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[entwife]

I just had a couple of little things accepted and I am wondering if it is appropriate to reply to notification e-mail with a thank-you to the editor or conference chair. On the one hand, it seems like good manners to me; on the other hand, we all get too much e-mail. Also, if I like some of the work by these people, is it appropriate to mention "btw, I really like your paper X"?
Thanks for your help! (Um, so I do have very old-fashioned ideas about manners).

[science_expat]

No. The acceptances are professional, not personal.

As an editor, I would be very uneasy if someone thanked me for accepting their work.

[captain_obvious]

Science Expat, your reaction is perplexing to me.  Why would it be unprofessional to send a brief note saying something like, "Dear X, Thank you for letting me know the outcome of the selection process.  I'm delighted to have my piece published in your journal and look forward to working with you.  Sincerely, Me."  I'd leave out the personal bit about how much the OP liked the editor's own paper, but otherwise this kind of acknowledgment of acceptance seems pretty ordinary to me.  In my former like (in which I did a lot of accepting and rejecting people's work for publication), this sort of note wasn't at all uncommon.

[entwife]

OK, this is intereresting - opposite opinions here! What I had in mind was along the lines of "Thank you for letting me know the outcome of the selection process", or "thank you for delivering the good news". Would other people find this unprofessional?
Thanks!

[croaker]

In the final submission to the journal, I thank the editor for all his/her help in improving the paper through the revision process.

[terpsichore]

I think it's fine to thank the editor for the news. Just make it straightforward and brief, and don't expect a reply.

[deleteplease]

I think a short note of thanks is definitely in order. As well as being polite, it
has a practical function of letting the editor know that you received the acceptance
note and confirming that the venue does have permission to use your work.

In the humanities, thanks to the readers for the journal often go in the first footnote
(attached to the title). If an editorial (graduate) assistant has made an particularly useful
contribution, I also thank him/her by name and/or include in my thank you note a brief
mention of the assistant. The reason: it gives the editor a nice little detail to include
when writing reference letters for that assistant a few years down the road.  Even if the
contribution was just untangling a computer problem (fonts, formatting incompatabilities, etc.),
it's worth the time to add a few words of praise -- often assistants spend lots of time being
blamed and criticized (sometimes due to their own newness at the job, sometimes due to
no fault of their own), but few contributors make the effort to praise assistants when they do a
good job.

[trabb]

No. The acceptances are professional, not personal.

As an editor, I would be very uneasy if someone thanked me for accepting their work.

I agree with science_expat: I would never thank an editor for accepting my article; it sounds too much like I think the editor has done me a favor, using his/her sway to get something in print that otherwise would have been rejected.  I would, however, express my delight at having my article accepted, and I would certainly take the time to thank the editor and the reviewers for their care in reading my work.

OP:  I think the answer to the second part of your question depends in large part on how you know the editor or conference chair.  There are several editors of journals in my field who I see every year or so at conferences and who know me by name.  I would have no problem at all shifting into a more personal mode and mentioning their recent work:  "On a more personal note, I really enjoyed reading your recent article, etc., etc."  If I'd never met the person, I wouldn't do that.

[august_leo]

For a conference I don't say anything because they would get bombarded with emails from everyone. I think it's better to wait and then when you see someone at a conference you can use your "I loved your paper on x" as an icebreaker.

[publishorperish1]

Every time I've had something accepted (book, journal article, conference paper), I've thanked the editor or organizer.  Never implied that they'd done me a favor, but thanked them for things that seemed appropriate to me -- taking the time to find appropriate, thoughtful reviewers in a timely manner, helping me to negotiate the revision process, etc..  I've never found an editor or organizer who seems to have thought of the thanks as inappropriate, and, instead, have often wound up having fairly rewarding conversations as a result.  (The thank you email has, at times, been the first non-business part of our interactions, so it has prompted editors to ask me questions not specifically about the work I've submitted or the review process, but about my broader interests, or to tell me something about interests of hers/his that overlap with my own.)  When I've been thanked as an organizer, I've taken it as a nice gesture of acknowledgement, choosing to believe that it wasn't a case of sucking up.

[bewildered]

1. There is nothing wrong with thanking someone.  There just isn't.

2. On a separate note, it is impossible to over-flatter an academic.

[entwife]

2. On a separate note, it is impossible to over-flatter an academic.

Oh, I love your point! :)