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Doing without an upvoting or ''like'' option - Printable Version

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Doing without an upvoting or ''like'' option - Leigha - Jul 7, 2019

Since forums and social media commonly offer a reputation "upvoting'' system and/or ''like'' feature, I gotta say...it's nice to be a part of this forum, where that doesn't exist. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to note when another member of a forum ''likes'' your thread or post, as affirmation isn't always a bad thing. But, I can't help but think that social media has caused many people to couch their responses in such a way to merely entertain, or gain validation. 

I was skeptical at first when I noticed that Scivillage had done away with any type of ''voting'' system, but now I absolutely love it. I feel that the exchanges here are more genuine overall, and can't help but wonder...if social media deleted the upvoting/liking options, would users crumble in despair, or would they find it surprisingly refreshing, as I have? 

Good decision, stryder!

RE: Doing without an upvoting or ''like'' option - RainbowUnicorn - Jul 7, 2019

(Jul 7, 2019 03:35 AM)Leigha Wrote: can't help but wonder...if social media deleted the upvoting/liking options, would users crumble in despair, or would they find it surprisingly refreshing, as I have? 

Good decision, stryder!

those who want the money, copy the way others make the money


did you see the recent article on fake ratings of products ?
i will have a dig maybe tomorrow to see if i can find it.

effectively you have people responding to purchases and consumer interactions by giving a value of gold stars, even though they are not really critiquing the product value.
just giving a false emotional value to create something to base statistical hit triggers for click sales off.
its a total sham but is also now a part of culture.


see all the youtube videos  "such n such reacts" ..
we seem to be in the era of emotional context voyeurism
we could call it emotional porn clicks
huge money for the likes of google and amazon and billions of money chasing ways to get people to buy their crap.

here is a couple of items
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/26/18242303/ftc-fake-amazon-reviews-lawsuit-false-advertising

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/16/flood-of-fake-five-star-reviews-inundating-amazon-which-finds

its big business !

ironically, as political leaders become more extreme from a center balance, it lends extra weight to the other forms of cultural emotional context values.
.... aka people seek that sense of emotional normalcy somewhere else in a different form.

RE: Doing without an upvoting or ''like'' option - stryder - Jul 7, 2019

(Jul 7, 2019 03:35 AM)Leigha Wrote: Since forums and social media commonly offer a reputation "upvoting'' system and/or ''like'' feature, I gotta say...it's nice to be a part of this forum, where that doesn't exist. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to note when another member of a forum ''likes'' your thread or post, as affirmation isn't always a bad thing. But, I can't help but think that social media has caused many people to couch their responses in such a way to merely entertain, or gain validation. 

I was skeptical at first when I noticed that Scivillage had done away with any type of ''voting'' system, but now I absolutely love it. I feel that the exchanges here are more genuine overall, and can't help but wonder...if social media deleted the upvoting/liking options, would users crumble in despair, or would they find it surprisingly refreshing, as I have? 

Good decision, stryder!
The original setup I had something planned that looked great on paper, the problem was however that it required people to have the capacity to self-regulate themselves and that's not easily achieved.  One persons happy median is someone elses "not enough" and yet someone elses "too much".  It was only meant for dealing with spammers and problem posters, luckily the sites been pretty clear of both things.  (I occasionally disappear some spammer created zombie accounts, but other than that not much gets through.)

As for the Like culture, it can actually be problematic.  One click of a button and you're apart of a Covenant (wikipedia.org), now that's fine if it's as simple as liking a cat jumping backwards through a hoop, but what if the influencers changes what the subject you clicked "like" on... so the cat's now thrown into a mincemeat maker... suddenly you'd get death threats from animal rights activists and you wouldn't even know why (considering the number of things people click like on, it would be very easy to lose track).

Further still it could effect your travel plans. It's known now that the US has a mandatory policy of asking for peoples social media identity when they visit the country... If they find you making cat burgers they aren't going to be too happy about letting you enter. (or leave perhaps)

To be honest the whole like methodology really requires a "Liked-by-Date" so the likes get disregarded after some time, that way they can't be tampered with.

