Can we "Like" a post?

[ranlo]

Hmm... Maybe it could have NO effect at all, but have, say under a post, "xx, xx, xx liked this!" The first thing that comes to mind here is the official Rift forums (check out this post). It shows who likes the posts, but past that has no functionality. Those who want to ignore it can, and those who want to see who agrees can.

FWIW I don't want my (dis)likes to be public.

Then to fix that, just have "x likes" where the x represents the number of them. I don't think dislikes should even be an option.

[hilariousandco]

Hmm... Maybe it could have NO effect at all, but have, say under a post, "xx, xx, xx liked this!" The first thing that comes to mind here is the official Rift forums (check out this post). It shows who likes the posts, but past that has no functionality. Those who want to ignore it can, and those who want to see who agrees can.

FWIW I don't want my (dis)likes to be public.

Yeah, I'm still not convinced with this idea. Getting posts disliked would be pretty disheartening for some. It could work for serial trolls or fud-spreaders, but when people just down vote your posts because they don't like you or just don't agree with your views it'll be pretty annoying. Just having likes be public may be better but it depends on how the final system works, but it also might just turn the forums into a popularity contest.

[ranlo]

Hmm... Maybe it could have NO effect at all, but have, say under a post, "xx, xx, xx liked this!" The first thing that comes to mind here is the official Rift forums (check out this post). It shows who likes the posts, but past that has no functionality. Those who want to ignore it can, and those who want to see who agrees can.

FWIW I don't want my (dis)likes to be public.

Yeah, I'm still not convinced with this idea. Getting posts disliked would be pretty disheartening for some. It could work for serial trolls or fud-spreaders, but when people just down vote your posts because they don't like you or just don't agree with your views it'll be pretty annoying. Just having likes be public may be better but it depends on how the final system works, but it also might just turn the forums into a popularity contest.

Allow people to choose whether they want to view the # of likes in the settings. This would help get rid of the popularity contest. It could even default to off, and allow those who want to use the feature to do so.

[Cryptopher]

Hmm... Maybe it could have NO effect at all, but have, say under a post, "xx, xx, xx liked this!" The first thing that comes to mind here is the official Rift forums (check out this post). It shows who likes the posts, but past that has no functionality. Those who want to ignore it can, and those who want to see who agrees can.

FWIW I don't want my (dis)likes to be public.

Yeah, I'm still not convinced with this idea. Getting posts disliked would be pretty disheartening for some. It could work for serial trolls or fud-spreaders, but when people just down vote your posts because they don't like you or just don't agree with your views it'll be pretty annoying. Just having likes be public may be better but it depends on how the final system works, but it also might just turn the forums into a popularity contest.

Allow people to choose whether they want to view the # of likes in the settings. This would help get rid of the popularity contest. It could even default to off, and allow those who want to use the feature to do so.

Meh, we shouldn't get into a habit of using 'have a setting to switch something off' as a way to cover something up. I don't think that it would be a popularity contest. I think that if people appreciate a post then they will like it. Of course, you might get people going around liking everything, but just let it be.

You don't have to show names of the people who liked it, though perhaps you could click into the '5 users like this' and see a list of the users who liked it. One of the things that's good about this idea is that it demonstrates who has appreciated your post without them necessarily replying to show that.

[hilariousandco]

I don't think it would get rid of it. Choosing to ignore it wont make it go away and others will still use it. If the option was there I'd like to see it just for reference or to see who was up/down voting me or others.

[ranlo]

Hmm... Maybe it could have NO effect at all, but have, say under a post, "xx, xx, xx liked this!" The first thing that comes to mind here is the official Rift forums (check out this post). It shows who likes the posts, but past that has no functionality. Those who want to ignore it can, and those who want to see who agrees can.

FWIW I don't want my (dis)likes to be public.

Yeah, I'm still not convinced with this idea. Getting posts disliked would be pretty disheartening for some. It could work for serial trolls or fud-spreaders, but when people just down vote your posts because they don't like you or just don't agree with your views it'll be pretty annoying. Just having likes be public may be better but it depends on how the final system works, but it also might just turn the forums into a popularity contest.

Allow people to choose whether they want to view the # of likes in the settings. This would help get rid of the popularity contest. It could even default to off, and allow those who want to use the feature to do so.

Meh, we shouldn't get into a habit of using 'have a setting to switch something off' as a way to cover something up. I don't think that it would be a popularity contest. I think that if people appreciate a post then they will like it. Of course, you might get people going around liking everything, but just let it be.

You don't have to show names of the people who liked it, though perhaps you could click into the '5 users like this' and see a list of the users who liked it. One of the things that's good about this idea is that it demonstrates who has appreciated your post without them necessarily replying to show that.

I personally don't let likes bother me anyways unless they have a functional purpose. I just figured people who are bothered can simply ignore it through settings, and people like me who don't care one way or the other can leave it be.

And we'll definitely see people go around liking tons of stuff, but as long as there's no real benefit it doesn't hurt anything.

