I don't know if this is the appropriate section to post this, but I'd love to see the ability to engage with forum posts without having to fill the thread with responses that add nothing to the conversation.
It could be something as simple as a thumbs up or thumbs down (a la old youtube) or more involved with emoticons. I think this would increase engagement and give better community feedback on certain posts where people may not be inclined to respond on the thread.
For example, the CM's constantly ask questions. If someone responds with a suggestion I agree with, I can put a thumbs on it without having to reiterate the same thing. Maybe 10 others dislike the idea and you'll see 1 thumb up and 10 thumbs down.
The forums started with something along those lines many years ago, VR removed it. I wasn't active on the forums then, but my understanding is that they felt that the simple binary of 'I like this' or 'I don't like this' was not particularly helpful for development and being able to give that thumbs up or down reaction lead to less people actually posting any reasons for WHY they liked or didn't like an idea.
Then there were the problems of some people farming likes (or dislikes) for recreation, while others tended to upvote all posts by a member they liked and downvote all posts by a member they disliked.
Jothany said:The forums started with something along those lines many years ago, VR removed it. I wasn't active on the forums then, but my understanding is that they felt that the simple binary of 'I like this' or 'I don't like this' was not particularly helpful for development and being able to give that thumbs up or down reaction lead to less people actually posting any reasons for WHY they liked or didn't like an idea.
Then there were the problems of some people farming likes (or dislikes) for recreation, while others tended to upvote all posts by a member they liked and downvote all posts by a member they disliked.
That's fair. Thanks for this Pantheon forums history lesson!
Jothany said:The forums started with something along those lines many years ago, VR removed it. I wasn't active on the forums then, but my understanding is that they felt that the simple binary of 'I like this' or 'I don't like this' was not particularly helpful for development and being able to give that thumbs up or down reaction lead to less people actually posting any reasons for WHY they liked or didn't like an idea.
Then there were the problems of some people farming likes (or dislikes) for recreation, while others tended to upvote all posts by a member they liked and downvote all posts by a member they disliked.
Thank you Jothany. I think the key point is that this *is* a development forum not simply a forum for the entertainment of the users and so what helps VR is more important than what entertains us. As long as the forums have enough entertainment value to be an incentive to pledge and to keep many of us involved.
dorotea said:Thank you Jothany. I think the key point is that this *is* a development forum not simply a forum for the entertainment of the users and so what helps VR is more important than what entertains us. As long as the forums have enough entertainment value to be an incentive to pledge and to keep many of us involved.
This is exactly why I suggested it. It can be used to get a more accurate portrayal of the community's position. I'll use my own recent thread as an example. I mentioned not being in favor of mob trains killing others. One person responded in favor of it, and another responded also against it. Technically that's 2 vs 1. However, if the 1 person had 80 upvotes on their post and the 2 of us combined had only 10 upvotes, that would be a strong indicator that the community at large is pro mob trains.
It's essentially a way to balance against a handful of very active people with strong opinions about certain topics. According to what Jothany said, that may be a little idealistic. Expecting everyone to voice their own opinions in a detailed way that will help VR and the community as a whole is also idealistic, so I have no answer lol.
Edit: Also, responding to a thread with an "I agree" feels not helpful and like fluff, so I avoid it even though sometimes I want to do that. Hence a simple *thumbs up*.
There are both plusses and minuses to having the option to agree or disagree with a post. The suggestion is far from a bad one. I note that some of the negatives may be eliminated if there is no visible count of agree/disagree but this information is available to VR should they choose to use it. But I am content to accept VR's judgment as to what most helps them as reflected in their removal of the feature. They can always put a poll up if they want agree/disagree responses on a particular issue.
dorotea said:There are both plusses and minuses to having the option to agree or disagree with a post. The suggestion is far from a bad one. I note that some of the negatives may be eliminated if there is no visible count of agree/disagree but this information is available to VR should they choose to use it. But I am content to accept VR's judgment as to what most helps them as reflected in their removal of the feature. They can always put a poll up if they want agree/disagree responses on a particular issue.
That internal count might be an excellent idea. We just see that there was a reaction, but not that number or people who reacted.
I don't know if I want reactions because it feels like majority rules. If we, or if devs, were to look at a post and see 5,000 thumbs up and it was for flying mounts at level 1 ... what does that mean? Should they consider it? If not, and it doesn't mean anything, why do we need the thumbs up? Hope that made sense.
Jothany said:The forums started with something along those lines many years ago, VR removed it. I wasn't active on the forums then, but my understanding is that they felt that the simple binary of 'I like this' or 'I don't like this' was not particularly helpful for development and being able to give that thumbs up or down reaction lead to less people actually posting any reasons for WHY they liked or didn't like an idea.
Then there were the problems of some people farming likes (or dislikes) for recreation, while others tended to upvote all posts by a member they liked and downvote all posts by a member they disliked.
Spot on, Jothany! :)
It stopped meaningful engagement; instead, people just clicked the thumbs up instead of typing a reply. Removing it helped bring engagement back up, and communication started flowing again. So while I understand the sentiment behind it, it's not a good fit for our official platforms and community.
Kilsin said:Jothany said:The forums started with something along those lines many years ago, VR removed it. I wasn't active on the forums then, but my understanding is that they felt that the simple binary of 'I like this' or 'I don't like this' was not particularly helpful for development and being able to give that thumbs up or down reaction lead to less people actually posting any reasons for WHY they liked or didn't like an idea.
Then there were the problems of some people farming likes (or dislikes) for recreation, while others tended to upvote all posts by a member they liked and downvote all posts by a member they disliked.
Spot on, Jothany! :)
It stopped meaningful engagement; instead, people just clicked the thumbs up instead of typing a reply. Removing it helped bring engagement back up, and communication started flowing again. So while I understand the sentiment behind it, it's not a good fit for our official platforms and community.
*Feasty likes your comment*
I'm joking, lol. Thanks for the responses to everyone.