Long wikimedia-l thread about it (100+ posts): http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-January/thread.html#129443

Marking bug 56828 as a blocker, though as MZMcBride pointed out (http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-January/129587.html), this could easily be done without Echo using a talk page post.

(In reply to Kunal Mehta (Legoktm) from comment #1)

MZMcBride pointed out
(http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2014-January/129587.html),
this could easily be done without Echo using a talk page post.

This would completely break the interaction model of Thanks (that it's not about the individual showing off they've been thanked). Consider this a -2 (or, indeed, stronger) in advance of any such work being done.

(In reply to Kunal Mehta (Legoktm) from comment #1)

this could easily be done without Echo using a talk page post.

There's also no need to use Thanks extension for thanks features, we've had them for 5+ years in patrolling gadgets. See [[m:Thanks]].

(In reply to James Forrester from comment #2)

This would completely break the interaction model of Thanks (that it's not
about the individual showing off they've been thanked).

[[mw:Extension:Thanks]] doesn't seem to support what you're saying here. The purpose of the "Thanks" extension is to allow users to "thank other users for individual edits".

You seem to be putting a means above an end. Sending an Echo notification is hardly the only means of transmitting an expression of gratitude for an edit from one user to another. I'm curious what interaction model you think would be disrupted here.

Consider this a -2 (or, indeed, stronger) in advance of any such work
being done.

That's not really how -2 works, though you're welcome to express your thoughts and opinions on this enhancement request, of course.

I think this would be awesome. Thanking an anonymous edit obviously couldn't work the same as thanking a logged-in account, but it would be neat to foster the good impulse people have to say "thank you, kind stranger!" even if the person who originally made the edit has no reliable way of receiving the "thanks!". The way I could see this still being useful in practical terms is to have the "thanks" count of an edit be as public as possible, so that the person who made the edit could go back, look at the edit history for an article they edited and say "oh, neat, 7 people thanked me for that edit!"

In T63022#1891338, @RobLa-WMF wrote:

The way I could see this still being useful in practical terms is to have the "thanks" count of an edit be as public as possible

T51087: Specify which edit was thanked in Special:Log/thanks, both for private and public records' sake, if configured to do so

Or just edit the talk page as we've done for a decade now: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Thanks

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@Jdforrester-WMF: I don't necessarily think using the talk page for anonymous editors would break the interaction model of Thanks. It would just be an exception to the existing interaction model. While I normally favor UI consistency, I think the benefits of extending Thanks via the talk page for anonymous users would probably outweigh the detriments of the inconsistency here. It should also be noted that this was a heavily endorsed proposal for the 2015 Community Wishlist Survey. Are you still strongly opposed to this feature being implemented?

If we did post a Thanks message on the Talk page, it should be changed slightly to reflect that it is coming directly from another user (via the edit API), rather than as a notification.

Thanks

Thank you for [[your edit]] on [[gumball machines]]. ~~~~

In T63022#2166873, @kaldari wrote:

@Jdforrester-WMF: I don't necessarily think using the talk page for anonymous editors would break the interaction model of Thanks. It would just be an exception to the existing interaction model.

Not true.

You are taking an act for users that sends a quick, private 'thanks' to someone and turns it into an edit to a talk page. For the sender, this is bad because either (a) we prompt them with different text or another step, breaking their flow, or (b) silently doing something unexpected without noting it. For the recipient, this is bad because, as shown by the community team several years ago, robotic posting, even of nicely-worded welcome or 'good job' templates let alone the more negative ones, had a negative impact on users staying around. This will be an exceptionally-robotic message; we could have a lot better impact by (say) making it trivial to write a few words in a quick-post pop-up that then sends, rather than some boiler-plate.

It should also be noted that this was a heavily endorsed proposal for the 2015 Community Wishlist Survey.

The proposal on the wishlist did not specify editing talk pages, and I don't think it's appropriate to call on that in aid of the particular solution you're pushing.

Are you still strongly opposed to this feature being implemented?

I am entirely thrilled about thanking anonymous users for their edits. I am entirely opposed to doing so through programmatic talk page messages. This task is about the former, but has been twisted to be about the latter implementation detail.

I don't necessarily think using the talk page for anonymous editors would break the interaction model of Thanks.

Agreed. Adopting an established practice of interaction with unregistered users is clearly a good thing.

This task may make more sense once we migrate to psuedo-users.

Partially related,

I thought that maybe at least the Grow team was interested in having the Thank button to frontend, also for unregistered Users.

This compromise is not about implementing any backend logic. This is just about capturing in the flow some users with positive intentions. Kind of:

[Thank] → *Click* → "To thank users, join the Wikimedia Community [ Login / Register ]"

Off-topic here, but relevant here:

T284214: Show the "Thank" button on desktop also for logged-out users (encouraging you to register)