"Like" button

[Mise]

I know up- and down-voting has been ruled out as being "elitist", but is it possible for there to be a "Like" button, like on Facebook, or have a system where you can only up-vote (but not downvote) on individual posts? Lots of other websites do this, and I don't see why it would cause problems or be elitist. There needn't be any kind of aggregation or "points" systems for users, just for posts. You click the green up arrow on the post, and it puts a +1 on the post, so other people know that this is a good post.

The benefits would be obvious, especially for the Civ-related section. There is already a rating system on some subforums for threads, but having one for posts would be really great. Sometimes, people ask questions, and you don't know whether a response is a good one or a bad one, you can only go by what other people say about it (which you still don't know whether is good or bad!). But if people could upvote, they could signal "THIS IS A GOOD RESPONSE", without having to post. A lot of people on the forum are lurkers, so this would allow them to engage a lot more than at present. The additional engagement would also bridge the gap between lurking and contributing.

I can't think of any downsides.

Is the forum software capable of doing such a thing, and if not, are there any mods that can be put on to do this?

 

[Lord Baal]

The problem with that sort of thing is that it tends to wind up as a popularity contest. Just because people don't gain any tangible benefit from a thumbs-up doesn't mean they won't enjoy the feeling of superiority being voted for gives them. It would quickly be used in an elitist manner.

 

[azzaman333]

Like +1

 

[PeteAtoms]

There are Digg, del.icio.us, and StumbleUpon links at the bottom of threads (In the "Bookmarks" section, below "Post Reply" and above the "Tags" section).

Don't know why a "Like" button couldn't also be added...

 

[Abaddon]

The problem with that sort of thing is that it tends to wind up as a popularity contest. Just because people don't gain any tangible benefit from a thumbs-up doesn't mean they won't enjoy the feeling of superiority being voted for gives them. It would quickly be used in an elitist manner.

I'd dare say noone here could rely on more than 20 "mates" to upvote them. That's a tiny number compared to how many view a thread/post, so an actual decent thread/post would be clear for all to see. Any people trying to be elitist would soon be outnumbered by the masses.

 

[Joecoolyo]

The Like button is what ruined Digg, please don't bring it here.

 

[.Shane.]

I think its a good way to let things that are generally well liked bubble up.

@Lord Baal, nothing wrong w/ elitism if well executed.

 

[Lord Baal]

I think its a good way to let things that are generally well liked bubble up.

@Lord Baal, nothing wrong w/ elitism if well executed.

Elitism is fine. It's populism that's the problem, and that's what it would actually entail on these boards. Especially OT, which is riven by ideologues.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Yeah, I don't like it.

Gamedev.net has a good rating system but it's mainly serious discussion about programming.

 

[madviking]

The Like button is what ruined Digg, please don't bring it here.

//Digg ruined Digg

As long my likes don't go into my FB feed, I'm fine with them. It'll probably be used to drive worthless spam threads to the bottom of the stack.

 

[PeteAtoms]

What about an allowance system that gave lurkers (folks w/ less than X posts) more "likes" per day than non-lurkers? And give regular folks a smaller allowance to cut down on this so called "popularity contest of doom."

 

[Dachs]

What about an allowance system that gave lurkers (folks w/ less than X posts) more "likes" per day than non-lurkers? And give regular folks a smaller allowance to cut down on this so called "popularity contest of doom."

Doesn't help at all with the issue if it's actually an issue. Other than the issue of DLs, people could just log out to gain instant likes.

Of course, I doubt popularity-contest nonsense would be a problem anyway.

 

[Quintillus]

Most importantly: even if such a system is implemented, that is not be integrated with Facebook. I never use any "Like" buttons that are connected with Facebook simply because I don't want anyone with a Facebook account to be able to track half of what I do on the Internet, even if there's nothing incriminating. I have been known to use recommend/not recommend buttons on magazine sites that where the votes are anonymous, do not require logins, and have no connection with Facebook.

