Just curious since I personally have seen a forum where people actually ignored threads posted by those with a low number of likes. Well, I never called them out on it so it could simply have been my imagination, but it doesn’t change the fact that I am slightly weary of the use of likes. So, what is your opinions? And I am not against them, they are a good guide to what others think of what you have said.
The importance people place on it has a strong tendency to be different from one forum to the next as each forum acquires a kind of gestalt personality. My observation in this forum is that no one pays much mind to them at all, as it should be, imo.
I don't know if that's true or not, I haven't been here for long enough but I note certain member statuses require you to have a certain number of likes.
But in any case, you' only joined a few days ago, it's a bit early to judge this forum. I can't say I noticed my threads being particularly ignored when I first joined. It'a not the number of likes you have, it's how much you participate it other people's threads. The more you do, the more likely people will get to know you and want to participate in your threads. You get out what you put in.
Most of that is just technical requirements of boxes that need to be filled in and acknowledged in some way on the back end. Also, the member's sentiment was asking more along the lines of how the citizenry sees it.
It's like these old things. And when you got one at the top of your paper (even the root beer) you always showed your neighbor. Sadly, if you scratch your monitor they don't work.
The paper I wiped my ass with this morning holds more meaning. And I flushed that. I only use them when I can't be bothered to reply to a post. Sheer laziness. Pure laziness. Least it's not abused by cliques on here. Far as I know anyway.
In a way I dislike Likes. Because it becomes a sort of game if you let it. There's a little dopamine rush every time your number of likes starts to get closer to your number of messages posted, and it can become addictive. I'm pretty good at ignoring those little dopamine rushes, but sometimes I feel it. I think it can drive people to want to make a lot of 'popular' posts, to bring the number up. It can become like a social network thing for some people. In fact, it's designed to work that way. Advertisers understand psychology inside-out and upside-down, and pretty much everything about mass media is designed to give these little bursts of brief pleasure, then when you click and the next page comes up, there's more opportunities to receive pleasure again. I've said this somewhere before, but I'll do it again real quick. There was an experiment done with rats where they had electrodes directly in the pleasure center of the brain and there was a little bar they could lean against to stimulate it. In the cage directly across from the bar was food and water. Every rat kept leaning on the bar again and again and never once turned toward the food and water. That's how powerful the little dopamine rushes are. If I'm remembering the terminology right, dopamine is the one that gives a pulse of intense pleasure followed by an equally intense need to repeat the activity that brought the pleasure. In other words it's the addiction mechanism. Message boards, web sites, cell phone apps, video games, television shows, radio commercials, all of it is designed around this mechanism to keep us all plugged in and hooked. Each time you click or whatever there's another little hit waiting for you, testing your discipline. This is why people end up playing video games all night when they only intended to play for an hour or whatever. And make no mistake, it's being very deliberately designed in. Our discipline is being deliberately eroded for commercial purposes every day. The Like button is one of the things specifically designed to do this. However, it also can serve a very good purpose at the same time. Insidious!
Thank you for starting this thread! Seriously, the fact that you have even asked the question is such a relief. This is the first forum I have ever been a member of, and I'm very new, and I was worrying that there was some kind of unspoken code that everyone else knew. Not just the likes, I'm generally a bit worried I'm doing it wrong. But if it's not just me asking these questions then.... Phew! I am a little overwhelmed by how much time it is going to take me to become a good forum member. There is so much content here. I have already dedicated hours and I still don't feel like I'm making headway, because I'm not sure what "headway" looks like. Now I'm thinking perhaps it's not number of likes. It's very lonely writing out here with no group and no buddies. It was a huge relief to find the forum just to feel a little less isolated, but then the reality of the task started to set in. The threads with thousands of comments for example – where do you even start?? Okay, back to writing now. Thanks guys, just for being *there* (wherever there is)
You don't need to read all the older posts in the long threads—some of them began years ago and those people might not even be here anymore. If you're interested in an older thread like that maybe read the first post to get the feel for what it's about, maybe the first page if you want, and then skip ahead to the latest page, or go back a page to get some context. That way you can just respond to the current part of the conversation. And I gave you a like despite everything I just said—hey, it does serve a positive purpose as well as the nefarious evil aspect!
