I know this board is very opposed to reactions, because we should use our words and not just add reactions to a post. I agree with this! Mostly!
I would love a way to quickly show that I laughed at someone’s excellent joke in a post, or to acknowledge they responded to me, without having to make a post that said, “Ha! Good one” or “Got it, thanks”.
I think those two responses or worse that useless, but I also hate to see a good bon mot go unacknowledged, or to be seen to ignore when someone responds to something I said or asked about.
So, just two possible reactions, both positive, both of which would avoid short, throwaway posts. I’m not asking for reddit-style up and down votes, or other reactions that users would try outcompete each other to get more cred. Just those two simple reactions, and
I sympathize with your goal. But the problem is that any reactions become a competition. “He got more laughing reactions than me!” “Why did RitterSport thumbs-up her post but not mine?” “My argument in GD got ten thumbs-up and yours got only seven!”
It’s impossible on a board like this to design it such that people don’t get sucked into that quest for a dopamine hit or turn it into a competition. We all say we don’t care how many people react to our posts, but deep down we do. And I think that changes the way people post for the worse.
In response to the various posts showing thumbs-up and various other emojis, I think the OP was looking for a way to attach a quick response like an emoji to the original post, rather than adding a whole new post to do so. So, in effect, a flavored “like” mark.
I don’t agree with that goal. Good bon mots go unnoticed all the time (I am reminded of an alleged quote “you’re throwing pearls, and not even getting a pork chop in return”), here as elsewhere. The lack of direct response does not make them useless, they add lovely flavor notes to the overall stew. Even if the admin could do such a thing, I would hope that they would not. I don’t want to see posts with strings of those “laughing until I cry” emojis following them.
We’ve had “Why can’t we have a Like button?” discussions before. Even if it were a good idea, it’s apparently not something that would work well with the board’s software.
I sympathize with your intentions, but in the end I agree with leaving things as is.
The Jokes thread is especially problematic for me. People post many jokes I’m tempted to acknowledge with “Good one!” – but that would interrupt the flow of jokes. So, I set the bar really high, and only reply in this way once in a blue moon, and usually with a new joke (of mine) in the same post.
This is what I was trying to avoid. Rather than a bunch of “LMFAO” and “Hahaha” posts, or “Thanks!”, just put a reaction on the post and avoid the underbrush. Sounds like it won’t work for Discourse, but the whole point was to avoid having to hack through a bunch of one liners.
I think you’re being harsh here (even if I agree we shouldn’t change anything).
The OP’s idea arose from a desire to inform Dopers that their carefully composed contributions are being read and appreciated.
It looks like most users here have never seen a Discourse site with this
feature enabled. It’s not useless underbrush. There are thousands of posts
on this site which just contain laughing or thumbs-up emojis, or “this”, or similar
which clutters up the board more than an emoji added to an already existing post.
How is any more “nothing to contribute” than, say, “Now that’s funny”
and 
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