Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

Remove it

Leave it on Comic Discussion

Add it to Fun Stuff

Add it to Serious Stuff

[TRVA123]

See, this, this is why we need some sort of up-vote button - even if the results are only seen by the moderators.

I would love that. I try not to post unless I have something to add, and just saying "agree with Omega" isn't really adding something. (btw, omega, I often agree with you!)

maybe an agree button? idk. I don't think it should rerank posts or anything, jsut be a way for people to show support?

[Omega Entity]

Haha, thanks TRVA!

One of the other forums I frequent has implemented a 'Like' button, so you can like forum posts much like you can on Facebook. I find myself looking for them on my other forums since I've gotten so used to them there 

[Is it cold in here?]

We tried that a while back -- it's an optional feature of the forum software.

[Thrillho]

Haha, thanks TRVA!

One of the other forums I frequent has implemented a 'Like' button, so you can like forum posts much like you can on Facebook. I find myself looking for them on my other forums since I've gotten so used to them there 

Hodgy, one of the main admins, feared this would cause a sort of popularity/unpopularity contest.

I'm not sure he's completely wide of the mark.

On the one other forum I frequent, I have the most liked post in forum history 

[TRVA123]

Hodgy, one of the main admins, feared this would cause a sort of popularity/unpopularity contest.

I'm not sure he's completely wide of the mark.

I mean, would it really have more of an affect than people posting "I agree with Gareth"? As long as the likes don't count toward post ranking, people aren't notified when there are likes, etc. a 'like' would just be an "I agree"

I could possibly see people freaking out when their posts don't get likes, but people also do that when their posts don't get replies.

another option might be to enable likes only for certain forums. Discuss and WCDT. Chatter doesn't really need it, I'm not sure relate needs it.

[Omega Entity]

Hodgy, one of the main admins, feared this would cause a sort of popularity/unpopularity contest.

I'm not sure he's completely wide of the mark.

I mean, would it really have more of an affect than people posting "I agree with Gareth"? As long as the likes don't count toward post ranking, people aren't notified when there are likes, etc. a 'like' would just be an "I agree"

I could possibly see people freaking out when their posts don't get likes, but people also do that when their posts don't get replies.

another option might be to enable likes only for certain forums. Discuss and WCDT. Chatter doesn't really need it, I'm not sure relate needs it.

Pretty much this. It'd be good, if only as an indication to a poster that they're not just expressing themselves to their internet imaginary friend. There hasn't been any issues with it at my other forum, but that forum is also far less active than this one, or even as it was a few years ago.

[pwhodges]

Some considerable time ago the mods played with the forum's "Karma" system.  In the end we agreed that it was not a good idea; and I, at least, still feel that way about it.

[BenRG]

I think that an 'up' button is workable. However, a 'down' button is a bad idea, human nature being what it is.

[explicit]

We implemented in the forums I help admin, mostly because with so many names and people to keep track of it's nice to see if someone is consistently stirring the pot or adding nothing to the conversation (when we vote for members part of the requirements is that they use the forums correctly and contribute to the conversation). It's also used just to see what members are contributing the most which is used to help with promotions within the community. However, there's no membership here so I can't really say it's needed unless some people just like having things they post liked every now and then. Which I guess is fine.

[pwhodges]

By coincidence I have just been reading about the bad effects of malicious misuse of a kudos system on another board.

[bhtooefr]

Honestly, there's been some good posts that I've felt like saying "me too" or "thanks for posting that, that was insightful" would be inappropriate, but I'd like to provide some sort of feedback. I would use it rarely, but there'd be times where it'd make sense.

But, some people WOULD use it as a popularity contest, or a way to get internet points...

[explicit]

Hows about whenever someone does something you like you have to post a funny picture of someone approving something.

[Omega Entity]

Maybe than calling it a 'Like' button or 'Kudos' button, it was simply an 'Agree' button? Semantics, I'm sure, but at least then it feels less like a popularity contest, superficially.

[bhtooefr]

The other thing is, maybe make it show on the post that it got internet points, but only on the post, and it not show any of that on the user's profile?

[Is it cold in here?]

It fell pretty flat on our brief trial.

[ybtlamw]

What we're talking about here's a sort of "reputation system." I don't know if it'd even be worth it to have one on the forums. I mean, I've only been a member for about a month, but I don't see the need for it. I frequent Kickass, and its reputation system's in place so you know who you can trust, as far as the advice they're offering or the torrents they're uploading goes. I don't really see a reputation system being necessary on these forums, because the admins and mods do a great job making sure everything's safe and neat and tidy anyway. It would be superfluous. And if we're going to hide the "likes" or "upvotes" and "downvotes" anyway, what's the point? The other person's never going to know you clicked the "like" button if you agreed with them, and neither's anyone else—rendering it pointless, in my opinion. Sure, it could be useful to the admins and mods, but that's what the reporting system's for.

