How petty do I seem for being annoyed at "Thanks for sharing" and other empty responses?

I still don't understand point sniping or trail blazing or why they would be a big deal, but sometimes "thanks for Sharing" means just that. The info, picture, meme or subject mater was neat but didn't warrant a diatribe or long assed answer, and I, myself was "thankful" to see it .

I couldn't agree more. It's very annoying. Worse when people who never, ever, otherwise comment in my threads, get there first. There's a handful of those, and I HATE it. Less so for the regulars who, although do TB, at least will comment otherwise. Finally, I find the practice of tagging 20 people in a COMMENT (not even your own thread) mercenary at best. Edit: this last isn't to be confused with legitimately tagging people in comments. I'm referring to those who do it for points.

I voted a little petty and here's the reason why. You have a fully valid complaint. I have seen some Point Chasers who like to inflate their arbitrary number and they'll post a handful of posts all at once or they'll start spamming the comment section trying to get whatever points possible. Or like you said, they'll hit the refresh button, wait for a new topic, and put their unceremonious FIRST post in as if it's a contest.

Now the reason I said it was a little petty, because while you may want to be encouraging deep thought out responses like I'm currently typing out, some posts genuinely don't warrant that kind of a response.

For example, I know a couple users on here will post a humorous cartoon/comic and sometimes I'll respond "Thank you for sharing this. It really brightened up my day." Things like this typically don't need any further discussion, but I'll try to let the user know it was appreciated.

I understand where you are coming from and I understand the frustration, but I can't answer a blanket question with a Yes or No answer.