[Suggestion] Remove the ability to "Like" posts

The concept of this function is to see what the consensus thinks on an issue, but in execution what actually happens is people abuse the function to shut down alternative viewpoints and the discussion no longer becomes about the arguments themselves but more-so people trying to the first post to fish for likes which in turn shapes the entire thread.

Forums should be about debating views, not a popularity poll because sometimes the minority views have something to offer and this shuts them out.

Smdh... cant even have a like symbol on posts anymore without offending someone.

There's no real reason for this to happen.

You say that the “Like” function offers a way for others to offer consensus on things that were said during a discussion...

If this were to be removed, what would you propose to replace it that would function similarly?
I don’t think any community representatives that read threads want to fish through 50+ “I agree” posts, but rather see a singular post with 50 “Likes” to construe as “50 people obviously agree with this statement”.

You actively point out that some thoughts/opinions are “of the minority”, but then complain when they don’t get the same amount of consensus (or “Likes”) as majority opinions. Doesn’t that... kind of make sense? There are unpopular opinions, and obviously they won’t get the same amount of traction as popular opinions.

People not liking unpopular opinions isn’t anyone “trying to shut down alternate viewpoints” nor is it “abuse of the system”—it’s simply people not agreeing with them.

What? People who make good points get likes, people who don't.. Don't.

I think I've seen a total of one person referencing the # of likes as a top contributing post in a discussion. In over 5 years.

Someone's jealous their posts aren't getting as many likes as others I take it? You could just ignore them, they don't do anything really.

Smh. Kids these days. Back in my day forums almost always used to have like AND dislike/disagree buttons. I miss those days; having both buttons gives an even more accurate gauge of opinion. Who cares how many internet points you get? It’s only a personal thing if you decide to interpret it that way. Plus, I can’t say I often see number of likes being referenced as an argument anyway.

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Originally Posted by Tempest222

Smh. Kids these days. Back in my day forums almost always used to have like AND dislike/disagree buttons. I miss those days; having both buttons gives an even more accurate gauge of opinion. Who cares how many internet points you get? It’s only a personal thing if you decide to interpret it that way. Plus, I can’t say I often see number of likes being referenced as an argument anyway.

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I'd say that the only time "Likes" really mattered was for the PLL Q&A thread, as they say they choose questions based on the "Likes" they get... but even then, they don't matter. A question with near 80 likes will be ignored if they simply don't want to answer it.

A) Prove your claims that this is what happens.

B) Don't fall victim to the argumentum ad populum fallacy, even if it's just the other end of it.

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Originally Posted by SmokeyTheSequel

Smdh... cant even have a like symbol on posts anymore without offending someone.

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Exactly. If anything, the fact there's no dislike option here is the main problem with this forum. Presents an incomplete and misleading picture of how viewpoints are received.

Version 1:

1. <Something well said, in touch with others wants, and/or appropriately reasoned>. 7 Likes.

Version 2:

1. "What s/he said."
2. "What s/he said."
3. "What s/he said."
4. "What s/he said."
5. "What s/he said."
6. "What s/he said."
7. "What s/he said."

There's a bit of an echo chamber, a bit of confirmation bias, and a bit of impatient misreading in anything we write. Taking away likes won't mitigate that. It just means that people are a little less likely to post on the parts their opinions disagree (despite mostly agreeing) because of it being swamped with posts focused solely on reiteration, agreement, up simple up-arrows.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

You actively point out that some thoughts/opinions are “of the minority”, but then complain when they don’t get the same amount of consensus (or “Likes”) as majority opinions. Doesn’t that... kind of make sense? There are unpopular opinions, and obviously they won’t get the same amount of traction as popular opinions.

People not liking unpopular opinions isn’t anyone “trying to shut down alternate viewpoints” nor is it “abuse of the system”—it’s simply people not agreeing with them.

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If you only get one view, then there's no point in having a forum. The "Likes" feature what it promotes is keeping ideas and concepts locked to a circlejerking consensus instead of arguing points and perhaps leading somewhere new. It becomes a game to farm as much likes as possible to be "correct" with the masses, and feel confident in their view. On a psychological level, when people start getting upvoted, they feel they are "correct" so at that point it just ends up no longer being a debate.

Upvotes and downvotes has always been a terrible concept for discussion forums.

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Originally Posted by Zephera

Someone's jealous their posts aren't getting as many likes as others I take it? You could just ignore them, they don't do anything really.

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Nice assumption, you seem to not realize I have a lot of likes. Just look at the medals I have.

