Thanks
I don't recall ever helping you directly, alan_ri, but thanks for the appreciation.

While I love direct thanks when they come spontaneously, & they have occasionally made my day; I don't the lack of an explicit "Thank you" is rude. If fact, if thanks were in any way "mandatory" or part of a code of behavior, then they would be cheapened. I would rather receive fewer sincere thanks, rather than more perfunctory ones.

What bugs me much more is people who don't bother to give us feedback on what worked & what didn't.

Space
Drive space is amazingly cheap, so I don't think a few more "Thank you"'s are going to break the bank.

If storage ever does become a problem, there are plenty of other way to save (insert your pet peeves here). I would nominate redundant quoting & stupid Q's that have been asked, & thoroughly answered, before.

Ratings
FWIW, LQ & MepisLovers both run on vBulletin, so the ratings used there are available here; it's just that jeremy has decided not to turn them on. I think he is not likely to change his mind.

I haven't been on ML long enough to say if the ratings (reputation & thanks) add to or detract from the site. I'm having more trouble dealing w/ gaudy avatars, smilies that move, & having the poster's info between posts instead of at the side. Overall, I like the decisions made for LQ much better.

I was thinking about those who did,but I don't doubt that you belong to the first group I was thanking,anyway thank you for joining the discussion.

Trying to get members that create threads to follow up with a "Thanks" or any type of acknowledgment the suggestions worked is like trying to get Britney Spears to be a good mother, it's just not going to happen.

Quite honestly, if the suggestion doesn't work, and they really want help, they'll follow up and claim it didn't work. I take the no reply as an indication that the suggestion or solution worked.

Agreed ,but I do belive that number of those who will,will increase and I hope that it does.Speaking of Britney,since my favorite band is Metallica,I will use one song title of Metallica to describe what I know about her; Sad but true.

You can look at this issue a few ways. The first is to ignore the publicness of the site and assume that the only person getting help is ("the royal") "OP." With that view, it does seem like OP is an ungrateful bastard if they don't thank you, that they lost interest in their own question, or that they just don't feel the need to justify your response with another. But the truth is that the forums are public and in fact show up in general web searches (that's how I found this site.) I even help people who are total asses in their posts because I'm not helping them, but all who look at the thread. Generally in those cases I'll point that out explicitly.

"Thank you" is an implicit, socially-accepted indication of completion of a request. Unless stipulations are attached, it generally means that the problem was resolved and/or the OP no longer needs help. It tells those who were thanked that they went about it the right way and implicitly lets those who weren't helpful know that they weren't. In the end, it promotes better "quality of assistance," so it's in everyone's best interest to follow up with their own threads when either the problem is resolved or the problem is no longer relevant. Another truth is that people have lives and often either forget about a thread or do something else besides sit on the internet for a long period of time.

I personally don't feel the need to be gratified after helping someone. I actually go out and learn new things a lot of times to help people with questions. That's how I got into socket programming, kernel programming, and the POSIX API. It also helps me learn to be more clear with what I say and make basic assumptions about how I communicate what I've learned on my own to others, so it isn't like OP is the only one gaining benefit.

I really don't think a "helpfulness meter" is in order. After you hang around a forum for a while you start to see who is generally the most helpful and knowledgeable in the areas you're interested in. It's called developing a reputation with the other regular users of a forum. I know who I listen to 99% of the time in the forums I use and a "Samaritanship Gauge" certainly doesn't add to someone's credibility in my eyes. I think users need to earn their reputation every post they make, whether it be #5 or #5,000. You just can't expect a number by your name to do the speaking for you. It's like the halo effect (psychology term) which basically says that someone with a PhD generally seems credible in every area, but the reality is that people have their areas of strength and most other areas they fall well within the average.
ta0kira