Please, please...pretty please give us the ability to 'like' others' posts.

LinearLineman

@el_bo said:

@espiegel123 said:
I loathe discussions being turned into popularity contests and incentivized for 'upvotes'. Wven if that isn't the intention, it is, imo, an unavoidable consequence of going down that road.

I've not seen a single indication of such happening on the forum where I took the idea from. It just seems to work as intended i.e to agree, to laugh at a joke, to give someone thanks for being helpful in a thread, or bringing a good deal to everyone's attention.

Usually the kinds of people who court likes, followers, clout etc. are long-gone from ol'-skool, long-form discussion forums such as this.

I court likes…. But I'm obviously a masochist.

🦻🏻👂🏻🎧📡 - Listener responses

wim

Screw Likes. What we need are micropayments.

jolico

@wim said:
Screw Likes. What we need are micropayments.

💵

Krupa

@wim said:
Screw Likes. What we need are micropayments.

Only if they’re backed up by nft 😅

(I quite like the idea of likes, I’m just not certain they’re necessary, plus they might dampen down some of the discussions just by dint of the fact that they probably wouldn’t keep threads afloat)

NeuM

@wim said:
Screw Likes. What we need are micropayments.

But only in DOGE (Dogecoin) and SHIB (Shiba Inu)...

AudioGus

Likes was tried here before and it made tiffs and ruckuses more nasty.

Artj

I think this is useful, as someone said earlier, when you want to show appreciation but don't want to clog up the thread with "+1", "Me too!" posts. I never thought of it as a way of collecting anything.

A bit off-topic now, but since we're talking about the forum, how do you think of the www.elektronauts.com forum? I actually like that place too, besides AB. It has easy access to some nice functions. Look great in an Elektronish way-clean, modern. Seems well moderated, and posters there are knowledgeable and nice. AB and elektronauts are my only two favorite forums.

RajahP

@el_bo said:
Title pretty much says it all.

Would really love the ability to acknowledge comments without necessarily having to reply. I'm not suggesting a huge set, nor that we get the ability to be dismissive or negative via emoji.

This is the set used on another forum I use frequently:

Powers that be...what say ye?

How will that benefit ‘us’?

One can only imagine having it in the ‘War’ thread..
I think it is intimidating and will cause a lot of people from posting..

Thank you…. Very much..

Edit…👎

ervin

@espiegel123 said:
I loathe discussions being turned into popularity contests and incentivized for 'upvotes'. Wven if that isn't the intention, it is, imo, an unavoidable consequence of going down that road.

It's remarkable to me that you apparently don't trust, or credit with enough agency, the forum members here to use such a potential function sparingly and use it "well", even though you are one of the best examples of how good members here can be. 🤷

R_2

+1 - 1 = 0

NeuM

@R_2 said:
+1 - 1 = 0

1 x 1 = 1

espiegel123

@ervin said:

@espiegel123 said:
I loathe discussions being turned into popularity contests and incentivized for 'upvotes'. Wven if that isn't the intention, it is, imo, an unavoidable consequence of going down that road.

It's remarkable to me that you apparently don't trust, or credit with enough agency, the forum members here to use such a potential function sparingly and use it "well", even though you are one of the best examples of how good members here can be. 🤷

IMO, if isn’t a matter of trust. The whole Like phenomenon ties into human nature. I just think it brings with it unintended consequences. I honestly can’t say there is any discussion group I visit where I feel “likes” add value.

el_bo

@espiegel123 said:
I honestly can’t say there is any discussion group I visit where I feel “likes” add value.

But perhaps that's more because you're already biased/prejudiced against it? My experience of it is that it fosters a greater state-of-appreciation for everything that people are doing to keep the community thriving.

I might not be the recipient of a huge multi-paragraphed answer, replete with video and screenshot examples, given by you to another member. But I'd want to give you a 'like' to acknowledge my appreciation. You might not need any such acknowledgement, but it's not necessarily just for you that I'd give it.

Though I understand the potential for negative use-cases, I think overall they'd be in the minority, and that the positive impact would far outweigh such negatives.

Will probably duck out of this now

el_bo

@NeuM said:

@R_2 said:
+1 - 1 = 0

1 x 1 = 1

2 + 2 = 5

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

AudioGus

@mambonassau said:
I tend to lurk, but signed in specifically to register how much I hate likes & similar. Even as shorthand social “rewards,” they are interruptive conflict generators - they turn normal convos into games of declarative one-upmanship (i.e. who can be “funniest” or attract the most “applause” with his/her/their comment). They essentially add levels of competition, seratonin-y delusion, & condescension - think the dreaded/idiotic 🤣 sneering under every FB news story - to otherwise normal & semi-thoughtful discussion. If the forum adds likes or other mindless one-shot responses, I’m out of here.

