  The Thanks feature on Wikipedia, also known as "Thanks", is a tool with which
editors can quickly and easily send one other positive feedback. The aim of
this project is to better understand this feature: its scope, the
characteristics of a typical "Thanks" interaction, and the effects of receiving
a thank on individual editors. We study the motivational impacts of "Thanks"
because maintaining editor engagement is a central problem for crowdsourced
repositories of knowledge such as Wikimedia. Our main findings are that most
editors have not been exposed to the Thanks feature (meaning they have never
given nor received a thank), thanks are typically sent upwards (from less
experienced to more experienced editors), and receiving a thank is correlated
with having high levels of editor engagement. Though the prevalence of "Thanks"
usage varies by editor experience, the impact of receiving a thank seems mostly
consistent for all users. We empirically demonstrate that receiving a thank has
a strong positive effect on short-term editor activity across the board and
provide preliminary evidence that thanks could compound to have long-term
effects as well.
