Enable "Reaction" feature on forums

[Earth Gurl]

I personally am neutral on this also for the most part, but overall I think it's a good idea. Especially in suggestions or a thread like that. My thought processes is mostly that we can avoid "I support this." with no additional suggestion by having some kind of "support" reaction. This would make it easier to see what people really think of ideas and maybe they could progress a bit farther. I mean, TJ says they're configurable. We could easily have a "support" react. I like the "like" one too, if it's a heart, then it would be good for threads like the Congrats thread and things like that. "Hey I caught a CB gold!" *racks up some hearts*. Some people don't want to go through the trouble to post "CONGRATS!", so they don't congratulate people at all.

 

The only hesitation I have is that DC forums turns into a popularity contest. 30 people get hundreds of likes for some reason; whereas, newer/lesser known members don't get any. Then we turn into social media mining for likes. However, that is a worst case scenario, and I don't think many people will like something at all. It'll just be a feature that a few people utilize, but still a thing that's available.

 

The only default ones that I see that are relevant are "Like" and "Haha". Some people say funny things. I'd like to laugh at their post without getting off topic.  I think this is a more fun, fresh idea than a harmful one meant to make users feel unappreciated. I DON'T think under any circumstance that there should be NEGATIVE reacts available. 

 

ETA: Another thought. If mods would be able to see who reacts, and no one else will be able to see, we will be able to nip harassment in the bud (and probably remove reactions), and we would probably have a better way to gauge who is doing the harassing. May be a helpful thing across the board.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Earth Gurl

[HeatherMarie]

I think it's interesting that people see reactions-and-Suggestions in such totally different ways. It seems that some people really would like reactions in Suggestions and think it would benefit Suggestions by cutting down on 'agree' or 'support' posts... I think the exact opposite, and it's kind of interesting to me that different people see it so differently. To me, Suggestions is one place that definitely should *not* have reactions. As I said before, in Suggestions more then any other part of the forum, conversation is good and needed. It's already been proven that reactions/likes/etc can potentially cut down on actual responses (multiple people have expressed that they would leave reactions and not post, and I've seen that happen elsewhere), and to me that would be horrible in Suggestions. I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if I posted a Suggestion that I was very excited about discussing, and instead of a well-thought-out conversation I got two actual post-responses and 15 'support' reacts. I wouldn't like that at all. It also seems to me that it could be counter-productive when it comes to actually fleshing out a suggestion and making it actually work for the game... If even a fraction of people who read the thread and might otherwise post just used a reaction instead, that could stall actual development of the idea and it's very possible that some issue that might need to be addressed with the suggestion would never properly be addressed. 

[ArgentiAertheri]

As one of those people who wants reactions in suggestions, I really only meant dragon requests (sorry if I wasn't clear!), so I can support a dragon concept without having any spriting skills.

[Earth Gurl]

9 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

I can't imagine how frustrated I would be if I posted a Suggestion that I was very excited about discussing, and instead of a well-thought-out conversation I got two actual post-responses and 15 'support' reacts

 

I find it interesting how people see it differently too. I think I see where you're coming from with this. But I also think reactions may help the problem you have with not getting a discussion. Many posts may not actually be discussing things, just saying "Great idea!" without saying why. That will clutter the board for the responses you DO want to address, but you can still see how many "support" reactions you have on your original post. That may also be good for gauging interest. Then perhaps you may expand your idea and see how it evolves. I think it would mostly be a tool to use. 

 

I think I would be open to a trial run of the feature just to see how people like it/dislike it in general. 

[olympe]

On 24.2.2018 at 3:12 AM, TJ09 said:

Full edit history is available to mods, and edited status is IIRC displayed to everyone.

 

Reddit had this issue (get upvotes, edit comment), and the ability to point out that something has been edited shuts most of the bad uses down. Similarly, simply quoting something prevents edits from completely changing the context..

 

Most of the time, when a user edits their post, it's either to correct spelling/grammar errors, or to add a point they forgot before posting, or to clarify something. So, to me, "edited" means just that. I wouldn't know the post has been turned around by 180°, and would have no reason to suspect this.

 

Now, imagine someone posting "I love the gold dragon sprites, they're so shiny and well-done!" and getting tons of likes, then editing it to bash the same sprite. Nobody but staff would know how badly the post got turned around.