[Omega Entity]

What we're talking about here's a sort of "reputation system." I don't know if it'd even be worth it to have one on the forums. I mean, I've only been a member for about a month, but I don't see the need for it. I frequent Kickass, and its reputation system's in place so you know who you can trust, as far as the advice they're offering or the torrents they're uploading goes. I don't really see a reputation system being necessary on these forums, because the admins and mods do a great job making sure everything's safe and neat and tidy anyway. It would be superfluous. And if we're going to hide the "likes" or "upvotes" and "downvotes" anyway, what's the point? The other person's never going to know you clicked the "like" button if you agreed with them, and neither's anyone else—rendering it pointless, in my opinion. Sure, it could be useful to the admins and mods, but that's what the reporting system's for.

It's really not the same thing at all, though. No one's saying they want any kind of rating system, which is what you're talking about up there. All it would be would be a shorthand version of 'hey, this person's perfectly said what I wanted to, and now I don't have to clutter things up with redundant agreements. No one'd be keeping score.

As for hiding them, they were talking hiding the number of likes on the users' profile pages, not on the posts themselves, so that there wouldn't be an active tally to keep track of or to be seen.

[Thrudd]

Or just hide the results from everyone but the moderators.

It has been a long while for me when it comes to coding such stuff, but such a hidden tracking system is in use by some of the blogs I occasionally frequent.
It gives the admins a tool to highlight some stuff that is worth noting, either insightful, funny/punny or just [censored].

I personally like the concept, especially during times like these when the page counts just explode .... and .. I ... just ... can't .. read ... all ... the ... posts.

[TRVA123]

idk, my ideal system for this forum would be an "agree" button. and it would not be linked in any way to the forum members profile, rankings, or anything. It would just be a form of acknowledgement.

Thats what I want, a form of acknowledgement that doesn't require me to add to the conversation when I don't have anything to add.

[Carl-E]

So it would just display something in the post, like "32 members agree with this post"?  Or make a list, "TRVA123 agrees, Thrudd agrees, Carl-E agrees, ..."? 

Something like that would save some frivolous posting, but it would also eliminate some of the expansion on the topic by giving the button pushers an easy way out. 


Wait, that may actually be a good thing...

[TRVA123]

yeah! listing everyone who agrees by name might be tedious, but a "3 people agree" or something similar might be nice.

[Masterpiece]

Sounds like "Like fishing on Facebook" to me. I'm already hooked on the forums, don't make it any harder to leave.

This message is coming from Tapatalk inside my phone!

[Omega Entity]

idk, my ideal system for this forum would be an "agree" button. and it would not be linked in any way to the forum members profile, rankings, or anything. It would just be a form of acknowledgement.

Thats what I want, a form of acknowledgement that doesn't require me to add to the conversation when I don't have anything to add.

Agree. :-p

So it would just display something in the post, like "32 members agree with this post"?  Or make a list, "TRVA123 agrees, Thrudd agrees, Carl-E agrees, ..."? 

Something like that would save some frivolous posting, but it would also eliminate some of the expansion on the topic by giving the button pushers an easy way out. 


Wait, that may actually be a good thing...

You can agree with a post, and still post if you had something to add

[TRVA123]

Sounds like "Like fishing on Facebook" to me. I'm already hooked on the forums, don't make it any harder to leave.

This message is coming from Tapatalk inside my phone!

Then don't make it a feature in the chatter threads. I don't think "like fishing" will really be an issue in the more debate oriented threads, like WCDT, relate, or serious threads.

[Welu]

I like the idea of the agree button that is post specific opposed to an overall user rating. As has been said sometimes it doesn't feel appropriate to say, "I agree with X.", particularly if I don't feel I have anything to add.

[Rghfrgl]

Mark me down as another person who likes being able to tell people I appreciate what they had to say even if the conversation didn't go that direction. Let people know they weren't wasting their time when the spent five minutes writing something.

As long as you don't have people begging for likes or doing manipulative stuff like 'Like if you think Claire is the cutest' it's fine. And if people start doing that you can always disable it later.

She is the cutest though. 

[Kugai]

There are times I wish FB had a 'Fuck You!' button.

[Mr_Rose]

What if the agree button was linked to the person clicking, not the post clicked?
Like, instead of the poster getting a list of people who agreed with their post, the people who agreed would get a link to the post they agreed with…
Or we could skip the implications of "agreement" and just let folk bookmark individual posts that they might want to refer to later.

[TRVA123]

Wouldn't that be the same as literally quoting their post and they saying "agree" at the bottom?

[explicit]

Wouldn't that be the same as literally quoting their post and they saying "agree" at the bottom?

I agree

[Omega Entity]

Wouldn't that be the same as literally quoting their post and they saying "agree" at the bottom?

I agree

ICWATUDIDTHAR

[BenRG]

The point of a 'like' button is to avoid SPAMming up threads with lots of "+1 agree" posts.

[Thrillho]

The point of a 'like' button is to avoid SPAMming up threads with lots of "+1 agree" posts.

Except, and I say this hesitantly given that I'd be in favour of a 'like' system, it's not like we get spammed with this shit often.