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Originally Posted by KokonoeAiyoko

If you only get one view, then there's no point in having a forum. The "Likes" feature what it promotes is keeping ideas and concepts locked to a circlejerking consensus instead of arguing points and perhaps leading somewhere new. It becomes a game to farm as much likes as possible to be "correct" with the masses, and feel confident in their view. On a psychological level, when people start getting upvoted, they feel they are "correct" so at that point it just ends up no longer being a debate.

Upvotes and downvotes has always been a terrible concept for discussion forums.

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Does it really though?

How many people continue to debate with raiders about parsers, despite “pro-parser” posts receiving more traction?
How many people debate with people who would like old PvP rewards to be purchasable with Wolf Collars?
How many people debate over BLU, despite both sides varying in the amount of “Likes” they get depending on the tone of the thread?

If people truly rely on the “Likes” to solidify stances on opinions, then that’s on them. Me, personally, I don’t care. I’ll say what I think and people are free to agree (“Like”) or disagree (don’t “Like” or argue with me). I don’t need Virtual Internet Points to stand behind my thoughts and opinions, and feel like my arguments are sound.

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Originally Posted by KokonoeAiyoko

Nice assumption, you seem to not realize I have a lot of likes. Just look at the medals I have.

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Medals are a combination of threads made, posts made, “Likes” given, and “Likes” received. Not “Likes” alone.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Does it really though?

How many people continue to debate with raiders about parsers, despite “pro-parser” posts receiving more traction?
How many people debate with people who would like old PvP rewards to be purchasable with Wolf Collars?
How many people debate over BLU, despite both sides varying in the amount of “Likes” they get depending on the tone of the thread?

If people truly rely on the “Likes” to solidify stances on opinions, then that’s on them. Me, personally, I don’t care. I’ll say what I think and people are free to agree (“Like”) or disagree (don’t “Like” or argue with me). I don’t need Virtual Internet Points to feel like my opinions are sound.



Medals are a combination of threads made, posts makes, “Likes” given, and “Likes” received. Not “Likes” alone.

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The point I'm making is that It's an ego stroke and it leads to nothing but toxicity because when it comes down to it, us humans as much as we like to think we aren't immature, we all are essentially. And on a forum the worst of us comes out and in turn this meter of "Likes" just ends up being the true way of being correct. That is the actual end-game in all the arguments when such a feature exists on a discussion forum.

Look at reddit for example, if your post isn't upvoted it's well ignored regardless if the content of your post may have been more "correct" than some of the others. Or let's look at it from a different angle, what if someone argued and only received a like or two, mentally most people are going to think at first that their view is incorrect based on that alone.

The psychological game is very real with this and it's been like this always. Which is why I feel "Likes" should be used by the developers when they create posts for pure feedback or contests or something, not in basic debating. It's a primitive concept and has no place here.

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Originally Posted by KokonoeAiyoko

The point I'm making is that It's an ego stroke and it leads to nothing but toxicity because when it comes down to it, us humans as much as we like to think we aren't immature, we all are essentially. And on a forum the worst of us comes out and in turn this meter of "Likes" just ends up being the true way of being correct. That is the actual end-game in all the arguments when such a feature exists on a discussion forum.

Look at reddit for example, if your post isn't upvoted it's well ignored regardless if the content of your post may have been more "correct" than some of the others. Or let's look at it from a different angle, what if someone argued and only received a like or two, mentally most people are going to think at first that their view is incorrect based on that alone.

The psychological game is very real with this and it's been like this always. Which is why I feel "Likes" should be used by the developers when they create posts for pure feedback or contests or something, not in basic debating. It's a primitive concept and has no place here.

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You’re welcome to your opinion, but I see no need for the removal of them. I don’t see specifically how the number of “Likes” leads to toxicity—I think that what generally leads to toxicity is the tone present in posts: I’m less inclined to be polite to someone who replies to me in an unnecessarily hostile or condescending manner, for example.

People who get mad that others have more Virtual Internet Points than them are certainly immature though, because really, what does it matter at the end of the day what’s said on the Internet?

I just wish they added a dislike so I can express my opinion of this post without making a comment

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Originally Posted by KokonoeAiyoko

The point I'm making is that It's an ego stroke and it leads to nothing but toxicity because when it comes down to it, us humans as much as we like to think we aren't immature, we all are essentially. And on a forum the worst of us comes out and in turn this meter of "Likes" just ends up being the true way of being correct. That is the actual end-game in all the arguments when such a feature exists on a discussion forum.

Look at reddit for example, if your post isn't upvoted it's well ignored regardless if the content of your post may have been more "correct" than some of the others. Or let's look at it from a different angle, what if someone argued and only received a like or two, mentally most people are going to think at first that their view is incorrect based on that alone.

