Do we need a "Like" button on the Forum?

LIKE!

Good idea.
Although a "agree/disagree" would be better.


cheers

Yes...it also gives the opportunity to highlight somewhere the usefulness of a post.

I like like buttons. A quote button and edit button are good to.

YOU HAVE A FACEBOOK PAGE!!!!!!!!

Hi John

Hard one John - generally a good idea but would it reduce replies.

Either way I think we need a serious public discussion on what would enhance the site to prevent it drifting.

Previous week I put up a post about saftey on the roadside and it received negative comment off line but then had the most hits of any post in the last month and without any raised temperatures.

I thought it was an almost perfect post - a like unlike poll could have been quite revealing !

Are we trying to be that 'politically correct' that we want to please everybody, remember, one man's meat is another man's poison!
Facebook is a blight on society, personally, I think an EDIT button would be much more useful.

I don't think so!!

The whole idea of a forum is ideas...... or facts! if someone disagrees then explain why if you feel the need and open up the topic for further discussion.

Edit would be better.

There was a boating forum that had a thanks icon for a usefull post so after a few months some had hundreds of thank's and some had given hundreds of thanks.

And some had none!! for no apparent reason other than being popular by that forum comunity or felt they need not give a thanks because they felt superior and needed no help.

I think that segragated the forum and is no longer being used.

Cheers.

I see the 'Like' button used so often by lazy people who want to be seen to be involved in a discussion without taking the time to actually type a response. It adds nothing new to the discussion other than pissing in the pocket of the person they are trying to impress. Forums are here to pass on information or get varied opinions on a subject not to gauge how popular one is.
If I was to have hit the 'Unlike' button on this thread that would have just left you wondering WHY???
I suppose if you must agree without committing to a comment then you could always type in the letters L.I.K.E as your response (or would that look stupid ?) ;-)
Cheers Craig.................

I'm not in favour. It will become just another stat that no one even sees. In the end
does it matter how many agree or not with a post. I would much rather read a + or -
comment, hopefully with logical reason included. Any similarity with Facebook is to
be avoided..IMHO..enough damage being done to the esteem of our youth already
by social media. I could be wrong..I was once..:))))).....oldbaz.

Hi John,

We are another NO on this idea :-)

The forum succeeds, we think, because its about ideas and facts and most importantly about DISCUSSION. We cant see how a lazy option to click a button adds anything of value to that.

As others have said it could also polarise things if it turned into a personal popularity poll and encouraged personal banter and in-jokes that only a few people understand. Thats for FB, not this forum!

From our limited experience of Facebook its rather "content free" (with a few exceptions of course) and we'd hate to see this site go down that route. FB is there for those that want to use Like buttons, but not every site needs them.

In a way the counter could be regarded as a "like" button in that it probably reflects the level of interest in a post.

We take the point that we can ask the mods for an edit, but its so easy, for example, to put something up thats poorly expressed, or has a "not" left out so the whole meaning is changed. An edit button would allow these sorts of posts to be easily corrected without burdening the mods.

Cheers,

Val

I would disagree with it for a number of reasons:
1. Is the forum, which is a primary information resource for many people, at popularity contest? I find the information contained within the follow-ups and replies at least as (and sometimes more) important than the original post. The “like” button can remove some of the minutiae or depth of explanation that helps me form my opinion
2. Somebody posts that (say) the Lada Niva is the best built 4WD ever and then logs in repeatedly and “likes” it 500 times (are there 500 Nivas left?)
3. Somebody posts a something which is illegal, immoral, illogical or even physically incapable of being done, which a number of people may agree with on a cursory glance; a casual reader may believe that the number of “likes” reflects the actual validity of the statement.
4. There is already a “like/dislike” button; it is called the follow up button. It takes one two clicks and 5 keystokes to post “agree” versus one click on the “like” button. The time wasted is going to prevent you curing cancer?
5. The strength of this forum as an information resource lies in the interaction between the members and the commitment they bring to it. Anything that decreases the interaction and commitment of the members is to the detriment of the forum’s community.
6. I know the forum is essentially anonymous, but after a while, I have formed an opinion of the knowledge, expertise, experience and commonsense of some screen names and will pay great attention to what they write. There are some screen names that I would look out a window if they told me it was night. A box that says 20 people like this does not tell me who agrees or disagrees with the original statement without further delving.

