User blog comment:Rappy 4187/Technical Update: September 21, 2016/@comment-1038387-20160921201823/@comment-3474542-20160929202920

Clicking the appreciation button is actually a lot quicker and less work than copying the link for the page edited, finding the appropriate communication page for a user, typing out a title, typing out a message,pasting the reference link, and optionally signing the message. Besides, there's nothing in this system to stop you from showing your appreciation for an editors contributions in other ways...such as the aforementioned message page, blog posts, community highlights, etc.