Originally Posted by joshwex90 (Post 24032263)

I'll take your word for that - and that's really sad and childish unfortunately

Originally Posted by Oaxaca (Post 24031431)

However, to me the most useful aspect of having a "helpful" (far better term for FT than "like" IMO) button is so that I can later track the posts that I have found helpful. Sometimes you see a very useful piece of advice, which you don't need now but may need later. By flagging it as "helpful", you can then easily search it later from your own profile.

Originally Posted by joshwex90 (Post 24032263)

I'll take your word for that - and that's really sad and childish unfortunately

Originally Posted by CMK10 (Post 24032838)

I'm against this button for a number of reasons, but I think this hypothesis is a bit too far fetched.

Originally Posted by camachinist (Post 24006261)

I don't normally get into this part of Flyertalk but punched the 'new posts' button, saw this thread and thought I'd share my experiences as a moderator of another forum (different content but on vBulletin) that has used the 'like' button for a couple years.

1. I haven't seen it cut down dramatically, or even a little, on '^^^^^ this!' type responses under full quotes of another post.

2. Our system shows the members who liked a post in a list at the bottom of the post and I've noted this to have become a method where often cliques exert political pressure on postings or threads, where one member of the clique posts up a missile at a fellow member and the others chime in with likes. A system which only shows number of likes and doesn't identify members visibly to other members could mitigate the politics of that somewhat, but not completely.

3. The use of the ignore list, in our software iteration and settings by the site owner, disallows a member from liking the post of another member they have on ignore but allows the ignored member to like their post. This arrangement has also been used to harass members, especially those who have like notifications turned on in their profile.

The subject matter is quite different than that of Flyertalk, and perhaps more potentially contentious or inflammatory but, if I had a button to take the like system off our forum today, I'd do it right now. I don't own the site so that won't happen.

Good luck in your choices.

Originally Posted by goalie (Post 24033670)

Maybe not kipper's exact way of happening but if you have a system in place, F/t'ers will find a way to game it and what's that old saying-something about those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it?

Originally Posted by joshwex90 (Post 24035503)

But I really don't see the gaming part here. The likes are meant to identify helpful posters. Unlike post padding which people can do to "earn" higher post counts, people can't control their own likes (that they receive).

No one gets brownie points for liking other peoples' posts. It's about the likes they get, which is out of their control, barring writing something good or helpful

I'm not trying to be dense or argumentative - I really think I must be missing something on the downside/potential for abuse

Originally Posted by jackal (Post 24033240)

1. Why do people post things? Why do they give back to the community? Because people like to know that they're helping people. The people who post helpful answers on FlyerTalk are doing it for the satisfaction of knowing that they are helping people and the reputation in the community that brings.

2. I think this proposal has the potential to substantially increase the amount of helpful content posted. It has the potential to motivate some of those knowledgeable travelers who have sat on the sidelines of FT to actually take the time to post helpful answers, because now instead of a nebulous "I think I'm helping people," people can actually easily get acknowledgment of their helpful posts and a concrete and specific "thanks" for that content.

3. I know for sure receiving "helpful" votes would motivate me to make sure I'm posting the best, most comprehensive answers I can and taking the time to post where I might otherwise be lazy and say, "I'll leave it for someone else to answer."

Originally Posted by camachinist (Post 24036910)

I won't speak for IB and don't know the political matrix of FT

Originally Posted by SkiAdcock (Post 24036201)

1. Yes they do. And given that there has not been a like to date, yet we have thousands of helpful posts all over FT it appears that they do so for the very reason you mention - giving back to the community - and not because of an artificial like.

Originally Posted by SkiAdcock (Post 24036201)

2. You're sure imbibing like with a lot of power it doesn't necessarily have & also downplaying the current responses FTers receive such as thanks/agree/+1/or something written out. Why you think like counts more than the others in terms of feedback is a bit perplexing.

Originally Posted by SkiAdcock (Post 24036201)

3. Well if it takes a like/helpful to get you to post to help others & not doing so simply because you feel you can contribute, that's just disappointing.

Originally Posted by camachinist (Post 24036910)

Since the forum functions fine for discussion without likes or post votes, there must be a reason why this issue was grown from the original post where a member opined that such a system could cut down on extraneous posts which do nothing more than like a previous post.

I won't speak for IB and don't know the political matrix of FT; in the case of our forum, our site owner initiated the like system and share system (scripts for sharing posts with social media) to grow the forum's commercial aspects, both to increase his incremental revenues from ads as well as to maintain and grow the forum's ranking in its class, as it is currently at or near (depends on reporting period) the highest search engine ranking in its subject matter.

If this is totally member-driven, please disregard. In our case, the members didn't care at all but, well, given a new toy, it got played with, some using it to build and others to tear down. Human nature I guess.

Originally Posted by GUWonder (Post 24038612)

While FT CD gets the word on whether this feature stays in trial and then gets pulled or whether it gets more broadly implemented, there is no doubt in my mind that this tool was created for the purposes you mention -- that being to grow the commercial aspects for IB.

Originally Posted by SanDiego1K (Post 24037035)

I am the one who went to IB. I asked because of the discussion in this forum. I wanted to see if such a function was possible. Otherwise, there was a lot of needless discussion. IB said yes, there was an existing plug in. If we wanted it, we could have it. I asked if there was any value to IB. I was told no, at least not in its present form. So this is FTers deciding what would be best for FT with no input by our owners. It is the exception when IB imposes anything on FT. We are genuinely a member driven board.

Carol
Community Director