What is the recommended way to use this feature? If, for example, I create a new thread for a question, and a dozen people reply - should I explicitly thank each of those people? Or only the ones that went to some effort?

have you not just answered your own question ?

Yeah... the hard part is quantifying "some effort"...

it's only hard if you make it hard.

If the information posted is useful and helps you, Say Thanks.

If the person said the same thing face-to-face, what would you do?

I can't find the 'Thanks' icon on any post. Is that because I'm a newbie and don't get this feature or am I missing something ?

Yogi, have a look at the botom rhs of each post, you will see it there along with Groan & Quote.

BooBoo

Thanks for the reply Polorise but I still can't find it ! (I hope I'm not being 'thick' here !)

On the left I've got 'Post Reply'
On the right 3 icons -
Quote,
Multi-quote this message
Quick Reply to This Message.

I don't have a 'Thanks' icon.

I think you need to have a post count of 5 maybe 10 before you get all the options.

Correct - I think I wrote about this on another thread (announcing some other features like the groan option).

You won't see groan or thank options until your post counter reaches 10 (and remember off-topic doesn't count towards this counter). Also, posts which are too old (14 or 21 days I think) cannot be thanked or groaned at.

Thanks Mark.

I did spend some time searching but only found this thread.
All is now clear and my eye sight is not as bad as I thought !

just to bump the thanks thread because I've been asked how people can thank (or now also groan) a post