They did have a thumbs up apparently, but scrapped it in a vote.

Whaaat? That is such bullshit. They used to have it on The PF before it went buggy. I would like to hear the arguments against it, cant think there would be any!

Sorry I don't have a link to the post.

Another function to fuel pseudo philosophers' egos on a philosophy forum, just what we needed.

I hate "like" buttons. Long live the Grinch.

They are too blunt a facebooky instrument. How about 3 emoji that indicate:

want to vomit
don't give a rat's ass
thrilled to pieces

The old forum had a plus and minus members could click. Some liked it. Some didn't.

Another function to fuel pseudo philosophers' egos on a philosophy forum, just what we needed. — Heister Eggcart

Naaaaah, as long as you have a downvote option as well. What really fuels ego is people tongue in check response and edgy attitudes that force people into want to "be right". A like option has fuck all to do with that.

I hate "like" buttons. Long live the Grinch.

They are too blunt a facebooky instrument. How about 3 emoji that indicate:

want to vomit
don't give a rat's ass
thrilled to pieces — Bitter Crank

Typical bitter crank, at least it would be better than nothing!

A like option has fuck all to do with that. — intrapersona

A like system has fuck all to do with anything philosophy related, however. *shrug*

as long as you have a downvote option as well — intrapersona

That results in sheer abuse, as it did on the old forum. This better not turn into Reddit, which is an absolute pit.

I say keep the likes away from here. I agree with , a voting system fucks everything up. It subconsciously influences people's decision-making.

If we have to bring back the like system, make it transparent so that only those receiving the likes are notified. Nobody really needs to know how popular an opinion is.

That results in sheer abuse, as it did on the old forum. This better not turn into Reddit, which is an absolute pit. — Thorongil

No I don't think so. People are not that bad come on...

If we have to bring back the like system, make it transparent so that only those receiving the likes are notified. Nobody really needs to know how popular an opinion is. — darthbarracuda

It's more of a way to quickly tell someone:

Yes I agree with you

or

That was excellently written

A like system has fuck all to do with anything philosophy related, however. *shrug* — Heister Eggcart

Yes it does. That is like saying the letter Z doesn't have anything to do with philosophy even though it used to say "zombie".

Likewise, if you have a philosophy forum that has a like option then that is part of a forum dedicated to philosophy and therefor has something TO DO with philosophy. Just like mouths have something to do with philosophy.

Trust me friends, don't knock it until you've tried it!

Trust me friends, don't knock it until you've tried it! — intrapersona

My point was that we have and other websites have (like Reddit) and we don't like the results. I don't anyway.

I agree with you because I feel this is more of social site than it is anything else.
But it is my understanding that the mods take the site more seriously and are trying to be an academic site.

What does a "like" button have to do with philosophy? Is philosophy a popularity contest?

Yeah, something that encourages more cliqueyness and herd conformity sounds like a great idea. Let's figure out some way to use peer pressure more effectively to avoid people saying things that we're uncomfortable with.

Once "likes" reach a particular number, we could have a "circle-jerk seal of approval" icon.

If a user has a certain number of liked posts/threads that get the circle-jerk seal of approval, they could get an "in with the in crowd" icon on their personal page.

This issue has been dealt with here.

There IS a like facility: it is to write a post saying why you liked another post. Because this is a philosophy forum rather than a fan site, that second post needs to contain philosophical reasons why you found the post likeable, otherwise it may be deleted.

I don't see any good reason to provide a second like facility, especially one that contains no information beyond brute popularity. This forum is not The Bachelor.

What andrewk said. A post is less ambiguous. A downvote could mean a number of different things: 'badly written', 'I don't like you', 'I disagree with what you say but I like you anyway', 'you're a cunt', 'I downvote all your posts as a matter of policy because you are Mars Man' (I plead guilty to this one), 'I don't understand what you are trying to say', 'I am offended by this but don't understand that I should be reporting it as offensive rather than downvoting it' etc etc...

(Y)

I personally have no objection to the occasional post with nothing in it except a thumbs-up in response to another post, but I wouldn't want to see it getting out of hand.

It is beneficial to any forum that people have different views. People nowdays start to "hang out" too much with people that share their views and values.

Trolls, flaming or absolute stupidities are there for the administrators to push out.

Unsurprisingly likes are wanted by those for whom the resposes of people are more interesting than the matters discussed, e.g. trolls and pop psychologists.

The "like" button was the beginning of the end at PF.

Liking someone else's posts seems so interpersona. Perhaps you could just like your own posts instead?

The creation of these discussions is practically inevitable, and there'll no doubt be more of them in future. Been there, done that. It's better without, in my opinion. (Although that hasn't always been my opinion. Last time I voted in favour, although I only did so because it was just likes and no dislikes - anyone who wants both likes and dislikes should bear in mind that that isn't currently a possibility anyway. It's either only likes or no likes). There seems to be a consensus against it, as there was the last time. And I'm content if the matter remains settled for the foreseeable future. But I don't think that it's that big a deal either way.

I personally have no objection — jamalrob

(Y)

except a thumbs-up in response to another post — jamalrob

(Y)