[sedeki]

You can be direct and nice at the same time. You’re saying that nice always implies extra, redundant chatter.

I don’t consider the SO culture a relevant counter-example. Like, why does a gamified forum hurt your feelings?

[irrespective]

No one's feelings are hurt, it just comes off as sounding like a dick. Just like the expression 'hurt your feelings'. (Nothing personal though, I'm sure you're swell in real life.)

[sedeki]

I am not a native English speaker, first of all. My point is that SO is not a representative example of general internet culture, given its rules and gamified aspect(s).

[Carpetsmoker]

I don't consider saying "thanks" when asking a question to random strangers as "redundant chatter".

[sedeki]

I agree. I think you misread what I wrote. If we are talking specifically about SO, just realize that it is a gamified forum where comments like ”thanks” is specifically discouraged. On most places it’s not.

[Carpetsmoker]

I don't think "gamified forum" makes things all that different. It's fine to say "I think saying thanks is redundant", it's quite another to go around and removing "thanks" from questions because it's "redundant chatter". That's just ... weird.