Post Like Feature

[tzora]

Desperately need the post "Like" feature. When users create good posts, there should be a way to appreciate them. You may say, there is Karma feature but it is not even close to the "Like" system. You can add/remove karma to people, but doesn't show why someone received +1/-1 Karma. There should be some system to tell that a post is valuable.

[kat]

Ain't "Search" wonderful?

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?action=search;basic_search=Like

As this isn't (I hope) going to be a standard feature of future versions of SMF, which is what this board is for, I'll move it somewhere else...

[tzora]

Sir, those are "mods" and we are talking about built-in feature .. is there a difference?
And .. I have already searched .. there is only 1 mod available for "likes" and there is just 1 mod available for "good post/bad post".

the "likes" mod has a free and a paid version .. both are for smf version 2.0 ... already tried that using emulator. didn't work.

but i don't wish to have 20 mods working on my forums, makes the forums slow .. wouldn't it be sweet to have this inbuilt feature?

[Arantor]

It would be no faster as a built in feature than it would as a well written mod.

* Arantor speaks as one who has written dozens of mods.

[kat]

Not for people who don't do facebook, no. Plus, Facebook keeps changing the way that it works. So, if it was a core feature, it'd keep breaking. So... pointless having it, as a standard feature.

Try searching for "Facebook", as well.

[Arantor]

You can have likes that *aren't* tied to Facebook, like the picture shown (which seems to be XenForo's?)

Heck I even added that to Wedge, it really isn't that hard to do, but there are certain limits to how fast it is going to be, and there really is no way to make it faster in the core than a mod.

[tzora]

i'm not talking about the "social like" buttons .. i'm talking about "appreciating" a good post by a fellow forumer .. please check the attachment i posted ..

p.s. - attachment is not from a xenForo forum .. its from a vbulletin forum

[Kindred]

so, use one of the mods...

I have a forum that has 216 mods installed and it ran acceptably...

[kat]

There should be some system to tell that a post is valuable.

Wouldn't the number of views do that, along with the number of times that it appears in "Show unread posts since last visit." and "Show new replies to your posts."?

I don't see the point, myself.

Still...

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3029

[tzora]

its not a "free" mod if i need full features .. no i'm not ready to pay $19 yet cuz i'm not making any money out of my forum. its actually a gaming forum where i have no chance of making any money (and i dont intend to) and i'm already investing 4 hours a day just to manage the forum. i wouldn't wish to spend another cent cuz i'm already paying $50 for vps hosting .. u really want to read all of this lol .. want me to keep going with my story? look i'm just a student and working my ss off to keep up with my studies, i just learn this forum thing with my boyfriend's help and i'm helping some of my gaming friends to unite together and have a little fun talk about the game we play and ..... r u bored of listening to my story or want me to keep going teeheehee

[tzora]

There should be some system to tell that a post is valuable.

Wouldn't the number of views do that, along with the number of times that it appears in "Show unread posts since last visit." and "Show new replies to your posts."?

I don't see the point, myself.

Still...

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3029

did anyone say "bots"? bots can definitely increase views .. no?

[Arantor]

If your users want it, ask them to chip in for it. Or learn to code so you can do it yourself, like the rest of us had to.

[tzora]

http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=3029

that SMF Likes Lite has a free and a paid version. the free version does not allow u to do a lot of things .. the paid version is $19. and that is the only "likes" mod available .. non other, searched enough

[kat]

thank you i was looking for that

I know what it's like, tzora. I'm a bit financially embarrassed, myself.

But, that's all we have. Nibogo like to make a few quid/bucks/zlotys/whatever from his mods. So, it is what it is, I'm afraid. That mod's only "Paid for", if you go for the "Pro" version, tough, if that's any good?

[tzora]

i understand the earning part .. well, not a good option for me right now

but don't you think there should be some "fun" element in the software? i even think of giving "roses" to anyone who makes a great post. would be fun to collect roses for participating in discussions. then you can brag about the number of roses you earn for your valuable posts .. if there was such a mod available and installed in this community, you would have thousands of roses by now

[Arantor]

Why should there be a fun element? There are plenty of forums who do not use it for 'fun'. Including at one time, a governmental site for Germany.

[kat]

if there was such a mod available and installed in this community, you would have thousands of roses by now

Why, thank you!

Doesn't the karma thing do that, to some extent, though?

What I think would possibly enhance that, would be the ability for the karma to be linked, in some way, to something that said "tzora's got/lost ******loads of karma, for this!" with a link to whatever it was that got the karma raised/lowered.

I bet that'd be a bugger to code, though.

