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Like button in post fields

Posted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 11:50 am
by SSSdave
A forum thread feature I believe has value that I've used on a few other forums is a Like button icon for approving what others have posted. It is a feature that was not around during early Internet forum software but is more common today in this era where many no longer visit forums and instead are content with social media sites. Such an icon is usually positioned next to Edit, Quote, Reply buttons. Although one can always post a comment post about another member's input, doing so takes effort, time, and usually must rise to a strong enough level to bother doing. A Like button makes showing approval for what a member inputs fast and painless thus members are far more likely to just bonk the button than starting a reply post. In some cases a person that actuates a Like for a post is merely communicating "Thankyou for posting this" and Original Posters aka OP's and moderators will sometimes actuate a Like simply to encourage input to a discussion. If someone wishes to disapprove of whatever they can still do so in a reply post. When members view a list of posts on a thread, viewing a post with numbers of Likes allows them to better understand how others are feeling about whatever is posted.

The following has several examples of the function on a skiing forum I use. The thread was a fun trivial subject.

https://forum.pugski.com/threads/poll-s ... mets.6138/

David

Re: Like button in post fields

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 11:03 am
by copeg
We've discussed this idea in the past and if I remember correctly any implementation of this feature would require a forum software upgrade. As it is currently, an upgrade would require a bit of up-front work to verify it works with the current layout and the upgrade doesn't break anything (eg requires time that is hard to come by these days). It would also in all likelihood cause some forum downtime, so it's something we'd want to do in the off season. At some point in time we will probably have to face an upgrade, and at that time will revisit this idea

Re: Like button in post fields

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:43 pm
by Tom_H
Sure wish I could click LIKE for the Original post in this thread! ;)

But I surely do understand how expensive software modifications can be to upgrade site alterations. IIRC, Eric said there would be a maintenance time in the near future to block all this Russian spam that's getting dumped here lately. Would it be possible to insert the like button at the same time that happens? While I would like the like button (I know, sounds a bit weird-ha), I would like getting these spammers blocked even more, however. That is priority one in my mind. They are a real nuisance.

Re: Like button in post fields

Posted: Tue Oct 03, 2017 4:10 pm
by ERIC
Greg's correct, and Tom_H's memory is also correct. I've been waiting for November-January (our slowest months) to test out an upgrade. If the test area upgrade works then there would still need to be a live site shutdown for at least a few days to recreate the process. The new forum software does have the like button feature like the examples Dave mentions. There's also an integration plugin I want to test out that supposedly makes template cloning between WordPress (front end) and phpBB (forums) much easier. That was the biggest issue we had to tackle the last time we upgraded.