Rating System (was: what even are social noises round N+1)

that is true

 

...you make one small suggestion and you wake up the next day and there's a whole forum change...

(not complaining, just. OH GOD WHY.)

 

For the confused, the "List" option seems to appear and disappear randomly, at least for me. I suspect that seebs is fiddling with things behind the scenes and that some combination of busy and post-moderation prevent "I am doing this now" announcements in the thread.

 

Having lots of options is nice, but the point is clarity in communication, yeah? The options should have distinct clear meanings.

I would prefer like and agree stay separate. I like that a bunch of people here get excited about cartoon robots, but I completely lack the background to know whether I would agree with an excited headcanons post. XD

That said, I'm also not sure whether a distinction between like, funny, or winner is necessary? And winner is ambiguous, because I thought it might mean "this comment wins/full of win" or maybe "this person wins the discussion by popular vote", while @Aqua Vitae interpreted it totally differently.

So, some questions, fun stuff:
What is the goal of these ratings? My understanding of likes was that, under all the social cues, they were a way to show something without having to form a full comment (or to augment a later comment?). Some of the uses for the current buttons seem like they would be suited to just being made as posts.

 

actual input:

I think separating "like" out into more options is useful, in general, since it should help with awkward problems like "when I liked that post about you feeling suicidal I wasn't saying I think it's good you feel that way, I swear!"

on the other hand, I also agree that there are rather a lot of options now, and I'm not sure how necessary some of them are. and also I'm generally just like... dammit but I just figured out all the social protocols for using the like system, now I have to relearn all of it for this new thing ):

...and then on the third hand, the new system still doesn't actually account for all the uses of the like system I've observed, so it's not like it erases ambiguity entirely. (missing usages off the top of my head: "same hat", "#relatable", "thanks")

[edit] Also, I reeeeeally don't like the thing where you have to click "list" to see who liked/reacted to a post when there's only one or two people. I mean maybe I'll get used to it, but at the moment it's my least favorite thing about the whole change.

 

I have several interpretations of the Winner button. :)

 

All I can think of is Chicken Dinner.


[EDIT] There are now exactly two "Winner" ratings on this post. Let's keep it that way.

 

To the contrary of people who are stating that they dislike the 'list' function, I actually prefer it?

One of the things I've noticed on my sub is that if I have someone blocked, I can still see when they react to a post. I don't get a notification, but I can still see that line that states that X liked this on both my own posts and others.

When I ignore someone, it's to remove them from my realm of acknowledgement for an undefined period of time. Seeing that one, tiny little line that reminds me that they are there makes me very uncomfortable, as it reminds me that they are in fact still sharing a space with me, and that trips up brainbugs that derive from a number of sources. By having it hidden under 'list' by default, I can choose whether or not I want to take the risk and see who it was that reacted to the post, just like when I click the 'Show Ignored Content' button, it's me consciously choosing to take the chance that what I view might be upsetting because of past experiences with that user.

 

After some more thinking, I'm not very comfortable with the existence of the "Hugs" button. That could be abused really easily.

 

Oh oops I can't read apparently but like I said in Bug/Feature these are a pain in the ass on moblie, please at least make em bigger.

 

i'm confused. how could the "hugs" button be abused?

 

Some people will probably rate posts specifically to upset others in the future, and "Hugs" is particularly personal and boundary violating in that case.

 

Given that "hugs if you want them" is fairly common (to me, at least? I might just see it more often) to say because the possibility of having hugs refused is real, I could see just having the 'hugs' button around wigging some people out. Even in online space, having reminders of meatspace self being touched without asking first can be upsetting.

 

Would changing it to Hugs-If-Wanted help, maybe?

 

i'd like the ability to be notified of my ratings, for the sake of quick and easy validation. without them as notifications, it ends up feeling to me like i'm not getting them at all. of course, i can check the ratings received page a lot, but that doesn't feel the same, you know?

 

I like the list function, and the notifications tell you who rated what, so that's handy.

 

There are notifications at the moment, I just don't think they're entirely consistent about showing up?

 

ah! that would explain it!