Scrap "thanks" - add "like/dislike" functions

Chemical Byrne

The thumbs up thanks is all dandy but I recently saw on thread where someone posted up what has to be some of the worst advice ever in the history of Boards.ie
If there was a "dislike" option it would be very handy.

Theres a bit of imbalance in the current set up, a good post can be recognised with thanks but there is no facility to condemn a stupid post.

Most other social media sites have like/dislike now.

5starpool

Been discussed lots of times, won't happen. Also, boards is not facebook or loads of other sites.

IvyTheTerrible

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

The thumbs up thanks is all dandy but I recently saw on thread where someone posted up what has to be some of the worst advice ever in the history of Boards.ie
If there was a "dislike" option it would be very handy.

Theres a bit of imbalance in the current set up, a good post can be recognised with thanks but there is no facility to condemn a stupid post.

Most other social media sites have like/dislike now.

There is a facility, you reply to the post with logical arguments. Someone simply "disliking" a post doesn't mean it's a stupid post.

Flippyfloppy

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

There is a facility, you reply to the post with logical arguments. Someone simply "disliking" a post doesn't mean it's a stupid post.

I think I know the forum (and thread)OP is talking about, and you're not allowed argue amongst yourselves there!

Do we just assume if we get no thanks everyone dislikes our posts? Probably best because in the wrong hands a dislike button would be deadly! (See journal.ie for example, people dislike really nice comments)

GLaDOS

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=63000398
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=60745851
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58205530
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64934172
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57017308
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58751970

Amongst others

ThisRegard

Wasn't there a brief period when there was a Thumbs Down button ? It was abused to hell before being removed from what I can remember.

seamus

ThisRegard wrote: »

Wasn't there a brief period when there was a Thumbs Down button ? It was abused to hell before being removed from what I can remember.

No, but there was a brief period after an upgrade where Karma appeared, where you could award someone with positive or negative karma for their contributions. You could also leave a little note with your karma.

Then someone thought it would be funny to go around handing out negative karma signed by the admins. Of course not realising that the admins could see who was giving the karma. So the notes went away but the karma stayed. But it became clear that some people were abusing it and handing out negative karma everywhere for no particular reason. Because some people are just cvnts and that's what they do.

So karma went away.

On the topic, dislikes, down votes, thumbs down, they're all stupid. Because they become a method through which people without the courage to engage in debate can silently attack a post without actually engaging.

Upvotes/thanks/likes, etc on the other save a thread from continual back-slapping. Rather than fifty "I agree, great post" replies, it's a silent thanks instead.

Señor Fancy Pants

Yeah I can see it just being used as a tool to wind people up.

The place is bad enough as it is. That rolleyes icon is an annoying fupper too!

TrueDub

Chemical Byrne wrote: »

The thumbs up thanks is all dandy but I recently saw on thread where someone posted up what has to be some of the worst advice ever in the history of Boards.ie
If there was a "dislike" option it would be very handy.

Theres a bit of imbalance in the current set up, a good post can be recognised with thanks but there is no facility to condemn a stupid post.

Most other social media sites have like/dislike now.

Dislike.

nesf

seamus wrote: »

On the topic, dislikes, down votes, thumbs down, they're all stupid. Because they become a method through which people without the courage to engage in debate can silently attack a post without actually engaging.

You think the thanks button isn't a way for people to engage in the debate, particularly the nastier side of it, without getting their own hands dirty?

I don't favour downvoting on here because I think people would take it too personally but let's not pretend that upvoting doesn't have a load of issues, it was resisted on here for a very long time with good reason.

seamus

nesf wrote: »

You think the thanks button isn't a way for people to engage in the debate, particularly the nastier side of it, without getting their own hands dirty?

I agree it is, but it's not anonymous, so to a certain extent removes the "clean hands" aspect to it.

But like I say, it allows for people to add a "me too" or "+1" without spamming the thread.

IMO, the pros outweigh the cons, whereas the same can't be said for a dislike button.

nesf

seamus wrote: »

I agree it is, but it's not anonymous, so to a certain extent removes the "clean hands" aspect to it.

But like I say, it allows for people to add a "me too" or "+1" without spamming the thread.

IMO, the pros outweigh the cons, whereas the same can't be said for a dislike button.

Given how upset I've seen people get about people thanking certain posts, I imagine a dislike button would just create a real mess. I just about tolerate the thanks button because I remember threads full of +1's but I think a properly managed anonymous up/down voting system works better (I don't think it's suitable for here though).

Lovely Bloke

5starpool wrote: »

Been discussed lots of times, won't happen. Also, boards is not facebook or loads of other sites.

not yet anyway.

anncoates

Would just add further moron enablement to the site.

Penn

-1

brian_t

IvyTheTerrible wrote: »

There is a facility, you reply to the post with logical arguments.

And thanking this post would be the equivalent of disliking the other post surely.

Overheal

ScienceNerd wrote: »

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=63000398
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=60745851
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58205530
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=64934172
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=57017308
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58751970

Amongst others

This post would be more useful if it quoted all the posts in those threads where people linked to older threads where it was already discussed - like threadception.

