Would "like" functionality be an improvement?

[AlVal]

Apologies if it's been requested and / or considered before, but in case not - Could we have a "like" button on each post? I use another forum where the functionality is there, it allows for likes to be applied both to the thread as a whole, and to individual posts, and allows for users to feedback on their levels of agreement with posts without unneccessary text, for those occasions when all you want to indicate is that you agree/are of the same mind.

see example of it in use here for instance

http://www.cbr300forum.com/forum/electronics/15482...

Much as the term "like" feels a bit facebook-cringey to me, it's valid functionality imho, adds good value, and tidies up the text formatting by gathering comments that simply indicate agreement into a single point on the post/thread.

P.S. I'm not sure if it's cheeky making this a poll within the website feedback section? It may come across as me authoritatively asking the question as if it's on behalf of the PH Admin, which it's not! I'm just trying to raise the question, and to ensure the admin team have a good view of what the users think

[FourWheelDrift]

Been tried before, it was not liked.

[AlVal]

FourWheelDrift said:

Been tried before, it was not liked.

ah, thanks. I bet a dislike button would have been a roaring success here

Has anyone in the "no" camp managed to articulate any sound reasoning behind their opinion?

Edited by AlVal on Monday 18th April 17:53

[14]

You might be interested in what James Drake had to say on the like button.

James Drake said:

phazed said:

Just "stumbled" upon this thread like you should do when aimlessly wasting a few minutes in-between work.

PH works well for me as I stay well away from facefish, tw atter and the like.

Talking about "like", I am restraining from asking what a "like button" is as I'm sure i don't need to know.

Like, (there it is again) most people, i use my brain to sift out what I want to read about relating to what I am doing at the time,....if I'm arsed.

So don't change just for changes sake and so called youngster pressure, change to improve and improvement only happens
s l o w l y.

Right, off to do some copies on my duplicating machine.................

Just a comment on the concept of a "like" button - whilst it is very far from being something we're saying that we're going to implement, at our recent board meeting it was discussed at length.

Putting aside for one moment it being a "trend", a like button does actually serve a very good purpose - it identifies a thread or post that is popular. Currently the only way to do this (aside from reading thousands of posts per day) is based on the number of replies a thread has (the more replies, the more time the threads gets bumped too).

The limitation of this is that some of the very best posts (such as build threads) simply don't get many replies as there isn't much to say. With a "like" button we can offer a filter so people can browse through the most popular threads based on people that have read them. Hand in hand with this, it means that we can reward contributors who get positive responses to their posts - again at the moment the only metric we have is the number of times a mamber has posted.

As I say, this isn't something we're saying we're going to do, but it is interesting to understand people's reticence to the concept is often based on them thinking it is a fad and not actually understanding the true reason for doing it.

Thanks

JD

[Funk]

Only if it comes with a 'dislike' button too.

[Terminator X]

AlVal said:

ah, thanks. I bet a dislike button would have been a roaring success here

Has anyone in the "no" camp managed to articulate any sound reasoning behind their opinion?

Edited by AlVal on Monday 18th April 17:53

The pedant button would melt

TX.