 

@Valtrois: Okay, so 100+ likes was an example. I've got no idea how many likes a popular post is likely to get. Then again, there's still the possibility of someone coming up with a like-bot. It's not hard to create 100+ different DCF accounts, after all. 

 

16 hours ago, Earth Gurl said:

The only default ones that I see that are relevant are "Like" and "Haha". Some people say funny things. I'd like to laugh at their post without getting off topic.  I think this is a more fun, fresh idea than a harmful one meant to make users feel unappreciated. I DON'T think under any circumstance that there should be NEGATIVE reacts available. 

 

And next time we check, someone tells us how they lost all their new precious (holiday?) eggs, and the culprit(s) and their bot army adding hundreds of Hahas. Brilliant.

 

That being said, a reaction feature (like/support) would be very much akin to a poll (Do you like /support this suggestion?), which TJ already disabled (AFAIK) because they're not useful. 

 

[Fuzzbucket]

I forget - but if a mod edits a post, doesn't it read "edited by... (modname)" ?

[olympe]

I think so, yes. Although it's quite possible that that "edited by *modname*" is a line that the mods add manually.

[Fuzzbucket]

Well, they'll be able  to do that, even if so...

[DuskOfTheStars]

Gonna copypaste my and @olympe's thoughts from another thread becauseit's kinda my thoughtd on why we don't need this.

 

Quote

Gonna walk in as a RP section regular and say: likes have NO use there in my honest opinion. Zero. RPing is about posting replies. Even in the approved section or on wips, I get the feeling it'd be annoying to just get liked and no crits in approval section, and on wips do you know if it's spam likes or no? And then there's the stuff that happens when someone starts hating on specific fandoms or characters cuz don't one else likes em, I'd bet on seeing spite-likes.

 

@LadyLyzar can I just agree with you on forum=/= social media and chatrooms and seeing no need for likes? Because I do.

 

Quote

Neither should we have likes in introductions, forum games or the trading section. Probably not video games, either. Or Help. Just to name a few.

Dragon requests don't really benefit from likes, either.

For SD, it might be a good thing for the OP of a thread, but more or less unnecessary for the other posts.

And let's be honest about the News section - TJ's OP would get thousands of likes, and all other likes would go unnoticed because the threads move so fast.

 

See a pattern here?

 

 

Also re: DC Discord: really, I left it because it's a hell of a LOT more trouble thsa it's worth. The atmosphere is pretty off in that psrtivular discord, and trying to be be ****ing NICE gets your ass on the viewbomber list even if you tried to hide your scroll. Not worth it, and I reslly really hope TJ says yes ro my PM.

[HeatherMarie]

2 hours ago, olympe said:

 

And next time we check, someone tells us how they lost all their new precious (holiday?) eggs, and the culprit(s) and their bot army adding hundreds of Hahas. Brilliant.

 

See, this here. The thing is, people can say 'that wouldn't happen here' and 'DCers are more mature then that' etc etc all they want, but honestly it *does* happen elsewhere so why is it so hard to believe it could happen here? Especially since DC has a serious problem lately with malicious viewbombing, so we *know* that there are indeed people playing this game who go to great lengths to upset and annoy others. Pretty much any possible 'reaction' has a huge potential for abuse, as shown in this 'haha' example. Some might assume that a 'haha' reaction for funny posts is totally innocent, until you post upset and sad that you lost a really important dragon and get people 'haha'ing it, then it's not so innocent anymore. 

 

And yes, mods could see who made those reactions and possibly take action, but that doesn't do a darn thing to *prevent* it from happening in the first place. If you are upset and get 'reacts' that upset you more, any action that a mod might take after the fact doesn't really help. If multiple people band together to abuse reactions in some way or another, maybe mods would stop them sooner or later, but the damage has already been done, you can't make people unsee those 'haha's or whatever, and honestly I just think there is more potential for negativity with them then any potential for good.

Edited February 25, 2018 by HeatherMarie
adding a point

[Earth Gurl]

5 hours ago, olympe said:

And next time we check, someone tells us how they lost all their new precious (holiday?) eggs, and the culprit(s) and their bot army adding hundreds of Hahas. Brilliant.

