?
You can enable thanks without enabling points.
I think there’s a general lack of understanding on multiple levels, Angry Lurker. I think people first of all don’t know what it is. Second, how it works. Third, why it’s necessary, given that we can thank people via post or PM. Fourth, how it’s an improvement on that process. And fifth, whether there’s any sort of dip or hump in the playing field for posters who are thanked a lot versus those who aren’t. (According to a recent IMHO poll, the board is heavily left-leaning, and left-leaners might sometimes have a tendency to want a “level playing field”. Sort of “Everybody gets a trophy just for showing up!”.)
I think your suggestion is dying out for lack of your explaning it clearly and completely in the OP, rather than sort of scattering it about here and there. But what do I know. Maybe other people know what it is and just don’t like it. Me, I just pretty much still don’t get it.
This.
Thanks, Lib.
Thanks mate, as a lurker for a not inconsiderable period of time (you may see a hint of this in my name ;)) you’ve always been one of my favourite posters. So much as possible on a message board I was delighted to welcome you as a friend 
So - let me address your points, not quite one by one:
Saying thanks is a way of notifying the poster of the post, as well as those who read the post, that one has said a “thank you”. The basic mechanism is that there is an icon somewhere around the post titled “thanks” that allows any other user to say thank you to the original poster. During the giving of said thanks there is an option to leave a message for the poster, which they will be able to read in their control panel.
Entirely about convenience. One can duplicate notifying the original poster by private message, and one can duplicate notifying the entire thread by a post. But both are extra effort, and the latter happens to clog the thread up too.
Not at all. It has to be said that the most usual usage of this capability is in conjunction with a “points system” amongst the forum posters. But there is absolutely no requirement for this. I entirely agree a points system wouldn’t fit in here.
For plenty of examples, as found by google, see this.
Delighted as well, Mate
Your examples were instructive, as was your further explication. But with the greatest of respect, your examples prove some of the points against you. I think you made a good effort at formulating an argument, but the examples devastated it. Let me explain. From The Long Hair Care Forum:
Is it an automatically compliment to have long hair or what???
Why don’t anyone ever say, Oh your hair is short?? and if they did would that be bad???
I don’t know just thought about it, Im actually thinking about cutting my hair into a bob style and just work on keeping it healthy…
When I first started my hair journey it was ALL about the length, but the more I think about it, I really think I like all lenghts of hair as long as it looks good healthy and shiney and bouncy…
The above post was thanked 333 times.
when it’s said to me, it always is said as a compliment. though i don’t even think i have long hair, i still say thank you.
i’m apl when straight.
got an astounding 2,173 thanks.
See, what happens is that those votes are just for popularity. They HAVE to be. I mean… just LOOK at them. I can see thanking someone for solving a problem you’ve been having with your perm or something, but this?
What will happen here is that MPSIMS will go crazy with thanks ticks. And people there will amass thank-yous for little more than posting in the Monday Morning Thread or something. No one will be thanked in the Pit. And everyone will be thanked in GD. IMHO will be saturated with thanks, but ATMB will garner just a few. And worst of all, Cecil and the Staff forums will get thank-yous once in a blue moon. It just won’t MEAN anything. And for me, that’s my problem with it at this point.
But if you’d like to put forward a case of how the SDMB might turn out differently than I’ve described it, then I’m open minded to hear it. I think your motivations — improving the board by activating an exciting new feature that makes thanking people a convenience — are good. But I think the unintended consequences might, in the end, leave you disappointed.
Dare I say it?
Just to add my 2c:
I’ve been on boards that used the Thanks feature before, and i’ve always been extremely relieved that the SDMB doesn’t have it. It really does boil down to little more than a popularity contest.
Also, many of the forums that use the Thanks feature are places that are specifically designed not for conversation and debate, but for the sharing of dodgy materials–software, movies, porn, whatever. Someone will post a thread with links to a piece of illegally-shared material, and a whole lot of people will show their appreciation by clicking the Thanks button. I guess it works fine for that sort of thing, because the threads themselves are not created for any purpose except the distribution of copyrighted materials. But here, it would be completely pointless.