[ReindeerFlotilla]

Wouldn't that be the same as literally quoting their post and they saying "agree" at the bottom?

I agree

ICWATUDIDTHAR

I like that you saw that.

Sometimes I read something and think, "this forum needs a like button." But really, why?

I post art to facebook. About 7% of my friends like it. About 2 comment on it. I find the comments more useful. Getting more or fewer likes might be a sign that I did a bad job, or it might be sign that facebook's algorithm decided to show them something it deemed more relevant.

For example, I know some of my family members have seen it because they said so. They neither like nor comment, but review it positively. My family is not very much into public expression.

A button tells a part of the story, but not the whole story. Rather aside from that, I think it stifles conversation. Sure, there are infinite times when you just want to like, but not being able to express that is, IMO, worth the trade off of retaining those few times when you've got slightly more than like, and it's enough to post. Because I figure those will get washed away. After all, it's just a bit more than a like. Won't a like do just as well. I like to think not.

My, that sounds luddite. I'm not against likes. I don't think they are shallow and devoid of communication or something like that. It's just, like, there's a place for likes. And another place for +1's, which are like likes. It's like how I like recursion. So, like, likes like likes liking likes like likes. There's no, like, single way to do likes that's, like, best. But at a certain point they do become the message. Like that app "Yo." That, like, sends yo, and like, nothing else. That's like, liking distilled to nothing but like. Which, after a while, starts to look like you spelled it wrong.

So, like, I like the lack of likes like it is. Like +1.

[pwhodges]

Not a lot more to say after that, really...

[BenRG]

I would argue that, if you choose to use a 'like' button and use that as a reason not to leave a comment on another person's post, then you didn't really have anything substantive to say anyway.

[Omega Entity]

Indeed. As I said before, someone can like something and also choose to add more to the conversation if they have something to say.

[Thrillho]

Yeah I would argue that liking and commenting are mutually exclusive. I usually only do both on Facebook if I'm being a douche, or my comment is to clarify why, say, I've liked a status about a bereavement (the like was a show of support, not a I LIKE THAT YOUR DAD DIED).

[TRVA123]

yeah, the like would be a form of acknowledgement.

i.e. Gareth posts something, says it so well that I have nothing to add.
scenario 1: no "agree" button. The conversation moves in another direction and Gareths' very insightful post is never acknowledged.
Scenario 2: "agree" button. Several people indicate that Gareth has phrased his point very well, there isn't really anything to add to that, and the conversation moves on. Gareth does not feel ignored because there are no replies to his post.

[Thrudd]

Why not go with a more middle ground option then?

Posters get to see what the feedback level is on their posts - just a number count for each feedback button
examples of possible vote buttons

• Agree with what was said
• Insightful post
• Funny
• To the pun jar with you

There is no need for any negative feedback mechanism because nearly everyone here is awesome and we have moderators with nutronium combat boots.

Everyone else would only get to see what votes they made, if any, on the forums postings.

Moderators then have a tool for highlighting best / funniest / punniest posts of the week for those people who only visit occasionaly and don't read-all-the-posts  Yeah, those kinds do exist 

[pwhodges]

I am not writing this; the option I have available is a single "Like" button.  I can choose whether to show the count only on the posts which are liked, or also to show each user's likes in their profile, or next to all their posts.  I would only consider the first, because scoring people is the possibly harmful usage.

[lepetitfromage]

I'm a fan of putting a "like" button next to each post and only showing the likes on that particular post. I've also had a number of instances where I've wanted to let the poster know that I support them but did not have anything of value to add to the conversation (also, a lot of times I will see that the conversation moved on and I didn't feel the need to revert back to it simply to add a "me too").

I agree that the scoring isn't helpful in any way and neither is keeping track of each members' likes.

[bhtooefr]

And showing the likes on the post only is, IMO, the reasonable way to go.

[Omega Entity]

Agreed with the above. There's no legitimate use for an ongoing tally. All I'd want is the notice on the post itself.

[Carl-E]

(also, a lot of times I will see that the conversation moved on and I didn't feel the need to revert back to it simply to add a "me too").

And this is an excellent example of just that.  Since I only look in once or twice a day (soon to drop off again) I'd "like" to be able to acknowledge a comment without derailing. 


It's starting to sound like we've reached a consensus, but it's ultimately an admin decision, of course. 


 

[MooskiNet]

I'm with everyone else who's said it would be cool to be able to click 'Agree' or 'Yup' or what have you, especially since I'm really bad for quoting a wall of text and posting

This.

as a reply. 

I know, I hate myself for it, too.

[Carl-E]

Sorry, couldn't resist.  It's been a few years since I used it. 

[explicit]

But I like being a pedantic asshole

[Carl-E]

Nobody said you had to stop...

[explicit]

I don't want Jeph to beat me with a sign.

Anyways, have you noticed that a lot of what we're talking about is currently taking place in this thread? A lot of people replying in agreement? I don't know if that shifts the bar towards or away from likes, but it's certainly happening.