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I have often seen the removal of phrases like "thank you" that mostly newer users, especially 1-rep users, tend to append to their questions.

I even do this myself, mostly because it seems to be a common standard here. I have a speculation why this is done, but want your opinions or a specific reason for it.

In addition: How to justify the changes (in front of the new user) when the main part of the edit is the removal of the "thank you"?

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I (hope I) never edited a question just to remove a Thank you. But I always take it as a motivation to improve a question.

  • I check the title.
    Can it be made more clear? Can it be phrased as a question?

  • I check the body of the question.
    Are there typos? Grammatical errors? Wrong capitalization?

  • I check the tags.
    Is the question correctly tagged? Missing tags? Non-sensical tags? Maybe even an option for a tag-cleanup?

In my opinion, only fixing a Thanks in a question sends the wrong signal.

If someone still feels like the majority of an edit was invested in removing a Thank you and he complains, I'd explain that we like to keep a high signal-to-noise ratio. Meaning, we like it when what we read conveys a lot of information.

While a Thanks! can be nice, it distracts from the problem at hand and is simply not necessary.

The SuperUser way of saying Thank you is an upvote, and it should be applied to a helpful answer, not be appended to the question itself.

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    It makes sense to me to remove excessive personal fluff from a question, but removing such small pleasantries just because they do not contribute specific content, it seems to me, would just change the tone of the SU community to one that is a little less pleasant. I always end my questions with "Thanks" out of politeness and genuine gratitude for people providing their free time to help me but I noticed today this was edited out (among other changes though). Is this a deliberate sitewide policy or just some editors' personal preferences? THANKS! Sep 4, 2013 at 16:33
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    An upvote is a way of saying thanks only after an answer is posted and it can apply only to those who have actually given an upvote-worthy answer. A "thanks" in the question is a thanks in advance to all who took the time to help, whether a good answer or not. That seems to me, to be appropriate. IMHO the word(s) "thanks"/"thank you" are totally appropriate and conducive to good community. Removing it is overkill and adds nothing, not even to the clarity of the question. Sep 4, 2013 at 16:38

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