I appreciate a thank-you, particularly if it gives a little explanation of how the final solution turned out. I'm here to learn through contributing, if that makes sense. When I see an interesting question I do a little research, and provide an answer. Some answers are more helpful than others, but either way I learn something along the way too. If I later hear how a question was resolved, I gain a little more insight. A thank-you thrown in there is always welcome.

That being said, those times where I've been on the giving end of a thank you, I haven't seen much voting activity on such nodes. Not that I'm looking for people gushing all over a thank you with upvotes, but I sometimes am left wondering if the person I'm responding to noticed. I'm in the habit of upvoting any thank you directed at me because, in the back of my mind, it almost feels like a nod or acknowledgment in response to the appreciative node.

There are those who feel that thank yous damage the signal to noise ratio around here. There is something to be said for that. I find it annoying when I'm reading a thread and the OP has issued a thank you after each and every reply he gets. That tells me nothing. I don't learn which response helped him to solve his problem. All it does is add chafe to the thread. So this goes back to my original statement, "particularly if it gives a little explanation of how the final solution turned out." Let the OP wait and reserve the thank yous for once the thread has had a little time to mature. And at that time, one at the end is plenty.

If a person feels inclined to give an immediate token of appreciation, especially several times in the progress of a thread, use votes and the /msg box to thank people. At the end, summarize how things turned out.

Opinions expressed in this post are those of ...me... ;)