A 'like' Button

[techen]

I feel Tcamos has a point. The fact people will like a topic for the person and not for the information would be a issue.

As far as I can see the forum functions very well with a like button. Would just bbe facebook all over again

 

[Zikofski]

tcamos has a good point, but if there was a like button could you not make the counter only visible to the OP, that way new guys wont be inclined to think bad information is good because of the amount of like's, but another argument to that is the amount if posts some one has it kinda the same, new people are more likely to trust someone with lots of posts as it can show experience on the forum or in fish keeping i know i did wen i first started out not good i know but still it worked for me i got great info from the likes of steve, mike, SO19, and others, but going back to the like button there is definably no need to have it ranked.
 
altho if people look bellow there is a LIke button for Fb not sure if that is for the whole website in general or for this post?
 
at the end of the day this is tcamos website and it is his decision at the end of the day

 

[the_lock_man]

I've lost count of the number of times that this has been suggested, and funnily enough, regardless of who the admin is/was, the attitude has always been one that Like buttons are a popularity contest, not a guage of the accuracy (or otherwise) of the information. The best I can suggest is to post +1.
 
If you want to share a particular post on the major social networking sites, there is the sharing logo

at the top of each post - click this, and you can click the link through to FB, Twitter, Google+ Digg, and you can email and print it from there.

 

[Shelster]

Ooh I never knew that logo did anything - you learn something new everyday!

 

[Meeresstille]

There is no "dislike" button on the dog forum, just a "like" button, but it is true that people receive "likes" because of popularity!

 

[CJH0825]

Like buttons are always a good thing!!!

 

[Chad]

I've lost count of the number of times that this has been suggested, and funnily enough, regardless of who the admin is/was, the attitude has always been one that Like buttons are a popularity contest, not a guage of the accuracy (or otherwise) of the information.

It's because I've been on sites where this is used and that's how it turned out. Even with the best intentions it just organically evolved that way as a product of the board's culture.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I think the intentions of the "like" button is good, but I think that actions (for example, enabling the "like" feature) have unintended consequences.  Honestly, if you like what someone posted, take the time to post that - similar to what TT stated.  Just clicking a little button doesn't really add to the conversation either.  I've been on a forum with the like button, and the posts that get the most likes are the ones that are jokes or veiled insults (and sometimes, not so veiled insults). 
 
 
I think the dynamic we have here works very well, and the "like" feature wouldn't actually really enhance it.

 

[JenJ]

But, just playing devils advocate, if the reader has nothing to add to the conversation, it can sometimes be a little frustrating to see there are, for example, 10 new posts only to open the thread and see they're all simply saying '+1'...

 

[the_lock_man]

In practice, I think I've only ever seen maybe 3 or 4 "+1"s consecutively before.

 

[JenJ]

In practice, I think I've only ever seen maybe 3 or 4 "+1"s consecutively before.

+1

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yes that can be frustrating.  But, that doesn't outweigh the alternative... and in the middle of all those likes in a row, if someone disagrees they can post.  Whereas, if its just a like button - you might see 10 likes and not even continue to scroll down to see the alternatives...
 
 
All I'm saying is that the "like" function wouldn't really add much to the forum in a positive way, but could be misused.  Unintended consequences is the issue. 

 

[the_lock_man]

In practice, I think I've only ever seen maybe 3 or 4 "+1"s consecutively before.

+1

 
Hmmmmm........

 

[BigTuna]

Moderators united!!  haha.  I believe that there would be some misueses of the like/thanks button, but over time and over a larger sample size the numbers would take care of themselves.  I've seen it first hand.  I do agree that there is potential for a bad post getting likes but on this site with the overwhelming amount of good posters I don't think it would amount to much.  As well, I believe the bad post would probably be corrected within a post or two which in turn would likely get an overwhelming amount of likes/thanks vs the original, bad post.  If someone looking for advice sees the bad post with a couple of thanks and decides its good practice without scrolling down a few posts, then they are likely bad hobbyists regardless of our like/thank button.  Thanks for the healthy debate! 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Moderators united!!  haha.  I believe that there would be some misueses of the like/thanks button, but over time and over a larger sample size the numbers would take care of themselves.  I've seen it first hand.  I do agree that there is potential for a bad post getting likes but on this site with the overwhelming amount of good posters I don't think it would amount to much.  As well, I believe the bad post would probably be corrected within a post or two which in turn would likely get an overwhelming amount of likes/thanks vs the original, bad post.  If someone looking for advice sees the bad post with a couple of thanks and decides its good practice without scrolling down a few posts, then they are likely bad hobbyists regardless of our like/thank button.  Thanks for the healthy debate! 

 
 
We disagree sometimes, but not publicly! 
 
 
I think that you may be right about the "bad hobbyist" in terms of not doing the proper research, but ultimately, most of our newbies find themselves in trouble, because they didn't do the proper research and that's how they got themselves into the situation they are in - and why they came to the board in the first place.  Some are just looking for an answer - any answer.  Our goal on this site is to make sure that they get the proper answer(s).