# Like button/User Karma **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [December 9, 2016, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293 "2016-12-09T17:13:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/41 "2016-12-11T23:03:48Z")
I’m pretty sure that vBulletin doesn’t even have such a feature so it’s a non-starter anyway. There is something similar where you can rate a post anywhere from one to five stars and the average is displayed. I think that you’d find very little support for that as well and I wouldn’t want that here either. I’m pretty active on reddit which does have upvotes. I occasionally find myself really liking a post here and instinctively trying to upvote it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/42 "2016-12-11T23:09:34Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Word. [Write letterz n shit yo.](http://imgur.com/gallery/MbslW6M)😉 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/43 "2016-12-11T23:12:40Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > I’m pretty sure that vBulletin doesn’t even have such a feature so it’s a non-starter anyway. There is something similar where you can rate a post anywhere from one to five stars and the average is displayed. I think that you’d find very little support for that as well and I wouldn’t want that here either. > > I’m pretty active on reddit which does have upvotes. I occasionally find myself really liking a post here and instinctively trying to upvote it. vBulletin has a reputation feature. I’m not sure if it’s stock or a modification, though. It can be disabled. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2016, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/44 "2016-12-11T23:39:45Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > - 1 > > Ugh. - several I didn’t care for school when I was in school; don’t feel like watching those games again even if I can opt out. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/45 "2016-12-12T00:10:53Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > \ I think it would actually begin to curtail debate instead of enhance it. Give people an easy response and they’ll use it instead of making their own post. > > In response to the ‘+1’ and ‘me, too’ argument, above, I’ll say that we try to discourage such in Great Debates and Elections. It’s not against the rules but too much of it has the potential to disrupt debate and that’s a bad thing. Plus, as with the ‘like’ button proposed, it kills debate. :rolleyes: I’m on boards with like buttons (pretty much every other board out there). Debate still happens. Lots of it. Really. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/46 "2016-12-12T00:56:39Z")
If it happened here, everyone even slightly to the right of Lenin would be down voted into obscurity within about 30 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/47 "2016-12-12T01:02:59Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > If it happened here, everyone even slightly to the right of Lenin would be down voted into obscurity within about 30 minutes. This is true. One thing I’ve seen elsewhere is a “Thanks” option - people can click a button to say “thanks” then underneath the post, it will say “UserName A/B/C/D etc say thanks for this post”. No “upvoting”, no popularity contests, not “karma”, just the ability to acknowledge a worthwhile contribution without having to make post. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/48 "2016-12-12T01:29:42Z")
This Luddite is still irked about post counts. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/49 "2016-12-12T01:46:56Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > This Luddite is still irked about post counts. You should be. A 99er and less than 6K posts? Sad! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/50 "2016-12-12T01:56:53Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > This is true. > > One thing I’ve seen elsewhere is a “Thanks” option - people can click a button to say “thanks” then underneath the post, it will say “UserName A/B/C/D etc say thanks for this post”. No “upvoting”, no popularity contests, not “karma”, just the ability to acknowledge a worthwhile contribution without having to make post. This I like. Certainly no upvoting/downvoting or karma. It will be abused. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/51 "2016-12-12T02:03:33Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > You should be. A 99er and less than 6K posts? Sad! > > 😃 I know it’s weird, but the post count does discourage me from posting. It’s not unusual for me to type a post and then ask myself “is this post worth incrementing my post count?”. And often enough the answer is “no”. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/52 "2016-12-12T03:53:24Z")
In short: why? Sites like Reddit and Slashdot have mechanisms where upvoted posts are more visible, and where it’s possible to not even see downvoted posts. That goes against the nature of this board, where everyone has equal say. Likes/dislikes are binary, and this means that liking a short joke is the same as liking a long and detailed explanation. Karma harvesters therefore produce massive numbers of short, inoffensive posts that easily gain likes. These drown out posts with actual content, which may require more than a few seconds of reading to determine if they’re a positive contribution. There are some Reddit subforums that maintain a decent post quality, but in my experience they combine it with heavy-handed moderation to keep things on topic. That wouldn’t fly here, either. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/53 "2016-12-12T05:18:14Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > In short: why? Because sometimes it feels like you’re talking to yourself here - you make a contribution to a thread and it’s met with… silence. A “Like” or “Thanks” button would at least allow posters to see that yes, someone did read what they wrote and agreed with it. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/54 "2016-12-12T05:45:22Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > In short: why? See post 53 for one reason. > [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > Sites like Reddit and Slashdot have mechanisms where upvoted posts are more visible, and where it’s possible to not even see downvoted posts. That goes against the nature of this board, where everyone has equal say. > > Likes/dislikes are binary, and this means that liking a short joke is the same as liking a long and detailed explanation. Karma harvesters therefore produce massive numbers of short, inoffensive posts that easily gain likes. These drown out posts with actual content, which may require more than a few seconds of reading to determine if they’re a positive contribution. > > There are some Reddit subforums that maintain a decent post quality, but in my experience they combine it with heavy-handed moderation to keep things on topic. That wouldn’t fly here, either. While I’m all for a like button, I’d probably oppose upvotes (reddit style at least) or karma points. Although I don’t know that karma harvesters would be a problem (don’t really have experience with “karma” boards). Not sure what’s gained by karma harvesting, nor am I sure that would be a problem with our group. A simple like button? No problem. And would give me a chance to show some appreciation to posts I like without cluttering the board. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes another poster expressed exactly what I want to say much better than I would say it myself. Right now my choices are silence or repeating what has been written more poorly than it’s already been said. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/55 "2016-12-12T07:23:58Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > See post 53 for one reason. > > While I’m all for a like button, I’d probably oppose upvotes (reddit style at least) or karma points. Although I don’t know that karma harvesters would be a problem (don’t really have experience with “karma” boards). Not sure what’s gained by karma harvesting, nor am I sure that would be a problem with our group. > > A simple like button? No problem. And would give me a chance to show some appreciation to posts I like without cluttering the board. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes another poster expressed exactly what I want to say much better than I would say it myself. Right now my choices are silence or repeating what has been written more poorly than it’s already been said. A third choice might be to respond to that post and say that you really liked it and that it experessed your opinion exactly. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/56 "2016-12-12T08:06:06Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > A third choice might be to respond to that post and say that you really liked it and that it experessed your opinion exactly. That can come across as a little… not sycophantic, but still in the same area code - especially when you’ve got multiple posters basically coming in to say “Well said, popular poster!” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/57 "2016-12-12T08:38:05Z")
> [@Yookeroo](#): > > Not sure what’s gained by karma harvesting, nor am I sure that would be a problem with our group. No different than any other kind of attention whoring. People get a little dopamine hit when they get paid attention to. Adding metrics ups the ante. I’d say it’s less of a problem here than other places, but it only takes a small percentage to clutter things up. > [@Yookeroo](#): > > A simple like button? No problem. I wouldn’t oppose a simple “thanks” button that: wasn’t scored on a per-user basis, was just a binary per-post flag, and anonymous. Just a little icon at the top of a post that said “Another user sent thanks for this post”. Still, it seems unnecessary. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/58 "2016-12-12T18:19:28Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I wouldn’t. One message board I’m on had a reputation system. It was so misused to give posters negative rep, that it was disabled. I don’t feel a need to have other posters pump up my rep. I’d rather have my posts speak for me, and if other posters have an issue with me, they can take it to the Pit. Right. If it was actual voting on the posts, that’d be one thing. But too many here would simply downvote all posts by certain posters. Thus making such a thing useless. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/59 "2016-12-12T20:00:18Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Cite? Wait, are we gonna get a, “Cite?” button? Ontopic: I think a like button for particular posts would improve the board. I know you curmudgeons chafe at the idea. Yeah, it’s not necessary. Neither are shoes. I don’t think Karma that is added up at the end of the day is useful, just a numerical rating of how many like a particular post. The only downside, is it would increase the sense of persecution that the conservative posters feel, since they don’t have the numbers. But I’m willing to live with that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293/60 "2016-12-12T20:37:50Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Paper Tiger beats Rock Lobster. And Lizard eats Paper. And poisons Spock, but Spock would not approach and try to eat Rock Lobster since they both have copper-based blood and that hits a bit too close to home. You really can’t argue for Like buttons when the alternative is to require people to post thoughtful remarks, inane puns, and sarcastic comments. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/like-button-user-karma/774293.md?page=4)