Should we add a "like" feature to the forum?

[marurun]

Maybe we need to add a forum plugin to let us leave likes.

(split from a topic that had nearly 19,000 views in about 3 months but with 0 replies)

[Ziggy]

This is something that I have thought about suggesting from time to time, but I have mixed feelings about it. I thought it would be a good idea to split this into it's own thread as to not derail that other thread.

It's good feedback. On one hand, I think a "like" system would be great feedback to have. I know that I myself have created a few threads that got little to no replies and it's tough. You don't know if what you did was a complete waste of time or not. But on the other hand, you can sort of gauge how well received a thread is by how many views it got. Now I know the views aren't the best way to gauge feedback, but it does work decently well in my opinion.

Views are counted weird. For example, if create a thread and click into it, that's 1 view. If hit my back browser button and click into it again, that ANOTHER view counted. And If I'm making a thread that's more of a guide of sorts, I might click into it many times to edit or update things. Also, I know that search bots scrub threads and I'm assuming those are counting as views as well. So yeah, the view system is at best a little inflated.

Even though the view counting isn't perfect, I believe it's still good to gauge how well received a thread is. For example, my flash cart thread has 273,000 views. How many times did I go into that thread to edit it? Even if I went in 500 or 1,000 times to edit it, the view count still clearly shows that it was a popular topic.

Or take fuctfuct's thread for example. Nearly 19,000 views in just over 3 months. Clearly very popular.

Visitors can't use a like system. And this is where it kind of fails, in my opinion. A view is counted no matter who views the thread. The creator, another logged in forum member, a bot, or some random person that clicked on it from a Google result. But a like system, only logged in member can like a post/thread (I think we would all agree that this is best). So all the people that might find a thread in a Google, you would never know that from a like system.

The like system is flawed anyway. I think it was Google/YouTube that realized that people are more likely to give a simple thumbs up or thumbs down rather than choose a rating (1 to 5 for example). But this is flawed because everyone has their own thoughts on what constitutes hitting that like button. To some people, you hit the like button if you remotely like something at all. To other people, you only hit the like button if you REALLY like it, like 4 or 5 out of 5. Then there's everything in between. So it's not the best to gauge how well received something actually is. If someone did NOT like a post, why? Was it because they hated it? Or it just wasn't above average? Because those are two completely different reasons. There's another forum that I sometimes post on, and it has a like system. When you get a like, you feel reassured that you made good content. But when you post something that doesn't get a like, or a lot of likes, you feel like you did something wrong. But in actuality, you might not have done anything wrong, people are just funny with how they give out likes.

It also just seems lazy. I know the world has changed in regards to how we use the internet and social media. But let's face it, we're a mostly older crowd on a forum dedicated to things from the past. My point being that we shouldn't fix what isn't broken, especially since we've been regular forum users for many years or decades even. Nothing beats an actual reply. Getting a "like" score can be somewhat gratifying, but getting replies is always better. "Awesome story, thanks for sharing!" Or, "Great guide! Bookmarked for future use!" Replies like these are awesome to get.

And that's why I've thought about posting another forum suggestion. Some way to get people to post more. I know there's a ton of people that browse the forum and just don't post. And it's not just random people from Google that might not have a username here, I know that forum members do this as well. Proof is that my BST thread had a bunch of old members PM me that I haven't seen posting here in the longest time. So they're still lurking the forum, obviously.


If it sounds like I'm against a like system, I'm not. I'm just torn about it. My personal opinion is that I'd rather see us try sometime to get people to engage or post more.

[marurun]

There’s another risk as well. Someone might simply click “like” when they might otherwise have made a reply, if only a short one.

[Ziggy]

Good point. If you give people a lazy option, more often than not that's the one they'll choose.

To me, it seems like there's little upside and too much potential downside. But I'm wondering if other people can think of other potential upsides to it.

[MrPopo]

I don't see how it would add much. It's not like we're reddit with enough traffic where an up/down vote system is a useful way to manage topic visibility.

[stickem]

^ good point there, really not enough traffic for it to matter here. It's the same 20 posters keeping this board alive unfortunately. Keep it simple.

[marurun]

We have lots of evidence that many registered users are still visiting occasionally to read and are simply not posting. Which means a few of us are posting for a much larger audience. Views tell us who’s looking overall, but likes might help us account for registered users who have a much more relaxed approach to the forums. It would be a means for low-effort interaction. And no dislike or anything. It would JUST be a like button.

[o.pwuaioc]

I don't see how it would add much. It's not like we're reddit with enough traffic where an up/down vote system is a useful way to manage topic visibility.

"Useful" if the end goal is karma-whoring and not add to any real, substantial discussion. The day Racketboy even remotely resembles r/retrogaming is the day I'm gone for good.

If we're going to do something like this, I would rather it be done more like rep on Sega-16 than the AtariAge's implementation.

[fuctfuct]

What if people start saying "SmAsH ThAt LiKe BuTToN" at the end of each post though? Hehe

(I dislike every video on YT that even mentions it. Even if I loved the vid)

[Ziggy]

I think we should brainstorm ideas to try and get people to post more. And by that I don't mean trying to get people to make very long, details, or deep posts (although that is always welcomed). But to at least post things like, "Thanks for sharing," or "This is awesome!" This forum currently has a few regular posters and a ton of lurkers. And there's really nothing wrong with that, but more posts is always a good thing.

(I dislike every video on YT that even mentions it. Even if I loved the vid)

I didn't even realize until recently, but a couple of my favorite YouTube channels never ask you to like and subscribe.