Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

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nielske
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Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by nielske »

Lots of forums have a "thank you" option nowadays, which is similar to the "like" button on Facebook. I think it would be good to have such an option on this forum for the following reasons:

1) Somebody who has downloaded an add-on, appreciates it, but has nothing to say beyond "thanks" or "I like it" probably won't post. As a result, the creator might see 100 downloads, but only one or two posts, which can come across like: "Oh, they thought it looked nice in the picture, but it turned out to be disappointing when they tried it out." With a "thank you" button, the creator can see how many people appreciated the add-on. It doesn't fill the thread with useless posts (which are discouraged)

The same, of course, goes for other types of posts: you can thank somebody for organizing a competition, coming up with a good idea, or just saying something you agree with -- It'll make someone feel good. Maybe you feel like you're the only one who feels a certain way, because nobody's written that they agree with you. This could be easily solved with a "thank you" button.

2) You can still "thank" people for older posts without bumping the thread. You could also thank people for posts they've made earlier in the discussion, when the discussion has moved on to a different topic.

3) More people (lurkers, for example) might be more inclined to actively participate. Maybe you'll see names you've never seen before. It's good to know that they, too, care for what goes on on the forum. They may even start posting in the future!

4) It's a good way for people to communicate a basic message if they don't speak English very well and don't feel comfortable enough to actually write a message.


It's proven to be popular on many message boards (especially those where new content is posted regularly), and it's a format that people are already familiar with (through, for example, Facebook).

It should be compatible with this board's software, too. I found this add-on, for example: https://www.phpbb.com/customise/db/mod/ ... for_posts/


Now, I personally don't care for 'rewards', little golden stars, or "... has been thanked X times" or "has sent X thank you's". I think that type of reward system is a little pre-teen and it can actually have negative effects. Just a simple list of users who thanked someone for a particular post should suffice, in my opinion.

Let me know what you think :)
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Niko K
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by Niko K »

I think this would be a really useful feature, as I too have seen this work well in numerous other forums. Like you said this would have a considerable impact on people who upload content and see 20 or so downloads but zero comments.

I'm all for it. :up:
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by LongBow »

This idea was already brought up some time ago in this thread but so far it was not implemented.

As I have already stated, I like the idea and I would love to see it implemented here on the forum.
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by Trigger Happy »

Any similar detail system of rating/thanking to every single reply never was introduced, because I wonder how it would help.

Basically we're not a common discussion forum (rather a mix with a database, add-ons as likely the key part here), so the part worthy of any ranking on regular basis are rather 1st posts/whole threads than the following common other replies reacting on the starting one. So with scope very identical to all points 1-4 we've added the rating by star (bad english, just lurking, topic already under anti-bump rule, more feedback for authors aggregated from download number, ratings, comments, votes etc) to cover at least the basic level (without detail option of individual replies) with hope, that people will welcome having such option. And we're not getting on 10 ratings per thread, in some cases not over 5.

If we use the stars ranking as much as atm in relation of whole threads/1st posts, why should we expect we'll use something same or very similar in a decent amount worthy of extending of such feature to every single reply as described?

You know, I'm not against this idea in general, I'd like it here very much, but only if it would be in use by us. If people would be more keen on such things in the basic level of whole threads in sum by supporting the rating system by more input in general, I think it'd be logical to offer also option for doing it (rating/thanking/liking, anyhow you wish to call it) in even higher detail of particular replies, not only threads - but the reality of present days isn't promising it would worth. :shrug:


LongBow, you're bit confused, the discussion about a conversion of the thread rating into bit different model, but it'd not extend it to every single reply. BTW I haven't done anything about it, because after the discussion I noticed bit bigger attention to ratings, so wanted to know, how it will develop. :)
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by LongBow »

Trigger Happy wrote:LongBow, you're bit confused, the discussion about a conversion of the thread rating into bit different model, but it'd not extend it to every single reply. BTW I haven't done anything about it, because after the discussion I noticed bit bigger attention to ratings, so wanted to know, how it will develop. :)
You are actually right :sweatdrop: I kind of read Nielske post in a hurry and thought he was aiming for "thread only liking option" and not for all posts of the thread.
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by nielske »

I get your point, but I don't think the fact that people don't use the star ratings very often is not a reason the feature I suggested might not be worth implementing. I, for one, don't use the star ratings, because you'd have to take into consideration how it relates to all other mods in its genre. I can really find a track enjoyable to drive on while it's ugly as sin, or beautiful but no fun at all. I don't really care to find out how that translates to a score on a 5-point scale (though other people clearly do like rating tracks, because many posters actively give ratings on 5 or 10 point scales all the time). I might still want to thank a forum member for the time and effort he put into making the mod, though, regardless of how I think it should be scored.

I often feel this way now, and I never really had the idea that the star ratings would be able to answer to this 'need'. Especially when a thread/post is older.

