If you are requesting information, such as lyrics, info sites, band information, feedback, etc.....

It is polite to reply with an acknowledgement that you have read and understand the post. It will also not kill you to mention that you appreciate it, if you actually do. Nothing is more frustrating than spending an hour checking the web or a music library for your answer, then never knowing if you ever received it.

Some of the answers to questions take a lot of time to research....we don't all have big brains with every musical answer at our fingertips. It takes time to go out in search for these things, for very little reward.

We're not asking for your first-born here.....just a simple "thanks" will suffice.

This is not directed at anyone in particular, I've just seen a lot of dead answers out there in the last month or so. I'm done ranting......please continue.

speak for yourself!

I agree with the post, sometimes I'll make an effort to help people out and a thanks would be nice.

.... I think I'll leave this stuck at the top for a week or so

thanks

Thank you. Maybe I will work on a Music forum FAQ.

sorry I disagree. I see it as shameless post self promotion/bumping. I will often start a thankyou then stop cause it's better to leave that post off of the first page if you don't delete it altogether

If that's your concern, you can just edit your original message with the thanks. No bump required.

Agreed. That's a really good solution.

However, posts stay on the first page of the music forum for three or four days......a bump in appreciation is not going to do much harm.

How is a thank you a self-promotion? "I am boasting that I did not know the answer to a question." ?????

<small></small>If you've deleted a question and answer then if someone else has a similar query others will have to decide whether to answer all over again (and perhaps wonder what happened to the first thread).

I've not really considered this before, but perhaps deleting theads for no particular reason is somewhat against the "sharing" spirit of the forum. YMMV.

Thank You

Agreed.

Back to the original here....A bump to the top for showing appreciation is nothing in the long run for the forum. However, if I spend two hours spent looking up an answer for a question, and I get a"Thank you!----that is great", then it makes me want to help out the next person. The forum gets better for a returned, contributing poster.

If I spend two hours looking for an answer and get nothing, then I don't help the next guy, and the forum turns into "NSYNC SUX" forum.

True in theory - but with the current bandwidth crisis in the General Discussion forums, wouldn't it be prudent to just stick with editing one's original post? The person who gets thanked can look for it if they want (if they even remember), but that way 30 people don't load up the discussion looking to see if there were any more insights.

After all, every little bit counts. It might even be why you've seen more dead answers - I know that lately, if I am getting ready to post a reply that isn't very important, I try to stop myself.