"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

[msilverstar]

I'm surprised at how nice a Like button is.

[jumpuphigh]

I'd like this for comments, too.

[charmian]

Agreed.

[azurelunatic]

I do find that the "like" as seen on Facebook lowers the barrier to interaction, and I interact with items I might have passed by otherwise.

It can also streamline the comments that do exist -- reading seven comments, which contain two well-thought-out, detailed responses, and five brief, almost null-content other than being supportive, comments, takes longer than reading the two detailed comments and seeing "these five users liked this entry".

[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.

[feathertail]

It's interesting you should say that, since for these dw_suggestions posts we can take a look at the poll numbers in addition to the comments.

[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]

My personal pet implementation idea for a "like" feature actually involves polls and pre-set templates for entries.

First, there'd be a new setting for polls that shows the question and results in "compact mode", or something of the like -- so the poll won't be a whole big line-separated row of buttons, it might be all on one line, and the results might be on one line too, without a whole bunch of graphics.

Second, you would be able to set an entry template so that you could have text that you include with each entry, and be able to edit it before you posted, if you wanted to. People might use it for signatures, or little "bookmark this on Delicious" things, or they could include a poll, sort of like the Suggestions polls.

If you combined a "Like" mini-poll with an entry template, you'd have a Like feature, exactly how you want it, totally customizable. You could have just "Like", a "Like/Dislike/Meh", a "Hugs" thing, or "I want to bear your children/You should be eaten by velociraptors/Honestly I was just skimming past", or whatever.

[azurelunatic]

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

[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.

[feathertail]

That actually might be interesting, if it could be done in an intuitive way.

We were discussing ways of making the posting interace modular, with drag-and-drop customization ... what if something like that was a "Premium module" that paying users could add to their Create Entry dialog? (Although we'd probably want to give preference to Dreamwidth's own Memories feature over external bookmarking sites, especially once it's revamped.)

Button poll with customizable text

[noracharles]

This is almost exactly what I would like to have.

I'd like to be able to make a poll that's just a single button, without all the text and links normally surrounding a poll. Next to it it should have the click count.

You could have one button poll labeled "like", or you could have three button polls in a row labeled "like", "meh" and "dislike" respectively, or however many you'd care to make.

[tree]

i'd hope that if this were implemented, it would be opt-in, or at least opt-out. IMO discovering that someone can't be bothered to write a comment would be a lot more insulting than assuming they just don't have anything to say.

[ratcreature]

I would only want this if I could in-/exclude it on a post by post basis. For some posts it's plain inappropriate at least depending on how you take such a button. Like say I post a family member is in the hospital or a pet died or such. That kind of thing often gets a lot of short, often generic expressions of sympathy of the "hugs", "hope they get better", "sorry for your loss" responses, since people don't know what to say, but want to show that they took notice and care, similar to how a funny story gets "lol"s. A button of positive feedback if automatically included might well be interpreted by one set of people to be just that with a variety of meanings, and also be clicked on "my pet died" posts, while others may take it more narrowly and go "wtf, they like that my pet died??"

[dingsi]

Not arguing against your point of having it opt-in (and I also agree with ratcreature below that it would be inappropriate for certain types of entries, or that the word "like" has different meanings for people, which makes it a bit tricky). I'd just like to point out that the reasson people don't reply isn't always as simple as "can't be bothered". My main reasons for not commenting are that I'm too stressed / busy / tired / shy and more often than not it just leads to a depressingly long list of "you wanted / need to reply to this" bookmarks without getting anything done. With a "like" button, I could at least show that I have read a post and approved of it, instead of having it look like I didn't read it at all / didn't care.

[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.

[goodbyebird]

+1
I've often passed on commenting on posts I've liked very much, simply because I feel inadequate to bring anything of value to the discussions. A 'like' button would be so very helpful, at least to let them know I'm reading and found their post interesting.

[goodbyebird]

This sounds very interesting. It allows people to opt-in/out, and also to customize to their heart's content.

[tree]

oh, i didn't mean to imply that was the only reason someone might not comment -- i'm certainly tongue-tied often enough. i was just directly referencing the OP's statement that I don't want to make the effort of writing an actual comment.

[charmian]

This sounds like a great idea, really.

[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.

[jazzfish]

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

[jazzfish]

+1, to both the main and subordinate clauses.