I speak to you from the dark days before the world was enlightened, when men were men and women were legendary... When people posted a message and everyone gasped in wonder and amazement at this new electronic medium but no one could see or experience those reactions because there was no means to do so! A whole subculture of though and shared communities was denied us but no more!
Spin forward to 2020 and the world has moved on, communities can post a thought and get peoples reactions, emotions, amazement, you get the gist. The most common representation of these feeeeelings.... was an emoticon. A simple yet positve way for people to express their feeling about something. A way to share the love, the laughter, the sadness and humanity of your community.
Yet here we are in 2022 with the most advanced increditble and amazing community software in the world today yet we are denied this simple avenue for human emotion ... in a community no less! I cannot fathom how such decisions are made so point me sir! to the most terrible and dangerous dragon that created such fear in the hearts of man and woman! I will leap onto my glorious steed, pull out my longsword and charge with a yell to slay thee for you all!
Then with mead in hand, sit and drink with my friends from devcentral telling tales of time where emotion was not allowed, people were not permitted to express their appreciation and we can all laugh at a time so long in the past.... it became just another legend!
Thanks for the idea. Looks like our PlatformProvider has this idea under consideration already - but it is over 1 year old. I bumped it again to see where they stand. Beyond the examples in the wild - like LinkedIN or Facebook, and I personally like the claps feature on Medium. And beyond the story to start this request prosaically implying that not having varied reaction types represents "being out of touch"... What would having such a feature mean for you and your fellow members on DevCentral?
Before we chose to implement something like this on DevCentral I would consider many factors: what it does to the interface, maintenance, and measurement (do we care/do YOU care?). Like, if we had subtle differences between reactions - including both positive and negative reactions - what does that mean? Should we respond to a glut of reactions in any one place or any one style differently? and/or would you want to see a table of how many of each type of reaction you have overall? Do reactions tie into badges you get? change rank/permisison algorithms? and get included in off-platform notifications? Would it then help to filter and sort content by reaction?
Lastly - posts is a generic term - there are four discussion styles and somewhat-separate reaction concepts for each. If you are suggesting "reactions" anywhere/everywhere then...
Forum Posts (the biggie and probably what you mean...) have Threaded replies (which both have kudos) - What reactions make sense to you here?
Articles (#2 biggie) + Comment - What reactions make sense to you here?
Events + Comments - What reactions make sense to you here?
Suggestions + Comments - What reactions make sense to you here?
Lief you make a lot of interesting and necessary posts. Gamification could be thought about, but I think the main would be to provide an outlet for people to express a reaction/emotion.
I would be happy with something as simple as clapping, and would prefer means to express a more ample range of emotions i.e. LinkedIn's choices - where I often miss the laughing reaction - laughing together is fun!
LiefZimmerman I finally get some time to reply ,,, so here goes.
Great questions,
>> And beyond the story to start this request prosaically implying that not having varied reaction types represents "being out of touch"... I thought it was an artistic way of doing so 🙂
>> What would having such a feature mean for you and your fellow members on DevCentral
I think my original post covered this. The ability to express ones views is essentially human. We all have them and you need to take into consideration this is not a facebook. This a professional community of peers so you do not need to consider the lowest common denominator. You will find people will be respectful as long as the reaction has their name against it.
>> Before we chose to implement something like this on DevCentral I would consider many factors: what it does to the interface, maintenance, and measurement (do we care/do YOU care?).
If it hurts the interface then just dont. if it causes more maintenance then just dont.
>> Like, if we had subtle differences between reactions - including both positive and negative reactions - what does that mean?
They are an emoticon, nothing more. having a large variety of them means people can be individuals. It is also good to allow people to post more than one reaction.
>> Should we respond to a glut of reactions in any one place or any one style differently? and/or would you want to see a table of how many of each type of reaction you have overall?
No and never.
Do reactions tie into badges you get? change rank/permisison algorithms? and get included in off-platform notifications? Would it then help to filter and sort content by reaction?
I don't think reactions should be used as a metric as tempting as that may be. Even internallly when used in such a way they can be thrown at your by management for "not enough likes..." The lession here is the moment you measure it, it will be used as a measurment if you get what I am trying to say so inelegantly. It also exposes you to gaming the system as you have no control over it (nor should you) and the internet has been known to collectively be a pain in the ass. Why expose yourself to such drama when you do not have to. My sage advice is definately have it, as it brings a wonderful expression to site but do not measure it for "technical reasons".
Lastly - posts is a generic term- there are four discussion styles and somewhat-separate reaction concepts for each. If you are suggesting "reactions" anywhere/everywhere then...
Forum Posts (the biggie and probably what you mean...) have Threaded replies (which both have kudos) - What reactions make sense to you here?
The picture in the above is shown when you hover over one of the emotes.
Articles (#2 biggie) + Comment - What reactions make sense to you here?
Events + Comments - What reactions make sense to you here?
Suggestions + Comments - What reactions make sense to you here?
If the pictures look like their from Slack then you would be on the money. They have done reactions like this quite well. Discord is the same in this regard albiet more flexible as you can upload your own. In fact that would be the best way to implement this. Deploy an emoticon system which can be added to by users with a decent reputation via responding and helping out in the forums. Not by using reactions...
Please come back to me LiefZimmerman if you have more questions and make those like images %25 smaller. They are quite big.
Kevin, I'll set this to Investigating for now - it's a good idea and one I hope to achieve in the coming months. It's not a priority (yet) and may be impacted by some platform adjustments happening late in 2023 - this will keep it on my radar (and keep it open if any one else has similar ideas/adjustments/kudos for the concept). Thanks! Lief
