Just curious - when was the last time a poll of all FTers regarding their input on different items was done? Results (link)? I remember one where it went to specific FTers & was not opened to all of FT - which in my opinion defeated the purpose. You can't ask for input but exclude most from providing input.
My "cliff notes" above was culled from
700 posts in the TB thread discussing a likes button. More pros/cons were discussed with good arguments for/against in that thread. In my original cut/paste I had 5 pages in word of the arguments for/against/both sides before I decided to just post the 'cliff notes' version here. You might want to familiarize yourself with the overall thread, as it probably includes things that you (IB, not IBobi) haven't considered - which we've noticed when some of the other 'enhancements' have been rolled out by IB.
BTW - unless you've got numbers showing that thousands of FTers have been clamoring for a like button, I stand by my statement that based on the threads in Talkboard & Omnis there's not been a huge clamoring by FTers for a like button.
Heck, I bet if you put up a poll that said which would you prefer: A) a decent search function on FT; B) a 'like' button, A would win by substantial numbers
@:-)
Case in point, I spent a great deal of time today searching for threads that I knew existed & FT search brought up buptkus/nada/zero, but if I searched for those threads via google & added Flyertalk to the search phrase, the appropriate thread came up immediately. I've seen multiple complaints in forums all across FT re: FT's incredibly poor search function; that complaint seems to outnumber the ones asking for like.
I don't see why a like feature can't be turned on/off, like other features of FT& that would be my & a # of other FTers preference. It's not self-defeating. If I as a user/contributor of FT don't want to be bothered to either post a like or - more importantly - view the likes (
because I literally don't care if a post gets a like or not), I don't see why I should be forced to view them. If someone wants to view them, they can keep the feature turned on.
Having the option of turning it on/off makes FTers able to use FT in a manner that works besst for them.
And if I have to see the user names of those who have posted likes, that's going to turn FT into as big a mess for viewing as Milepoint was - and one reason I stopped going to Milepoint. Also, saying that it can'be gamed is silly IMO. There are plenty of ways it can be gamed. FTers even counted the ways in the 700 post thread. And BTW - posts have user names associated w/ them, so saying it's the post & never the FTer is a bit naive.
Just like TB rarely closed a forum that it opened, I would say the odds of IB turning off/eliminating a like button after it was created are slim to zip (just as they haven't changed things they 'enhanced' that FTers didn't like), so a bit of sophistry there. Heck, there have been complaints about other things IB has implemented (w/ minimal input by FTers) & when there were complaints by FTers after they were implemented, were basically told tough patooties. So I'm very skeptical that this would be turned off once it was created.
Cheers.