I have no issues with the star ratings -- there's nothing wrong with them, and they should probably stay. As I already said; many people actually do actively rate tracks, and it's useful when scrolling down a long list of foreign sounding names in the track forum if you want to pick out a good one. I just think it's a different type of feedback altogether, and that they don't need to be mutually exclusive


By the way, I missed the discussion in the star ratings-topic (because I didn't think of them as similar), but I also agree with Mantov's final post there

Thanks for your comments guys :up:
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by Trigger Happy »

I didn't mean it's somehow strictly equal in purpose or function (they are more or less, but not equal), but rather to point out some details hinting us how much it may worth to be implemented on effectiveness of a quite similar feature. To have a frame image, if pros of implementing this new feature is worthy of the risks it includes (obviously the more complex things are, the easier they go wrong, the worse consequences the crash have and and longer it takes to make it working properly again).

BTW you mention, that simple ''thank you'' posts to be discouraged. I'll tell you why and which relation it has to this feature: it's not discouraged to reply to tell ''thank you'' or ''I like it'', but discouraged is to tell only this without any deeper thought about what and why actually you liked or disliked on it - such a feature (or e.g. fb like button) somehow discourages people from thinking, they just press a button and don't think beyond it.

As long as we're somehow a discussion forum and want to keep value of the discussion on a relevant level, I think, we should rather try encourage people to think and then express their thoughts by written words than offer such a trivialisating shortcut for every single occasion (and that's also major difference between having a liking or a rating system, in rating on scale you need to sort out in head at least slightly why you chose that mark; also partly it's ''con'' in present world, which favours the option requiring lower mental effort). In sum, only 'Thank you' or 'I like it' posts are not discouraged because the 'Thank you' alone would have no value according to us (it has huge one!), but because for a relevant discussion/feedback one should also be able to specify, why he do so.

I know in some cases it's favourable solution to have the post-liking, some you're hinting like the expressing some words and ''I agree but nothing to add'', but I'm not sure if things like comment of a track is so complex theme or those written here on forum are be so elaborative that once some are written, one cannot any longer try to see the matter from a bit different PoV or have attention caught by other details worthy of writing a sentence or two pointing out something. Obviously then it's no problem to place the there the 'thank you' too. :)
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by Niko K »

If it was either the one star system (which I thought was dumped since nothing happened) or the "thanks" system, I think it would be considerably better since you wouldn't have to think too much about what rating you want to give the content, but rather just either like it or leave it be, this could be a lot more encouraging for people to more actively rate stuff. It really can be a hard task for a random browser to rate something from one to five and for that reason many might not rate at all.

I just think it should be as simple as possible, letting the amount of likes speak louder than an average rating which can be a bit tricky to filter out without mouse over to see how many people actually contributed to the average rating. :2c:
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by Trigger Happy »

Niko K wrote:If it was either the one star system ... or the "thanks" system, I think it would be considerably better since you wouldn't have to think too much about what rating you want to give the content ...
It would be better, only if you prefer quantity over quality, but only partially, because too few ratings is in the end neither of those two. In some cases aggregate of 4-7 ratings may be more valuable by given info/feedback than having some 32 likes. Especially if we'd like to encourage people rather to think than not to think. However I guess we already came to conclusion that it maybe is worthy of a try anyway (in the topic, which LongBow links above).

BTW we're maybe going a bit off-topic here, I'm afraid. :-)
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by AleksiNir »

I have nothing to contribute to the discussion going on, but I wanted to drop in and say that I prefer nielske's suggestion over the current star rating.

In other words, I give a like/thumbs up/thank/whatever to nielske :mrgreen:
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by nielske »

Trigger Happy wrote:As long as we're somehow a discussion forum and want to keep value of the discussion on a relevant level, I think, we should rather try encourage people to think and then express their thoughts by written words than offer such a trivialisating shortcut for every single occasion (and that's also major difference between having a liking or a rating system, in rating on scale you need to sort out in head at least slightly why you chose that mark; also partly it's ''con'' in present world, which favours the option requiring lower mental effort). In sum, only 'Thank you' or 'I like it' posts are not discouraged because the 'Thank you' alone would have no value according to us (it has huge one!), but because for a relevant discussion/feedback one should also be able to specify, why he do so.
A fair point, and definitely something we should be concerned about. I do agree that it may seem like a lazy option, but when we speak with people in real life, we nod, shake our head, say 'mhm' and 'yeah' all the time. We're not contributing anything substantial, but it encourages the speaker to continue speaking, because we've shown our approval. Does it necessarily mean that I won't make a more meaningful contribution later on? I don't believe so.

I think that the people who actually have something to say (like "I really hate how that wall sticks out inside of turn 3") will do so anyway, regardless of whether they hit the 'thank you' button or not.

