In a community that encompasses many different cultures and artists, there has always been an unspoken rule for us to thank other deviants for "favouriting" our work. Is thanking other deviants on their main pages an act of kindness or a generic way to self advertise?

It's a simple act of kindness and appreciation.

One way to look at it is that thanking other deviants for appreciating your work is totally appropriate. The problem with this method is that one deviant 1 favs deviant 2's work, then deviant 2 thanks deviant 1. The End. This cuts off many deviants from socialization. When this action is repeated by many deviants, it hurts the community.

It's a selfish and generic way to self advertise.

Others believe that generic "thank you for the fav" comments are nothing more but spam on their profile pages. What's worse is when deviants actually try to self advertise without giving any personal consideration for the deviant's profile that they're posting on. The problem with this viewpoint is that when a deviant does not want these comments on his page, he will hide them. This also damages the community.

What is the right and what is wrong?

It's not bad to thank deviants for enjoying your artwork, but if you would like to provide more unique comments comment on the deviant's gallery, their interests, their journal entries, or even their username.

Open discussion: Do you see "thank you for the fav" comments as a kind gesture or meaningless spam? What do you think you can do to improve the community by change how we thank people for enjoying our work?