Could we have a emoji :thumps up: as reaction?

Added the :+1: :-1: to the list of supported reactions. We use the Discourse Reactions - Beyond Likes - plugin - Discourse Meta

Update: Removed them for now. Further discussion required.

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Can we instead change the :heart: by the :+1: via the css hack I linked? If people uses :+1: from the custom emojis, it’s not counted for the topic likes count (I see now there is a setting to change the main like icon from the reactions plugin)

Also I think we need to take in consideration negative reactions and how that affect the discussion dynamics before adding more reactions. A “dislike” button can be really hurtful for conversations, specially if you get a counter on how many dislikes you have.

We want healthy conversations, it’s ok to disagree in a civilized way, we don’t want a place where you can make someone feel punished with a dislike counter you can increase with a click with no rationale.

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the same is true for “like” though. People will be mislead in believing their idea is awesome, pushed by a like counter with no rationale, while it may actually just be a mediocre idea with some flaws. If we introduce one the other should be implemented as well, so we can counterbalance.

As to “hurtful for conversations”, this will depend on the cultural background of the contributors. If in your culture you are used to only get comments that are more or less positive, hence you know how to read the tone and comments, and that the less positive comments are actually polite ways to disagree, then you can live with a system as you envision, but if the discussion culture in your culture is what I would call “honest and direct”, then you will misunderstand this way of communication or you might even turn away in disgust, given the perceived dishonesty in conversation.

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The “help” functionality here depends on “vote up”, “vote down” and “accept as answer”. The fact that you’re saying things like this is quite worrying - are you familiar with the basic functionality of sites like https://help.openstreetmap.org/ and https://stackoverflow.com/ ?

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My comments are only related to discussions, not the support Q&A. Being able to dislike or down-vote opinions without providing any rationale can be detrimental for a healthy engagement.

If you disagree with someone, take a few seconds to write why instead of just shooting a dislike, as you have already mentioned this is a multicultural forum and I don’t think we should implement a dynamic that can cause more harm than good.

Having said that, open to read more about why having a thumbs-down can be a good idea for discussions vs the concerns I’ve mentioned.

OK - when will we get the ability to vote up and down answers such as How should I use this help site? - #11 by nukeador ? (we already have a “solution” button). The heart icon is currently misused for “vote up” instead of a proper “vote up” icon, but Could we have a emoji :thumps up: as reaction? - #7 by nukeador above should resolve that.

I can’t see how :-1: can more hurtful than :angry: or :cry: which are in the reactions right now. I hope nobody still thinks of the antic meaning of :-1:.

On the other hand, there are a bunch of emoticons, maybe :white_check_mark: and :x: would seem less personal ?

But anyway, it kind of hurts when people disagree with you, especially when you’ve spend time crafting your answer, but we still need a quick way to show it I think.

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I think that would be a good move, spreading :heart: in the world is nice, but not so related to a quite technical community.

But it needs to be discussed thoroughly, as it will change for the whole forums. For the Help and support category I’m convinced. For the rest, I think it might help keeping the discussion less emotional, more on the ideas. But I’m not a big user of forums, so I’m not sure.

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Right now, the requirement is to replace the help site and the forums. The forums don’t have any concept of “like” beyond a manual “+1”. The help site needs “+1”, “-1” and “accept as solution”. That’s it. Nowhere is there a requirement to say “I heart this post”.

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Well, this is a default functionality of Discourse, trust levels depends on it, some sorting and stuff. Not sure myself about my point
 :confused:

A “like” button is a nice feature for a site dedicated to private or emotional issues but not for a forum primarily set up to discuss factual/technical matters. What we need is a simple way to express “I agree” or “I disagree” instead of “I like/dislike” another users comment.

And moreover it should be possible not only to “agree” or “disagree” to a complete post, but also parts of it. It happens regularly in extended discussions that someone agrees to one part of someone elses post, but disagrees to another part of the same post.

In the old forum this was done by replying a simple manual +1 or -1 to another post or part thereof and from time to time this would eventually be topped by replying +2, -10 or the like - dislikes normally completed by some explanation why. I don’t believe someone felt hurt by such commenting 


Collecting “likes” may be appropriate for private social media posts but I would appreciate we could do without in this new forum.

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The most obvious way to do all of that for me is to reply quoting specific parts of the message and writing down why you agree or disagree. That more productive for the person who is receiving the reply/feedback to be able to engage and reply.

A -1 is not really telling me what’s wrong with my comment or how to reply :man_shrugging:

I would really like this emoticon in the reactions ! :smiley:

In the context of a help site, that doesn’t matter - what’s important is find out what people think is the right answer. The thing that’s wrong with the wrong answer is that it is not the right answer!

Let’s show an example: https://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/878/how-can-i-delete-my-account. There, one answer is voted down. Someone has added a comment saying “this does not answer the question”, but that doesn’t always happen.

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Of course I could split my reply into 2, 3, 4 answers to specific parts of someones post but this is not what I understand as in increase in handling comfort.

+1 is often replied as standalone whereas -1 is usually followed by some explanation (as I already wrote above) which is simply a matter of politeness.

Yeah actual feed back is usually better. But requiring that, rather than a simple downvote, means users are required to do emotional labour and work writing a reply, which can then be judged and criticised separately. Which doesn’t happen with a downvote. You don’t want a case where people are afraid to speak up publically against a comment, and hence it looks like everyone agrees

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Also, consider what’s worse to get, 20 downvotes, or 20 critical reply messages?

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Downvoting is essential functionality for a stack overflow style help site, and is necessary if discourse is to replace OSQA.

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I think we agree on the case for the Help side of the forums, and we are exploring that over here.

All my previous reflections were not talking about help, but the rest of the conversations.

Different people will prefer different things, but getting “disliked” without a way to understand why, I’m sure will discourage more people than being able to read a civil critique to you opinion.

If you disagree with someone, at least you need to take the effort to explain yourself. If you only need to do a click, I think we will enable an unhealthy dynamic.

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Let’s concentrate on achieving functional parity with the systems that Discourse is planning to replace first, then worry about the niceties. The old forums had no explicit “like” or “dislike”, so neither is needed for functional parity there.

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