Avada

It doesn't work on the Journal imo, it just enables trolls.

nesf

Random_Name wrote: »

It doesn't work on the Journal imo, it just enables trolls.

The main problem is you need to build in protection against people mass upvoting or mass downvoting, so on other sites your account can lose the right to up and down vote for a while if you get flagged as voting in particular problematic patterns (e.g. only downvoting and downvoting a lot of posts in a short period of time or whatever).

The problem for the Journal is that would be very, very hard to implement without restricting who can vote a lot.

One eyed Jack

I'd prefer to see the whole validation system done away with altogether tbh. I understand that's unlikely to happen but when I heard a work colleague this morning almost piss herself with delight at how many 'likes' she got on her Facebook for her latest status update or whatever, I really did wonder "Is this what we've come down to?"...

Overheal

frankly social networking wouldn't work without the feedback loop it provides. People stop generally posting their contrived selfies if they don't get likes for them. Anyway, facebook as an example is a growing smart-system that learns what you personally like/don't like and caters your feed to that.

Zascar

I'd just be delighted if there was a way to filter out all the totally nonsensical posts that Boards is plagued with. Especially in after hours, depending on the thread very large portion of the replies give no actual value to the conversation and are just idiotic irrelevant words, stupid puns or really lame jokes. I really don't understand the mentality of a huge portion of posters - they seem to be borderline mentally retarded and post hundreds of rubbish posts that give no benefit only derail the thread.

The up and down vote works extremely well on reddit and you get far far less of this lark. Yes you do get people just trying to be funny but the bad ones get downvoted and the ones that get upvoted are genuinely funny. Boards is totally anti any of these measures for the reason that it can possibly be abused in ways - but my guess is that the minor abuse would pale in comparison to how much it would clean up the site. For the vastly most popular forum on the most popular discussion board in Ireland - it's an embarrassing collection of utter rubbish - with the odd good quality discussion of the topic in hand thrown in. I really really wish something could be done to tackle this but there doesn't seem to be too much interest. Surely someone could come up with an alternative system that could work...

Insect Overlord

After Hours is supposed to be fun. Try Humanities, Politics, Economics, Psychology or the various religious forums if you want a guaranteed super-serious discussion.

Overheal

It's not that its a super-serious discussion but any thread with a bit of controversy quickly turns into 40 pages of diatribe in AH but that's a whole other topic.

Fr_Dougal

Zascar wrote: »

I'd just be delighted if there was a way to filter out all the totally nonsensical posts that Boards is plagued with. Especially in after hours, depending on the thread very large portion of the replies give no actual value to the conversation and are just idiotic irrelevant words, stupid puns or really lame jokes. I really don't understand the mentality of a huge portion of posters - they seem to be borderline mentally retarded and post hundreds of rubbish posts that give no benefit only derail the thread.

The up and down vote works extremely well on reddit and you get far far less of this lark. Yes you do get people just trying to be funny but the bad ones get downvoted and the ones that get upvoted are genuinely funny. Boards is totally anti any of these measures for the reason that it can possibly be abused in ways - but my guess is that the minor abuse would pale in comparison to how much it would clean up the site. For the vastly most popular forum on the most popular discussion board in Ireland - it's an embarrassing collection of utter rubbish - with the odd good quality discussion of the topic in hand thrown in. I really really wish something could be done to tackle this but there doesn't seem to be too much interest. Surely someone could come up with an alternative system that could work...

I don't think calling posters 'borderline mentally retarded' is particularly helpful tbh.

Zascar

An File wrote: »

After Hours is supposed to be fun. Try Humanities, Politics, Economics, Psychology or the various religious forums if you want a guaranteed super-serious discussion.

I disagree. I dont think "Fun" is posting a whole load of utter drivel.. I'm all for the normal fun as long as its actually funny or clever. I see so so many good threads started - I'm not talking super serious at all - interesting topics of discussion about current events or just random ramblings - that are steered way off track immediately with irellevent tripe - and it totally spoils the chance of some decent discussion or debate. The forums you mentioned are often super serious, but sometimes you want a lighthearted but relevant discussion of a topic. Just without the idiocy.

LuckyLloyd

I ****ing hate reddit tbh.

And I ****ing hate scrolling through numerous '+1' or '.' posts as was the standard on here before the Thanks button was enabled.

Yes, some weak posters tend to utilise the Thanks feature as a method of weighing in without debating themselves. So be it.


Overall? Leave as is.

Anyone else remember when they "like" button was first introduced and people were concerned that it meant the end of boards?

Zascar

The thanks button solved the problem of 20 replies like "Haha" and "Very funny" every time someone cracked a joke. It did a great job of it. It also stands for "I agree". It would be interesting to have Dislike/I disagree button. However mainly I'd love to see a "Rubbish" button - whereby if a post poses no benefit it will disappear after a certain proportion of votes. It would keep threads clean, relevant and on topic. But lets face it that's never going to happen...

Dav

We're not doing "Dislike" and we're not doing "Downvote" and we're not doing any of the other suggestions around this topic that always come up. Sorry folks

Thanks is the "least bad" cause it removes the "+1" etc type posts as Lloyd said above.

Worry less, post more