The scale of brown-nosing in these threads is ridicolous. I think some people are confusing forums with a family party.
If you're at family party and 5 year old cousin brings you his awful pictures, you can pat him on the back and say "oh i bet you worked so hard".
Last time i checked its a completely normal thing for customers of payed services to ask for status updates. If you want to pat people on the back, do it through private messages.