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Topic: more 'Likes' settings (Read 1114 times) previous topic - next topic
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more 'Likes' settings

Features such as likes and even reputation/karma points can be positive additions to a forum and I'm glad this is included by default in ElkArte. That said, they are not always desired and beneficial, especially for in-depth discussions, where reputation/like points can be a distraction... Each forum should be tweaked to specific needs and it's good to have choices.

So, I suggest adding a few more settings to control the display of likes:
1. Anonymize likes in posts - this would make it so that you can't see who liked a post, you'd only see the likes count.
2. Hide like stats from users - this would remove the 'likes given' and 'likes received' counters in user profiles, links to liked posts and the overall like stats from the Community drop-down (this last one can also be hidden with permissions currently, but it's not very obvious IMO).
3. Remove like counts from thread listings (below the replies and views count)

I've seen forums with various levels of likes discreetness (phpBB or VB with some mods/plugins) and I think they do their job well.

I'm sure at least some, if not all, of this functionality can be achieved with some css/html mods in ElkArte and if someone wishes to post them I don't mind. But I would still prefer to have these as official settings, for ease of use and for better compatibility between themes and versions.


Addendum about the visual implementation of likes in post: I, like probably many others nowadays, am quite used to the way XenForo shows likes. I don't know if it's better than the current ElkArte implementation (there are pros and cons), but I think it would make sense to have something like that as an alternative display option... it might win over some users. For reference I attached a screenshot from one forum.

Re: more 'Likes' settings

Reply #1 –

Quote from: Unuser – 1. Anonymize likes in posts - this would make it so that you can't see who liked a post, you'd only see the likes count.
I can see how that may be a useful option, would like to get some other input as well.
Quote from: Unuser – 2. Hide like stats from users - this would remove the 'likes given' and 'likes received' counters in user profiles, links to liked posts and the overall like stats from the Community drop-down (this last one can also be hidden with permissions currently, but it's not very obvious IMO).
As noted the stats area is a permissions item.  Seems it would be possible to add a disable feature to the likes settings section to make it easier.  Not sure about hidding the counts and links everywhere else as well, seems like it would just be easier to not use likes and stick with positive only karma.
Quote from: Unuser – 3. Remove like counts from thread listings (below the replies and views count)
I was considering dropping that as well as its not very useful.  I think it shows the likes of the first post which are considered the topic likes but that is not how it really gets used (for the most part)
Quote from: Unuser – Addendum about the visual implementation of likes in post: I, like probably many others nowadays, am quite used to the way XenForo shows likes. I don't know if it's better than the current ElkArte implementation (there are pros and cons), but I think it would make sense to have something like that as an alternative display option... it might win over some users. For reference I attached a screenshot from one forum.
This was something I was considering for the 2.0 theme update.  Today the likes are shown on the hover for a cleaner look, but seems like having them exposed is the current normal.

Re: more 'Likes' settings

Reply #2 –

My personal priority for those features is 3>2>1.
That is, if I were to set up a typical forum now, I'd disable the likes counts in the topic list, because they're... visually a bit of a distraction and, yeah, not that useful.
I'd probably disable like stats in user and public areas, because that's similar to karma/reputation points and I generally don't like those at all.
I would probably not enable anonymous post likes, although I can imagine forums where that can be a good thing (discussions with controversial themes and so on).