Wikipedia:Expressing thanks

This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community.

Shortcuts WP:THANKWP:THANK WP:THANKSWP:THANKS WP:THXWP:THX

This page in a nutshell: Polite messages, awards, or a nice cup of tea are all ways of expressing thanks.

Expressing thanks for another user's helpful, generous, or positive actions is an important activity for cultivating community virtues such as civility and WikiPeace. Sending thanks communicates one's attitude towards other users. This page lists common methods for communicating thanks to other users.

The contents of this page, together with pages such as WikiLove and WikiPeace, are not policies or even guidelines; however, the encouragement of positive behavior is a topic of the civility policy and the etiquette guideline.

Direct thanks

A message of thanks is most often directly placed on the other user's talk page. In general, when any change is made to a user's talk page, that user will receive a message notifying them of the change the next time they view any Wikipedia page.

• Personalized message: the best method of thanks is often a short written note - not using any templates or other automatic functionality at all - mentioning the circumstance and gesture you are expressing thanks for.
• Already in 2003 {{Smile}} and other WikiLove templates started to appear. They provide graphics, standardized text, and a pleasant layout for your message. Some templates permit the customization of the message text and you could also copy the source of the template if you wish to customize it.
• WP:Awards are certain templates that usually convey a message of thanks or a recognition of a user's virtue, including barnstars introduced also in 2003. Most awards are granted on individual initiative—any user can give barnstars, not just administrators or bureaucrats—so be bold.
  • A small number of awards, such as the Editor of the Week award introduced in 2013, are the result of a community process.
  • Many such templates are created by individual Wikipedians: see a list of Wikipedia:Personal user awards.
• Notifications/Thanks offers a way to give positive feedback on Wikipedia. This feature was added in 2013 and lets editors send a 'Thank you' notification to users who make useful edits, without involving the talk page at all. Please note that Thanks are intended for when you want to communicate your gratitude without any expectation of a response.

More public gestures

• To make an announcement of thanks in response to an especially worthy action, you might place a temporary or permanent notice on your own user page.
• A nice cup of tea and a sit down is both an essay and sort of a forum for appreciating members of the community.
• Account authority promotion: If the user deserving of thanks initiates a request for adminship or a request for bureaucratship or another community process requesting community input on the user's conduct it would be an appropriate gesture to render your (honest) opinion of the user in that forum.
• WikiGnome Kudos: A venue where you can post your gratitude to the collective of wiki users who makes useful incremental edits without clamoring for attention, i.e. WikiGnomes

Guidelines for expressing thanks

• If a user's talk page is receiving a large number of thank-you messages it may be considerate to wait until a "quieter time" to add your own message.
• If you are expressing thanks in a tense situation, to someone with whom you are having a dispute, or to someone who has otherwise expressed suspicion of you, use caution. While a message of thanks might express good faith or an attitude of compromise, unless it is viewed by the receiving party as entirely sincere, it may arouse further suspicion or be viewed as patronizing. A different demonstration of good faith may be more appropriate.

See also

• Wikipedia:Notifications/Thanks
• {{Thank you}} and {{Thank You TA}}
• {{WikiThanks}}, a nice template to thank others
• Wikipedia:Thank you, an essay on civility
• Wikipedia:Expect no thanks, an essay on the need for gratitude