LIKE Button 👍

[Disco Scratch]

I'm not sure if this has been discussed or if it's possible on this board, but the inclusion of a 'like' button would be useful. In the world of Facebook the like button is also used as a form of acknowledgement. Instead of making a short post just to say "yes" or "thank you" I could just push the like button so the person I'm responding to knows that I at least saw what they said. Some may see the 'like' feature as a form of popularity contest, but that's not my intent.

If it can't be done I understand. It's just that those of us from AF have been using the like button for a number of years and you don't realize how much you use it until it's gone. :shock:

 

[Eltu]

We used to have many discussions on this matter on Avatar-Forums back in 2010! The lack of "like" buttons or reputation systems on Tree of Souls is a very deliberate decision.

I will quote one of the statements on this topic I have made in the past - this one was originally at a different community that I manage, though on Tree of Souls it applies even more:


[...]It's definitely worth discussing since post likes and user reputation (which is very similar in certain ways) also have a few significant drawbacks. Mainly, there is something to be said for human interaction - especially for us where the main point of most threads isn't to reach a certain conclusion but rather simply talk and spend time as a community together. "Like" and reputation systems are useful and indeed, save time, but they also reduce communication to numbers and stats rather than actual interaction.

Myself, I'd be much more pleased reading "Thank you for this post, I completely agree with you!" rather than simply having a number increment by 1, as it shows commitment and taking the time to sit down and write out a response, as short as it may be. We are not a huge community to begin with, and one could argue that having long threads are actually a great thing as it promotes further interaction. In two cases, likes and/or reputation systems make a lot of sense:

• Technical or support-oriented forums, where the point is always to reach a conclusion or answer. Here likes and reputation counts are useful since the actual communication is only the means to an end and it makes sense to make it as efficient as possible.
• Very large communities. On huge boards it also makes sense to streamline some of the interaction since it would simply be too overwhelming otherwise - there's more than enough interaction to go around anyway.

In our case, however, all these little pieces of interaction contributes to making the community feel human and alive, which more than anything reflects all the reasons we're here in the first place. Maybe it's a little more effort to write out a reply than press a button, but perhaps this is a good thing.

 

[Disco Scratch]

I see your point. I'll adjust

Besides, I like more interactive conversations and my primary complaint is that the AVATAR community has dwindled significantly so having it set up like this does make sense especially now.

Thanks though!