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There have been a number of cases where I would like to thank someone for providing me with a thorough response and give them feedback beyond the vote up. Often I wish people would tell me why they voted me up. Not that the thank you part is necessary but it sets it apart from the other comments related to answering the question itself.

In this type of situation is a "Thank you" acceptable in a comment?

For more information, see "What should I do when someone answers my question?" in the Help Center.

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  • See the new "thank you" feature (June 2020): stackoverflow.blog/2020/06/17/…
    – Avatar
    Commented Jul 6, 2020 at 16:14
  • 2
    @Kai The "Thanks" feature has been removed. (Just mentioning for reference.)
    – wjandrea
    Commented Jan 4, 2021 at 23:51
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    Thank you for bringing this up sir, I always wondered this.
    – Orhan G. Hafif
    Commented Dec 7, 2022 at 22:10

2 Answers 2

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There is nothing inherently wrong with writing "Thank you" in a comment. It would be preferable to thank good answers with an upvote and the best answer by marking it as accepted. If on top of all that you also want to post a "thank you" comment, that's nice (I guess).

However, a comment saying just "thank you" isn't really what comments are for, and if you post one, it will likely be deleted as too chatty:

When should I comment?

You should submit a comment if you want to:

  • Request clarification from the author;
  • Leave constructive criticism that guides the author in improving the post;
  • Add relevant but minor or transient information to a post (e.g. a link to a related question, or an alert to the author that the question has been updated).

When shouldn't I comment?

  • Compliments which do not add new information ("+1, great answer!"); instead, up-vote it and pay it forward;

You have quite a few other ways of being nice, to everyone not just the person who answered your question:

  • Ask helpful questions,
  • Post great answers,
  • Upvote helpful posts,
  • Downvote unhelpful posts,
  • Flag content that doesn't belong,
  • Revise posts,
  • Post comments with relevant feedback,
  • etc.

The list of things you could be doing that are more helpful than a simple "thank you" comment goes on ad infinitum.

See also: Thanking users who answered my question

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    Commenting with a "thank you" and leaving constructive criticism on the answer at the same time is a good thing. This makes the post polite to the person who answered, without wasting any time or space.
    – charmoniumQ
    Commented Aug 9, 2013 at 6:09
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    @Sam "thank you" wastes space. It's always nice when there are only one or two other comments, but it's pointless noise when there are a ton of other more relevant comments. I don't mind "thank you" comments, unless they are pushing other more useful (i.e. relevant to the answer's topic) comments out of the way. See my answer for a non exhaustive list of things that better show your gratitude and are more polite (imho) than "thank you" comments.
    – yannis
    Commented Aug 9, 2013 at 10:18
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    @Yannis I agree; thank you comments on short comment threads are nice and make things friendlier and more civil. Thank you comments on long comment threads, hiding useful comments, are harmful and need to be flagged and deleted.
    – Mark Amery
    Commented Aug 9, 2013 at 23:47
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    related issue: posting "Thank you, I'll try that tomorrow." is always a bad idea, not only because you should post after you tried the answer (with a confirmation that it work -> much nicer than any other explicit gratitude), but also because it degrades your appreciation if you thank already for a possibly useless answer.
    – Kalle Richter
    Commented Sep 7, 2014 at 13:41
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    It is not clear to me: are we supposed to flag "thankyou-only" comments?
    – László Papp
    Commented Dec 28, 2014 at 6:36
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    Unless the "thank you" comments hide other, more useful comments I wouldn't bother flagging them @lpapp. The moderators have far more important things to do with their time...
    – yannis
    Commented Dec 28, 2014 at 10:48
  • @Yannis: fair enough.
    – László Papp
    Commented Dec 28, 2014 at 13:19
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    I humbly think both arguments against posting "thank you" are not worth much (contrary to what seems to be the consensus). (1) "It would be preferable to upvote/accept answer".That's irrelevant: writing "thank you" in the comments does not prevent from doing that. (2) "That's not what comments are for". Says who? Saying that an answer solved a question is both nice and informative.
    – Seub
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 9:52
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    Like @Seub I am struggling a bit with this debate. In all other contexts, saying thank you is a great way of saying you appreciate the trouble someone has taken to help you, providing positive reinforcement of helpful behaviour and ... erm ..., it's polite. These are all things which make the world a slightly nicer place to be in aren't they? So why would they be scorned in these page? I don't buy the arguments about other ways of saying thank you. They aren't mutually exclusive.
    – Auspice
    Commented Jun 3, 2018 at 9:53
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    @Seub - Says who? Says the Help Center on all Stack Exchange sites. I think the policy is trying to discourage repetitive thank-you's from cluttering the site. As an extreme example, I've seen a few cases where a new user wrote "Thank you for your helpful answer" under every answer they received. Perhaps seeing that once under an answer is nice, but seeing it three times on a page gets a bit repetitive, and takes away from the site's goal of "Get Answers, No Distractions."
    – J.R. means 'Just Reinstate'
    Commented Jul 15, 2018 at 11:02
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    I like to say "Your Welcome", especially if they are new to the site, as I try to convey a good community / atmosphere. Now, I understand the points made on this and the position / perspective on / from both sides. but Why not auto-hide any "Thank you" only comments? We have bots doing a million other things, why not that, I like to read the whole threads on some of these posts as they are very "fly-in-the-room" reading it is nice to see. Anyway, We all have our opinions on things. I just agree to disagree, and promote all of us to be polite. =) Cheers, all!
    – JayRizzo
    Commented Sep 12, 2018 at 9:16
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The Help Center Page "When Someone Answers" says (emphases added):

Please do not add a comment on your question or on an answer to say "Thank you". Comments are meant for requesting clarification, leaving constructive criticism, or adding relevant but minor additional information – not for socializing. If you want to say "thank you," vote on or accept that person's answer, or simply pay it forward by providing a great answer to someone else's question.

The Help Center page on the Comment Privilege says:

When shouldn't I comment?
  • Compliments which do not add new information ("+1, great answer!"); instead, upvote it and pay it forward;

There is a feature request to add such wording to the Help Center page on the Comment Privilege (here).

Further related readings:

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