I don't know how anyone else uses the rep/thanks buttons, but *I* give a "thanks" click for posts that I think are funny, clever, etc... I give Reputation for posts that contain a wealth of information.

People used to just have the reputation to click, and so everyone used that for anything they wanted to give a point on. Once the 'thanks' option appeared, people seemed to use it instead. So they seem interchangable.

And with this site, if a newbie asks something like "Can I keep my boa and ball and turtle in the same tank"... even if a person does post with "Sure, that's a grand idea, I do it all the time!", there's always going to be the larger group of people who post very soon saying "No, bad idea". If the newbie chooses to believe the one person vs the group, then most likely, they were going to do the way they wanted, regardless of what they read.

And it's not our job to hold the hand of every single person who wants a reptile. At some point you have to realize that it's their own responsibility to research properly. We can't go to their house, sit them down in a chair and explain out all the nuances of keeping herps, requiring them to learn before they buy. We can answer questions, offer advice and encouragment, but we can't ensure that no one ever makes a mistake with their choices.