Hm. It's an interesting idea, but with so many existing conventions for showing honest appreciation (and without a concrete suggestion for doing so), I'm not sure what--if anything--needs to be added or changed.

After all, many of us keep track of good nodes in a variety of ways and then refer to them (or a good reply)when appropriate..

As far as showing genuine appreciation goes:

• You mentioned wanting to show what you'd done with the help you received. If your final code differs substantially from the original posting and you have observations to share, then I think that's an appropriate time to reply to the root node with the new code and any appreciations you want to provide at that time.

  Please avoid thank you-only replies that do not add to the actual content. Please /msg those to the monk in question instead.

• As far as finding out out what people do with your replies, about the only thing you can do at this time is to see if they post a follow-up. If not, ask them via /msg. It could lead to an interesting discussion. If so, you might encourage them to post a follow-up or you could perhaps write up a Mediation about it.

• If you really want to show your appreciation in a more general way, there's an appropriate place to do so. It helps keep the candles burning.

• Many monks, as you know, showcase threads and nodes they find interesting in their home nodes.

In my experience, one of the best forms of feedback regarding one's efforts to teach or to help is to watch the progress a student makes through your material and to see what they come up with in response. In other words, demonstrate the effectiveness of the instruction through improved coding, noding, and assistance to your fellow monks.

--f

P.S. I'm not sure I like the idea of a "/msg all those who replied" options. Seems like a lot of work with minimal return given the existing conventions. But, that's my mileage. Yours may vary.