1093

I edit a lot of posts every day. I often run across posts with 'Hi' and 'Thanks' on the top and the bottom of the post respectively. I also run across things like:

--User

Should these items be removed during the editing of the post by an editor?

Improve this question
12
  • 254
    Kill it with fire. You want to do social you get on Facebook. :) I like the questions just to be questions (without any noise).
    – PeeHaa
    Jan 30, 2012 at 19:35
  • 12
    I can't speak for ALL the users, but I've just found this question yesterday. Despite the fact I find this answers very useful, doesn't seem appropriate to call it "clear decision" since opinions continue to go both ways.
    – Zuul
    Jul 17, 2012 at 14:32
  • 26
    Opinions do not go 'either way'. Look at the answers and the votes on them. Just because we have a vocal minority it doesn't override the overwhelming support for the removal of such extraneous clutter from posts. It also does not override the site policy listed below as well.
    – GEOCHET
    Jul 17, 2012 at 16:27
  • 18
    Just to be clear, I've been editing a lot lately over on SO, and I've become a little worried that I'm being perceived as a serial editor for no point, I've been formatting code and correcting spelling but also I've removed a ton of Thanks, Thx, Please help !!! Cheers etc... Can one reassure me I'm alright with this behaviour otherwise I'll stop doing it, but I do feel like I'm improving the quality.
    – Daniel
    Aug 13, 2012 at 21:44
  • 13
    Should we promote this to faq-proposed (with the appropriate work)? It seems like a good enough thing.
    – Cole Tobin
    Aug 13, 2013 at 4:43
  • 37
    A better way to give back to the community than using an impersonal, empty thank you stuck at the end of a question before people even answer, is to: spend extra time making your question concise and clear, read all answers carefully, vote for the good ones, award the best answer with an extra 15 points, make comments on any new things you've realized that could help future readers, let an answerer know if something's wrong in their answer, etc.
    – Garrett
    Oct 13, 2014 at 21:06
  • 10
    For people who do insist on explicitly giving verbal gratitude, writing thank you in a comment under an answer is preferable to a undirected thank you in a question that hundreds of thousands of people will read. Suppose that the thank you message in a question distracts each reader for an average of 0.5 seconds and suppose the answer has 100,000 views. 100,000 * 0.5s = 14 hours. So 14 hours have been spent on people reading a thank you message for something they didn't do.
    – Garrett
    Oct 13, 2014 at 21:14
  • 18
    In some places, it just doesn't make sense to add a thank you tagline. Stack Exchange is a site for disseminating information. Notice that articles in academic journals don't end with Thank you.
    – Garrett
    Oct 13, 2014 at 21:20
  • 3
    Possible duplicate of Are taglines & signatures disallowed?
    – Robert Longson
    Mar 15, 2019 at 8:39
  • 4
    Would be so great to have these things automatically removed. Just bloats up questions.
    – Steffen Moritz
    Jun 18, 2019 at 21:55
  • A minor point, but if the only fault is an opening "Hi", that's only a 2 or 3 character edit. What do you do to make up the other 3 or 4 characters to reach the minimum of 6 when there are no more obvious problems?
    – Peter Jennings
    Mar 1 at 12:20
  • Note: Atwood's post is where he announced the salutation removal filter. (This is not so obvious in the "oldest first" view, being at the 25th place in the sort order.)
    – This_is_NOT_a_forum
    Apr 15 at 10:44

34 Answers 34

Reset to default
1
2
-7

A solution to this problem could be to add a method like code blocks or code span with backticks, in order to add additional greetings. Thus the greetings could be turned off by a simple switch for users who prefer plain raw questions and left in tact for the users who prefer a more human response.

Improve this answer
0
-13

When asking a query I often write/want to write "thanks for reading". I honestly appreciate and am grateful for someone taking the time to read my query. If they can go on to answer in addition, I'll thank them for that also.

I think it's a disgrace that my warmth and appreciation is being removed and thus my presentation of myself is being violated.

Improve this answer
0
-15

I feel enough like a robot. Please let us feel like human with a little "hi" or "thanks". There is nothing wrong with this I think... No, don't remove; especially askers may use "hi" or "thanks".

Improve this answer
0
-24

Random salutations help add uniqueness and personality to questions. Words such as thank you improve the life of the receivers. (as long as they are located in a common location such as the bottom of a question and we can assume the entire containing sentence can be ignored as it's irrelevant to the post)

I don't think "thank you" or other appreciations should ever be removed. These keep stackexchange sites from being just rock and mortar plain Q/A sites, and they let human love flow through and around. Everyone needs love.

Improve this answer
4
  • 11
    Everyone needs food, clothing, housing, something to dream about, and safety from threats, too, but you don't see Stack Exchange trying to provide those.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    Mar 21, 2017 at 20:30
  • 15
    You totally miss the whole point of Stack Exchange. This is not a social forum, never was, never will be.
    – Shadow Wizard Says No More War
    Mar 21, 2017 at 21:57
  • 2
    What's wrong with having "Thanks." at the end of a question? it takes up 1 line of space, big deal. Could be good manners. If it's such a problem to have thanks in your question, then all the sarcastic and misleading and off-topic comments on Q/As should be removed. Yet there's so much stuff out there. Stack exchange currently is not what you guys describe here. The attitudes in comments are to show. Fine, let's keep the junk in the comments where it's more out of sight.
    – CausingUnderflowsEverywhere
    Mar 22, 2017 at 1:03
  • 7
    @CausingUnderflowsEverywhere - SE's (admittedly lofty) goal is to build a knowledge base of relevant Q&As. Salutations and 'Thanks' shouldn't be put in because the person asking/answering is secondary to the knowledge they are requesting (or providing). Also, SE comments are not considered anywhere near the importance of the question/answer they are attached to. They aren't meant to stay permanently - they can (and regularly are) deleted when they are too noisy.
    – Robotnik
    Mar 22, 2017 at 5:33
1
2

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .