To be fair, he didn’t post the thank you until after being called out on it. Kind of like how a small child thanking someone for his/her birthday present after being prompted by a parent isn’t quite as meaningful as the child offering the thanks on his/her own.
To put it in Japanese: That relation is not XOR.
Thing is, since when has thanking people been the norm on this board? Sure, some people do it, but some people don’t. Why is it such a big deal in this case?
I thank people in real life more than I do on this board. I could see myself in a situation where I didn’t say thank you, saw people were expecting one and got mad about it, and then came back to try and fix things.
What’s the point of complaining about something if you don’t accept someone’s attempts to fix it?
And that’s not even getting into how advice threads on this forum are weird, with people getting full on hostile if you don’t agree with their advice, and often jumping on the person for even asking. It’s not exactly an environment conducive to thanks.
Sure, some people don’t say anything, even thank you. (I think it is a good idea to indicate whether the advice was helpful, though, so I think you should say thank you.)
But he took the time to reply with “Problem fixed, all on it’s own. {SHRUGS}” and “already fixed as above”. If he could take the time to dismiss the help of others with that, he certainly could have said thank you.
Since forever. Go look through threads not where someone is asking a factual or opinion based question, but at the threads where someone is asking for help or suggestions for an IRL situation (what’s wrong with my fridge? what’s wrong with my computer? what’s wrong with my kid?) and you’ll see that the OP usually posts some type of thank you, or at least an acknowledgement that the OP read what they took the time to type.
OTOH, go read these Bosda threads where it’s almost like he’s using the threads as a blog, unaware that other’s are commenting or (at least the older) Jinx threads where he would ask for advice and never post to the thread again. Those are the threads where people start getting annoyed. People spend a lot of time on these ‘help me with…’ threads, especially when they’re technical in nature, so when follow up questions go unanswered, multiple posters give relevant, knowledgeable, well thought out suggestions that seem ignored, they just want to know that they’re being heard.
No it’s not required, you’re not going to get a warning for it, but it’s common courtesy.
Speaking of, did I ever say thank you for the two Tampermonkey scripts you wrote for the board? I love them. Thank you.
Thank-you - I really enjoyed this thread
Thread’s too old old to quote from, so you’ll have to click on this heartwarming example:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6269157&postcount=11
And its inspiration- even more beauteous.
That’s some weak sauce for reviving a decade old pit thread. Bosda helpfully points out that the problem has been solved so people don’t waste their time trying to come up with more solutions and you complain he didn’t include a thank you?
Would “Please read the whole thread before replying, this issue is already resolved.” have worked better for you?
That was hilarious! Thanks for bringing to my attention. 
Well, I think the point was throwing in a thanks would’ve been better than a curt, dismissive response when someone is trying to help you.
So yes, nice is better.
After reading all those old Bosda-centric links, I’d say he’s mellowed.
I’m amazed he didn’t get banned back in The Oughts… any little correction and he’d immediately start insulting everyone, mods included.
Few may do it, but it’s really, really really helpful when you return to the thread not to say ‘thanks I fixed it’ but rather something like 'I fixed it, the error kept popping up so I went to programfiles\users his hat and deleted all the *.htd files and when I opened the program again everything was back to defaults, but at least I can finally use it again.
Or something like that.
Of course, that was the other issue.
The solution was “I was an idiot and blamed it on Firefox when the problem was the website itself. I never checked other browsers, and if I had, would have realized it was not a Firefox problem. The website was accessible several hours later when I tried.”
Bosda wasn’t helpfully pointing out the issue was resolved so people wouldn’t waste time. Bosda’s first response (after several actually helpful posts) was literally “Problem fixed, all on it’s (sic) own. {SHRUGS}” followed, after a single additional attempt at help, by “already fixed as above”.
The first response is sort of excusable. It still doesn’t acknowledge other posters’ effort but isn’t particularly rude - just ignorant.
The second? Literally not replying, i.e. saying nothing in response, would have been better.
It’s not anywhere close to the worst sin in the world but it does speak to a bit of self-centeredness and lack of awareness.
I was remiss in not thanking people earlier.
Again, thank you, and I apologize if I have offended anyone.
Can’t resist. (This is absolutely true.) I was admitted to the University of Chicago Graduate School of Social Sciences without applying or even submitting my undergraduate transcript. They called me one day and invited me to attend. Gave me a fellowship, too.