When this happens to me I might send the poster a private message of appreciation. That way the discussion stays clean. The threshold is higher than laughing during in-person conversation, but that’s just a reality of written communication.
- hits dislike button *
Like buttons might show that certain under-represented points of view are actually more popular than they appear. This, in turn, might lead to more people voicing those opinions, leading to more heterodox discussions.
Then again, they might not. Only one way to find out…
As has been said already by The Powers That Be, the current version of vBulletin being used can’t do it, and The Powers Above The Powers That Be aren’t likely to update any time soon.
That’s kind of where I was going- it would give people feedback, both posters and readers, as to the prevalence or popularity of certain viewpoints, etc…
TreacherousCretin thinks the segment he bolded is ridiculous.
I’ve tried suggesting that other spaces use reputational features without descending into a hellhole of fascistic oppression via popular opinion… to no avail.
digs has tired of suggesting that others not refer to themselves in the third person lest we all descend into a hellhole of fascistic oppression via self-reference… to no avail.
I’m always amused how we think ourselves better than a typical board, yet every change will bring out the worst case scenario in us.
People do tend to resist change. I’ve been on Facebook long enough to remember when people thought the introduction of the news feed was a shocking violation of privacy. And later, that Twitter moving away from a purely chronological ordering of tweets was essentially the end of the site as we’d known it.
Maybe the idea isn’t possible with the present board software, but if it were, something like this could very easily be instituted on a trial basis, or in only a specific forum, or only when the OP of a thread turns it “on”, etc. We could test it without necessarily risking anything to the board at large, if it were possible. And accompanying rules would be appropriate – no posts or threads asking for likes, no like-counting posts or threads, etc.
I suppose some people would do that.
But between the nature of the board, and given how this board skews old, many if not most of us are in a “if people like what I have to say, then great; if they don’t, let’s see their reasons” sort of place.
I’m an agnostic on whether we should have likes/dislikes, and part of the reason is that I don’t think it’ll change the character of the board that much, so if we have 'em, it’s no big deal either way. If having them will make some people happier, then who am I to blow against the wind?
I’m pretty neutral about it myself. I don’t think it will be a bad thing, I just don’t think we ‘need it’. If they decide to upgrade the boards software (:dubious:) to a version that supports it and decide to put it in I’ll still post here and I doubt things will change that much. Like I said, it would be interesting to see what the lurkers think about some of the posts sometimes, as it’s hard to gauge reactions in some threads.
Are you sure? A little searching looks like it was added around v3.0 back in 2005.
That would at least have the benefit of adding poor grammar.
Actually, Imgur added a “meh” button to their up and down choices on April 1, 2019. It was just an April Fools thing, but I liked it.
You know, if we did do this (assuming we could get the current software patched and the PTB would want too), they should definitely add this as a regular thing. I actually like the idea of not just likes and dislikes but meh as well. 
I’m sure there’s a handy list somewhere of new stuff in each version but I can’t find it. However, I’ve seen multiple threads in the vB forums discussing it dating back to 2005. From their “vBulletin 3.0 How Do I and Troubleshooting Forum”:
Reputation system, What is it??
The SDMB is using version 3.8.7
This is a good point. Do we have any indication that adding “likes” would make us more appealing to new people? I’d like to think everyone here would accept “likes” if presented with convincing evidence that it’d encourage posting and draw new members.
This board needs likes like it needs a hole in the head. Why should other posters care that you like the post. If you explain why you like it that could be interesting and worth posting. A plain thumbs-up sign is of no interest whatsoever other than perhaps to boost the ego of the original poster à la Sally Anne Field … “Ohhh, you like me!”