You all know the situation:  One of us show-off, do-it-for-our-ego
commenters really "answers" a question, complete even with links, and
nothing happens, or worse, the question is cancelled, which shows the
the person has read the comment and decided to save his price with no
comment of his own.
Yes, of course, there are many who do respond and even ask if there is
some way they could still pay.  Very nice people!
Admittedly, I am hoping that by just raising the question this will
have a salutory effect.

Thanks for that.

Howdy-hi, myoarin.

This is a fine, thoughtful question. Thankless tasks trouble me, too.

I suspect that the failure to thank is mostly just rudeness, but in
some cases it could be that the questioner never saw the comments.
During the process of posting a question, there is an option which
allows the questioner to choose not to receive emails notifying him or
her of activity such as comments. If a person has chosen this option,
it is possible that he or she fails to respond to well-crafted
comments simply because the comments haven't been read.

People who cancel their questions without thanking anyone have no such
excuse, of course. Some folks seem to take pleasure in "gaming the
system." To offer thanks might diminish the pleasure of feeling that
one is immensely clever for getting away with something for nothing.

There is another category of ingrates that I, as a GAR, would like to
mention: people who promise lavish tips (and sometimes even name the
amount) and then fail to deliver them, regardless of the high quality
of the answer. This all-too-frequent occurrence has made many GARs
leery of new customers who mention tips. We assume the worst: the
offer of a tip is a way to get a better, more comprehensive answer
than the question's fee would justify, and there is no real incentive
(other than niceness or honor) for the asker to leave a tip once the
goodies have been provided.

There's an interesting study of tipping behavior on GA here:

http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/CMPO/workingpapers/wp115.pdf

A brief discussion of the study linked above, for those who don't want
to plow through the whole thing:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/economics/res/media/regner.pdf

~Pink

I'm always happy to give an answer (or atleast my version of an
answer) with no thank you.  I do like when the questioner expresses
gratitude, but I'd happily put my 2 cents in even if I knew they
wouldn't or couldn't respond.

As far as manners go, I think they are going the way of the dodo.  I'm
sure they will never be completely extinct, but it definately seems
that they are diminishing over time.

Admittedly, I live in the city now and that has a negative effect on
the average person's manners, but I wonder every time I hold a door
for someone now if I should or not.  Sometimes people glare at me or
say something like "I could have gotten that you know" when I do hold
the door open for them.  I will continue to hold doors and help
strangers out when I see them in need (help push a broken down car,
pick up scattered items that someone dropped, ask people if I can help
when they look puzzled or lost...) but most people these days ignore
the people around them and are only concerned with their own affairs.

That's my blurb about people today...  I know you good ones are out
there keeping manners alive and helping a brother/sister in need and I
for one greatly appreciate what you do.

Wow, I am flattered that the omniscient Pinkfreud agrees.
THANK YOU!  I will check those links (and will keep wondering how you
find them so quickly).  Oh, and to show off,  octipi  ...  Oh I wont,
not with all my typing mistakes.  ;-)

It often seems more like a lack of dialogue between the questioner and
answerers.Some people just want to ask(with no clarification)and
leave,it may seeem rude but it's part of a larger communication
problem.But I must admit sometimes I'm curious as to whether my
comments are any help to anyone.

What a great question! We all need to be reminded occasionally of what
constitutes good manners. Your question has performed that necessary
service for us.

How should we respond to bad manners? Ignoring them is almost always
correct. But pointing them out is proper when there is an audience
available and receptive to learning, and when done without creating
even more offense. Your question does all of that.

You can often see demonstrated here one of the great principles of
good manners: ?always give more than what you bargained for.?

Figuring out how to give ?more? in any situation comes with
experience, but it can sometimes be taught. ?More? doesn?t have to
mean something material, but it may mean that too.

For questioners, it includes things like: providing a rating;
providing a simple ?thank-you?; providing a comment; and/or providing
a tip.

For the responders, it includes things like: comments about the
question, providing unrequested helpful information, commenting upon
the provided links, and showing the search methods.