No, its not facebook!

Hi all,
Interesting to see your discussion. We spent some time considering this some time ago actually.

Michelle

Good Idea.
Take care,safe travels.
Bye for now Ma.

No need for a "like" function... Agree with a previous poster ... Facebook is a blight on society. Agree with another poster that an edit function would be great to make typo changes and to be able to make changes when after posting it just "dosen't read right"..

So you dont mean like the way the yoursters talk on facetube & twiterbook
LIKE unow.....

hahahaha thats kinda funny, some time ago some poster talked about "facebook" and got shot down in flames, in short all that replied were dead set against facebook and simply could not see why anybody in there right mind woulduse it, it is for kids rubbish and bla bla, and how times have changed, we now actually HAVE a "like" button up the top, yep you can like Exoz to your FB page ...............
But my answer to the question is NOOOOOO
NO
NO
NO
it is NOT face book and never will be, we cant pick and choose our "freinds" and never will be able to, we have to put up with comments we dont like and cant delete them no matter how hard we try and i hope it stays that way, personally i dont like the new additions of "reiviews" and "comments" as it basically has nothing to do with the context of the forum and the posting rules do state that it has to be relevent to exploring oz, a delivery time being good is not and it clutters up the forum, go try to find something now, it has heaps more posts and if you actually posted about a deliver time of a book the mods would delete you, that is why we have facebook, for all the likes and rambles and banter that is meaningless but that is facebook, i use facebook a LOT, check it every about four hours, i keep in contact with family and freinds with it, it has replaced e-mails, we use it for the roadhouse and it is awsome and really has a lot of social power................
To me a LOT of Exoz users are just starting to find out how good it actually can be but are still not gunna tell us, lets face it you probally will find it is the ONLY way you will find where and what you kids are up to these days .... but nup it wont work having a "like" button, just wont ok
Cheers
Joe... Check us out on facebook hahahah

Interesting thread, I was wondering if the people on here who want a 'like' button are the ones who have embraced FB, the others may not be interested in using the social network site. The like button on Facebook has a purpose which, in my opinion, wouldn't work on a forum such as this. I would like to see an edit button on here, it would be so handy just to change spelling mistakes etc.
I find FB to be handy to keep in touch with family and friends in other States and countries which I would never be able to do at such an extent as I'm able to now, it is only as bad as the information you put on it, or how you use it yourself. Just my opinion.
Cheers
D

Maybe David could set up a poll for Members to vote on it or any other ideas.

That way Members could feel that they are contributing to the development of the forum.

Might encourage Non-Members to join if they feel strongly about a subject.

Cheers

Hi All,

A good discussion and one of the strengths if this site in that the owners are happy to listen to feedback, make changes based on that and more importantly, explain their rationale for doing so. Gives some sense of ownership and community which is great. At the outset, I thought that this was a good idea, but having read the responses tend to agree with those who say no. Good example of why having people write their responses (vice simply clicking a like/unlike button) is the way to go.

One of the issues is allowing the original poster some mechanism to thank contributors to the thread, provide some kind of response to what the final course of action was, etc. some posters take the time to respond to each response in the thread and good on them. Too many people throw a question/call for help up and never bother responding again. Arguably a like button would provide some rapid way to allow the OP to do this, but still give limited information on the outcome. Many OPs will also post a response telling everyone what their outcome was, but it gets buried way down the thread, or somewhere in the middle if further responses are posted.

At the moment, there is no facility for a follow up to the original post. Understand why, but what I would like to see is the ability for the OP only to post a follow up under their original post. Not mandatory of course, but this would allow the original poster to come back at some point and give feedback on how useful the information was, thanks the contributors, and maybe provide some summary of what the outcome was in the case of calls for help on a particular issue.

Often I will read a thread with interest to see what the resolution of an issue was, but again can be hard to find if the OP has even bothered to do so. This way, that information would be contained in the original post. Kind of like providing an introduction and conclusion all in one. Not applicable to all threads of course, but really useful I think for a question that we might all have some interest in. Perhaps also a useful way of the OP saying, "thanks all, I have the information I need now".

Cheers,