That’s why upvotes exist. If somebody helps you, upvote their comment.

I care a lot about what other people think (not good) and if someone tries to help or helps me, I can’t stay without saying thank you.

Since you consider this to be a bad thing, have you tried changing yourself? I recommend chillin’ and hangin’ out.

I would say upvotes are thanks enough. But if you have something extra to say, then I’d say thanks in a comment and then give your extra information there.

For example, just “Thanks! That was useful/entertaining/enlightening/etc.” as a comment is pretty pointless, as an upvote conveys that exact message. Nothing more and nothing less.
If you have something more to say, then a comment would be appropriate. Perhaps something like: “Thanks! I did your X method with a bit of extra Y and now my car runs so much quieter!”.
This is especially true if your extra information would be useful to others who may also be reading the thread.

I always respond to people who comment on my posts, but I don’t post often. Generally speaking if I feel like the conversation has concluded, I’ll stop replying. If the reply to my comment doesn’t need a reply of its own (like if it’s a joke, or an addition to what I said, etc) then I also don’t reply.

Or I do. Whatever. There are no set rules for interacting with stuff. If you’re finding it hard to keep up, just don’t. For example, don’t respond to this comment. Like, for practice.

Replying to slow your gratitude seems like a nice thing to do, like holding a door open, but hardly necessary or expected. I feel like many people answering questions are just hurling their knowledge into the ether to be picked up by whoever comes across it. They know the op and perhaps more people will see it but don’t expect a response. If you don’t have the time just hit that upvote button, you’ve done nothing wrong. But if you do have the time don’t feel like you are doing something wrong by responding, it’s the unexpected things that are the most precious.

I recognize this, i’m a bit of a ‘thank you’er’ too. Sometimes i upvote, but particularly if someone sent me an elaborate reply, or they share something personal, or they took the effort to look something up or share a link, i will thank them. However, i don’t thank them so much from a feeling of low self worth (so, not because i don’t want to seem ungrateful), but because i want to make them happy, or feel good. It’s a bit of a shift of perspective, i think. We live in a world that can be pretty cold and harsh and i have no idea how the person that replies feels. They might be social, reply to me, move on without a second thought. But they might also be someone who generally feels depressed or worthless and in that case my sincere thanks might make their day, or at least brighten a moment in their day.

I am a bit like you in that I do spend a lot of time replying to people who leave comments on my post…they took the time to read and reply so I figure it’s just polite to respond. But also it’s nice talking to people, you know? Never know when some innocuous reply you make will kick off a whole deeper conversation.

PLUS on a platform like Lemmy it also has the advantage that more comments = more visible in feeds = more replies from more people.

All that said, you do have to prioritise. Nobody’s thinking you’re rude if you just edit your post or make one comment saying “thanks for the input everyone, sorry I can’t reply to you all individually but I appreciate the advice” or whatever. We’re all busy, and most people probably don’t expect a personal reply anyway. Maybe start thinking of upvoting and making a universal reply as the baseline, and doing individual replies just as a stretch goal when you have the time spare.

I don’t have much insight for you, but thank you for sharing.

I reply “thank you” a bunch. Do it if it makes you happy, don’t if you don’t wanna. It’ll all work out.

My very small gripe with this sub is that this post will likely be removed over rule 3.

I don’t usually say it out loud, but I do thank people with either upvotes, faves, following them, or depending on my resources, replying with a vocaroo of me giving thanks if the acquaintanceship is semi-personal. It’s sometimes better.

There’s a lot of trolls and bad people out there. When talking to people or debating someone, a handy tip is to try to assume the other person is acting in good faith until they give you a reason to doubt them. That way you’re not attacking a person for asking a legitimate question.

Disabling NSFW is a start

You show your appreciation by giving all your money to big tech.

Edit: Thanks for the gold, kind stranger!