[hilariousandco]

If it doesn't have a function or purpose then what would be the point of having it at all? Whilst you're right that people could or can just choose to ignore the function, it's like if we had the option to turn off the feedback system here. You could turn it off but to everybody else you would still appear to be a scammer/untrustworthy if you were marked as so, and in this case tarnished as a rubbish contributor and that will affect the way people see or view your posts/account.

[ranlo]

If it doesn't have a function or purpose then what would be the point of having it at all? Whilst you're right that people could or can just choose to ignore the function, it's like if we had the option to turn off the feedback system here. You could turn it off but to everybody else you would still appear to be a scammer/untrustworthy if you were marked as so, and in this case tarnished as a rubbish contributor and that will affect the way people see or view your posts/account.

If there is a functional purpose (and allows downvotes) it WILL be exploited. That's not a theory; that is a promise.

If there is upvoting only, with a functional purpose, it WILL be exploited. Again, that's a promise.

The only way for this to work is for it to have no functional purpose.

[jbrnt]

If there is upvoting only, with a functional purpose, it WILL be exploited. Again, that's a promise.
The only way for this to work is for it to have no functional purpose.

When something could be exploited, you think about ways it could be exploited and introduce measures to make it difficult, or impractical, to exploit. You don't go and render the function useless and consider problem solved. That's not the direction we should take when designing a new system.

[ranlo]

If there is upvoting only, with a functional purpose, it WILL be exploited. Again, that's a promise.
The only way for this to work is for it to have no functional purpose.

When something could be exploited, you think about ways it could be exploited and introduce measures to make it difficult, or impractical, to exploit. You don't go and render the function useless and consider problem solved. That's not the direction we should take when designing a new system.

I implore you to come up with a way to run this "efficiently" and I'll give you a run-down on how to exploit it. I'd definitely accept a system if someone could bring up something I can't exploit, but I don't see that being feasible (after running through one scenario after another on my own).

[hilariousandco]

A simple 'like' system would probably be fine, but I'm not liking the whole downvoting thing mentioned where people can 'kill' accounts or negatively effect users for whatver reasons. That will obviously be exploited but I hope they can come up with a largely foolproof system if it is going to be definitely implemented. Hopefully we'll get some more info on this soonish.

[Cryptopher]

A simple 'like' system would probably be fine, but I'm not liking the whole downvoting thing mentioned where people can 'kill' accounts or negatively effect users for whatver reasons. That will obviously be exploited but I hope they can come up with a largely foolproof system if it is going to be definitely implemented. Hopefully we'll get some more info on this soonish.

As I have mentioned already, Vod's suggestion as it is will be plenty good. No downvoting, no bumping through likes, just plain old this post has x likes. Clicking into it to display the list of those who liked it would be a nice to have feature, other than that it is good as the suggestion outlines.

[Vod]

I wanted to reiterate that my suggestion was for a simple "Like" or "+1" to a forum post to indicate you like the post.  Nothing special is triggered or calculated on it. 

I don't think you should have "Dislike" or "-1" as that can be used to troll.

Just display some text like "xx people liked this post". 

[kuusj98]

If we get a new forum software which we should have had ages ago, there would probably be something like this implemented..

[nickenburg]

Liking a post would be a great idea, I think its great to get a compliment from people you made a good post.
I see some people +1 people but that only takes room in the topic, so that would be really nice.

But disliking a post I think is a bad idea, there are way to many trolls.
And good post would get disliked, ive seen it on the arenajunkies forum to.

[ranlo]

I wanted to reiterate that my suggestion was for a simple "Like" or "+1" to a forum post to indicate you like the post.  Nothing special is triggered or calculated on it.  

I don't think you should have "Dislike" or "-1" as that can be used to troll.

Just display some text like "xx people liked this post".  

Okay, I'm all for this then. My understanding (based on other posts) was that it was going to have functional purposes. I don't think being able to "like" things harms anything, so you have my vote.

Ranlo likes this post!

[taesup]

I actually added on to Vod's post because I wanted to let the community know that I was tapping into the likes functionality as a metric for reputation.

Although the reputation system I have in mind is not like the current system in any way. I actually want to continue this discussion. Maybe new thread?

[ranlo]

I actually added on to Vod's post because I wanted to let the community know that I was tapping into the likes functionality as a metric for reputation.

Although the reputation system I have in mind is not like the current system in any way. I actually want to continue this discussion. Maybe new thread?

You can probably just continue it here since they're related. We'll definitely need more details, though, since reputation *is* a functional part of the site.

[lilfiend]

I'd rather we don't add a 'like' or '+1' button, it contributes to the 'herd' mentality that plagues so many sites already. Plus at the end of the day it doesn't really add anything constructive to the site.

[bluefirecorp]

Honestly, everyone's agreeing with this... I'm not sure why? Maybe they've never seen another forum with the like button... this is quite literally every sticky post on the forum:




Do you really want this on half the threads on bitcointalk?

I'd rather we don't add a 'like' or '+1' button, it contributes to the 'herd' mentality that plagues so many sites already. Plus at the end of the day it doesn't really add anything constructive to the site.

Exactly this -- THANK YOU!