I do not think appreciating anyone and saying "Thank You" can be considered as a spam.
It will be considered as spam when it is actually a spam post. It depends on context where poster makes it. Unfortunately, most of posters whom leave their "Thank you" posts are spammers, and they make it in fake conversation, in monologue. We all can identify fake conversation easily.
For this, if a "Thank You" or "Like It" button is introduced then it would be much appreciated..
I know that the Merit System is already available, but every user doesn't have the Send Merit option available with them
I don't see convincing reason for those buttons. Then, we might have some buttons: Like, Dislike, Thanks, Crying, Fantastic, etc. like Facebook. I don't think we need those buttons. I don't think admin has intention to makes such changes and makes the forum looks funny like that. We might see it in only one case, the coming April Fool.
Merit button is enough, if you don't have them, try to earn them from your contributions, then you will have small gifts that you can send to others when you need to say thanks to their help for your questions, or simply to their good posts.
Not really because having buttons such as: Like, Dislike, Crying, Fantastic, etc. would be like having something in form of Smileys... We aren't discussing about smileys over here...
Dislike & other buttons are not required because if you didn't liked the contribution of a user or if you have a different opinion over it then you should put that in form of a Reply with a detailed explanation instead.. that is why we have a forum, right?
We already have enough of smileys on our default Text Editor in SMF... so we don't need to have a button to express every emotion...
If you feel that a Thank You button doesn't make any sense then even the Merit Button makes no sense according to me, they both are similar in some way... they both are intended to reward the user for a Quality Post...
It's just like a Premium Subscription vs a FREE Subscription...
There are certain limits between them...
Send Merit = For members that hold a rank and has some Send Merits with them
Thank You button = For every user who are still struggling to achieve their First Merit / Rank and wish to Thank the user for a wonderful post..
If i was a Newbie with 0 Send Merit and if i notice a post that's worth a merit, i am not going to send PM randomly to Merit Source users and share that link of a constructive post and ask them to reward with a Merit on my behalf, if they find the post worth...
If i have to appreciate a post then i should do it myself with the available resources (i.e. Thank You button or similar) that i have within my account privilege...
In a forum every member is important regardless of the Rank they hold or the amount of Merits they have achieved throughout these years with their quality post...
After-all, a Merit or a Rank is just something added to your profile in addition to what you really are. It doesn't mean a higher rank user has more knowledge than a lower rank user or vice versa..
Everyone's got some talent and they express their Skills/Knowledge in form of a quality post in the desired Thread/Post...
If you have good skillet at Mining then the other user might be good at something else...
It differs from user to user..
With the Merit System, the Newbie Users will have to contribute a quality post and wait till they get at-least 2 Merit before they can send 1 Merit to anyone else...
They may end-up with 100 post or so and still may not receive a single Merit because their post went unoticed although they are good..
On the other side, a quality post diffs from user to user...for you that post may mean average but for another user it might be a life saver for him...
So if a Merit Source checked the post and he felt like this post doesn't make much sense to me you might never reward with a Merit...
The idea of having a "Thank You / Liked" button was to give a fair chance to every Users to express their Feedback to a Post instead of spamming the threads with a one liner as short as "Thank you"
Also this is nothing something new, there are certain forum that have this system implemented... there is nothing bad if we include this here... it won't make the forum look funny like you said... that's a weird thinking that you feel that adding such a feature can make a forum look funny... lol... Never mind..
Just imagine a scenario, you are a User on any forum and you keep contributing to the forum with all the knowledge that you have in form of post.. what if no-one gives a damm about your contribution?
Would you still help others by spending your valuable time on any forum?
After-all we all have personal life and professional life... we also have students over here.... they visit this website during their free time to contribute something and to grab some knowledge or for Buying/Selling purpose...
After-all, you are not getting paid for replying to a Thread/Post, as that is not what a forum is all about... but we are sharing our Views/Knowledge over here and helping each other...
When they dedicate their valuable time from their life to the forum, the least they expect in return is a form of appreciation...
But again, we can't have a "Thank You" message flooded across all our thread which would make it a big mess and time consuming task for a moderator to clean the site...
So it's better to dedicate a button to get that job done... if it's worth...
Send Merits are limited, you don't have Unlimited Send Merits, do you?
What if you have 10 Merits in a month and you have already send those merits to some users and then you find another worth constructive post, you will add a reminder in your calendar and wait for next month to send him a Merit again?
Does that make sense?
This is the point... you can't compare a Merit System with a Thank You button system...
Merit System is indeed good at it's place, i have no problem with that... but it doesn't equal to a Thank You button...
The idea is different because it gives fair chance to every user regardless of their Rank, hope so you get it..
The rule of forum is simple, don't spam with One Liners like Thank You, Loved it etc.. but there is nothing bad in having a button to appreciate a Constructive/Quality post, that's the least a contributor can expect in return...
I know you might not agree with me over here because you are a Sr. Member and for you whatever i said might look funny, even some other high rank members may not agree wit me, but that's just okay.... i am not here to debate on this.... i felt i should make a detailed response to this and so i did...
At-least some of the lower rank members would surely agree with me...
In the way you speak, does that mean you got a place in this forum only if you got some skills else stay as a Newbie forever and you won't ever get a chance to appreciate anyone's work in this forum?
Does a person watching a Song on YouTube needs to be a Singer?
Definitely not..
Hope so you get it..
Also, implementing this feature on this forum is not a hectic task at all... I'm a Website Developer and i myself have multiple forums.... it can be done within few minutes itself..
You have check this here,
SMF Mod Sitehttp://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=257You may go through the sample Screenshots over here,
Screenshots of Thank You mod:https://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=download;mod=257;id=32396;imagehttps://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=download;mod=257;id=32398;imagehttps://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=download;mod=257;id=32394;imageAnyways, by-chance if the Admin notices this post then i will leave this to the Admin to decide whether it is worth or not.. let them decide and make a wise decision.. we Users can also post suggestions, at the end of the day it's their final decision that matters the most...
So i get back to work... enjoy this excellent forum until then....
PS: Apologies for the lengthy response... while typing it in a detailed manner i didn't realised the message went too lengthy..