Recent features

Yep was a memory leak caused by some process hanging from during the upgrade.

 

I must admit, I'm not a fan of the new array of feedback icons.

'Like' used to mean, either like or agree or thanks.

If I was to pick through them all in turn, I think:

'Like' - fine but we already have that.

'Dislike' - I think that should go. If someone takes exception to something that someon'e said, if it is a mild dispute, then they can surely manage to explain in words why that is, or if they don't want to publicly, they can always report the post. One click to indicate dislike is just going to cause tension if people use it.

'Agree' - Again, we used to use 'Like' for this, or actually write that we agree.

'Disagree' - One click to disagree, takes away the need to honour the socially accepted norm of explaining why.

'Funny' - ok, can't see any problem there.

'Winner' - Winner of what?

'Informative' - I like that one.

'Friendly' - Is there any point at all to that? Surely if you think someone has been friendly and you want to indicate this, surely it is common courtesy to say so, rather than just clicking one icon?

'Useful' - Is that not the same as 'Informative'?

'Optimistic' - Someone clicked that on one of my posts. I have no idea what they meant to be honest. I know what the word means obviously, but I don't know how it was meant in the context of my post.

'Creative' - Possibly fair enough.

'Old' - What's old? More explanation needed than can be conveyed in a single bit flag.

'Bad spelling' - Can't see that this has any place at all on a friendly informal forum.

'Dumb' - This one has no purpose other to deliberately upset the author of the post. If/when it gets used, it will cause so much tension.

 

Following on from Clue's comments above, is it not repetitive also to have the original 'like' button and then the 'band of comments', one being 'like' and if you look at List it shows who made these comments/responses (I know they are not the right words but I can't think of anything else at the moment) so they are in a like/like situation basically.

On a positive side, all is looking good and there are many positive features!

Edit: As in the post above it shows I 'agreed' and 'liked' the post but what if I had 'liked' the post and not 'agreed' to it ... then I would be in the 'like/like' situation, ie, in both columns saying the same thing ...

 

like actually was disabled to be replaced by the new like, but tapatalk have not updated their app yet to use new style

I have however began working on a solution


as for ratings custom ones could be made

example my site has like, plus 9 new ones related to writing

 

Us programmer sorts have a site called StackOverflow. Its a very different type of forum where people post a technical problem they are having, and other people response with the sole goal of solving the problem. In that environment, there are often right and wrong answers, and any discussion is specifically geared towards finding the right answer. Once the problem is solved, the thread is done. When someone else asks the same think, they are usually directed to the original (solved) one.

In that sort of setting, where there are black and white, right and wrong answers, no social chitchat, just direct answers to direct questions, I reckon most of those new feedback icons would be appropriate, and indeed an excellent idea. So I'm not rubbishing them, I just don't think they are the right thing here where there often are not black and white, right or wrong answers to direct questions, but rather opinions and tips based on experience, in response to musings and ponderings, or even plain and simple chitchat.

 

I'm a fan

I believe that by "expressing" a like for someone's post in a more definitive way gives it more (or less!) usefulness.

For example, as you have already stated the solo "Like" could be interpreted in a number of ways: "like" (like what?) - the user/the content/the value of the information; agree; thanks; funny; like the poster; because the poster previously 'liked' one of your own posts? See? It's very subjective.

Adding additional icons to make the meaning more transparent, I believe is a good thing! For example:

Post gets 5 "likes" (maybe they are a popular personality?)

Post gets 5 "informative"s (aha! Scrolling through an archive of threads, this one could make a huge difference! Cut through the chit-chat and find those nuggets that you *actually* want/need/looking for! )

Post gets 5 "useful" - no, I do not see that as the same as informative; again, it is subjective. What I find "useful" may not necessarily be "informative". And vice versa - may be very informative, but not necessarily useful to me (for example, I'm not interested in some aspects of gardening and no matter how informative the post might be, it may not be useful to me!)

A post gets 5 "friendly" icons - yes, I think that can be a useful one.
There are some posts where users put time/thought/kindness/sensitivity/patience/whatever in to a post - and it may not be a direct answer to a direct dilema even, but nonetheless a valid insightful, friendliness that is neither informative, useful, funny, or anything else other than that simple acknowledgement of "friendliness" and support.

I do not see the need for "dislike" nor its connotations.
I do not feel the need for "old" or even, "optimistic"
I do not feel the need for "dumb"

I will admit to road testing the "bad spelling" one today, but that was to satisfy my own wicked sense of humour and really had no reflection on the poster: just me! But, it was in jest. However, reading some other comments, yes, I can see how it could really offend.

I do not see the purpose of a "disagree" icon - if you disagree with something/someone, the whole purpose of a "forum" is to discuss! It goes without saying there'll be something you disagree with, but, a forum is the very place to discuss those disagreements (mainly in the hope it will bring light and not heat!). And sometimes, we can disagree with others without even wanting to make it public or debate it! It does seem like it could be abused and that may be to the detriment of the site ethos.

I have no idea where this scripting comes from, but, from the terminology used, it appears American based and crossing cultures and language differences will always bring different perspectives to the fore.

I have faith that Team GC will keep what works, disregard what could prove contentious and will always keep the friendly ethos of this site at its core values.

 

Xen, I don't 'like' your last three 'buttons' ... to me they are almost offensive! I also don't like the 'dislike' unless it is obviously offensive and if it is then one can make a comment regarding that explaining the reason for the dislike as I believe shiney mentioned earlier.

 

they are not my buttons they came with the upgrade, removing them etc is up to Nate to decide what he wants to do with them aka which he wants to remove/rename or keep

at my own site I have removed all the ratings that come by default and added new ones ( no negative ones)
we work on co op fiction so my site uses things like

" didn't see that coming"
" so beautiful"
" don't stop now.. write more" etc

 

you should add one :p

 

Pity, IMHO.

Just repeating what I said earlier, but to clarify:

The old LIKE provided a list of the UserIDs of the first few people pressing LIKE. If there were more [than some threshold] then it said "and NNN Others" and you could click on that to see them if you needed to.

For me, seeing at a glance that JWK or LongK or a bunch of others who I know as regulars, and whose opinions I respect, had LIKED a post added weight to it. More than once I've skated over something, seen a LIKE from someone I respect and gone back and paid more attention.

The new style just has LIST. I've tried clicking it. Its a full round-trip to the server, i.e. several seconds delay. In practice I'm never going to click it, and thus I will have lost the benefit of seeing who is on the list.

"50 people LIKE this ... LIST" is, on its own, utterly useless. It could be the O/P's 50 mates all having registered just to give REP to their mate [to facetiously envisage an extreme example].

If the LIST could be a mouse-over pop-up that would be OK - but its still an "action required to see the list", albeit with zero delay.

 

What if the information in the post was plain wrong?

Of course you would post a description of that.

However, someone Googling might only see the original post, and might not read far enough to get to your "this won't work" post (which might be on the next page, whatever ...)

I'm only talking black-is-white here; we've managed without it since the inception of this forum but just saying I can see a place for it.

Of course it is hugely open to abuse ...

Ideally some of these icons would only be available to people who have made more than X posts - otherwise a Newbie can go around making a regular look bad, just for the hell of it.

 

First thing I tried to do was click on more than one .... when I discovered I couldn't I cried "Foul" !!