I know of some other sites along the lines of PerlMonks allow the OP to flag a reply as 'helpful' or 'worked'. Instead of a new node, it could just be a flag on the reply.

A note in the header of the reply as to whether the reply was flagged would keep the clutter down.

grep

In reply to Re: To thank or not to thank? by grep
in thread To thank or not to thank? by blazar

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