Search features and 'Give thanks in post'

Two questions came to mind, and the former rose due to the latter.

1. Is there a way to search the forums to see if a topic has already come up? I'd rather read the information I need rather than bother the moderators 'AGAIN' over some common question that someone has.

2. I've seen in the upper right corner of people's profile something that says

Posts: 71
Joined: Jun 2013
Thanks: 0
Given 0 thank(s) in 0 post(s)

What the heck is this? How can we give people thanks, and what does that really mean, anyway?

Thanks.

You can try doing an advance search using the search function regarding your first question. If that doesn't work, the next best thing is to just go through pages and do 'find'--cumbersome? Yes. But, that's probably the only way and will really only work if people actually titled their threads accordingly.

For your second question, the 'thanks' deal is actually a feature that is turned off, yet still something you can see. It's a useless feature on here and serves no purpose given what we are. However, if active, it is similar to a 'like' button on FaceBook.

Ah....Thank you.