ok look... I am on a roll now, I promise this is the last 'suggestion' for the moment!
I read a post earlier where someone mentioned about thanking a user... its always nice to get some thanks and helps bring people together and encourages us to post again in the future...
however... sometimes due to the pressure of the world we live in or various other factors writing a full 'thank you' response can be put onto the 'procrastination pile' and then never get done...
other forums I use (not all mind) have a 'thank you' button next to the users reply (very similar to 'this is the answer' button in the 'identify this' section).. this makes thanking the helpful respondent easy and allows other users to gauge how helpful a member is and how good their advice is... usually with a little tally under their post count... something along the lines of:
George Doorsthanked 486 timesin 890 posts
usually, dependant upon the forum software, this isn't difficult to install and should be easy to configure...
just an idea like :)
what goes around comes around!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/guyfrankland/sets/72157623175917620/show/
Think it rather better Guy that if someone helps and you are grateful just to do it on the thread under your own name and that makes it personal and only a minutes work for help that was perhaps worth a lot and took more than a minute to put on.
Just my thoughts.
I understand your point as 'thank you' posts can sort of be in the way in some forums sometimes, but in my opinon those indivisual posts are personal and I'd so much prefer to get a personal thank you post than just 'you received a thank you from ********' if you know what I mean.
'Dip a dee dah, dip a dee ay, we're not seeing any birds to-day...'