"Like" or "Thank you" button!

Jonas wrote:

Maybe a poll to find out how many who would like this kind of function or maybe partitially (for instance only articles)?

What? You think this is a democracy??

unless of course I have some valuable insight to add, in which case this discussion is void.

That’s exactly my point. I think you do have a valuable insight to add, in practically every case. I think everybody has, even on Day 1 of their PPL training.

Another detail is that to be authorised to click on a Like etc button, you would need to be logged in, but the vast majority of EuroGA readers don’t log in, and never have. This is despite them missing out on really good features like seeing unread posts since their last visit. Most of them just use the Active Threads button and that’s it.

I think one “problem” we have here is that, it being 2016, everybody who comes to EuroGA has already been on other aviation sites. This leads to certain expectations. But practically all of those are structured for maximising advertising revenue. The proprietor is not too concerned about the content – so long as it remains below the “being sued for libel” threshold.

As regards polls, the lesson we learnt on the 2013 La Rochelle poll is that most people voting were not ever going to participate anyway. So one needs to go about getting feedback differently. Be assured that everything here is being taken on board.

I think you overstate the importance of private “likes” on fb.

Anyway, I do think too, that it would be nice to have some form of one-liner-response opportunity to an interesting post. Many times I read old threads because they have plenty information gathered and they grew over time. If I fund a post from the first two pages useful enough to express my gratitude, I would not want to do this on page 127. There is no context anymore.

So how about one-line-comments – say 50 characters or something like that – that can be “pinned” to a certain post? You could enter a simple “Thanks!” or “Interesting!” or “Happend to me, too!”, “Same here” or such things and you store it below the username in a pop-up box or dropped down menue or somthing like that. That way the discussion isn’t disrupted, it gives opportunities to show you like old posts or say thanks for old information, and you don’t need to read the comments to a post, if you don’t want to.

There are plenty of reasons for and against having a Like mechanism. And the views of those who prefer one or the other are all equally valid.

There are, I believe, some wider forum implications and these are the reasons that I won’t be implementing it here. It’s true that EuroGA is less inclined to have one liners than other forums, but really it’s not about one line, it’s about information exchange. Adding a one-liner “I agree” to a thread can still be useful, because it shows readers that the original poster is not alone in their view and that might add weight to it. Saying “Thanks” is less useful perhaps, but unless it proliferates all over the place I don’t think there are any complaints – people say “Great write-up” on trip reports and nobody complains. If you feel a strong urge to say thank you to another poster without “cluttering it up” you can of course send them a PM.

A simple “Like” button on a post, where it doesn’t display who it came from, is a bit vacuous in my opinion. You don’t know who (or what) it was that clicked on the Like button, nor what they liked about it. Does it mean Thanks, or I agree, or I like you? etc. etc. Anything numeric attached to a post (we did have a Thumbs Up button in the early days of EuroGA) can create competitiveness, elitism, etc. which we’re keen to avoid. People say that won’t happen here, but I’m amazed how many adults worry about such things on Facebook even if they don’t generally talk about it.

@mh adding short comments to a post which don’t ordinarily display is an interesting idea which does address some of the concerns of both camps. Alas, it’s a chunk of work and we’re rather busy at the moment… it’s the summer after all. Ahhhhh, the true reason for avoiding change comes out at last!!!

@David it would be something different :-) But I agree, that is what winters are for. Except you have an aircraft that requires attention :-P

I see following ratings on another forum and find them working nicely.

Helpful
Informative
Like
Disagree
Funny
Love

Here’s an example rating bar.

and another one from a controversial post

“List” link brings up a window with usernames who rated.

It’s nice for users to know how they are perceived. I also believe it would increase the number of posts and pageviews, as users like to collect ratings. Other users don’t have much to add, but with ratings, they can be part of the conversation.

At DAN forum (Diamond Aviators) rating posts increases their relevance so users can immediately see what others ranked as more relevant.

‘Like’, ‘Thank’ and all kind of ‘Social’-ish buttons rarely do good for a topic, but almost always let the mob rule. I am here because there is none.

I LIKE the absence of a like button!