 

Well... isn't that what reporting to mods is for? It seems like a far-fetched hypothetical. 

 

3 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

See, this here. The thing is, people can say 'that wouldn't happen here' and 'DCers are more mature then that' etc etc all they want, but honestly it *does* happen elsewhere so why is it so hard to believe it could happen here? Especially since DC has a serious problem lately with malicious viewbombing, so we *know* that there are indeed people playing this game who go to great lengths to upset and annoy others. Pretty much any possible 'reaction' has a huge potential for abuse, as shown in this 'haha' example. Some might assume that a 'haha' reaction for funny posts is totally innocent, until you post upset and sad that you lost a really important dragon and get people 'haha'ing it, then it's not so innocent anymore. 

 

Again, wouldn't that help the mods narrow down who is doing the viewbombing? It's not like rules can't be put into place about it. I'm sure the feature can also be taken away if someone abuses it. 

3 hours ago, HeatherMarie said:

And yes, mods could see who made those reactions and possibly take action, but that doesn't do a darn thing to *prevent* it from happening in the first place. If you are upset and get 'reacts' that upset you more, any action that a mod might take after the fact doesn't really help. If multiple people band together to abuse reactions in some way or another, maybe mods would stop them sooner or later, but the damage has already been done, you can't make people unsee those 'haha's or whatever, and honestly I just think there is more potential for negativity with them then any potential for good.

 

But... if we nab the few people doing it, it wouldn't happen again... and I don't really understand how a few small instances will take away from the overall point of them. We can also ban spammers, but that doesn't really prevent it from happening. Pretty awful things have been posted on the forums before, but the ability to post hasn't been taken away for everyone. I think that there is a lot more potential for positivity than negativity, and none of these arguments have really provided enough evidence for me otherwise? That's to say it's all "expect the worst" speculation.

 

But I do agree with ya'll. Those things could happen, and I do think we need to keep that in mind, but maybe think of ways to prevent it rather than scrapping the whole idea altogether.  I think it could be fun!

 

I still say a trial run would be best.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Earth Gurl

[HeatherMarie]

I'd be fine with a trial run as long as it really is a trial run and will be discontinued if it causes too many problems (as opposed to things that get implemented to tons of backlash that's ignored). But I personally haven't seen any evidence at all that this would be a good thing for the forums. I mean, sure, some of the points against it could be viewed as 'expect the worst' mentality, but the points in favor of it could also be viewed as 'best-case scenario' mentality. I haven't seen anything here that would convince me that reactions would actually *help* the forum in any way... Make showing fly-by opinions more convenient maybe, but it remains to be seen if that's actually a good thing at all. Truthfully the most *likely* scenario is probably that it doesn't actually affect the forum in any real way, either negative or positive.

[Earth Gurl]

I think you're right that it would probably just be another feature that doesn't tremendously help or harm. Either way its a kind of fun idea, and I'm sure if anything bad happened with it TJ would discontinue the feature as he did with polls (even though it wasn't discontinued due to a bad occurrence). From what I saw from where someone posted a link to a forum like this and people were using reacts, it didn't seem as if they were being abused... they were just kind of there. Which was neat to me. 

 

I'm sure if I noticed that there was a lot of negativity being spread, I would probably personally ask for it to be removed. It's just a hard thing to speculate about either way.

[olympe]

What, exactly, would be fun about seeing how many people clicked a heart button on your post?

[Earth Gurl]

Idk it's fun to give hearts to people's posts when they have an accomplishment or you like what they're saying. It's just a satisfying thing to me. I'm pretty sure there's actual science behind it.  It's the same as on FB or anything like that. One of your friends has something cool happen to them... boom like. or heart react. It just makes it easier than posting to something "Congrats!" or "Awesome!" which would be spammy and I don't like doing that. It's fun neat little feature. I mean, a lot of other people may agree. We don't really know until we can try it.

 

I like giving hearts more than receiving them. I wouldn't really be concerned about how many people react to my post, it's more of a poke like "hey I read your post and neat!" rather than "The only reason you're relevant is because I hearted this" because I think that's a poor way to view receiving reacts on your posts, and isn't really their intention.

