Some of you may have noticed
the new "Thanks" button next to the reply buttons on the posts.
If you haven't noticed it,
here's what it looks like:
Why is it there?
One of the issues that comes up as a forum grows as large as T-ShirtForums has, is something called 'post boosting'.
This basically means posting small, sometimes meaningless comments to inflate your postcount in an online forum.
This can often be done unintentionally, however, it can also be done intentionally for any number of reasons.
Sometimes there are folks who LOVE to say 'thanks' whenever they can
just to see their postcount go up. How can it hurt? Their post count goes up, they have nothing to loose.
There are also users who genuinely like to express their appreciation for a particularly helpful post, but don't like adding a post that looks like they're post boosting.
We never want to get to a point where moderators have to delete people's "thanks" so a thread can stay on topic and still look readable without the "thanks" interspersed between posts.
Lastly, for the people that make those great helpful posts that you really want to show your appreciation for, they may not have an idea how many people really like what they are sharing if only some people say "thanks" and others shy away for fear of not "contributing" to a thread.
What this new feature does is address and fix all of those issues
How do I use it?
When you see a post that
has helped you in some way, or a post that you felt really
helped contribute to the thread, just click the "Thanks" button
When you click on it, it places your username in a small box right under the post that lets the original poster (and other members) know that you appreciated the post. Every member who also says "thanks" for the same post will also be noted in the same box.
A tally of how many times you have given thanks and how many times you have received thanks will also be kept.
Don't go crazy with it just thanking every post
, but don't be shy in showing your appreciation for those many helpful posts that make T-ShirtForums a great place to learn about the industry!
For example?
A great example is the
"Things I wish I knew when I started" thread here:
Things I wish I'd known from the start.
There are probably over a dozen posts in that thread that are just quick "thanks" from people who appreciated the information that was posted.
There's nothing wrong or sinister about that at all, but wouldn't it be great to have a thread that just added tip after tip of awesome information that you could easily reference, and not have to wade through extra questions or thanks posts to read the tips that have been shared?
Instead of making adding another post to the thread to say "thanks", now people can just click the "Thanks" button on the first post (or any helpful post in the thread) and let the author know that their post was helpful.
This helps in a couple of ways:- It will make sure the actual thread is focused on helpful posts that contribute to the thread's topic
- It will also make sure that that people who have "subscribed" to the thread to get updates on when a new post has been made, will only get notifications when another helpful post has been added to the thread. Sometimes it can get frustrating to get a notice of a "thread update" when the only response is "thanks"
If you have questions about this new feature, feel free to
contact me via email,
Private Message, or the
Feedback section of the forum.
Stay tuned for a couple of new T-ShirtForums contests and giveaways...
(can you say extravaganza
)
New "Thanks" Feature on the Forums - a better way to say "thanks" for a helpful post 