?Giving more than what you bargained for? may seem counterintuitive if
you focus too much on getting the ?best deal? possible. Enlightenment
comes when you realize that good manners sometimes get you a better
deal than you even imagined. And even when they don't, you will still
have more respect for yourself.

Reminds me of this old saying:

...No good deed goes unpunished...

Thanks for the question myoarin.  I see this all the time and it has
happened to me too.  I too enjoy when the customer says thanks and
even when they offer to pay.  It makes me want to continue to provide
helpful comments/answers.

The situation Pink describes is also unfortunate, or when the customer
gives a bad rating to a perfectly good answer.  I guess those are the
perils of an Internet service.  You can remain somewhat anonymous and
make all the promises you want and not have to own up to them.  Maybe
GA should rate the customers in a similiar way to EBAY.  Someone can
then find out what kind of tip history, ratings, and comments an
individual customer has given.

Hey, thanks, everybody  - and anybody else who has an opinion.  Makes
you kind of feel good to know that others agree.
Bowler:  rating questioners: yeah that might be interesting, say, something like:
"asked by: Bowler-ga  4 of 8 Q Answered, av. stars: 5, tips 2"

That would probably induce inflation in ratings and 25 cent tips.
The info can be found pretty quickly, and I bet the researchers do
check, if only to refresh their memory when they are considering if it
is worth tackling a $10 question from a recognized name.

Thanks again  (can't say it often enough after raising the q. :-)

Myoarin--

You posted a question that I've been tempted to post myself for months --
but then I thought it would only make me seem neurotic for feeling peeved 
about not getting thank you's sometimes when I provide the exact
answer to a questioner,
especially when I give specific names and phone numbers.  

I realize I want the applause more than I like to admit.   And I
definitely want the applause for the researchers who do massive
amounts of research and cleverly posted answers -- and nary a peep
comes forth from the questioner.

Someone should do a quick analysis. . . .are the non-thank you-ers
mostly the ones who post low-fee questions with difficult research
ratios?   Does it happen that often with the big bucks posters?

More than the thank you's, though, what I love most is the banter and
back and forth that goes on when questioner, commenters and
researchers all gang up on a question and you have threads that go on
for dozens and dozens of responses.

I often think Google should publish a book called "The Best of Google
Answers," with both helpful questions and silly ones -- like one of my
personal faves that's been answered a few times here, "How much wood
could a woodchuck chuck..."  If you haven't read those, you must!

Thanks for your comment, Cryptica.  Yes I did follow pinkfreud's link
the last time the woodchuck was here.  And yes, there are many fine at
heartfelt answers, but also some almost poetic questions, like the $
200 short story about a guy and his girl and the 3rd man in the house,
a wonderful stream-of-conscious outpouring.  Hang all the right
answers about grammer (sic) and punctuation, he told his piece very
well.
It made me think about suggesting a literary prize for questions in
2005, making the actual question a call for how the question price
could be given to the winner.
And then I like some of the subject lines:  "Car stuck in park,"
making me envision suggesting that he better move it before the park
warden arrives;  and others that immediately suggest (to me) something
entirely different from what the questioner means.

I like the Google Literary prize idea - -  I wish Google management
would institute Focus Groups with some of the "regulars" here . . .
there are so many great ways to promote GA and they're not taking
advanatage of them.  I don't personally don't know anyone who has ever
used google answers except for me.  Or has even heard of it.  When I
show them what it is, they are blown away.  It still is this
"best-kept secret" thing.

Only recently have I noticed people have picked up on Google Images,
so that's made inroads.

And yesterday everybody in my office was playing with the Google
Satellite maps -- which i'd not known about.

But do you know about MONTAGE - A GOOGLE??!!  Try this!!!!  It's not
an "official" Google thing. But it's amazingly fun!

http://grant.robinson.name/projects/montage%2Da%2Dgoogle/

I posted a question sometime ago and was immensely grateful by the
comments i got but i didn't know how to thank everybody that helped so
much. I love computer when i can figure how it works and it sucks to
click here and there just to get stuck. In other words, there might be
others that would love to thank those who help but don't know how. It
is really beautiful such a system exist with so many people willing to
share their knowledge.

THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!! THANK YOU!!!