"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

[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.)