Also, on forums where it has been implemented, I've seen no drop in comments (this includes topics where new content is submitted). If anything, it's generated the feeling of a more lively atmosphere. Rather than having 3 regulars discuss things back and fourth, 15 lurkers or occasional visitors have jumped it with a few "thank you's" here and there. It feels a bit less like you're in an empty room. Now you've got a room with an audience that applauds every now and then!

Thanks again for the feedback everyone :up:
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by Trigger Happy »

nielske wrote:... but when we speak with people in real life, we nod, shake our head, say 'mhm' and 'yeah' all the time.
Consider differences between expressing anything on discussion forum and instant massager/a chatbox. The one is front of public audience and should have certain minimal form fitting to it, second is for private conversation like you describe. But it's just side note, not a disputing anything in your post. :)
nielske wrote:Now you've got a room with an audience that applauds every now and then!
As a second side note, its about people, not systems and their updates
make wonders, it's only about how people decide to behave to each other.


But to main point of this reply - the mod you mention. I was looking on it during today in more details and I'm not sure about it at all. At first, I don't really like all the junk it spreads around the basic idea (thanks toplists, score on bottom of index page of most ''thankers'', etc), and huge attention the feature usurps everywhere like being the centre of all being (just how much its score takes in a post, actually overshadows the matter of post itself just to tell, who thanked).

I think I would really have to pure this thing to have sense here to really point out the original idea - humble, in modesty given thank-you to somebody else and not what it turned out to be presenting itself, a prime purpose of our lives. On one hand I can see in the screenshots, there are options to turn-off a lot of these useless things, but I'm not really very keen on that solution, because I'd actually turn off about 8 of 10 additional features of the thing. And in fact the mod actually interferes into a lot of files of forum engine, so it'd mean to implement all the (useless) features just for sake of implementing it in a full consistent shape and have them turned off. Obviously, every row of the codes I touch increases danger I screw something up, so it doesn't seems to to worth to do the risk, when it then is going to be turned off in bigger part (I hope it's a bit understandable concern). :)

Also I cannot imagine how it can help in sense of a rating which it pushes into topics index as rating.
Rating is built on a number of thanks for the posts.
/inside the thread for particular reply/ For 100% rating is the highest number of thanks for post (leader). Rating the remaining posts is defined as a percentage of the ranking leader.For example, the maximum number of thanks for post #1 = 10. This is 100%. Then post #2 with 5 thanks will have a rating of 50% (10/5). Post #3 with 3 thanks will have a rating of 33,3% (10/3), etc. If the post #1 will receive another thanks (10 +1 = 11), his rating will remain 100% (as leader). Rating post #2 is 45.5% (11/5), rating post #3 is 27.3% (11/3).
/on index of threads in forum/ Position ranking is determined by the number of thanks. Topics rating is made up of the sum of the topic's posts thanks. Forum's rating is made up of the sum of the forum's posts thanks.
I really don't get why a post bellow should have a spectacular rating in stars derived only from ratio thanks to 1st post/thanks to post itself. Which value the rating expresses? Similarly, if overall rating of threads on index derived thanks given in whole forum/all thanks given to all replies in a thread? Really, what does it say about e.g. a track? :scratch: Atm I cannot see a way, how it could replace the current rating (in any form, either now or the likes we talked about), because I favour not to have 2 independent complex systems for these really only secondary purposes of expressing an opinion/feelings.

So in the end I think it will be more reasonable to tweak the current rating system in something loosely reminding this or rather its original naked idea (or like button or whatever you wish to call it) than jumping in this modification. There's no longer needed to wait for something, so I could look on it maybe during the week.
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by nielske »

Totally agree with you (like I already said in my first post). I don't like the mod I posted either; I only care for the 'thank you' option (or something similar). I've seen that, too, on many forums, without any of the spectacle that the mod I linked to adds.

I only posted that link for clarification, and to see if the option was compatible with this forum's software. It was the result of a 10 second Google search. I'm sure there are more suitable alternatives out there, that only add "person XYZ" and "person ABC" said thank you for this post. Possibly even with a collapsible list, so that the list of thank you's doesn't exceed the post, in terms of length.

Thanks for considering it, though :)

(edit: I searched a little better, and I found this: https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtop ... &t=2113726. It's a lot more minimalist, and it has fewer features that we do not like. I don't know if it's any less invasive; you'd be able to tell more about that than I would)
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Re: Thumbs up ("liking" posts without replying)

Post by Yusei Fudo »

Could be a good idea, but I think the forums might "die" a bit. Because a lot of people might just post to say "Hey, nice track" etc etc. now if they just "like" it there won't be almost any posts anyway. Also, if people just "like" and don't reply, the thread won't be in the newest post section for long, meaning a lot of people might miss it.

Just my idea of some negative sides. I'm not against the idea though
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