We've got other methods for tracking whats hot... well we've a stats page (It's actually the only way to see when we have a new member unless they actually post since I removed the welcome new member announcement some time back):
https://www.scivillage.com/stats.php

Funnily enough it seems some of the threads with the most stats aren't even the ones we frequent Confused

RE: Doing without an upvoting or ''like'' option - Leigha - Jul 7, 2019

(Jul 7, 2019 06:57 AM)RainbowUnicorn Wrote:
(Jul 7, 2019 03:35 AM)Leigha Wrote: can't help but wonder...if social media deleted the upvoting/liking options, would users crumble in despair, or would they find it surprisingly refreshing, as I have? 

Good decision, stryder!

those who want the money, copy the way others make the money


did you see the recent article on fake ratings of products ?
i will have a dig maybe tomorrow to see if i can find it.

effectively you have people responding to purchases and consumer interactions by giving a value of gold stars, even though they are not really critiquing the product value.
just giving a false emotional value to create something to base statistical hit triggers for click sales off.
its a total sham but is also now a part of culture.


see all the youtube videos  "such n such reacts" ..
we seem to be in the era of emotional context voyeurism
we could call it emotional porn clicks
huge money for the likes of google and amazon and billions of money chasing ways to get people to buy their crap.

here is a couple of items
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/26/18242303/ftc-fake-amazon-reviews-lawsuit-false-advertising

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/16/flood-of-fake-five-star-reviews-inundating-amazon-which-finds

its big business !

ironically, as political leaders become more extreme from a center balance, it lends extra weight to the other forms of cultural emotional context values.
.... aka people seek that sense of emotional normalcy somewhere else in a different form.

haha I have read about that, isn't that crazy?? I think when you leave a review on a product, you have to have actually purchased it, now. At least that is the case with amazon, as I leave product reviews. But, they're getting people to buy their products to inflate their ratings, that's cray cray. lol
(Jul 7, 2019 05:14 PM)stryder Wrote:
(Jul 7, 2019 03:35 AM)Leigha Wrote: Since forums and social media commonly offer a reputation "upvoting'' system and/or ''like'' feature, I gotta say...it's nice to be a part of this forum, where that doesn't exist. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to note when another member of a forum ''likes'' your thread or post, as affirmation isn't always a bad thing. But, I can't help but think that social media has caused many people to couch their responses in such a way to merely entertain, or gain validation. 

I was skeptical at first when I noticed that Scivillage had done away with any type of ''voting'' system, but now I absolutely love it. I feel that the exchanges here are more genuine overall, and can't help but wonder...if social media deleted the upvoting/liking options, would users crumble in despair, or would they find it surprisingly refreshing, as I have? 

Good decision, stryder!
The original setup I had something planned that looked great on paper, the problem was however that it required people to have the capacity to self-regulate themselves and that's not easily achieved.  One persons happy median is someone elses "not enough" and yet someone elses "too much".  It was only meant for dealing with spammers and problem posters, luckily the sites been pretty clear of both things.  (I occasionally disappear some spammer created zombie accounts, but other than that not much gets through.)

As for the Like culture, it can actually be problematic.  One click of a button and you're apart of a Covenant (wikipedia.org), now that's fine if it's as simple as liking a cat jumping backwards through a hoop, but what if the influencers changes what the subject you clicked "like" on... so the cat's now thrown into a mincemeat maker... suddenly you'd get death threats from animal rights activists and you wouldn't even know why (considering the number of things people click like on, it would be very easy to lose track).

Further still it could effect your travel plans.  It's known now that the US has a mandatory policy of asking for peoples social media identity when they visit the country... If they find you making cat burgers they aren't going to be too happy about letting you enter. (or leave perhaps)

To be honest the whole like methodology really requires a "Liked-by-Date" so the likes get disregarded after some time, that way they can't be tampered with.

We've got other methods for tracking whats hot... well we've a stats page (It's actually the only way to see when we have a new member unless they actually post since I removed the welcome new member announcement some time back):
https://www.scivillage.com/stats.php

Funnily enough it seems some of the threads with the most stats aren't even the ones we frequent  Confused
Wow, I honestly had no idea of the behind-the-scenes issues when it comes to adding/maintaining such options. And that's funny that the threads with the most stats are the ones we least frequent. Are the ''stats'' based on # of views and/or responses?