I feel like this is something that’s be kicked around over time around here and it seems like from a technology standpoint the board software has stagnated a little, so I figure it’s worth bringing it up again.
What’s the current position on adding a feature to the board that allows people to like posts or thank posters? Adding something like reputation might be a bridge too far because it could create a “cool kids” group or attention baiting, but I think allowing people to click a “Like” or a “thanks” button on individual posts could encourage more participation and a higher quality of content.
I know that sometimes I wonder if it’s worth the energy and time to actually craft a detailed OP or response to a thread and when I do I often wonder if anyone read it, understood it or agreed with it. I think the SDMB is a place were long form is valued, but I think the number of people who do it are greatly reduced.
I know there are a lot of times when I’ve wanted to give a thumbs up to a really good post, but it seemed silly to write “hey, nice post!” An upvote button would solve that. A downvote button might stop threads from being hijacked by trolls or lunatics, but people would probably use it against reasonable posts that they just disagreed with.
So I’d vote for Upvote, yes; Downvote “no.”
But this is really academic, since TPTB seem dead set against these functions.
Well, I’m a lightweight newbie, but I can share my take on the matter. There are some really smart folks here that are quite capable of expressing their meaning and intent. I personally prefer that degree of interaction to the shortcuts you mentioned. If someone has made a particularly salient point, for instance, I think an attempt to adequately delineate why I find that person’s post so informative or instructive is in order. A ‘like’ button, or something similar, in my opinion at least, does a disservice to that level of discourse.
Again, that’s just my view. I like the lack of shortcuts.
I’m at a few forums with thanks, likes and what not. They quickly lead to group forming, friends thanking everything and anything that a mate posts. In discussions the number of likes will be put forth as strengthening the claim/point made in that post. More importantly, new members or members with a less than mainstream opinion will (right or wrong) will feel every discussion is against half the board, instead of just the two people actually posting… and then leave.
Thanks are fine if you are talking about reviews about something.
Likes are good for pictures of the latest kid graduating primary school.
Thums up/down are useless in any case, so probably good that reddit has them.
If you want discussion with actual arguments: just don’t.
The argument against that I’ve heard from mods and administrators is that they think of this as a text-based board, so they prefer that you express your approval or disapproval of a post in words and sentences, rather than a like box.
The nods and headshakes add nothing to the conversation and can even detract from it. Posts should be evaluated on their content alone and not how many thumbs up or down they get.
This strikes me as a dubious slippery slope argument. You’re assuming that these features will be abused as some type of credibility score or something. But not speaking to the point that people might post less and create less quality content a due to the lack of feedback. Kudos work in business. Gamification is a thing.
If the goal is to fight ignorance, shouldn’t people be encouraged to actually fight it? Hell, if you’re so worried about it make the “Thanks” tallies private to the poster and not public. Provide some damn carrots.
You know, until this thread I had basically forgotten I had any friends
I basically agree with Zoid. For things like that we always have the PM and in a lot of ways they work better. The poster gets the appreciation and the thread proceeds on its own.
So now that we’ve all agreed bacon will fly before this happens, I would really like a “thanks” or “like” type feature that isn’t visible to readers of the thread. I’m not a fan of the upvote/downvote system that drives Reddit, even if it’s working (sort of, I guess) for them. Downvotes are supposed to be for misinformation, trolling, hate speech, etc, but people really just use it as a “disagree” button, which leads to unpopular opinions being buried. That’s their format, and that’s fine, but I wouldn’t want it on a message board.
A “thumbs up” or “thank you” type deal, though? I think that’d be swell for the same reason others do: Sometimes people make really spot-on posts for which you have no response, but don’t don’t want to quote to say “This.” These serve as a nice little bit of gratitude to the person who wrote it, without the irritating pointlessness of “+1.” The number of these little regards on each post won’t be visible to people reading the thread, which I believe would curb the hive mind of “Others liked this, so I will too.”
It’s pretty neat, especially if you’re espousing a view not popular in the thread, and get little kudos from people reading.
