@KStoller-WMF, is this task under the right parent? We haven't taken this ticket as part of the strategy.

T322166: New Impact module: Thanks count dialog was moved to the second iteration epic, so this task should likely also move. Thanks for the reminder!

IMO T51087 changes the social dynamics of how users might engage with Thanks quite a bit (e.g. imagine how that might surface in RfC discussions), and so is more controversial. Perhaps it is worth implementing the "Let user see revisions they were thanked for" which is already technically available via one's inbox history thanks to Echo, then separating out the more far-reaching change, which would be to let anyone see what anyone else has been thanked for.

Perhaps it is worth implementing the "Let user see revisions they were thanked for" which is already technically available via one's inbox history thanks to Echo, then separating out the more far-reaching change, which would be to let anyone see what anyone else has been thanked for.

Agreed.
T322166: New Impact module: Thanks count dialog Seems like a smaller first step that isn't likely to be too controversial.

Whenever we are ready to start T316699: [EPIC] Growth: Positive reinforcement - Iteration 2 I'll let CRS and Ambassadors decide if we should break this task into two separate community consultations.

As some initial community input, I'm glad to see this being taken up, as I've been wanting T51087 to be addressed for a while.

I wasn't here in 2015 when the thanks feature was introduced, but these days (at least at en-WP, but I suspect everywhere) it's an accepted, non-controversial part of the interface.

Overall, it's appreciated because it's a subtle form of affirmation: If I really like what someone's doing, I'll give them a Barnstar, but if it's just something small, like adding a category to an article I wrote, I'll use it to just say "I think this was a good edit and appreciate it". I wouldn't want to even leave them a ping/user talk page comment about something small, as the big red alert can startle some editors and indicates there's something important for them to pay attention to (which this isn't), so the thanks feature nicely fills that function. More rarely, but of relevance here, its privacy can be useful. I know that every thanks is public, but other users almost never check the log, so if I see e.g. someone make an unpopular needed-to-be-said type comment, I might use the thanks button even if I wouldn't have been comfortable replying "This!", as I know only the recipient is likely to see it. I would not change this behavior if the specific edit thanked for was public, as still the log would presumably be rarely checked.

Of the two possible concerns that you noted were raised in 2015, I don't think either would be likely to be raised by editors nowadays. We've had the thanks system 8 years, and we've seen that it (thankfully) has not turned Wikipedia into Facebook.

Overall, I think the reception to making edits thanked for public would be positive. Transparency is the default on Wikipedia, and having the edits be private is an exception to that rule without a good reason. However, I could see some concern that editors have been giving out thanks for many years with the knowledge that the specific edit thanked for would not be visible to others, and making those past edits public now would raise a potential privacy concern. If it's possible to make the edits thanked for public only going forward, but to keep them private for the past, I think that would assuage any possible concerns.

Let me know if that helps speak to the input you're looking for, or if you have any other questions about this!

In T324134#8671241, @Sdkb wrote:

We've had the thanks system 8 years, and we've seen that it (thankfully) has not turned Wikipedia into Facebook.

My concern is that making it possible to see the revisions that anyone thanked anyone else for could allow for commenting dynamics that are, well, different (I don't have a strong opinion on whether it is better or worse) from what we have now. For example, if this data is available via a public API, someone could make a gadget to show a "Liked" or "Thanked" counter next to each comment in a discussion page, which could also show which users sent thanks, which I imagine would alter the dynamics of how discussions unfold.

Again, I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing, but want to make sure we are aware of what we would make possible by making this data public.