1) I wouldn't say community agreed so much as set by PG. But yes, it's a requirement.
2) They exercise their own judgement. The capability becomes available once you pass a deliberately non-public karma threshold that I honestly couldn't remember if I wanted to.
3) There are. I don't believe their identities are public.
4) No. At least not in general. Sharing non-interesting posts is viewed negatively.
5) For anything that exists on its own page or is longer than a paragraph or two, definitely link. I guess you can make a case for inline quoting when you just want a very short excerpt that can only be found on a long webpage.
Since you're new and looking for tips: "thanks" posts like this are seen negatively, they add noise to the conversation. If you want to express your appreciation for someone's reply it's better just to upvote it.
2) They exercise their own judgement. The capability becomes available once you pass a deliberately non-public karma threshold that I honestly couldn't remember if I wanted to.
3) There are. I don't believe their identities are public.
4) No. At least not in general. Sharing non-interesting posts is viewed negatively.
5) For anything that exists on its own page or is longer than a paragraph or two, definitely link. I guess you can make a case for inline quoting when you just want a very short excerpt that can only be found on a long webpage.