thanking the responders in a way that does not violate the rule

Question

My understanding of this matter is that SE rules do not allow saying " thank you" in questions, answers and comments. I am also aware that SE encourages "paying forward" and upvoting their answers, which i do. On the other hand, my culture teaches me to appreciate every help and thank the person. Besides, i am very grateful that musicians and experts would take their time to share their valuable knowledge in the midst of their busy schedule... to answer my questions promptly at no cost at all! I think it is wise to thank them for being so helpful. Could you suggest a way of doing so.. or perhaps moderators/webmasters could possibly create a new feature for this? After all, such an encouragement (by saying thanks) will go a long way.

Many thanks in anticipation ☺

Answer 1

Upvoting and accepting answers is the way it is done, and I don't think another means is needed, or will be implemented.

That said, comments of the type "+1 due to..." or similar is somewhat common. I.e. not just a simple "thank you", but a comment pointing out a specific point of the answer, or motivating the upvote. Personally I'm not too fond of those either, but they do not usually get deleted as far as I can tell, as they can be of value to others. Specifying why the answers was useful can provide pointers to the answerer, making for better answers in the future, and at the same time one can work in a "thank you".

Answer 2

mey - as Meaningful stated, the culture here is that an upvote or an accept are the equivalent of a thank you.

Awarding a bonus (once you have enough rep) also acts as a thank you.

Remember, people are only here because they want to be. They give their time willingly, for reputation points - effectively an imaginary score that indicates how helpful/useful a person's posts are.

Specifically, moderators cannot implement what you have asked - we are pretty much janitors, keeping the site working to the rules outlined in [about] and quelling arguments, spammers etc.

Stack Exchange themselves have stated that this is the way the model is designed, and there is no intention to build any different thank you features.

Answer 3

Another way to thank your answerers is add details about how the answers have helped. This could be in an edit to the question, and could look something like this:

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Update: Thanks to <user>'s explanation of <topic>, I was able to solve my problem with <bigger-task> by doing ....

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I know I will often check back over my previous answers and the question and other answers, and I'm often very pleased to learn that the answers were helpful, and how they were helpful.

Answer 4

An alternative to be considered, is to give a general acknowledgment in my user profile, eg. "Thank you to SE musicians who have given me valuable advice..."