1

On the one hand, I'd like to thank people who provide useful answers, but on the other, I can see how those comments really just become clutter for everyone else.

2 Answers 2

8

The founders of the Stack Exchange network have written about this exact topic here.

7
  • 2
    +1, and for the TL;DR crowd: Don't do it! Upvote, or if you asked the question then accept the correct answer.
    – Chris S
    Feb 22, 2011 at 21:40
  • @ChrisS I think you misunderstood the question or the answer. The blog post says we have a firmly established convention already in place for thanking our fellow users: vote up their post or comment!
    – kasperd
    Aug 3, 2015 at 18:20
  • @kasperd Could you be more specific? What is the etiquette on using comments to say “thank you”? => Don't do it! seems to make sense to me... maybe I'm in left field.
    – Chris S
    Aug 5, 2015 at 17:14
  • @ChrisS But that is not what the linked posting says. It says don't use answers to say thank you, it says vote up or comment instead.
    – kasperd
    Aug 5, 2015 at 22:21
  • @kasperd it says vote up their post or comment, it does not say vote up or comment
    – Chris S
    Aug 6, 2015 at 17:05
  • @ChrisS Oh, the sentence is ambiguous. It has quite different meanings depending on whether you read comment as a verb or a noun.
    – kasperd
    Aug 7, 2015 at 7:46
  • @kasperd Conceded. However, only voting is mention in the rest of the article. One could infer that "comment" is therefor a noun. I reserve the right to be wrong.
    – Chris S
    Aug 7, 2015 at 12:27
2

It takes a bit of getting used to but thank you, as well as greetings and signatures, really is just clutter. Of course it might have been different if we didn't have the voting system.

On a personal note, if you ever do feel compelled to post a thank you, please, please, please don't abbreviate it to thx or some other absurdity. I shudder ever time I see and makes me thing there are too many 13 year olds on the site.

4
  • I'm sad, I'm 15 does this mean I don't belong? :(
    – Jacob
    Feb 23, 2011 at 2:34
  • @Jacob, had I not read your age in your bio I wouldn't have guessed you are so young. Your contributions are most welcome. Feb 23, 2011 at 3:39
  • Thanks @John Gardeniers, I just disagree with statements like " too many X(teen) year olds" so I try to point it out. :)
    – Jacob
    Feb 23, 2011 at 3:46
  • @Jacob, we've all been there before. Feb 23, 2011 at 3:50

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .