Additional reactions

[Cath O'Deray]

<https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/80756/> was for Thanks and Like.

There are only two "reaction" smileys one can select for posts, namely "thumbs up" and "shaking hands". We (meaning: you, the administrators) really need to add a "rolling on the floor laughing" to that list. …

Any news on this? There were a few posts recently where i needed this reaction. Badly.

Additional reactions are possible with XenForo (or maybe with an extension) – the screenshot below is from <https://xenforo.com/community/> – however I'd caution against any predefined reaction that might worsen a discussion. This includes reactions that can be misinterpreted or abused.

 

[eternal_noob]

I'd caution against any predefined reaction that might worsen a discussion. This includes reactions that can be misinterpreted or abused.

To be honest, i am not sure that a few dislikes under a post can worsen a discussion. It's quite the opposite, people should know if they wrote something that helped the discussion or not.
And since Youtube got rid of the dislike button, we should adopt it. Poor little dislike button, i like you.

 

[Cath O'Deray]

YouTube

… got rid of the dislike button …

Was there an announcement?

I do see the option to dislike, anonymously, for example:

 

[eternal_noob]

Oh, my bad. They just removed the dislike count, not the button: https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/update-to-youtube/

 

[Geezer]

Got to be thick skinned. Don't take any dislike too seriously.

 

[eternal_noob]

It's only a *.png after all.

 

[SirDice]

We turned off the dislike button from the start. Experience on other forums taught us that a dislike button is often abused. People tend to gang up on somebody and dislike them into oblivion. It's basically the same reason why Youtube turned off the counters for it.

 

[a6h]

A "thanks" button/reaction is more than enough for a technical Forums. It has only one purpose:
To prevent "thanks replies", i.e. Thank you! worked! etc --> less replies --> a shorter thread --> a readable one.

#1 Forums doesn't use the reactions as a summary statistics, to determine how to show advertisement or to trend a post.
#2 Out-of-band connections between members of the Forums is common.
#3 Members could/would abuse the "Like" button, exactly the same way as a "dislike" button (#2)
#4 The "off-topic" section impacts on the total reactions and consequently the reaction score of members.
#5 Reactions as a replacement for a "thanks reply", may or may not be an indicator of a useful and/or technical reply (#2, #3, #4)
#6 Reaction scores doesn't show whether a member is a pro or just a spammer. (#2, #3, #4, #5)

Therefore, besides preventing "thanks replies", more buttons will cause more confusion. Frankly, it turns the Forums to Reddit.

 

[astyle]

1. If you don't like a post, you always have the option of ignoring it. Internet is full of stuff you're not gonna like for whatever reason. Just like Geezer pointed out that one does have the option to ignore the dislikes, I think the exact same onus to ignore unlikeable content (or explain oneself) should be on whoever does the disliking.
2. If you don't like it to the point that you're compelled to react - it should be difficult to post a dislike that actually communicates the point. Making 'dislike' into a lazy reaction has plenty of downsides besides simple abuse by trolls/spammers.