thats seems like a good idea..

Good you give us an example please quatarman, preferably one on a phpBB3 forum.

Mark

Not sure if it is phpBB3, but I have seen that on MSE forums. However, I feel that it often gives the person asking the question an excuse not to say thank you in any follow up reply, and so discussion seems a little ungrateful or discourteous.

I think it also creates a situation where a member posting 100 messages of trivial information or links easily found on Google may be thanked 2000 or 3000 times. However, a member posting one message of well informed and researched information is thanked only a few times. It comes back to that old problem again of highlighting (some might say rewarding) quantity over quality, a bit like the old star system which we got rid of.

David

I am on a few forums which use the thanks box system. I have to say I am not a fan, for several reasons. The main reason is that I find it often kills the "discussion" type posts. These posts are one of the main reasons I come on here. I find that someone will ask a question or ask for some info and the ensuing posts may digress slightly just the way a face to face conversation will, but in most cases the posts return to the original topic via a bit of banter. On the odd accasion that they do not return to topic the mods pop in and point the thread back on topic. The high standard of modding on this board is another reason I like to come here.
In short, whilst it would not stop me coming here, I think some of the areas of the forum which are not the busiest could become even quieter as people just click the thank you option rather than replying.

John

It was just an idea,I did not want it to kill the thread.I have and normally send a pm when thanking someone who answers a specific question.It is used quite alot on avforums.

qatarman: I am sorry if my reply seemed very negative, that was not my intention. I also do not think for one moment that you wanted to kill any thread, I just wanted to give my opinion on this idea. I am sorry if I did not put it across very well but my reply was based on using several other forums. I did not mean to insinuate that anyone would deliberately kill a thread just that sometimes that is the effect of these boxes.

John

Hi John no offence taken,thank you for the input.