Likes

Nao

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Likes
« on May 11th, 2011, 03:40 PM »Last edited on October 8th, 2014, 09:11 PM
Area: Miscellaneous
Feature: Reactions (Likes)
Developer: Arantor & Nao
Target: users
Status: 95% (core functionality implemented for posts and thoughts)
Comment:

We never liked karma in SMF. We don't like the idea that people get thumbs down on the basis of a message, but they never get to know which posts got them that reputation. Plus -- it's a bit of an ego trip.

Implementing 'like' buttons on posts/topics is a better way of actually guiding people through a user's best posts. We're hoping to implement the feature in every possible feature, such as media items.

The structure already implemented allows for liking any structure in theory - even plugin-added ones, and there's already the foundation for even doing it through AJAX, just more UI work needs to be done; most of the core was added in enough time to get it on wedge.org with more to follow ;)

:edit: October 2014: added support for multiple like types; renamed to 'Reactions'.

Re: Likes
« Reply #106, on May 21st, 2012, 10:26 AM »
Should we hide the Like button for ignored posts...?

Pros:
- It takes less room. Even if hiding the action bar, the Like button is still on the same row, meaning I have to show said row... And I can't really move the Like button elsewhere...

Cons:
- If a post is really liked, this may be an incentive to actually unhide it. For instance, you may want to ignore a post spammer who often says interesting things but tends to pollute topics... (People like Pete and I :lol:)

Re: Likes
« Reply #107, on May 21st, 2012, 03:35 PM »
Well, when hidden, IIRC it's the entire post+buttons+signature that's hidden and unless you've actually liked that post already, I see no reason to change that.

Re: Likes
« Reply #108, on May 21st, 2012, 04:39 PM »
No, it doesn't hide everything. The code has to specify which divs will be hidden. actionbar is not hidden, but locally I've hidden actions (the right side of actionbar), which works well, but removing the Like button would defeat any reason to actually unhide a post. (In many cases.)

Re: Likes
« Reply #109, on May 21st, 2012, 08:01 PM »
Well, that's kind of the point, when you hide a post it's because you don't consider anything the person has to say of any value so you're not likely to want to like their posts. But if you already did like the post, you're not going to want to hide it.

Re: Likes
« Reply #110, on May 21st, 2012, 08:13 PM »
But what about my use case? Isn't it realistic?

Re: Likes
« Reply #111, on May 21st, 2012, 08:22 PM »
I'm not sure it is, really.

In order to like it, you'd presumably have to read it, which means you'd have to unhide it anway. Might as well hide everything, then.

Re: Likes
« Reply #112, on May 21st, 2012, 08:39 PM »
But if 10 people liked it and it says so -- wouldn't you be interested in knowing what it says?

We can always hide the Like button if there are no likes though!

Re: Likes
« Reply #113, on May 21st, 2012, 08:56 PM »
Hmmmmm, I see your point there.

On the flip side I think that if you've hidden it, you've hidden it for a reason.

Re: Likes
« Reply #114, on May 21st, 2012, 11:30 PM »
It's just a Like button. It's no biggie I think. It's not like we're showing the entire post :)
Committed in rev 1588.
Re: Likes
« Reply #115, on October 8th, 2014, 09:10 PM »
So... The feature I've been working on for the last couple of weeks (not that much work really, but I've been busy IRL as you all know) is working on my side, but I need feedback before I can commit it.

Basically, Wedge now allows webmasters to have more options than a 'Like' button[1]... Ideally (not now), I'll even let post authors decide what kinds of buttons are allowed on their post (e.g. if you're posting about someone's death, it would be wise to only keep a "Sad" button, so that no troll can press "Like" or something...)

Now this is where I need you guys... I've "simply" been reusing smileys for options, but I don't know if I should limit myself to smileys (honestly I think I will, because it means the code to add more buttons is already there), and WHICH ones I should have by default.

Here's the current list...

like ^_^
funny :lol:
love 8-)
what :^^;:
unsure :unsure:
meh -_-
sad :sob:
thanks :thanks:

Some of these are only in the 'Cyna' smiley set, which is probably not ever going to be added to Wedge, so I'll have to change them, probably :unsure: would become :-/, for instance.

