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.
While there may not be many proactively asking for a like button, it seems pretty clear that there are many more in this thread, at least, in support of a like button than not (granted, the vast majority of FTers just don't visit, or are even aware of, this forum).
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
This may be true if you made it a binary choice, but if you allowed respondents to select both, I would guess that a majority would also select Likes.
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.
There is probably some more technical / coding reason for this. But would it really degrade your experience on FT to see a "like" button next to the "alert a moderator" button, for example, and to see "Likes: 14 under "Posts: 59,859" on each post? I don't know how it would actually be implemented, but I imagine it would be fairly unobtrusive. Why not give it a shot before decrying the concept?
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.
I absolutely agree with this. The usernames associated with likes was interesting at first, but quickly got very old and cluttered threads. Maybe I wouldn't mind it so much if it were less obtrusive (hover over the "Likes" to show usernames, or click to show pop-up balloon or something), although I am generally not a fan of attaching usernames to likes b/c who cares?
One thing I would suggest - don't make it possible to like your own posts.