Originally Posted by
anabolism
If we are going to conflate "like" and "helpful" then there is no point in having such a button since it becomes meaningless. On the other hand, if we are to have a "helpful" button that actually means "this post contains helpful factual information" then that could be useful, especially if there was a way to view a large thread that only showed posts rated "helpful".
I fear this poll and thread has already conflated "like" and "helpful" and hence the votes and comments are only making the issue more confusing as people are talking about different things as if they are the same.
What is "helpful" is something that varies based on opinion. Or is FT going to have a FT word police force that decides whether or not your idea of helpful is superior or inferior to someone else's idea of "helpful"? Use of "like" would include liking things that are "helpful", regardless of whether or not someone else's idea of helpful is akin to your idea of helpful or not.