Everyone loves Facebook and Twitter (except those who’ve been banned for heresy!) and the Like button is credited as making those apps addictive (who doesn’t want to be liked?). Is it time to add a Like button for posts and comments on this blog? I’m pretty sure that there are WordPress plugins that will do it (a list of 10 from 2020).
One concern that I have is making sure that a rainbow reaction emoji is available, taking inspiration from Facebook:
(On Facebook, the rainbow reaction is available only during Pride Month, but I would want to offer it to readers all year.)
A comment as the only method of feedback doesn’t seem adequate in this day and age. A 1958 UNIVAC airline reservation system was clicked on by nearly 6,000 people in the past five months (plus viewed by an additional few thousand who saw it when new as part of the home page), so presumably folks liked it, but only 7 people reacted to it with a comment.
Related:
NO! In my most strenuous terms, and with every Fiber of my Being, I implore you – I BEG you: NO!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWwOJlOI1nU
No EDIT buttons, no DELETE buttons, no LIKE buttons. This blog is one of the few left in the Elsewhere that *consequences happen.* You hit “Post Comment” and unless they are extraordinary circumstances, that’s it.
Please do not pollute this purity by gamifying it like everything else around us.
On April 1st “like buttons” and blue “fact check” boxes would be great!
I would love to see the Facebook fact check team weigh in on each post! “Missing context”
@Anonymous: Good point. It would be fun on April 1 – but that’s it! [BANGS! ON DESK] [STOMPS FEET] [WAVES ARMS]
Next thing you know – we start seeing Google ads on this blog! Or may be philg branded razors!
I guess you are being sarcastic. But why exactly do those widgets get littered everywhere? Is it just the marketing people who need something to put on their monthly reports? (“Added reddit widget to blog updates. Increased engagement xz percent.”) I’m pretty sure that’s why sites have so many overlapping trackers working behind the scenes.
They aren’t for helping users distinguish quality content, however. You need a “dislike” for that.
@onetwothree said: “But why exactly do those widgets get littered everywhere?”
They are deeply, deeply manipulative. Monkeys with wires mounted in holes drilled into their craniums know the deal.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0306422018800245
OT: I got my second Pfizer Covid-19 no-cost booster shot today at CVS. Made an on-line appointment from my work desktop at 1:00pm for two hours later at 3:00pm. Left work early and was in and out of CVS w/i 5 minites.
If the first three shots don’t provide protection going for a fourth doesn’t seem like a good idea.
The tinfoil crowd said the shots would never end before the boosters were ever mentioned, if you keep taking boosters you keep proving conspiracy nutters right.
DP: Congrats on the fourth shot. Your risk of death is now so low that you are effectively immortal and, therefore, must be a god!
@DP, w/i 5 minutes? No waiting for 15 minutes for side effect monitoring? Whatever happened to the safety measures put in place! Or is COVIDFear booster-shots are so safe now, we can have a shot every month.
Btw, as you many know, if you are over 50, you can now get your 4th shoot. I am plan to have my 4th (I still haven’t gotten my 3rd yet) on the 4th of July.
I should wait until tomorrow, April 1, to give my response.
The lion kingdom always gets disliked into the stone ages. We really need paytreon & adsense for comments so we can buy $4 million fixer uppers like rich gootubers.
I’m all for it.
You should take it a step further. Comments that hit a certain threshold of Likes, the commenter will get a 3″ pin button from Greenspun of Mindy the Crippler chewing off a Like icon.
I don’t think just *one* Like button would be enough to express the strong feelings the posts here sometimes incite. Indeed, a full rainbow of button options would be best. Something like those pics of different facial expressions we show the emotionally challenged so that they may communicate how they feel.
I would also enjoy a “By the power invested in me by the First Amendment I dully fact-check this post (or comment)” button. And the opposite: “I declare this post (or comment) fake-news, and may Facebook have mercy of your soul.”
As with Alex, please not!
This blog should also filter out wrongthink in the comments like Amazon:
https://theintercept.com/2022/04/04/amazon-union-living-wage-restrooms-chat-app/
New Amazon Worker Chat App Would Ban Words Like “Union,” “Restrooms,” “Pay Raise,” and “Plantation”
And reward virtuous posts:
The major goal of the program, Amazon’s head of worldwide consumer business, Dave Clark, said, was to reduce employee attrition by fostering happiness among workers — and also productivity. Shout-Outs would be part of a gamified rewards system in which employees are awarded virtual stars and badges for activities that “add direct business value,” documents state. At the meeting, Clark remarked that “some people are insane star collectors.”