"Like" button for comments

[Zantareous]

I've seen this button on several other forums and think it would be a great addition to tip.it if enabled (I noticed tip.it has it disabled for some reason).

 

So, some reasons for adding (not sure why I really have to provide this, but I will):

• There's times where I find I want to show my appreciation to someone for their comment in a topic and that I agree with them; however, I don't really have anything to add to the discussion myself, so the "Like" button would be a great way to show this appreciation.
  
• Application example: in the Help and Advice forum, where a "Like" could better show a refutable, correct source of information.
  
• Specific example: http://forum.tip.it/topic/310302-news-top-runescape-geography-guru-announced/page__view__findpost__p__5232557. I want to show Miss Lioness that I agree with her and I also didn't know about the event, but as you can assume that wouldn't add to the discussion much, especially since angel13 below her has already told her that they agree as well (so, to comment saying I also agree would get rather annoying with so many people agreeing).

 

In case someone was pondering any downsides to this, there aren't any: since there isn't an "Unlike" or downvote button there isn't any concern for people gaming the forums and hide a post, everything would purely be positive. :)

 

tl;dr: enabling the "Like" button would be great for showing that you agree with someone, they're providing accurate information, and appreciation.

[enfield]

saying a short "i appreciated your post" is fine i think, and does more to show appreciation than an upvote would.

 

if the mods have a problem with too much of that you could of course also send the OP a short pm.

[Zantareous]

saying a short "i appreciated your post" is fine i think, and does more to show appreciation than an upvote would.

It functions as more than an appreciative gesture, though, it shows that you agree with that person and/or their information is valid.

 

EDIT: I've edited my post to better reflect this, thanks for pointing it out.

[D. V. Devnull]

saying a short "i appreciated your post" is fine i think, and does more to show appreciation than an upvote would.

 

if the mods have a problem with too much of that you could of course also send the OP a short pm.

I second enfield's post. :thumbsup:

 

Anyway, even without a downvote button, there is still a way to 'game' a 'Like' button. All a group of people would have to do is to just walk along and massively punch the 'Like' button on any post they chose. This would then result in other people coming along and thinking that post was better than all the others, even though it might contain potentially bad and/or non-usable advice. In result, Tip.It's Forum Community would then end up with infighting caused by a war between those niche groups and others. If there's one thing that can be said to that kind of situation, it's that such a situation is completely unwanted around here. :notalk:

 

~D. V. "A 'Like' button would be a bad thing..." Devnull

[enfield]

someway to tell which posts are likely accurate does sounds a bit useful. on the other hand i think there is already a pretty good heuristic for that: did quyneax post it or not.

 

upvotes certainly don't sound like an optimal solution to that problem to me though.

[tripsis]

We'll be adding this feature when we upgrade our forums to the latest version of IPB :)

[enfield]

interesting. i will personally be upvoting or liking all posts associated with harpies :mrgreen:.

[Zantareous]

We'll be adding this feature when we upgrade our forums to the latest version of IPB :)

Awesome, thanks for the info :)

 

I also just updated my submission in case people needed more convincing for why this is a good move, haha.

[enfield]

the thing that would most convince me of what the impacts of such a change would likely be, would be data from people from other forums who have experienced this change :).

[Kaur]

We'll be adding this feature when we upgrade our forums to the latest version of IPB :)

Please tell me the dislike button will be added too. Haters gonna hate.

[tripsis]

We'll be adding this feature when we upgrade our forums to the latest version of IPB :)

Please tell me the dislike button will be added too. Haters gonna hate.

Don't worry - there will be no dislike button. Only "like."

[jimmy_jim]

TAD'S SO SEXY AND AWESOME AND I SUPPORT HIS IDEA

[Kaur]

We'll be adding this feature when we upgrade our forums to the latest version of IPB :)

Please tell me the dislike button will be added too. Haters gonna hate.

Don't worry - there will be no dislike button. Only "like."

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

[Crocefisso]

Is this not going to negatively impact the activity of the forums from a posting perspective? Already posts are fewer and further between than they once were, and the Like feature will only exacerbate this, in that it will remove the incentive for replying with short posts that can otherwise be expressed with a Like and may even lead some to people opting for a Like over a longer response.

[tripsis]

Is this not going to negatively impact the activity of the forums from a posting perspective? Already posts are fewer and further between than they once were, and the Like feature will only exacerbate this, in that it will remove the incentive for replying with short posts that can otherwise be expressed with a Like and may even lead some to people opting for a Like over a longer response.

