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I know that this is a Q&A forum, but sometimes there are answers, where I feel like it takes a lot of effort and work(?) to write a detailed answer, especially if there is confusion which needs clarification. Or if the answer means a lot to me and I am just very thankful for the explanation/suggestion, or whatever it may be.

I know that I can upvote the answer and mark it as accepted, but I kinda feel like I maybe cannot show my full appreciation to the person, but I might want to do that.

Also when writing a comment it explicitly states to avoid comments like "thanks" or so.

And I am not sure what to do about this.
Should I just leave it like that and leave the answer as it is?
Or is there something else I could do?
And it makes me feel bad if I cannot do anything about that.
I would explain why, but it would take a lot of time, and it is quite personal.

Thanks in advance for any ideas/suggestions.

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    $\begingroup$ math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/23549/… $\endgroup$
    – Asaf Karagila Mod
    Mar 10, 2019 at 8:39
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    $\begingroup$ Something to consider is that well written Answers are meant to help other Readers as well as the OP, and indeed the questions that occur to you will likely occur to many others in the future. A Comment can quite properly point out an aspect of an Answer that was especially helpful or enlightening. In a peripheral way good Comments add to our mission of collecting good content. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Mar 11, 2019 at 1:25

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Also when writing a comment it explicitly states to avoid comments like "thanks" or so.

Based on what I've seen, it's more a warning because some popular questions would net hundreds of such comments from others viewing them. I feel like that rule is more lax in terms of the asker saying it to someone else; I know I've done it a few times. I guess the only real caveat would be to ensure it's more than just "thanks" - feel free to elaborate! After all, you were the one who asked the question and that answer was (one of the) most helpful to you; it's understandable you would be allowed to do that to some degree.

As for other ways to show your appreciation for an answer, the only other that comes to mind is offering up a bounty on the question. One of the reasons you're allowed to give one is for exemplary answers; after a few days, you can select the person to receive the bounty. The bounty requires you to give away some of your rep; in return, your question goes into the Featured list of questions (granting it additional attention, and possibly even more answers!), and your recipient gets that rep you offered up.

Some more info on Bounties from Meta SE. You can start awarding Bounties when you have reached 75 reputation (per the privileges page).

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    $\begingroup$ It feels kinda ironic to do this for this question, but thanks a lot for the explanation. I feel like these are very good ways of thanking people. I was just afraid of the commenting because of the warning. $\endgroup$
    – Pink Panther
    Mar 10, 2019 at 9:57

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