This is slightly off topic and perhaps a moot point. I didn't see whether there was a controversy over the 'thanks' button here on the SOTD threads or not. I'm reading between the line and am guessing that somebody didn't care for folks "artificially" increasing their 'thanks' count through the use of pictures.

This is the first forum that I participate in that uses(ed) the 'thanks' feature - I think it spectacular. True, the mods/owners/whomever get to decide how/what they want to do, but if the thought process was that "any old monkey can take a picture and we want to recognize those leaders in the community that share their knowledge with the rest of us", I can only comment that taking a SOTD photo is not a short process. The good photos probably have at least 30 minutes behind them in terms of concept, design, shooting, editing, posting, etc. I'd humbly say that we DO want to recognize those folks that are putting forth some great art with our favorite subject as the focus. Plus, a crappy photo isn't going to get a 'thanks'.

To my mind the 'thanks' button should be all about recognition around participation - whether that be "here's a wonderful photo" (which might make me want to run out and get some new soap, a strop, or even a razor - all of which have happened, btw), "here's a video of me shaving", or "here's some written advice on WTG, ATG, XTG, etc.".

So... that's my two cents. I vote to bring back the 'thanks' option. It makes it 100x easier to say "dude, awesome photo, thank you" vs. posting a message to say the same.

In other words, you can be a participating, helpful newcomer judged by your peers vs. your post count (the traditional method of determining who is an old fart vs. a young whippersnapper).