Suggest FT add “Like” button [implemented 9 Aug 2017]
 

Can you implement a like button at the very least? Plenty of other forums have the and all sorts of other buttons such as: disagree, funny, informative, excellent topic, dislike, old.

We have all this other social media stuff so it makes perfect sense to implement this.

It's been suggested many times but no community consensus has ever been reached that it is desired.

TalkBoard is no more, so maybe we can take a fresh look at this. :)

As this fits in the Suggestion Box forum better than the Technical Support area, we are moving it there.

JDiver, Co-Moderator
Technical Support and Feedback and The Suggestion Box fora

I would go for a like button, but for heaven's sake, no dislike button.

We tried it once before and it did not work out well at all.

Here is the thread from TB Topics:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/talkb...ke-button.html

Please, let's not go there. It has been a big problem on MilePoint/InsideFlyer.

Can you back that assertion up? That hasn't at all been my experience.

Seems to work well on other forums I visit. I would be interested to know how big a problem a like button can actually cause on the anonymous internet ! :)

A like button is perfectly fine. It's the dislike, or any other negative emoticon that would be abused. And yes, it would be abused.

I would support a Like button. I would not support a dislike button. I also would not support being able to see how many "likes" a member has received. We've had too many instances of folks trying to game ratings over the years.

Let me see what Internet Brands can do.

Carol/SanDiego1K
Community Director

How many more "+1" do we see here compared to "-1"??

So I would also support a 'Like' button.

While I was against a like button in the last "go-around" ;), if it could be a like button showing the total number of likes but not showing the handles of the members who liked the posts, I could be persuaded to like having a like button

I would not support seeing the number of likes. Only that it's liked.

Do you remember when the rating system was accidentally turned on along with the ability to see who gave the rating? The less ability to give people the chance to abuse, the better :)

You're one of the most like-happy people I know on Facebook. I'm trying to understand what your concept and opposition to a similar implementation here is. Can you expand?

Like button != rating system

Without the ability to rate a post negatively, where is the danger of abuse?

The abuse would be from FT friends rating their buddies whether they agree or not. Hey, this if FT, anything that can be abused will be abused :)

How would they be "rating" them?

If you can see the number of likes, that's rating them. 2 people could post very similar things, yet one of them will have 30 likes and the other might have 1 or 2.

Collecting likes isn't too far from collecting points and miles :)

How is that "collecting" them, though?

As I'm scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I might (might, but often don't) notice that one post has 3 likes and another has 47.

But by the time I scroll down another screen and read other posts, I've completely forgotten how many likes the posts above had. So the number of likes is really without any consequence. It's not like Facebook is collecting and counting the number of likes and displaying it on the user's profile page...and I don't think anyone is proposing doing that here.

The way Facebook has implemented its system seems to work perfectly well, and the same system seems to work perfectly well on other sites (including MP/IF/whatever it's named this week). There's basically zero potential for contention. Why wouldn't that work here?

For the reasons I stated in the post above yours. I also don't like it on MP/IF, though I rarely go there.

"Collecting" implies that the number of likes are counted and assembled for display somewhere.

So likes aren't "collected." Unless you think some people are going to go by every thread on FT with a clipboard and tally all the likes up...

That's what I was talking about... being able to see the number of likes.

Crikey, I think you are over-thinking this likes stuff. Certainly I never saw it as a competition, on other forums I just click the like button if I like it, not because I know the person or not. And I have certainly never compared similar posts with the number of likes. For me it is simple, if I like the post I click "like". That's it.

This is under discussion with Internet Brands to see what can be offered.

Carol/SanDiego1K
Community Director

I've thought about this before, but prefer the clean look of FT and think a like button would add unnecessary clutter and focus.

The News button didn't add unnecessary clutter did it? How do you envisage it damaging the clean look? :confused:

I agree with not going there, and also agree with Mary2e. When she and I agree, then, well, it's a little scary. :D

I can already foresee how "likes" may be used to play games. For example, games around "liking" of an FTer being "suspended".

no member counter - very good idea >

interesting, i may have missed discussion of these >

no who liked >

just "This Post is Liked" etc ? >

also a good point, depending on options >

I would prefer a Helpful button, with per-post count but no per-member count.

I see no great value and significant hazard in showing which members upvoted a post.

IMHO this mild user feedback rewards and therefore encourages posting behavior that pleases other members. I expect the forums to become more valuable and more fun to read when members are taking more care with their posts to earn praise counts.

I wish user feedback could be enabled on a forum-specific basis (e.g. not for for OMNI/PR) but apparently that would be difficult to implement. We might as well give it a try and see if the net value is positive.

besides no counter (on post) - a random thought : there might be way to have some kind of variable indicator rather than counts of 200/2,000/etc, in other words do those kinds of high counts really add information after a certain threshold. not sure if any of that kind of thing is possible, or even if not having counter at all is possible.

if easily done, definitely seems a way to reduce potential games

If the owner/operator of FT wants to invest money in such a feature -- not that I expect it to do me any good, given alternative investment opportunities -- and then trial it, I suggest that OMNI threads are the best place on FT to see what it yields.

I support a Like button, to the extent that it stops people from posting "+1" or "^" replies, and actually reduces clutter. But that's all a Like system should be. Not a rating. No disliking. No scores visible for users.

I think a Like, Thumbs Up, or Helpful button would be fine. Would be interesting to see if others "like" the same types of posts I like, and it would reduce the +1 type posts.

- Don't also had a "dislike" or "thumbs down" or "not helpful" button.
- I'm ok with counts (25 likes to a post), but not points for users (gobluetwo has received 125 likes vs. javabytes has received 7,240 likes) which adds to a running total.
- Don't show who likes a particular post

I enjoy reading the trip report section but don't always want to repeat myself saying the same thing, so I'd like a 'like' button so that I can acknowledge the work someone has done (and the time taken) to post a trip report.

Perhaps if its possible to do so, its on the member posting that see's how many (or not!) likes it has generated so it doesn't turn into a competition.

I think a "Helpful" button rather than a "Like" button would be more meaningful.
SS

Can someone please educate me about what having a like button would add to the experience? Most of the comments above seem to be lukewarm, and somewhat focused on what not to do. I don't have a horse in this race, but just can't fathom that the
addition of this is worth the investment in getting it added.

Like and Helpful buttons are fine with me and could help eliminate posts that just have +1, which is the only quick way members currently have of expressing their agreement with a post.

No buttons
 

I think that a "like" or "dislike" button will cause too many hasty clicks rather than a well thought out post.

It would be a validation that the post contains useful information, making it more valuable to newbies.

I like the idea of a like or helpful button. Agree that dislike is less useful, as that can be abused badly (have seen this on other boards).