Originally Posted by Flyertall (Post 24067868)

That all being said, after being a resident on FT for going on two months now, I no longer believe a like system of any kind should be introduced on this forum. I made a new friend on this forum, an experienced flyer who pointed out to me that people who fly a lot are typically A type personalities. They are outspoken. Assertive. Aggressive. That's why the companies are paying them to go wherever they are going all the time.

This is certainly one of the most fractious boards I've ever participated in. If I made a post commenting on how many times UA has changed the color scheme of their airplanes over the last 10 years, eventually someone is sure to ferret an argument out of the comment, myself included. But unlike a lot of other boards, the arguments made here are more often well considered, informative, and engaging, rather than just name calling. I appreciate the tension between differing ideas, and find this very thread to be one such example.

Originally Posted by Flyertall (Post 24067868)

When this thread was moved about a month ago, an admin pm'd me about the move, because I had participated materially in this discussion when I first joined.

Part of the experience upon which I drew my former advocacy for a like post button here came from my residency on other boards owned by IB, running software identical to FT's, but with the like feature enabled.

Since FT'rs never really had the opportunity to truly test this feature, let me briefly describe how it works:

When a reader clicks the like icon, a pop up window appears, enabling the reader to type a brief message to the poster about why they liked the post. When the poster logs back in and checks "MyFlyerTalk", the message appears, along with which post was liked. In this particular IB iteration, the specific number of likes is not shown to other users, but the accumulation of likes is reflected in the number of "bars" showing under the poster's name.

Everyone starts with one good reputation bar. Every 100 likes adds another bar up until 5 bars, after which it takes 200 likes to earn subsequent bars, and perhaps 300 or 400 more likes to earn the final 10th bar, after which no more reputation bars can be earned, regardless of additional likes. Believe it or not, when one reviews the contributory content of users with the full 10 bars... those bars are for the most part well deserved, because the likes cannot all come from the same people. Here's why:

Suppose Jackal genuinely liked my post on this thread, and clicked the button and told me so, and then Jackal also just so happened to genuinely like another post I made on another thread in a different section of FT. Jackal would be prevented from liking me again, until he liked enough other posts by other users first. This prevents friends from liking each other back and forth over and over.

So what if the post I made in the other forum is of more helpfulness than the post made in this forum? Too bad. Jackal still cannot like it, because he already liked one of my posts once, and cannot like another one of my posts again until he has found other posts by other users on the forum worthy of liking. But if my post in the other forum was really that helpful, Jackal woudn't have to like it, because presumably other people who found it useful would like it, which is how the system balances itself.

That all being said, after being a resident on FT for going on two months now, I no longer believe a like system of any kind should be introduced on this forum. I made a new friend on this forum, an experienced flyer who pointed out to me that people who fly a lot are typically A type personalities. They are outspoken. Assertive. Aggressive. That's why the companies are paying them to go wherever they are going all the time.

This is certainly one of the most fractious boards I've ever participated in. If I made a post commenting on how many times UA has changed the color scheme of their airplanes over the last 10 years, eventually someone is sure to ferret an argument out of the comment, myself included. But unlike a lot of other boards, the arguments made here are more often well considered, informative, and engaging, rather than just name calling. I appreciate the tension between differing ideas, and find this very thread to be one such example.

Another distinguishing feature I've found with the FT forum is the TalkBoard... a panel of persons that appear to have a role that is somewhat different than "Administrators" or "Moderators". I'm not entirely sure what role the Talkboard plays in the guidance of this site, but if the virtues and values that are self evident in NSX's posts and handling of the discussion of this issue are of any example, then we are in very good hands. Thank you NSX!

Originally Posted by ozstamps (Post 24068636)

Lets casually ask for member 'thoughts' on something tried and tested and discussed at length in secret by others

Originally Posted by ozstamps (Post 24068636)

Yes all seems to be putting the cart before the horse to me.

Lets casually ask for member 'thoughts' on something tried and tested and discussed at length in secret by others, a minor detail not disclosed initially, until it was kind of blurted out by accident, and then the wallpapering began.

Isn't that how Zimbabwe 'works'? :cool:

Originally Posted by nsx (Post 24068716)

Huh?

Tried? Nope. Not even seen by anyone on FlyerTalk until the brief internal demo last week.

Tested? The internal demo was not and could not be a test of how our members would use the feature.

Discussed at length in secret? No again. I decided from the start to have the discussion right here in TalkBoard Topics. There have been subjects which were discussed primarily in the private TalkBoard forum, but not this one.

I don't understand see how you are reaching your conclusions.

Originally Posted by kipper (Post 24068868)

How was the internal demo not a test of how it would be used?

Originally Posted by Bouncer (Post 24069153)

If it is decided that it will be implemented, it I would recommend OMNI/PR be left out.

Originally Posted by joshwex90 (Post 24066370)

I would love for a better mobile site as well as an Android app back (and hits time, that works well). But I don't see why one has to come at the expense of the other

Originally Posted by Canarsie (Post 24068284)

I am still trying to figure out how anyone would gain from launching a conspiracy to implement this feature on FlyerTalk.

Can we please return to discussing the reasons as to whether or not a “like” or “informative” or “site-wide reader feedback” or whatever button should be activated as a feature of FlyerTalk instead of speculating on conspiracy theories and hidden agendas?

Originally Posted by T8191 (Post 24068312)

Thanks, Canarsie.

You would think this was setting the UN/NATO/EU Budget for 2015/16 :(

It's a button. Use it or ignore it. Is it that difficult?

Originally Posted by Bouncer (Post 24069153)

My take, fwiw,

In OMNI/PR land, I guarantee you it'd be gamed within hours if not minutes!

If it is decided that it will be implemented, it I would recommend OMNI/PR be left out. Kind of like it is with post count. Otherwise you're going to end up with a team of people with 5000 "likes" inside of a week.

I'd also recommend OMNI/PR be surrounded by barbwire and guardtowers, but that's just for everyone's protection. :)

Regards,
-Bouncer-
PS: I spend the vast majority of my time there. I've seen people get cut. Cut bad. Place can be... gritty. Yarr. :D

Originally Posted by kipper (Post 24069507)

The current incarnation of the button cannot be limited by forum, so if enacted, it means OMNI/PR gets it too.

Originally Posted by nsx (Post 24064840)

Given that a forum-specific reader feedback button is not currently available I for one am going to proceed very slowly and carefully. While we could run a short trial of site-wide reader feedback, that would be largely pointless unless we knew that we could have forum-specific reader feedback in the near future.

Originally Posted by nsx (Post 24069600)

That's a straw man, unless you inadvertently overlooked my statement just a few posts above yours:



To repeat: The unmodified off-the-shelf plug-in is a non-starter. We need a path to a forum-specific reader feedback before turning anything on. Since I'm the instigator of this discussion I'm pretty sure the rest of TalkBoard isn't going to ramrod a site-wide version through over my objection.

Originally Posted by T8191 (Post 24068312)

...

It's a button. Use it or ignore it. Is it that difficult?

...

Originally Posted by Flyertall (Post 24067868)

Everyone starts with one good reputation bar. Every 100 likes adds another bar up until 5 bars, after which it takes 200 likes to earn subsequent bars, and perhaps 300 or 400 more likes to earn the final 10th bar, after which no more reputation bars can be earned, regardless of additional likes. Believe it or not, when one reviews the contributory content of users with the full 10 bars... those bars are for the most part well deserved

Originally Posted by GUWonder (Post 24069842)

Who knows the answers to the above questions? I would think that having some of these questions answered would make for more informed voting opportunities if these answers came well before a TB vote related to this topic hits.