Help:Notifications/Thanks

The Thanks notification offers a way to give positive feedback on Wikipedia. This feature allows editors to send a "thank you" notification to users who make useful edits – by using a small "thank" link on the history page or diff page.

The Wikimedia Foundation's editor engagement team developed this small feature to encourage productive contributions to MediaWiki projects. It is available across all WMF projects, and was introduced to the English Wikipedia on May 30, 2013.

Two (green) Thanks notifications in the flyout.

Why this feature?

To make it as easy to show appreciation for each other's work as it is to express disagreement or disapproval. Sometimes you don't have time to write a personal note, yet still want to show your appreciation. "Thanks" is a quick way to say "thanks" for an edit.

It's easy to react to bad edits: all you need to do is hit "undo" (or use "rollback" etc. if you can) on an article history page; this is a good thing, because it protects the encyclopedia from errors or vandalism.

However, if you thought an edit was good, there was not much you could do about it quickly, before "Thanks" was implemented. You could (and still can) tell others they did a good job by posting a message on their user talk page (see Wikipedia:Expressing thanks), but this requires time and effort, and can come across as overwrought for minor contributions – a set of typo fixes is most welcome, but maybe not worth a barnstar. Sending "thanks" is a quicker and easier alternative!

What the feature is

This feature, which is simply called "Thanks", makes it easy for you to express your gratitude, using the notifications tool. It's a simple way to thank another editor for a revision, when viewing it in history or diff view. How this looks in history view, before and after you thank somebody, is illustrated in the boxes to the right.

The button and tooltip text before you thank someone (it also appears on a diff)

How it appears after you thank someone

How this feature works

To allow you to thank users, a "thank" link is shown on the history pages and diff page for each edit by a logged-in user (next to "undo"). This link has a title (displayed as a tooltip in most graphical browsers) that reads "Send a thank you notification to this user."

When someone thanks you, you get a notification in the personal menu next to your username. The Thanks notification includes the name of the person who thanked you, a link to their user page, the name of the page you edited, a text snippet from your edit (or its summary), and a link to your edit's diff page.

Confirmation

If you activate (click on) the "thank" link, a confirmation message appears saying, "Publicly send thanks?", with links for "Thank" and "Cancel". If you select "Thank", a message saying that the editor was thanked by you for that edit will be added to the user's notifications. Also the link on the history page disappears, instead replaced by the word "thanked".

If you select "Cancel", the action is cancelled, and no message is sent.

The word "Publicly" appears, somewhat imprecisely, in the confirmation message because, even though a user's notifications are only visible to that user, thank-you messages are logged (see Special:Log/thanks). Anybody who looks at the logs can tell how many thank-you messages a user has given and received, as well as the username of the other editors involved. However, the logs do not show specifically which articles or edits thanks were given for.

The confirmation message was added because the "thank" link is next to the "undo" link, and initially several editors accidentally thanked vandals for edits they intended to undo.

Details and limitations

• To thank other users or see the thanks you have received, you must be a registered user and be logged in.
• You can only thank other registered users and automated bots; edits by IP users cannot be thanked. See § Alternatives below.
• You can only thank someone for a given edit once. After you have thanked someone for an edit, the "thank" link is replaced by the word "thanked". The "thank" link may reappear later but using it again will not send a new thanks.
• You cannot "un-thank" a thanks once confirmed.
• A "thanks for the thanks" response is not needed!
• Frequently, an editor uses several edits to implement their intended contribution. You don't have to thank every single one of these edits, and in fact would spam the user with notifications if you did. Consider selecting one edit only to thank the editor for their entire contribution.
• You cannot make more than ten thanks in a minute. This limitation is intended to avoid abuse (by preventing the spamming of thanks notifications).
• Not all actions can be "thanked". For example, when page reviewers accept pending changes or new pages, as well as certain logging actions. If a new revision in a page's history is created, you can thank the editor for it.
• Blocked users cannot thank except for edits to pages they can still edit.

You can always leave the person a regular talk page message if there is no "thank" link.

What the feature is not

A "thanks" is intended as a simple, personal message of gratitude, nothing more.

It should not be taken as a stamp of approval or as public endorsement of the edit. It does not mean your edit is "right" or that it represents consensus. It does not replace the need to discuss on Talk pages.

"Thank" links are not part of watchlists or recent-changes. They are only available in page histories and edit-diff pages. They are logged in case sysops need to monitor the volume.

Alternatives

Main page: Wikipedia:Expressing thanks

First and foremost, you can always leave an editor a regular talk page message.

A number of templates exist that accomplish much the same task of the Thanks notification feature; quickly leaving a quick message:

• {{Smile}} and other WikiLove templates can be used to provide graphics, standardized text, and a pleasant layout for a talk page message
• Barnstars and other award templates that you can bestow on any Wikipedia editor! See Wikipedia:Awards for details.
• {{Thank you}}, {{Thank}} and {{WikiThanks}} – concise thank-yous. These templates are intended for usage in talk page discussions
• {{Thanks}} and {{Thank You IP}} – for leaving a short thank-you note to an IP editor while also encouraging them to sign up. Since you cannot use the Thanks notification feature detailed on this page for IP editors, these templates offer an alternative suitable for thanking IP editors.

Sometimes you will post a message on a user's talk page and not get any response back. Please respect the decision of that user not to engage in discussion with you. Thank you.

How do I see the thanks I've received

This is part of the notification system. You'll be notified when someone thanks you (unless you have turned off Thanks notification; see How to turn off this feature below.)

To see all the thanks you have received, visit the Thanks log. In the "_target" box, type "User:" followed by your username, then hit enter. Now the log shows only the thanks given to your edits, including who thanked you and when.

The Thanks log does not record which particular edit of yours triggered the thanks. To find that out, go to your Notification archive: Special:Notifications, which does show the edit for which you were thanked. Clicking a notification in this list takes you directly to the diff of the edit for which you were thanked.

How do I see the thanks I've given out

You need to visit the Thanks log, and filter it on your own username. (Visit the log and type in your own username under "Performer", then hit enter. Now the log shows only the thanks you have given out.)

You will only be able to see who you thanked, and when. The log does not record the specific edits, and you cannot access other editors' notifications. (If you remember the page or edit for which you thanked a user, visiting that might show the "thank" link replaced by the word "thanked". However, as explained above, this is not certain: the "thank" link may have reappeared even though the edit remains thanked.)

How to turn off this feature

There is no way to prevent users from thanking you. However, you can block being notified when they do.

To stop getting any thanks notifications, you can opt out from them in your notification preferences. Go to the Notifications tab of your preferences.

To stop getting thanks notifications from individual users, use the User Mute features introduced by the WMF's Anti-Harassment Tools team in 2017. This allows you to receive most thanks notifications, except those from specified users.

This only prevents you from getting notified, it does not prevent users from thanking you. A blocked user cannot tell if you got notified or even that they are blocked by you; from their perspective their Thanks action proceeds normally. This is an intended feature.

For tips on how to use the Notifications tool, visit this FAQ page.