[Arantor]

Karma is per person, likes are per post = harder to abuse. It is not for nothing I did implement it myself

[Kindred]

I like the idea of "likes per post" much more than karma... but I still don't really see the point of it.

[Arantor]

The idea is that it avoids the +1 style of post and allows people to indicate general assent to a post without having to actually post.

[kat]

Other than, perhaps, pandering to the Fartbook generation, I can't, really.

Maybe that's the thing?

[Kindred]

meh...   we just slap people around when they put +1

[Arantor]

I had no regrets putting it in Wedge. It's not about pandering to a generation.

Wedge even has likes for its short-form conversational tool (like Twitter)

[kat]

Actually, the karma thing working on a per-post basis has something going for it.

Hard to implement?

Resource-hungry?

[Arantor]

Not overly hard to implement... I seem to recall the bulk of it was a single day.

Resource hungry... it's more resource hungry the way I did it than karma is but I wanted to be able to differentiate between posts that have likes (that I also 'like') and posts that have likes (that I didn't 'like') but it's only another query per page and it's quite an efficient one from what I've seen, though it should also be cacheable with a bit more work. Perhaps I should cache it the way XenForo does (but that has issues of its own too if users change their name)

[kat]

You'd need something to show others what the karma was given for, though, too.

No idea quite what, though, other than a "Karma" topic, or portal block.

Could get messy, that.

[Arantor]

Well, karma as it stands doesn't track where it came from.

When I added likes, I put a little thing at the foot of a post to indicate how many likes there are, which is also a popup to see who likes it. The number of likes is also a different colour depending on whether the current user has liked it or not.

[kat]

Ah, right. I was thinking more along the lines of changing the karma to kinda do what tzora was after.

If the post got karma, it would raise the member's personal karma AND give the details of the post that got her the karma, somewhere.

[Arantor]

Nah, you essentially need to gut it to do it anyway because the data structures just don't exist to do that otherwise.

You *can* get a karma log mod, which sort of does it, but that doesn't fix the fact you'd need to display the posts along with the amount of karma given to those posts.

[kat]

I thought as much.

Shame.

[Arantor]

Which means you end up pretty much implementing likes anyway

[kat]

Yeah. I just thought it might be an easier way of doing it.

[tzora]

I like the idea of "likes per post" much more than karma... but I still don't really see the point of it.

the idea is to avoid "haters" .. i mentioned about 5 snakes in my community who were poisoning the boards. they were just doing the nasty stuff .. clicking dislike on ppl's karma and undermining the forum. anyone can click like/dislike on karma and nobody knows who clicked it up/down. there's literally no control/monitoring of user activity on karma.

whereas, "like" on posts can be liked/unliked by the user only. if 3 members liked this post, only they can unlike it, not anyone else. and also, the names appear below posts whoever liked it. increases the credibility and also reduces useless posts like ..

"thank you"
"much helped"
"good post"

etc, etc ... the like button can simply avoid all of the useless posts. AND the member who writes a useful post, gets rewarded. Appreciation/motivation .. really helps genuine participation.

thanks for everyone's input in this thread

[Kindred]

mow, see, the defeats the purpose of the like, if the original poster can change the setting.

As for useless posts like that..   forum rules can also avoid that sort of stuff...   we have a very active staff and have basically stopped that sort of junk post through enforcement of the rules rather than a feature.

In addition to avoiding useless posts, the original poster gets much more detailed and appreciative responses (or better thought out and worded criticisms). Because the users know that +1 or "i agree" (or "that sucks: for that matter) is not allowed, they are more likely to post a commentary -- and that contributed to the community much more than a like button would. .

[Arantor]

No, you misread it. Only the person who liked it can change that fact. Only the liker can unlike it.

Your community is reasonably specific in that respect, Kindred. It's working well for us on Wedge

[Kindred]

yeah... I know. I'm showing my age a bit.

Anyway, my comment was just that *I* can't see the real point... not that it was a bad idea. For many sites, I suppose it would be a good idea (maybe because they don't have quite as active a staff as we do on our site)

[kat]

I know of another mod, that's not on the mod site, if you're interested, tzora.

http://smfhelp.org/index.php?topic=63.msg470#msg470

Obviously, I can't vouch for it, as yet, coz I've not installed it nor used it. But, it might be just what you're after.

[Arantor]

I'd also note that it looks pretty good or did last time I saw it.

[tzora]

I know of another mod, that's not on the mod site, if you're interested, tzora.

http://smfhelp.org/index.php?topic=63.msg470#msg470

Obviously, I can't vouch for it, as yet, coz I've not installed it nor used it. But, it might be just what you're after.

looks awesome! thanks for recommending and linking to the mod. downloading it and will try soon
regards.

[kat]