Edited February 25, 2018 by Earth Gurl

[Fuzzbucket]

6 minutes ago, Earth Gurl said:

Idk it's fun to give hearts to people's posts when they have an accomplishment or you like what they're saying. It's just a satisfying thing to me. I'm pretty sure there's actual science behind it.  It's the same as on FB or anything like that. One of your friends has something cool happen to them... boom like. or heart react. It just makes it easier than posting to something "Congrats!" or "Awesome!" which would be spammy and I don't like doing that. It's fun neat little feature. I mean, a lot of other people may agree. We don't really know until we can try it.

 

I like giving hearts more than receiving them. I wouldn't really be concerned about how many people react to my post, it's more of a poke like "hey I read your post and neat!" rather than "The only reason you're relevant is because I hearted this" because I think that's a poor way to view receiving reacts on your posts, and isn't really their intention.

 

Exactly. One of your friends. It has nothing to do with actual dialogue.

 

And I'm willing to bet that if this were trialled, it would never be stopped - however many of is disliked it because "we can't see what the majority wants as they don't all post..." and that would be even more true when people were just popping buttons instead. "see; they like it !"

[Earth Gurl]

2 minutes ago, Fuzzbucket said:

Exactly. One of your friends. It has nothing to do with actual dialogue.

 

And I'm willing to bet that if this were trialled, it would never be stopped - however many of is disliked it because "we can't see what the majority wants as they don't all post..." and that would be even more true when people were just popping buttons instead. "see; they like it !"

 

But if the majority of people don't have a problem with it, is it a problem?  But I consider a lot of people here as my friends. More so than my "Facebook friends" which are mostly acquaintances at best. I would probably like more things here than there. The reaction feature isn't supposed to replace dialogue. And the nature of this board as a forum will probably result in no fewer posts since most people DO want to post their opinions. 

 

Also no one can actually say they dislike or like it at this point because we haven't had the opportunity to use it yet. 

[Fuzzbucket]

Oh believe me, I can. I have met it elsewhere - not facebook, as I don't go. It was on a forum I was on. We all hated it and got rid - and that was a small forum where we all liked each other !

 

And I would lay money that it would replace dialogue. I would want the ability to disable it for my own posts, and also not to see it on others'.

[HeatherMarie]

Oh no, I very much *can* say that I dislike it, I dislike it very much. Because likes and reactions are not a new idea, they are a part of many other sites, Facebook and Instagram and many different forums, and I have actual experience with them, so yes I can definitely say that I don't like it. I can't say for sure that it will be *harmful* on *this* forum, but I can definitely say from experience that I personally do not like them in any way shape or form.

 

And to be honest it kind of frustrates me when people act like reactions are all fun and innocent. Just because you (general you) see it that way does *not* mean it's that way for everyone. Reactions are not 'fun' in any way for me, and for many other people with anxiety and the tendency to worry and overthink little things. Reactions, for me, are anxiety-inducing. They flip that little anxiety-switch in my brain that makes me overthink things, that makes my mind race trying to figure out what these vague 'reactions' actually might mean. It very much frustrates me and concerns me that you really have no idea what someone actually thinks when they leave a 'like', you have no way of knowing if they completely agree with you, if they just want to get on your good side, if they are just automatically liking every post they see, if they even *read* the post... The complete vagueness of it makes me anxious. So no, it's not 'fun', and I can definitely say that I do not like it.

[olympe]

19 minutes ago, HeatherMarie said:

And to be honest it kind of frustrates me when people act like reactions are all fun and innocent. Just because you (general you) see it that way does *not* mean it's that way for everyone. Reactions are not 'fun' in any way for me, and for many other people with anxiety and the tendency to worry and overthink little things. Reactions, for me, are anxiety-inducing. They flip that little anxiety-switch in my brain that makes me overthink things, that makes my mind race trying to figure out what these vague 'reactions' actually might mean. It very much frustrates me and concerns me that you really have no idea what someone actually thinks when they leave a 'like', you have no way of knowing if they completely agree with you, if they just want to get on your good side, if they are just automatically liking every post they see, if they even *read* the post... The complete vagueness of it makes me anxious. So no, it's not 'fun', and I can definitely say that I do not like it.