On a similar vein, even a small amount of Facebook integration can get creepy. Some sites have Facebook boxes advertising how many people like that site - and if you happen to be logged on to Facebook at that time and one of your friends is a fan of that site, chances are good (well beyond coincidence) that that person will be one of the six featured fans. While it may be a good conversation starter if you learned someone was a CFC fan through that way, moreover it seems creepy that other sites can display personal information like that.

Perhaps it's different in the Civ4 forums, but I don't see this as being that beneficial in the Civ3 forums. That may be because most of the Civ3 posters are long-term Civ3 players, but I can't recall myself often wondering whether a response was accurate or inaccurate, except occasionally in relation to the topic of Flavors. The potential for a popularity contest to ensue seems to outweigh any benefit based on what I see in the Civ3 forums.

I also wonder if this would have any bearing on the ordering of posts. It makes sense for them to be in chronological order, so the "best" one may still be buried.

My other question, is how does this tie in with guides or the Wiki? I know the Civ3 forums have many excellent guides on various topics, some a bit out of date, but very useful nonetheless. Civ4 also seems to have a decently populated Wiki. Presumably, the Wiki or the better guides could be used as an authority on many topics. Actually using the voting system on guides or wiki articles may or may not be useful - I can definitely see that if someone wrote a much better guide on some Civ4 topic in 2014 than one that exists today, it wouldn't have a chance of achieving as many + votes as one written today, purely due to audience size.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've seen this sort of thing ruin many different kinds of sites and forums. There are quite a few ways to abuse such features and use them to target people in negative ways. We (the moderators) already have enough to do around here, thankyouverymuch.

Suggestion: If you run across a post that you think is so good that we all need to know about it and read it, why not put a link in your sig? I've noticed that some people here already do this, and it's informative but unobtrusive. It's also a lot less apt to cause someone else's feelings to get hurt.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

I like this !

I mean come on, you guys implemented tags to be placed on threads by anyone. That was just asking for abuse! A counter for likes next to a post seems harmless if you just limit the no of likes per day or smthing.

 

[Mise]

I've seen this sort of thing ruin many different kinds of sites and forums. There are quite a few ways to abuse such features and use them to target people in negative ways. We (the moderators) already have enough to do around here, thankyouverymuch.

Suggestion: If you run across a post that you think is so good that we all need to know about it and read it, why not put a link in your sig? I've noticed that some people here already do this, and it's informative but unobtrusive. It's also a lot less apt to cause someone else's feelings to get hurt.

How could a simple "Like" button possibly cause negative feelings?! It's for positively rating posts, not negatively rating them! Please read the OP again.

@Quintillus: I'm not talking about integrating it with facebook, I just want a little button I can click that indicates "THIS IS A GOOD POST", without having to spam the thread up with useless "I agree" or posts. I mentioned nothing about integrating it with facebook in the OP.


There are literally hundreds of lurkers on the Civ 5 forums, and something like this would at least entice them to join in, so that they can register their LIKE for a post, without actually having to post. When I join a new forum, I find the first few posts immensely scary -- a system like this would help bridge the gap between registering and posting (i.e. contributing), by providing a safe, anonymous way of interacting with other people, without having to feel like a total noob all the time.

 

[spryllino]

I think this is a pretty bad idea. Actually, more could be achieved by being able to reorder the posts in any given thread by length, because this would probably show up the best posts at the top of the list in most cases (admittedly not always, but most of the time).

 

[Zelig]

How could a simple "Like" button possibly cause negative feelings?! It's for positively rating posts, not negatively rating them! Please read the OP again.

@Quintillus: I'm not talking about integrating it with facebook, I just want a little button I can click that indicates "THIS IS A GOOD POST", without having to spam the thread up with useless "I agree" or posts. I mentioned nothing about integrating it with facebook in the OP.


There are literally hundreds of lurkers on the Civ 5 forums, and something like this would at least entice them to join in, so that they can register their LIKE for a post, without actually having to post. When I join a new forum, I find the first few posts immensely scary -- a system like this would help bridge the gap between registering and posting (i.e. contributing), by providing a safe, anonymous way of interacting with other people, without having to feel like a total noob all the time.

