A plea to abolish the "thanks" system on this site

Jmsg · 04-02-2019 7:03am #1

It's my take that the "thanks" system operant not only on this public form in particular but throughout the internet in general should be immediately disabled by those capable of doing so. The only function it serves is to align those with matching divisive ideological tendencies or to gain cheap approval.

For example, if a post which contained the highest degree of prejudicial/ideological bias possible despite the real value of it's content such as "woman/blacks = victim, man/whites = oppressor", this would be prone to the highest amount of likes, whereas a highly nuanced post taking a myriad of angles on a given issue would receive the lowest.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm immune to self-aggrandisement and wouldn't tend to habitually check and see if my posts are liked, however I can say I am very much conscious of my tendency towards doing so and the feature is only promoting the reverse kind of greater unconsciousness.

It seems to me to be no coincidence that this website has formed in the way it has as a a specifically Irish forum. I don't necessarily see other countries, even those comparable in size doing so. I don't think anyone will take it as a controversial or slanderous remark to say that communication on the ground in Ireland tends not lightly towards superficiality and conformity. It's really no surprise why. We don't speak our own native language relative to our ethnic heritage. This means there is always inherent within us a tendency to appeal to what is beyond our own capacity, looking for mere approval rather than internal coherency and consistency. It seems this as a compensation to this situation this public forum has emerged, and I believe it is something we should cherish most dearly. It's value however seems to be being compromised by the aforementioned feature, whatever amount of individual expression positively enabled through the anonymised circumstance being in equal measure stifled by the usual collectivist tendencies native to Ireland in it's current condition.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Is this a real imperative?

Graces7 · 04-02-2019 7:19am

Jmsg wrote: »

It's my take that the "thanks" system operant not only on this public form in particular but throughout the internet in general should be immediately disabled by those capable of doing so. The only function it serves is to align those with matching divisive ideological tendencies or to gain cheap approval.

For example, if a post which contained the highest degree of prejudicial/ideological bias possible despite the real value of it's content such as "woman/blacks = victim, man/whites = oppressor", this would be prone to the highest amount of likes, whereas a highly nuanced post taking a myriad of angles on a given issue would receive the lowest.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm immune to self-aggrandisement and wouldn't tend to habitually check and see if my posts are liked, however I can say I am very much conscious of my tendency towards doing so and the feature is only promoting the reverse kind of greater unconsciousness.

It seems to me to be no coincidence that this website has formed in the way it has as a a specifically Irish forum. I don't necessarily see other countries, even those comparable in size doing so. I don't think anyone will take it as a controversial or slanderous remark to say that communication on the ground in Ireland tends not lightly towards superficiality and conformity. It's really no surprise why. We don't speak our own native language relative to our ethnic heritage. This means there is always inherent within us a tendency to appeal to what is beyond our own capacity, looking for mere approval rather than internal coherency and consistency. It seems this as a compensation to this situation this public forum has emerged, and I believe it is something we should cherish most dearly. It's value however seems to be being compromised by the aforementioned feature, whatever amount of individual expression positively enabled through the anonymised circumstance being in equal measure stifled by the usual collectivist tendencies native to Ireland in it's current condition.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Is this a real imperative?

It can be and is abused in so many insidious sneaky ways that I agree with you. So many ways... and why not use pm if you feel strongly? Much more meaningful.

There is a forum called ravelry for wool crafts and they have refined this further! You can "disagree"! anonymously! Now THAT is sneaky!

Pac1Man · 04-02-2019 7:19am

If someone writes a post with a thesaurus, I'm definitely not thanking it.

Yours sincerely,
Baby Kangaroo Tribbiani.

Flyingsnowball · 04-02-2019 7:21am

There are three people here who hit refresh on the main page all day hoping to get in on a new thread at the start.
They make a stupid joke or abuse the original poster. Then they refresh the page checking how many thanks they got all day while checking for new threads to make stupid jokes on.

Calina · 04-02-2019 7:25am

My life is too short and too full to care one way or another. How much time do you spend on the site?

Trump Is Right · 04-02-2019 7:30am

Jmsg wrote: »

It's really no surprise why. We don't speak our own native language relative to our ethnic heritage. This means there is always inherent within us a tendency to appeal to what is beyond our own capacity, looking for mere approval rather than internal coherency and consistency.

Wait... what?? lol

I've seen some fairly pie-in-the-sky assertions made, in regard to the consequences of us not speaking the ancient language of our dead ancestors on this Island... but this has to be one of the most hilarious and nonsensical yet!

And it's a shame you felt the need to conflate your point with something so utterly unrelated... you were making an interesting point!

I would have thanked your post, but you'd probably hate that. :pac:

thesandeman · 04-02-2019 7:34am

If there wasn't a thanks button we would have an OP followed by the next 30 posts saying +1 (with most of them probably quoting the OP).

Jmsg · 04-02-2019 7:44am

Trump Is Right wrote: »

Wait... what?? lol

I've seen some fairly pie-in-the-sky assertions made, in regard to the consequences of us not speaking the ancient language of our dead ancestors on this Island... but this has to be one of the most hilarious and nonsensical yet!

And it's a shame you felt the need to conflate your point with something so utterly unrelated... you were making an interesting point!

I would have thanked your post, but you'd probably hate that. :pac:

It's absurd to deny that there is an ethnic schism most prevalent in the psyches of Irish people today. The connection with speaking English might seem rather vague if one wishes to nitpick what I said but really I was pointing to the underlying history itself as most fundamental rather than the the corresponding surface level expressions that are the use of language.

1hnr79jr65 · 04-02-2019 7:47am

Jmsg wrote: »

I'm not going to pretend that I'm immune to self-aggrandisement and wouldn't tend to habitually check and see if my posts are liked, however I can say I am very much conscious of my tendency towards doing so and the feature is only promoting the reverse kind of greater unconsciousness./QUOTE]

You have 3 posts total on this site so how can you be contributing to "self-aggrandiesment", goodbye troll account.

s7ryf3925pivug · 04-02-2019 7:48am

How else can they analyse us? Secret semantic tags on the posts descibing what they are, thanking them contribute to a model of your persona. Like the netflix suggestions, algorithm but evil.

s7ryf3925pivug · 04-02-2019 7:51am

Raina Better Coffee wrote: »

How else can they analyse us? Secret semantic tags on the posts descibing what they are, thanking them contribute to a model of your persona. Like the netflix suggestions, algorithm but evil.

https://www.boards.ie/love.php?match=hot

Necro · 04-02-2019 7:53am

Flyingsnowball wrote: »

There are three people here who hit refresh on the main page all day hoping to get in on a new thread at the start.
They make a stupid joke or abuse the original poster. Then they refresh the page checking how many thanks they got all day while checking for new threads to make stupid jokes on.

I find it more bizarre you take the time to monitor these people's movements tbh.

AH is a breeding ground for thanks-whores there's so many idiotic threads posted on a daily basis.

04-02-2019 7:55am

Jmsg wrote: »

I'm not going to pretend that I'm immune to self-aggrandisement and wouldn't tend to habitually check and see if my posts are liked, however I can say I am very much conscious of my tendency towards doing so and the feature is only promoting the reverse kind of greater unconsciousness.

But your post count isn't high enough for that

Therefore you must be a rereg, it seems like the reason for this is that you are concerned that your normal handle would loose out on thanks, what a hypocrisy :rolleyes::):):D

Trump Is Right · 04-02-2019 8:05am

Jmsg wrote: »

It's absurd to deny that there is an ethnic schism most prevalent in the psyches of Irish people today. The connection with speaking English might seem rather vague if one wishes to nitpick what I said but really I was pointing to the underlying history itself as most fundamental rather than the the corresponding surface level expressions that are the use of language.

Well, you did refer specifically to language... that's why I pulled you up on it.

If you had talked about the possible lasting consequences of our people being oppressed under a former colonial power, I might have been more inclined to agree with you...

But I really don't think there is much or any historical baggage attached to the fact that we still speak the language of our former oppressors... it's just a language. It's a tool for communication... and it's a tool we actually happen to be quite skillful at using tbh... as evidenced by our many accomplished writers and public figures etc.

For me, there definitely are some lingering cultural issues with regard to how we form opinions in this country. And how likely we are to, say, hold an unfashionable opinion for example... but not language specifically. Not for me anyway...

Ten of Swords · 04-02-2019 8:39am

*Sarcastic comment

/end sarcasm

super_furry · 04-02-2019 8:40am

Jmsg wrote: »

What are your thoughts on the matter? Is this a real imperative?

I'd rather see an properly enforced ban on re-reg, throw-away and sock-puppet accounts and a wait period between creating a new account and posting on After Hours.

kneemos · 04-02-2019 8:45am

Flyingsnowball wrote: »

There are three people here who hit refresh on the main page all day hoping to get in on a new thread at the start.
They make a stupid joke or abuse the original poster. Then they refresh the page checking how many thanks they got all day while checking for new threads to make stupid jokes on.

There should be an unthank button to discourage the same gibberish that pops up in every single thread.

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy · 04-02-2019 8:48am

kneemos wrote: »

There should be an unthank button to discourage the same gibberish that pops up in every single thread.

There is!

sydthebeat · 04-02-2019 8:49am

Just equalise things by offering an "dislike" option.

Why are you softies always so quick to look to ban things?

kneemos · 04-02-2019 8:52am

Aint Eazy Being Cheezy wrote: »

There is!

Where. Question mark.

sydthebeat · 04-02-2019 8:54am

kneemos wrote: »

Where. Question mark.

The unthank button is to remove your thanks.

kneemos · 04-02-2019 9:01am

sydthebeat wrote: »

The unthank button is to remove your thanks.

This,this is why.

super_furry · 04-02-2019 9:13am

kneemos wrote: »

There should be an unthank button to discourage the same gibberish that pops up in every single thread.

An upvote/downvote system like Reddit then.

kneemos · 04-02-2019 9:16am

super_furry wrote: »

An upvote/downvote system like Reddit then.

No. A thank unthank option.

TomSweeney · 04-02-2019 9:17am

Lunatic left trying to get likes/dislikes removed from social media too.
I wonder why, cos sensible posts are getting thousands of likes and their bull**** is getting f-all ??

sydthebeat · 04-02-2019 9:18am

super_furry wrote: »

I'd rather see an properly enforced ban on re-reg, throw-away and sock-puppet accounts and a wait period between creating a new account and posting on After Hours.

100%

The complete acceptance of unfettered re-regs is not only no hindetence to trolls or shills... But is a blatent invitation for them.

Some forums I frequent have the same posters re-regging every few months.... Pushing their troll behaviour to the limit, including bans, but then just re - regging and playing the game till they are recognised again.

Its like whack-a-troll.....

GreeBo · 04-02-2019 9:19am

Bring back +ive and -ive rep...then see where you are OP!

TomSweeney · 04-02-2019 9:20am

super_furry wrote: »

I'd rather see an properly enforced ban on re-reg, throw-away and sock-puppet accounts and a wait period between creating a new account and posting on After Hours.

Actually that would be a good idea, would really clean AH up.

edit - or maybe not, at the same time I like some of the troll threads created by brand new users.

dar100 · 04-02-2019 9:21am

Flyingsnowball wrote: »

There are three people here who hit refresh on the main page all day hoping to get in on a new thread at the start.
They make a stupid joke or abuse the original poster. Then they refresh the page checking how many thanks they got all day while checking for new threads to make stupid jokes on.

Unless you can see through your computer or phone screen and mind read and judge peoples intentions, i would venture a very educated guess that you sir/madame are projecting your own **** all over boards

8-10 · 04-02-2019 9:31am

Jmsg wrote: »

It's my take that the "thanks" system operant not only on this public form in particular but throughout the internet in general should be immediately disabled by those capable of doing so. The only function it serves is to align those with matching divisive ideological tendencies or to gain cheap approval.

For example, if a post which contained the highest degree of prejudicial/ideological bias possible despite the real value of it's content such as "woman/blacks = victim, man/whites = oppressor", this would be prone to the highest amount of likes, whereas a highly nuanced post taking a myriad of angles on a given issue would receive the lowest.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm immune to self-aggrandisement and wouldn't tend to habitually check and see if my posts are liked, however I can say I am very much conscious of my tendency towards doing so and the feature is only promoting the reverse kind of greater unconsciousness.

It seems to me to be no coincidence that this website has formed in the way it has as a a specifically Irish forum. I don't necessarily see other countries, even those comparable in size doing so. I don't think anyone will take it as a controversial or slanderous remark to say that communication on the ground in Ireland tends not lightly towards superficiality and conformity. It's really no surprise why. We don't speak our own native language relative to our ethnic heritage. This means there is always inherent within us a tendency to appeal to what is beyond our own capacity, looking for mere approval rather than internal coherency and consistency. It seems this as a compensation to this situation this public forum has emerged, and I believe it is something we should cherish most dearly. It's value however seems to be being compromised by the aforementioned feature, whatever amount of individual expression positively enabled through the anonymised circumstance being in equal measure stifled by the usual collectivist tendencies native to Ireland in it's current condition.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Is this a real imperative?

You’ve only just joined the site yesterday. Give it time FFS

suicide_circus · 04-02-2019 9:32am

so you want to scrap it on the basis of ideology rather than functionality?

A plea to abolish the "thanks" system on this site

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