Help:Notifications/Thanks

The Thanks notification offers a new way to give positive feedback on Wikipedia. The purpose of this feature is to give quick positive feedback to recognize productive contributions. It allows for editors to give others positive feedback for their edits.

What is this feature?
The Thank notification allows a user to express their gratitude towards another user through notifications. When you "thank" someone, they will be notified personally through the MediaWiki notification system.

How does it work?
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.

To thank another user, go to the History tab of any page. Next to each revision will be a 'thank' link. Click the link to send thanks to that user. This link is also available in the diff view, and below comments on Flow boards if Flow is installed. Automated bots cannot be thanked. They usually have usernames ending with "Bot".

When the thank link is clicked, you will be asked to confirm "Yes or no". The page will return to its previous state if 'no' is clicked. If 'yes' is clicked, the recipient will receive a notification. The Thanks notification includes your name, a link to your user page, the name of the page the recipient edited, a text snippet from the edit (or its summary), and a link to their edit's diff page. A record of the action is also recorded as a log entry at Special:Log/thanks.

When does it not work?
The "Thanks" feature should be used as a simple, personal messages of gratitude, rather than a public endorsement of edits. "Thanks" messages are noted Special: Log/thanks so we can monitor the volume of "Thanks" being given out. "Thank" links are not part of watchlists or recent changes. They are only in page histories and edit-diff pages.

The "Thanks" feature is best used to encourage good work rather than bad work. You do not (and should not) Thank someone for thanking you as these messages should be reserved as small acknowledgments, especially towards new editors to encourage more participation.

How to turn off this feature?
To stop getting Thanks notifications, you can opt out from them in your preferences.
 * Click on Preferences in the top right.
 * In the Preferences menu, click on Notifications.
 * Uncheck "Thanks" from "Notify me about these events" in both Web and Email.

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