Thank You Buttons Disabled

Good morning!

We've disabled the "Thank You" button and the "Thank Yous Received" counter. Why? Because a bunch of AN members and admins had a long discussion about AN and our community and the consensus was that because we're small (yet) and because most of us know each other really well we tend to be a difficult place to break into when someone shows up as a new member. There is a sense that the many "Thank You's" that some of us get can be a bit intimidating to new members. So, this is an effort to make this place easier to jump into and feel comfortable with.

If you do want to thank someone for a comment please just post that to them in a comment.

Thanks!

Mark Peacock wrote: Good point. On the other hand, when someone devotes the time and energy to a long, thoughtful post, it was nice to be able to give some appreciative feedback. let them know they're not just writing to the crickets, without having to dilute the thread with thank-you-only posts. On another hand, thank you/ not thank you can get lazily similar to Cool/Not Cool. And Thank You button Click can be very subjective. A couple of times I happened to hit the board blazing with gratitude and could hardly restrain myself from a Thank You on whatever I read. Having to do a reply with some real content makes it more of a conversation.

Specifically to that, Mark, I think the tacit assumption needs to be that no post goes to the crickets, and that gratefulness is the default mode. If a post is exceptionally thoughtful, then by all means post a "huzzah" and not worry about dilution, probably because the gratitude will end up having more words anyhow.

Before the BG conference, on Friday, during a conversation with about six members here face to face, this point was made independently by a number of folks: it's hard as a new member to break through the rather small, intimate nature of this place. Removing the buttons is one way to help that process along. The Thank Yous appeared to be going mainly to a few, providing an appearance of cliquishness. We are, indeed, a small active posting group, so we really want to expand the active membership.

That's all there is to it.

Please note that we have re-enabled the Thank You buttons.

Thanks for all your input!