Personally, I find the "Thanks" feature of forums such a negative feature. It becomes clique-ish. Friends thank eachother. Posts that don't really need a "thanks" get thanked. When you're having a conversation in person, you don't thank each other after every sentence. Popular people with lots of posts get lots of thanks. Scrolling down a thread and you have 0-2 thanks while others have over 5 because their friends followed them in a thread. It's like being the last kid standing being picked for a team. Or kids trading the new fad in toys and you only have 3 and they have a whole bag of them. In other words, it's a popularity contest.

THANKS for reading even if you do not agree or respond.