I like this post. It is necessary for me to actually type out that I like it.
I agree that these “why can’t we <have avatars/have a like button/etc>” threads get tiresome but to me, the tiresome part is the self-congratulatory sniffs of disdain that here at the SDMB, we don’t go for such lowbrow expressions of appreciation. There are invariably more than a few posters who can’t just say,“I prefer it the way we have it now” but have to add haughty mocking of those common types who want a new feature.
But you do like “like” buttons, even though those who use them might support popular posters regardless of what they are posting and might have little or no understanding of the argument. Hmm.
I used to think “like” buttons were silly, but now i am on a site that uses them, and I agree with others here in that you can quickly just click on the +, instead of adding a “me too”. I’d go along with having them, but my life would be just fine if we didn’t have them, too. So count me as a mild “Yes”.
Avatars. Hmm. I can see uses for them, but reason why not also.
I’ve seen two useful cases for like/dislike ratings.
On Weather Underground, there are people who troll/spam/joke with fake forecasts and other such things. When the post reaches a certain threshold of negative ratings, it gets minimized for people who have default read settings. This helps avoid the clutter, as long as it isn’t abused.
(ETA, and partially relevant to this discussion: Weather Underground might be a good example of bringing change to an existing forum. They were purchased by The Weather Channel, and have added a few new featured bloggers. They’ve appeared to be mostly ignored. There is active debate over using TWC’s naming conventions for winter storms. Many users feel that the main blog wouldn’t have used those names if it were still an independent site. One of the biggest fear of the old school bloggers is that being linked to from TWC would cause people who are extremely casual about the weather would start to show up and change the culture, watering down the value of the people who actually discuss the likely forecasts.)
On a site like this, it can help someone who is relatively new to understand who they might want to believe in a discussion. Someone giving factual answers with a high number of likes might be considered more trusted.
That being said..
This was my first reaction. I’m not sure we have a problem here. Of course, I’m not sure that adding rating buttons would cause a problem, either.
“Will the SDMB embrace any kind of change?” is the question, really - do we really think it’s the perfect incarnation of a message board for all time? It’s quite incredible how many ideas for change/improvement die on the vine.
I think “like” buttons could be useful. Take the Paterno thread where at least one person is claiming huge secretive support from others who are just afraid of being exposed. If we had said “like” button, it would be readily easy to actually see the ration of 4,987 to 1 after all. Just a thought.
I don’t want a “like” button for a general addition. I used to think vBulletin was the bestest thing ever for all forms of content, but I’ve been brought around to the “different tools for different situations” way of thinking. If it didn’t require significant, probably expensive hacking (which it would), I would totally get behind changing GQ, specifically and only, to a Stack Exchange-like format (I’d make some alterations, to be sure, but I think the format is better suited to question threads than what we have now).
I like the idea of Reddit-style “likes”, but the big problem is that I haven’t been able to find a suitable vBulletin plugin that replicates it. There’s a lot of old fashoned “thank you” plugins and hacks, that adds a username to a list of those “thanking” the author of a post, but nothing implementing simple blog/Reddit-style upvoting/downvoting.
Anyway…I, too, have felt the occasional urge to express agreement about something (more often in Cafe Society, say), and to thank a poster for answering a question I’d asked that was a bit of a hijack from the OP. A “like” button might be of marginal utility in such instances.
But, IMHO, not worth the overall degrading of the tenor and purpose of this board. So I’m with TubaDiva – I vote “no”.