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Which is why the like count is at the bottom of the post. You need to read--or at least skim--the post itself before you can see the like counter. Besides which you've yet to substantiate your claims, so I'm going to dismiss them with likewise no evidence.

I remember when the Blizzard Overwatch forums used to have a vote up and down option, and pretty much when arguments went wild or someone didn't agree with something, you'd see a sudden string of dislikes even if the poster made a valid respectable opinion. Blizz since updated those forums (probably other ones too) and dropped the down vote button, but people soon turned to reporting the posts instead stating they were trolling or intent to cause problems etc. The like button is pretty fair though so don't think that causes as many issues as the OP thinks.

So long are the days when you could just post something and not have to worry about upsetting an oversensitive viewer...

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Originally Posted by KokonoeAiyoko

Nice assumption, you seem to not realize I have a lot of likes. Just look at the medals I have.

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I don't care about medals and stuff. You probably shouldn't either.

EDIT: I can see why some people might care though, it's like the people who get excited over commendations in game except with even less reward as likes are no guarantee a CM will even notice your post. The only tangible benefit is the more you've gained, the more you're allowed to post, the post limit hardly stops those looking to kick up a fuss though.

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Originally Posted by Kurando

I remember when the Blizzard Overwatch forums used to have a vote up and down option, and pretty much when arguments went wild or someone didn't agree with something, you'd see a sudden string of dislikes even if the poster made a valid respectable opinion. Blizz since updated those forums (probably other ones too) and dropped the down vote button, but people soon turned to reporting the posts instead stating they were trolling or intent to cause problems etc. The like button is pretty fair though so don't think that causes as many issues as the OP thinks.

So long are the days when you could just post something and not have to worry about upsetting an oversensitive viewer...

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Yeah, I’m fairly certain the reason why we don’t have a “Disagree” or “Dislike” button is because you’d get people that would hit it just to be vindictive against a specific poster due to past disagreements without actually reading the argument they gave.

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Originally Posted by HyoMinPark

Medals are a combination of threads made, posts made, “Likes” given, and “Likes” received. Not “Likes” alone.

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This. Or I wouldn't have a single medal beneath my wretched name.

Honestly, the largest contributor seems to be to have made a thread which sparked significant discussion, for whatever that's worth, good or bad.

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Originally Posted by Lambdafish

I just wish they added a dislike so I can express my opinion of this post without making a comment

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So long as it's on a separate counter from the likes. That got so confusing on the WoW forums for a post to seem well-reasoned yet controversial but have only some 12 likes, when in actuality it had over a thousand likes but also a thousand dislikes. Even then, though, I don't wholly see the need there either. The conflicting opinion, if any, tends to be on the same page and has its Like count.

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Originally Posted by KokonoeAiyoko

Forums should be about debating views, not a popularity poll because sometimes the minority views have something to offer and this shuts them out.

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I'm not sure how minority views would be shut out by this forum's system. For more complex programs like Facebook where accumulated "likes" affect how prominently content is shown, and who it is shown to, it's a different matter. But here, the order of posts is static, and all posts remain equally visible whether they have 100 likes or none at all.

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Originally Posted by KokonoeAiyoko

The concept of this function is to see what the consensus thinks on an issue, but in execution what actually happens is people abuse the function to shut down alternative viewpoints and the discussion no longer becomes about the arguments themselves but more-so people trying to the first post to fish for likes which in turn shapes the entire thread.

Forums should be about debating views, not a popularity poll because sometimes the minority views have something to offer and this shuts them out.

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I haven't seen anything of what you're trying to imply and this just makes me more inclined to think that you're reading too much or taking the "Like" system way more seriously than a normal person on this forum should.

If the minority views, as you said, had something substantial to offer, then they would get more people in agreement with them. They're not getting shut out simply because people don't agree with their perspective and give them more likes. Everyone is free to post his or her opinion on this forum, and you are open to criticism for doing so.

This is a forum about debating views as you said earlier and if people don't agree with your opinion, then that's that. Just because someone posts a viewpoint, doesn't mean that the other people need to accept, agree, or pay attention to what you say more so than the next person. If you said something smart that people like, they'll agree with you and probably like your opinion. And if you don't, then they'll just ignore it after reading and move on to the next post.

It's not about a popularity contest. If you say something stupid, 9/10, people are going to call you out and agree more with the person trying to correct you then your own opinion.

Not everyone needs to agree with the minority views if they're personally against what some others believe and everyone always has their own opinion or idea about what something should be.

You have this opinion that the "Like" system needs to be removed based on your own personal bias and perspective on it. As far as I can see, no one agrees with you that it's even necessary to waste time on looking over the situation for the benefit of one person so far.