Please get rid of the 20 character minimum, and (later) do we like likes? and (later) "emojis, what are they good for?"

[RossM]

Some of the sandwiches are amazing.

(As are all you posts @Sagantine, likes or no likes.)

[michaelg]

I used to like likes until I learned that they were being used by pernicious unscrupulous AI programmers as convenient binary quantifiable summaries of individuals’ thought processes to be used in crude algorithms designed to deliver manipulative messages. Then I didn’t like them at all.

I still like them if they’re simply no more than convenient quick signifiers like a nod or eye contact in an actual face-to-face conversation. But not otherwise.

So I guess the key question is: @RogerBW, what sort of contract do you have with Cambridge Analytica regarding this place?

[pillbox]

(Just so you know, I resisted the urge to abuse my awesome mod powers to redact your message in the name of comedy)

[RogerBW]

@michaelg

So I guess the key question is: @RogerBW, what sort of contract do you have with Cambridge Analytica regarding this place?

Well, bear in mind that as far as you’re concerned I’m just some guy on the Internet so everything I say may be lies.

But a lot of the time I feel like the guy with crazy hair and twigs in his beard saying “X [common everyday thing] is evil, it’s spying on you”. Except I keep being proved to be right.

I don’t have a Twitter or a Facebook account. I have a Google one, but only because I needed it for using Hangouts before Jitsi came along; I don’t use it for anything else. I don’t comment on the main SU&SD site because of the privacy implications of Disqus and Discord. I was using PGP when it was still illegal to export it from the USA. I was at ECFP '93 when the man from the Home Office said that the Data Protection Act was the worst-drafted piece of legislation he had ever seen.

So yeah. That’s not to say that if I got offered eleventy billion quid I wouldn’t sell you all out, but I like to think I wouldn’t.

[RossM]

Hi five to the only other person I know who uses jitsi!

[RogerBW]

I’d heard of Zoom before two months ago, and none of it was good.

[pillbox]

@RossM

jitsi

I’m prohibited from joining a Zoom meeting using my company-provided laptop; even if we’re working with a customer and the customer wants us to join their Zoom-hosted meeting.

[malkav11]

I installed Zoom just long enough to take a call from our IT department to get my remote desktop back up and running again and then purged it with fire.

[Benkyo]

I like the “hearts” we use here as a more encompassing response than a “like” that you can use without qualms even when someone posts a stressed post in the parenting thread, for example.

I am definitely opposed to the idea of expanding the icon list to include more possible responses. Hearts only, thanks. If there’s anything more you want to say, do it with text.

[Chewy77]

Yes to all of the above

[Chewy77]

Jokes aside, I like a bit of boundaries, so I am easy. These forums are amazing, a minor change like the 20 characters will not bother me enough to stop lurking and posting now and then.

The likes, I like. In a platform like the online forums, they fulfill a non-verbal function like emojis. If people are really craving them… well, post more stuff people will like! Just kidding.

[lalunaverde]

I have no strong preference one way or the other.

[GeeBizzle]

I like likes.

Do likes like me? I like to think so.

[COMaestro]

Likely

[Agemegos]

I don’t like likes and the like because I disliked the way they performed and the effect [I thought] they had on the community on the HERO Games forums. Likes, the calculation and display of ranks based on the total of likes, and the formation of cliques of like-minded reciprocal-likers led to the erection of a hierarchy of regard that deterred newcomers and repulsed (a) infrequent posters and (b) people who actually discussed games rather than indulging in karma-whoring banter, the regurgitation of catchphrases, and baiting politico-cultural out-groups.

But when I joined here the instructions urged me to use “likes” because (they said) they are an important part of the way the software is meant to function. So I use them — I am no truculent nihilist. Just two things:

1. I would object, and perhaps even depart, if “likes received”, “replies posted”, “date joined”, or any sort of rank calculated from them were displayed with posters names. I hate class systems. I felt a nasty pang about the “moderator” badge, but I reluctantly accept that it is a necessary evil.

2. I am troubled by the fact that when I look at the list of my top replies none of the six best-liked posts I have posted is about games or the podcast. Whatever the “like” system is functioning to promote, discussion of the forum topic doesn’t seem to be it. (But then, I enjoy the by-chat. I have missed it since it either got banned or became viperous on the other forums that I used to frequent. I want it to continue, but probably not to be used for whatever purpose Discourse needs to have “likes”.)

You watch. This reply is going to get more “likes” than any other I have posted.

[pillbox]

To summarize my thoughts about the actual thread:

I think we should lower the limit to 5.

If spammy, low-value comments become problematic:

Reassess the setting

.

[Chewy77]

But… count the characters in “me too”

6 at least… :

[Benkyo]

I would like a “yes” or “no” to be a valid response, or even a “1” for some games.

[bruitist]

1