Which is why, like Fuzz, I'd like to be able to opt out. No leaving reactions, no getting reactions for me, please. I'm not conceited enough to think that every like I see actually means that my post is liked, much less that someone likes me as a poster/fellow DCer. I'm more likely to think that most likes are for other, much uglier reasons. Which is many things, but most definitely not fun.

[Fuzzbucket]

I would want to opt out of receiving reactions even if I were the most popular person in the entire WORLD, never mind DC , and would only EVER get warm fuzzy reactions. Even if "like" were the only reaction button offered. I have less than no interest in buttoned responses to what I say.

[JavaTigress]

I don't see why IF something like this were implemented it COULDN'T... or SHOULDN'T... be as an option that a user could opt out of.

 

We can already opt out of siggies, for example, AND we have the ability to completely opt out of any stuff posted by a given user if they are being abusive, as I understand it. THEREFOR I don't see any good reason why we wouldn't be able to opt out of reactions if we wanted... for those that simply dislike it or find that it is anxiety inducing as @HeatherMarie pointed out. EVEN if some of the mechanics on the new forum are a little odd... the new editor for posts took a  wee bit of getting used to for me, for instance... one thing we CAN say is that it does seem to allow a fair amount of flexibility in what we want to see. AND as some said... I would BET that if a given USER is abusing the things, why then their privileges to use'em can be taken away... just like with dragon naming and describing. They would be subject to moderation just like posts. I get the concern about abuse with this... I do. AS Some have said, tho... PMs also could be abused( AND I would be willing to lay money HAVE BEEN) but that doesn't mean we don't have the option....it just means that safeguards are in place. ( reporting of harassing/abusive/bullying PMs for instance). Don't get me wrong, I am pretty neutral as regards this whole subject. I WILL give you that if people use reactions as to replace well-thought-out posted responses to things like suggestions.... well that is another problem altogether. I am unsure that that is guaranteed to happen tho... IF someone has very definite reasons for their opinion on something, it seems unlikely to me that they would be satisfied with just hitting a like or support/no support button without explaining why. AND I would say IF it becomes a problem then maybe reactions could be restricted from certain sections of the forum. THAT being said, I doubt... given the way the rest of the forums work... that it is a thing that'd be forced. I would guess that, as @Fuzzbucket suggested, it would be something we would have the ability to opt out of if we chose ( AGAIN.... like with signatures). IMO, if it is implemented that is likely the best way to do it. Bottom line... I am sure I can see the potential issues with implementing something like this , BUT I wonder if there would be ways to avoid the possible pitfalls.

Edited February 26, 2018 by JavaTigress

[Guillotine]

Most things like reactions are all-or-nothing on the site end of things. I doubt that the forum software has any ability to allow a user to disable reactions to their posts.

 

I still see no reason for it to be added. There is no place this would be useful, and quite frankly I can easily see it slowing down topics in places like Dragon Requests even further than they already are.
 

[Kovia]

Meh. Just meh.

 

If it does get added, please add a dislike or thumbs down. Many a site with this feature don't put one and everyone asks for it.

Could even potentially shoot the mods a flag if a post gets severely disliked.

[HeatherMarie]

34 minutes ago, Kovia said:

Meh. Just meh.

 

If it does get added, please add a dislike or thumbs down. Many a site with this feature don't put one and everyone asks for it.

Could even potentially shoot the mods a flag if a post gets severely disliked.

 

Yeah NO. If it does get added please please PLEASE for the love of all that is good do NOT add any sort of dislike or negative reactions!

 

With 'dislike's and such the whole issue I've been posting about, with people possibly grouping together to bombard a post with tons of likes for no reason, would be a million times worse. There is *no* good reason to have a 'dislike', there is *nothing* good that can come from a 'dislike' unless you (general you) are the malicious type of person who likes to see people get upset. Dislikes suck. Dislikes are the equivalent of those schoolyard taunts that make kids run to the bathroom crying. I cannot think of one legitimate reason for a dislike option that wouldn't be outweighed a hundred times over by the negative things that would happen with it.

 

And why on *earth* would the mods need to know if a post gets disliked a lot?! Unless you mean that the mods would be notified so they can look into who is doing the disliking and if it constitutes a personal attack which is against the forum rules. 

Edited February 27, 2018 by HeatherMarie