Re: To thank or not to thank?

I too have always wondered whether to thank or not. While I was always taught to thank someone as a youngster who has helped me, I do see that it can well clutter the thread. In the past I have thanked both with private messages and posts.

Reading the entire message string it is sometimes difficult to see if the posted problem has been answered to the satisfaction of the original poster. Recently looking at another help forum (PHP) which asked that all those that had found a suitable solution to their problem should raise a flag which indicated problem Solved

This to my mind gave some positive feedback to the member who posted a suitable answer but also stopped others posting unnecessarily. That may or may not be a good thing here as many subsequent answers to posts also have great merit.

Comment on Re: To thank or not to thank?

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re^2: To thank or not to thank? by blazar (Canon) on Jun 25, 2007 at 22:28 UTC
Recently looking at another help forum (PHP) which asked that all those that had found a suitable solution to their problem should raise a flag which indicated problem Solved Well, if there were a tagging system in place, as is also being discussed, I suppose that there may be official tags, one of which being `"solved"`, and special actions could be taken for that particular official tag e.g. in terms of visual appearance. So I support jdporter: yes, we need tags! This to my mind gave some positive feedback to the member who posted a suitable answer but also stopped others posting unnecessarily. That may or may not be a good thing here as many subsequent answers to posts also have great merit. Seconded all the way, but it may also help one to decide whether to read the whole thread anyway, perhaps to find something to add because a priori they suspect they will find it, or move to something else. It depends on how much one weighs simply supplying immediate help to those who ask it, plain and simple, over going into detail into an issue. OTOH this makes me think of possible cultural differences between Perl crowds and PHP ones, which is also a subject matter occasionally touched upon here, and even quite recently, that I can remember: no flame intended, but perhaps in the latter case people will tend to look for fishes to be spoon fed with, in relation to some immediate problem, while in the former they will at least occasionally be looking for deeper knowledge and wisdom, or wanting to share their own. Quite intellectual for a language that is supposed to be much about pragmatics, ain't it? (And that's the way I like it!!)	[reply] [d/l]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.

Re^2: To thank or not to thank?
by blazar (Canon) on Jun 25, 2007 at 22:28 UTC

Recently looking at another help forum (PHP) which asked that all those that had found a suitable solution to their problem should raise a flag which indicated problem Solved

Well, if there were a tagging system in place, as is also being discussed, I suppose that there may be official tags, one of which being "solved", and special actions could be taken for that particular official tag e.g. in terms of visual appearance. So I support jdporter: yes, we need tags!

This to my mind gave some positive feedback to the member who posted a suitable answer but also stopped others posting unnecessarily. That may or may not be a good thing here as many subsequent answers to posts also have great merit.

Seconded all the way, but it may also help one to decide whether to read the whole thread anyway, perhaps to find something to add because a priori they suspect they will find it, or move to something else. It depends on how much one weighs simply supplying immediate help to those who ask it, plain and simple, over going into detail into an issue.

OTOH this makes me think of possible cultural differences between Perl crowds and PHP ones, which is also a subject matter occasionally touched upon here, and even quite recently, that I can remember: no flame intended, but perhaps in the latter case people will tend to look for fishes to be spoon fed with, in relation to some immediate problem, while in the former they will at least occasionally be looking for deeper knowledge and wisdom, or wanting to share their own. Quite intellectual for a language that is supposed to be much about pragmatics, ain't it? (And that's the way I like it!!)

[reply]
[d/l]