 

[Catharsis]

The first thing to ask is: is this actually possible to implement? I've never seen a vBulletin forum with a like button, but then I haven't been to a lot of them. If it's not actually possible then there's no point in having the argument.

(Google search yielded a modification that introduced a like button, but IIRC TF doesn't use mods, for ease of updating purposes, and also, that particular like button was linked to Facebook.)

I've seen this sort of thing ruin many different kinds of sites and forums. There are quite a few ways to abuse such features and use them to target people in negative ways. We (the moderators) already have enough to do around here, thankyouverymuch.

Well, if it is possible, how about introducing it for a trial period of a few months? Personally I think you're underestimating the maturity levels of the majority of this forum's users, but your concern is perhaps understandable, given what happened with the tags feature.

But if it were trialled and it turned out we were too childish to use this feature properly, then you can just take our toy away after the trial period is over, right? People would complain about that, no doubt, but they wouldn't have a leg to stand on (as with the tags).

You used to be all about trial periods, Valka. Before you became a moderator, I mean. You advocated trials for the Arts and Literature forum, for spoiler tags in signatures, 'CFC Awards', respectful personal threads, and possibly animated avatars (although that might have been someone else, apologies if that wasn't you). Honestly, I don't really see how an innocent little 'Like' button is any more likely to cause havoc than a relaxing of the personal thread laws, for example.

You've changed, man

 

[Valka D'Ur]

How could a simple "Like" button possibly cause negative feelings?! It's for positively rating posts, not negatively rating them! Please read the OP again.

All it takes is a few complaints of "Why doesn't anybody "Like" my posts?!" or some spammish comment to garner a bunch of "Like" ratings just so people can spam or troll without being caught at it. Then the complaints start coming in to the moderators, and the task of sorting it all out begins.

There are literally hundreds of lurkers on the Civ 5 forums, and something like this would at least entice them to join in, so that they can register their LIKE for a post, without actually having to post. When I join a new forum, I find the first few posts immensely scary -- a system like this would help bridge the gap between registering and posting (i.e. contributing), by providing a safe, anonymous way of interacting with other people, without having to feel like a total noob all the time.

This is a good argument in favor for the feature. But once they do start posting, would they be good posters? I don't moderate the Civ 5 forums, but I see the reports and discussions about it - and I certainly don't envy the people who do have to deal with some of those situations. They can get pretty intense.

The first thing to ask is: is this actually possible to implement? I've never seen a vBulletin forum with a like button, but then I haven't been to a lot of them. If it's not actually possible then there's no point in having the argument.

I know that vBulletin has a "reputation" feature that I'm relieved has never been activated here. I've seen it cause immense damage and hard feelings on some forums. Whether a "half-reputation" (the 'good' half) could be implemented - I have no idea.

Well, if it is possible, how about introducing it for a trial period of a few months? Personally I think you're underestimating the maturity levels of the majority of this forum's users, but your concern is perhaps understandable, given what happened with the tags feature.

But if it were trialled and it turned out we were too childish to use this feature properly, then you can just take our toy away after the trial period is over, right? People would complain about that, no doubt, but they wouldn't have a leg to stand on (as with the tags).

You used to be all about trial periods, Valka. Before you became a moderator, I mean. You advocated trials for the Arts and Literature forum, for spoiler tags in signatures, 'CFC Awards', respectful personal threads, and possibly animated avatars (although that might have been someone else, apologies if that wasn't you). Honestly, I don't really see how an innocent little 'Like' button is any more likely to cause havoc than a relaxing of the personal thread laws, for example.

You've changed, man

I still advocate trial periods. The most recent one I advocated was moving the DYOS threads from the Games forum to Arts & Entertainment. Since I've received no negative feedback whatsoever about that, I would conclude that the participants are happy with the move and it was a success. But if it stops being a successful discussion and story creation activity and turns into a spamfest, then it would probably be moved back to the Games section.

Yes, I am the person who advocated a trial period for animated avatars - I would still like that to happen, but sadly it doesn't seem like it ever will.

And please don't call me "man" - I may have changed a few of my opinions, but I haven't changed that much - I'm still female.