an army of chums so the original poster will go unthanked while the follow up only a bit further down the page will pick up plenty.

That's a good example of all these things rolled into one.

lostinrates

cockneysean wrote: »

Certainly, I agree with you 100%. I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, that's for sure, it's just a shame that the system isn't used how it is intended.

It's a pointless exercise clicking the thanks button on a post just because one of your forum buddies has posted it. There are various posts which don't even relate to the thread subject matter where thanks have been given.

And I know what you mean about people repeating others info like it is their own, but that comes across as funny more than anything else and makes the user in question just look rather dim.

This can happen if a poster has people on ignore or if threads over time are merged too.


I thank for more reasons than to thank. Its a useful tool for me on long threads. It also gets swiped by my finger a lot on the ipad when I am scrolling. Sometimes on returning to a thread I see I have thanked something I really do not care to thank, ( normally do not mind, but if it contains something I find inflammatory I dislike that) and sometimes the option to remove thanks doesn't function.

There are many reasons to thank.

If it was a 'this is useful' button it would be different I think. But thanks is polite, its even possible to disgree with 'thank you but I disagree'.

Indie_Kid

How do you decide the thanks was unnecessary?