I wouldnt bother reading all the old threads - the forum started in 2006 so there's a lot ( I havent read it all or even close to).... in terms of starting out i'd say read whats on the front page of the forums that interest you, reply to those threads you are interested, ask question, answer questions and so on... you'll pretty soon get to know people and in the workshop give critique to those stories or poems or whatever you are interested in... don't think of it as 'i must crit this number in order to post that number... just read the ones that you like the look of, and say why you like them (and don't like them)... in the interess of both developing your writers eye, and becoming part of the community. Personally i pay no attention to the number of likes, either of mine or others... in general if your a helpful member who contributes to the forum people will like your posts, but i wouldnt make likes the target.
Thank you! I have actually just liked a few things myself as a kind of pseudo thank you so it is starting to make a little more sense. This really helps, thank you. And great to know I can contribute to a thread I wasn't in on from the beginning. I am feeling the distance shrinking. Really appreciate the comments, gang. It's feeling much more doable!!
I put too much importance on it, myself. But not in the sense that I avoid things that go "unliked". Rather, I just feel sad when I don't get them. When I have been beggared of likes, you'll find me sulking about the troughs of forum society, looking for hand-outs.
Absolutely, the only rule of ettiqutte (other than stay inside the rules and don't be a dick which i'm sure are self evident) is not to hijack a thread ... that is don't try and take it onto a completely different topic. if you can't find a thread on the topic you want to discuss, start one (so long as its within the rules, and writing related unless you're in the lounge) and if you get stuck or have an questions ask any of the staff or any of the longer term members... by and large people are friendly and helpful
I don't pay any attention to likes at all, except for ongoing posts ...to see maybe who has read a particular post. It usually signals approval of what was said, but not always. Sometimes it's just a recognition marker. (I like that topic, but my own opinion is different, etc.)
I may be one of the few (only?) members who feels this way, but I think likes are important in the workshop section – and possibly the First Three Sentences thread. Basically any place where members are expected to critique something. Not so much for the submitted piece, but for the critiques/critiquers. It's my humble opinion that if you submit something—and assuming you don't distrust a critiquer's motivation—you should like or comment on their critique. Let them know you appreciate their analysis and feedback, even if you disagree with much it. Honestly though, that's because I treat a like as a signal to my critiquers. If I like their critique/feedback, that means I'm happy to have them critique me in the future. If I don't, that's my gentle way of saying I wouldn't seek out their feedback in the future. And to flip that, if I don't receive a like on my critique, I assume that member is letting me know they aren't interested in my feedback in the future. I know that's not exactly what you were driving at with your original question, but it does deal with my views on forum likes.
It's even more of a thing when you know that likes have only been around in our forum since 2013 when we switched to Xenforo from VBulletin. We old-timers spent years sans likes, so the sudden proliferation of them when the system came on line diluted any sense of meaning for a lot of us.
mind you back in those days you had rep cubes didnt you ? speaking as a moderator i'm very glad we don't have mess with those things
Those rep-cubes are the reason I'm kinda' stingy with the likes. I'm sure you remember that a person's power to give rep increased with time and participation. As staff, a single rep-hit from me could give a member as many as two complete cubes. It made you stop and think before you did. The habit is still with me.
then there were the wonders of negative rep... why the developers at Vbb ever thought that was a good idea...
We had neg-rep turned off for the very sentiment you mention. Then, for a little while, when the novelty of Xenforo plugins was still neato, we had a different system that treated the whole rep/likes paradigm kinda like money. Remember how the old cubes restricted how often you could give rep to any given person and also how often you could give rep overall? That was to keep the cubes from maxing out overnight and becoming meaningless. The "money" system let you slowly accrue rep, but every time you gave rep to someone, it came from your "bank account" of rep. That was the control. It drove members no end of batty. I liked it, but I come from a family of CPA's, so...
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