"Like" button.

[northern]

Title:
"Like" button.

Area:
entries

Summary:
You could offer something similar to Facebook's "like" button on entries. It would be useful, and might make people feel better.

Description:
I feel kind of embarrassed, asking for this, but several times a day I find myself wanting this feature. I'm scrolling through my reading page, and I see something funny, or noteworthy, but I don't want to make the effort of writing an actual comment. If I did, it would only contain a "yay!" or a "good for you" or an "ahahahah", so I don't see the point.

Hence, a "like" button. It wouldn't have to be a rating thing, or actually labeled "like", but it would be really useful to me, and hopefully to others. People who don't get many comments might also feel like they have more support and attention from their subscribers with something like that. For a lot of people, a comment to their journal is a bright spot of their day.

A con for this function that I can see is that actual comments might drop in frequency. I don't think they would drop much, though. Hmm. I don't see any others, except that I imagine it would take a lot of work to make such a feature. Some people might also think that this makes Dreamwidth look too much like Facebook, or that a "like" implies a rating of the person who wrote the entry.

Poll #4087 "Like" button.

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 99

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
44 (44.4%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
13 (13.1%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
36 (36.4%)

(I have no opinion)
6 (6.1%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[jumpuphigh]

I'd like this for comments, too.

[charmian]

Agreed.

[feathertail]

How about we fold this functionality in with the Memories feature, and make it easier to use in general? And reduce the number of clicks and things needed, maybe. That way you'd always have a list of things that you "Liked," and could go through it and share it with friends.

[charmian]

Yeah, that would be nice. Tumblr has a feature like this, where a listing of liked posts is kept, and it's also a one-click one.

[feathertail]

Yeah ... I know we've got tagging and things for Memories, but to me that seems like a barrier more than anything else. Maybe we could set it so Memories can be tagged after the fact, or even just import tags from the entries that are Liked? And they could be hidden due to privacy settings or age restrictions, to preserve people's privacy if they Like embarrassing or things.

[denise]

Memories are being completely overhauled, and done an entirely different way, so it won't necessarily be a good fit.

Essentially, the motive behind this suggestion can be for one of two reasons:

* Wanting an easy way to indicate "I approve of this post and would like to save it for future reference".

* Wanting an easy way to indicate "I approve of this post and would like to convey my approval to its author easily without having to write a comment, but once that transaction is complete I don't particularly care about saving it for long-term re-visitation".

I believe you're thinking of the former behavior, and the OP of this suggestion is thinking of the latter.

[azurelunatic]

And then there's Facebook's implementation, which throws in a bonus (and inescapable) "and subscribe me to comments on this, too!"

[jazzfish]

DISLIKE. (The "inescapable" part, at least.)

[azurelunatic]

I see two immediately obvious ways to offer a similar thing without the horrible.

One, a setting, subscribe me to comments on entries I have "liked". (This presumes a "like" that is an entryprop of some sort, rather than a poll; if it were a poll, I suppose one could have a subscription for "subscribe me to comments for entries that have polls that I have voted in", but that is really amazingly awkward-sounding.) This particular thing would be à la Facebook, but without the evil, and might possibly be a paid-only subscription, because it would result in a lot of notifications, similar to whole-community subscriptions.

Two, upon liking (or voting in a poll), offering subscription as part of the workflow. This would offer maximum control, but would likely lead to people overflowing their subscription limits quickly.

[feathertail]

This is true! Having to make a decision, though, slows down the transaction, which is one reason why I don't use Memories much.

[dingsi]

Though I'd use memories and the suggested "like" button for different reasons, a way to keep track of the entries one liked would be nice.

[jazzfish]

+1, to both the main and subordinate clauses.

[feathertail]

Two ideas, prompted by other comments here: One, what if we used a word for it other than "like?" (That way you won't be "liking" someone's rememberings of the abuse they had as a child.) And two, what if we just divide it into some kind of "public like" and "private like?" Or had certain of your "Memories" be Friends-locked?

Hm, maybe the word "remember" works better than "like" ... it wouldn't be clicked as often as a "like" button, but it'd still be clicked a lot on entries that mean a lot to people. I've personally had people say they don't comment on my deepest entries because they don't know what to say.

[dingsi]

The memories thing is actually something altogether different to me, it's about bookmarking useful entries and perhaps having a shorthand folder that I can direct people to. But that's the "reader" side of things, whereas "author" me always wants to know if people found any of my posts useful or interesting enough to add them to their memories (I think a feature taking care of that has been suggested or is in the works?)... A "remember" button would also fall into the latter category so now I'm wondering about even more possible angles to it. It might be redundant if the feature to show how many people memorised your entry gets implemented.

(Sidenote: Or had certain of your "Memories" be Friends-locked? -- you can already do this by choosing a privacy setting for your memories.)

Dividing the Likes into public and private would create superfluous settings imho, but making it opt-in is necessary. As useful as it would be for some people, it would be a dealbreakers for others when they cannot switch it off if they so desire.

I agree that there should be a different wording, or perhaps two possible options being offered, to avoid the implications of "liked" on entries where they are inappropriate. "Support" could work -- you can both give (emotional) support, and/or support a statement.

(Apologies for being late with my reply.)

[laitaine]

I wouldn't like to see the memories and likes entirely coincident. I can easily imagine a situation where you want to add an interesting/thought-provoking post for future reference but clicking the like button would be Very Inappropriate.

[feathertail]

This is true!

[feathertail]

What if we just used a different word instead of "like?" Also, what if you could make some of them private or friends-locked, just like your posts?

[kyrielle]

If it folded in with memories and anything I liked ended up in memories, I wouldn't like things as often. I want my memories to be things I want to reread, which, sorry, "Hey, my son did this cute thing today" usually isn't. But I might like to "like" it so the original poster knows how I felt.