Yup, that is what pretty much happened here.

hes

@espiegel123 said:

@ervin said:

@espiegel123 said:
I loathe discussions being turned into popularity contests and incentivized for 'upvotes'. Wven if that isn't the intention, it is, imo, an unavoidable consequence of going down that road.

It's remarkable to me that you apparently don't trust, or credit with enough agency, the forum members here to use such a potential function sparingly and use it "well", even though you are one of the best examples of how good members here can be. 🤷

IMO, if isn’t a matter of trust. The whole Like phenomenon ties into human nature. I just think it brings with it unintended consequences. I honestly can’t say there is any discussion group I visit where I feel “likes” add value.

+1. It isn't a matter of trusting people, or not trusting them.

Except I would say I do feel as though having "likes" adds some value (because, all else being equal, if a lot of people like something I think it tends to be better than something that is not as well liked). It's just that the "unintended consequences" outweigh the positive aspects of having "likes". It's not at all a matter of not trusting people as individuals; it's just that with social mechanics of online"likes" human nature devolves into undesirable and unintended outcomes.

NeuM

@el_bo said:

@NeuM said:

@R_2 said:
+1 - 1 = 0

1 x 1 = 1

2 + 2 = 5

Who knew there would be so much math involved in making music?

espiegel123

@hes said:

…,,,,;

Except I would say I do feel as though having "likes" adds some value (because, all else being equal, if a lot of people like something I think it tends to be better than something that is not as well liked). ….

I don’t agree that the number of likes is a strong indicator of quality … particularly in a situation where liking is completely voluntary. Those people inclined to participate in a ‘like’ system are likely not a representative sampling of all people.

If one looks at Twitter or Facebook, it is pretty clear that number of likes does not map to quality or veracity.

mojozart

First, note that the poster is asking for Likes, not Likes and Dislikes. I think the two should be discussed separately.

I would like a way to upvote or Like/Love posts without having to post a me-too.

OTOH, not having Likes gives this forum an active/present quality that is rare in forums. But still, I would like a way to upvote.

I don't care about Dislike, but I would not object, at least as an experiment. In the cases where I might want to Dislike, I suspect a Poll would serve better.

ervin

@mambonassau said:
I tend to lurk, but signed in specifically to register how much I hate likes & similar. Even as shorthand social “rewards,” they are interruptive conflict generators - they turn normal convos into games of declarative one-upmanship (i.e. who can be “funniest” or attract the most “applause” with his/her/their comment). They essentially add levels of competition, seratonin-y delusion, & condescension - think the dreaded/idiotic 🤣 sneering under every FB news story - to otherwise normal & semi-thoughtful discussion. If the forum adds likes or other mindless one-shot responses, I’m out of here.

tl;dr "I don't show up here, except to say I will not ever show up here again if I'm allowed to like someone's post." 🤔

@espiegel123 said:
If one looks at Twitter or Facebook...

Except this is not Twitter or Facebook at all, is it. For one thing, noone is spending gazillions here to make people hate each other, trying to profit from the resulting radicalisation. In my eyes, ABF is a very niche community of (typically, but not exclusively) middle-aged or older people who sure can decide what they like without counting likes, I agree - but some of whom perhaps would still be happy to be able to click a heart icon in appreciation of another member's contribution instead of posting a quote-comment containing a heart icon in appreciation of another member's contribution. Because that is all that's being asked about if I understand it correctly. The apocalypse-mongering that this humble request generated seems a tad bit overblown.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

ervin

@mambonassau said:

@ervin said:

tl;dr "I don't show up here, except to say I will not ever show up here again if I'm allowed to like someone's post." 🤔

Not at all what I said, but thanks for reiterating the problem of overreliance on shorthand.

P.S. "Lurker" doesn't mean "person who's never here." It means "person who's often here, but reads stuff instead of talking."

Fair point, my wording was indeed subpar. Apologies. What I tried to say was that you yourself stated that you were not contributing to the forum, as you preferred to "lurk" instead, and the one thing that did make you contribute was the fact that some people apparently want to be able to "like" other people's stuff. You said you hated the idea so much that you planned to leave the forum for good if the request should ever be accepted.

I hope this is a fairer representation. Still 🤔 afaik, but I respect your position.

johnfromberkeley

I agree. I was joking, because there is no down voting.

Will

@wim said:
Screw Likes. What we need are micropayments.

^ Boss mode.