If an email pal does you a favor, do you feel honor bound to pay them back some way?

Question

Say, for example, someone you just know on the Internet, some email pal, helped you in some small way. Do you just say "thanks" or do you try to find something you can do to pay them back? Do you automatically send them a "thanks" card by email or do you recall that with their slow dial-up maybe those stupid e-cards are annoying to some folks? Does it depend on how well you know the person with you not feeling any sense of obligation if you don't really know them?

Answer 1

It all depends on the kind of help they gave, the degree of difficulty and value to you, that sort of thing. I'd guess that 99 times out of 100, a simple "thank you" is enough. I mean, I help people all the time and, like most folks, I'm doing it just to be nice. I'm not expecting anything back.

However, naturally, if a chance to pay them back presents itself then you should jump on it and do it. Example, assume someone once gave me some valuable information here at Yahoo Answers. If they were to answer a question that I posted and gave even a halfway reasonable answer, then I'd award them "best answer" even if others said something similar in their answer and posted first because I'd feel like it was a way to say "thank you."

Or "pay it forward." Say thanks then vow to help someone else!

Answer 2

You are totally over thinking this. Just say thank you.