I need to know if any of these choices are superfluous, if I'm missing anything important (should I have choices for "I agree"/"I disagree", for instance, or are the smileys enough?), and I don't know if they should be stored (in the database) as smiley codes (meaning they automatically adapt to the current smiley set), or image URLs. Currently, I'm using the smiley codes...
 1. Amusingly, I wrote this feature as something "original" for forum software, until I realized this week that a XenForo forum I'm lurking on has this as well... Not sure if it's as a mod or core, though.

Re: Likes
« Reply #116, on October 8th, 2014, 10:13 PM »Last edited on October 8th, 2014, 10:21 PM
Hmm i get the point for more buttons, something like "helpful", or "approve" etc can be useful. But something like "sad" or "love", i dont know if they really make sense, because they are quite similar to like or thanks. Perhaps less buttons and more specific opinions per default?! How i understood, admins can change those buttons?!.

Also I feel a bit uncomfortable with the idea of having smileys to "rate" a post. Additional icons would be better i think.

I recently saw that thing on a xenforo forum, where you could rate a post (i dont know a better word for this) as "helpful", "non-helpful", "approve", "disapprove", "like", "dislike" and "get well".  For example if someone posted something stupid and offending, people pressed the "get well" button and it showed the general position of the community.

All in all i think its a good thing for big communities where you want to integrate peoples opinion who dont post alot or to minimize "thanks", "agree on your position..." posts which dont really add any new information to the discussion to keep them clear.

BTW: I dont like xenforo, too much of everything and it is often really ugly. But first saw a notification system on a xenforo forum, they are "modern" in a way. But never installed it or informed myself about it. In general i dont like commercial forum softwares.

Re: Likes
« Reply #117, on October 9th, 2014, 12:42 AM »
Could always use something like the old mood icon systems that forums used to always have.
Heck, come to think of it, I don't recall anyone ever asking about those anymore....LOL

Reason I suggest them, is that most had text to them. I think that would look better than just a plain smiley image.
I can't find the one that used to be on SMF long ago, but I know I used to have it on one of my sites back then.

Re: Likes
« Reply #118, on October 23rd, 2014, 12:14 AM »
Looks like you really struggle about that thing :hmm:.
I'm not sure but as a plugin that would be quite nice.
Don't think that its really core stuff that everyone needs.
But what wedge needs are more plugins :D
Kill two birds with one stone?!

Re: Likes
« Reply #119, on October 23rd, 2014, 12:19 AM »
Quote from CerealGuy on October 23rd, 2014, 12:14 AM
Looks like you really struggle about that thing :hmm:.
Yeah. I committed the relatively solid stuff (although it's not 'tested' yet), and left aside the UI code that I wasn't happy with.
All in all, this patch took only a few hours to write, so it's no biggie. I thought it'd be a good opportunity to try out committing to a new branch, and then reverting to the master... Seems to work. I'm git-rusty you see.
Quote from CerealGuy on October 23rd, 2014, 12:14 AM
I'm not sure but as a plugin that would be quite nice.
Don't think that its really core stuff that everyone needs.
Prolly not.
Quote from CerealGuy on October 23rd, 2014, 12:14 AM
But what wedge needs are more plugins :D
Kill two birds with one stone?!
You might have a point, but I'm trying to have as many 'core' features as possible, for two reasons:
- I can write core stuff, but plugins..? Not really. I used to leave that up to Arantor in the first place.
- I need all the help I can get to promote Wedge once I'm done with my 'busier' days.

Re: Likes
« Reply #120, on October 24th, 2014, 01:52 PM »
I understand your arguments but an overloaded core is not desirable.
Look at aeva media gallery. Its a good idea and probably useful for some forums,
but most don't need it. While nearly everyone uses mentions and thats not in core.

Dont get me wrong, aeva is a part of wedge for long, and it should be in the future.
But the few moments when i looked at the gallery, it felt for me strange. I missed
multiple integrations into the forum, which could be important.