We will monitor the new system in case it does change peoples' posting habits. If it seems that the vast majority of people don't like it, we will of course remove it. But my hope is that it will limit (or completely remove) posts that are just "+1" (which get removed for spam anyway), but people will still create posts if they agree but have more to say or add on.

[Gandorf61]

Is this not going to negatively impact the activity of the forums from a posting perspective? Already posts are fewer and further between than they once were, and the Like feature will only exacerbate this, in that it will remove the incentive for replying with short posts that can otherwise be expressed with a Like and may even lead some to people opting for a Like over a longer response.

 

I really don't see this as effecting longer quality responses but for short "I agree" posts this would probably reduce the amount of posts like them. I'd rather have fewer, more substantial posts than a bunch of "+1, I agree, What he said" posts" anyways so I don't think it would be a huge loss. People would always be free to post a short agreeance post anyways, the like button would just be there as an option for those who want it. If it really does have huge negative impact on the forums then we can just remove it at a later date but I don't think we should hold a feature back when it's hard to really tell what the effect will be. It could end up increasing the number of longer thought out posts or it really could also have no effect at all.

 

inaftertripsis :P

[Crocefisso]

Valid points, I suppose its worth a try.

[Riku3220]

I feel like this would sort of degenerate into Facebook or Youtube where people begin fishing for Likes with every post they make. I'm willing to try it out for a while but if it gets to that please turn it right off.

[champion]

I actually have a lot more faith in the TIF community than the YouTube community. Not to mention that Facebook/Youtube posts that are liked get more exposure (top comments and such), so some feel there is an incentive to receiving likes. TIF probably wouldn't have anything like that.

[Zargo_VI]

I feel like this would sort of degenerate into Facebook or Youtube where people begin fishing for Likes with every post they make. I'm willing to try it out for a while but if it gets to that please turn it right off.

Going to agree here. I've never been a fan of Likes/Thumbs up/etc for reasons already mentioned, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try..

(though I sincerely hope it won't last long)

[Tecmaster]

We'll be carefully monitoring how the change affects discussions and the quality of posts and if we find that it makes things worse we're more than willing to turn it off again. Think of it as a trial period and we'll decide if we want to keep it or not after evaluating it for a while.

[Guest jrhairychest]

I feel like this would sort of degenerate into Facebook or Youtube where people begin fishing for Likes with every post they make. I'm willing to try it out for a while but if it gets to that please turn it right off.

Going to agree here. I've never been a fan of Likes/Thumbs up/etc for reasons already mentioned, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try..

(though I sincerely hope it won't last long)

I'll third that :-|

[MageUK]

I feel like this would sort of degenerate into Facebook or Youtube where people begin fishing for Likes with every post they make. I'm willing to try it out for a while but if it gets to that please turn it right off.

Going to agree here. I've never been a fan of Likes/Thumbs up/etc for reasons already mentioned, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try..

(though I sincerely hope it won't last long)

I'll third that :-|

 

From what we've decided so far, while the like button will be enabled for posts, you will not be able to go to your profile to see your total "reputation", the post will merely have the likes attached to it when users view the topic. So ultimately there would be no benefit to making posts just for likes other than that single post would have a lot of likes, it won't increment some competitive number in your profile. :)

[Jonanananas]

I feel like this would sort of degenerate into Facebook or Youtube where people begin fishing for Likes with every post they make. I'm willing to try it out for a while but if it gets to that please turn it right off.

Going to agree here. I've never been a fan of Likes/Thumbs up/etc for reasons already mentioned, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try..

(though I sincerely hope it won't last long)

I'll third that :-|

 

From what we've decided so far, while the like button will be enabled for posts, you will not be able to go to your profile to see your total "reputation", the post will merely have the likes attached to it when users view the topic. So ultimately there would be no benefit to making posts just for likes other than that single post would have a lot of likes, it won't increment some competitive number in your profile. :)

 

Well, it's the same way for youtube, yet there are still enough fishing for likes.

 

I'm comfortable to try it out however, as long as the staff is willing to turn it off again if it doesn't work out. There's really no harm in trying.

[Gandorf61]

Well, it's the same way for youtube, yet there are still enough fishing for likes.

 

I'm comfortable to try it out however, as long as the staff is willing to turn it off again if it doesn't work out. There's really no harm in trying.

 

People fish for likes on youtube because they want to get a top comment spot. On the forums here a post being liked has no effect/won't make it any more visible so there's no incentive for asking for likes. If people start asking for likes too much then we could either a) remove the system or b) a moderator could send a reminder PM not to disrupt the forums with begging for likes (which would break rule 1.2 - Irritating Posting Styles/Spamming :P).