Can a system be devised for users who've appreciated a post to click on an "I enjoyed this" button?

October 27, 2003 7:28 PM

A lot of excellent, original posts, like this one from homunculus, get zero comments because users (I'm guessing) feel it's lame just to say "Thank you"; "Good post" or something equally trite, though sincere. My feeling is that outsiders, when they see 0 or 1 comment, erroneously judge that it reflects on the post and pass on. Which is a great pity.

Can't a simple system be devised whereby those users who've appreciated a post click on a "I enjoyed this" or "(this is good)" button, the result appearing much as the trackbacks do now?
posted by MiguelCardoso to Feature Requests at 7:28 PM (28 comments total)

it's never lame to say thanks--you thought his post was excellent and original but didn't say so in the thread?
posted by amberglow at 7:38 PM on October 27, 2003

*frantically attempts to html-ize 50 random bookmarks using cryptic title attributes and numeric link text into some sort of puzzle to impress others*
posted by quonsar at 7:40 PM on October 27, 2003

I always do, amberglow - if you look at my comments on MeFi, 99% are thanks and congratulations. But even I find it tiresome - for me and for readers - to keep saying "Great post - thanks!". A lot of people here, I think, are even more timorous. You know: putting it into words. There's a limit to what you can say: Wow, thanks, this is good.

Whereas a simple click might be easier on the semantic synapses. I really like the FilePile method, which plep introduced here with his "(this is good")comment. You get the number of positive and negative comments. I'd argue that the positives would be enough.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:46 PM on October 27, 2003

Oh it's just not presented correctly. You too can get 50 comments of frivolous chatter, watch and see!

I recently attended an exhibit by Andrej Jackowski after a lovely afternoon shopping at the local farmer's market for fresh truffles to go with my mid-afternoon snack at the gallery. As I was sipping a vintage merlot and savoring the flavor of my cigar, I must ask my fellow art lovers this: Who is your favorite artist? What wine do you choose to compliment your viewing experience? What is your favourite colour that the artist uses?
posted by Stan Chin at 7:49 PM on October 27, 2003

Stan: when I die, will you please be me?
posted by MiguelCardoso at 7:54 PM on October 27, 2003

I believe this has been discussed before. For my money, a simple [this are good] suffices, and does so in a classy manner.
posted by The God Complex at 7:56 PM on October 27, 2003

I already have my hands full with Carlos.

Oh, you makes these jokes too easy
posted by Stan Chin at 7:56 PM on October 27, 2003

It's pretty well accepted that the quality of a post often has an inverse relationship with the number of comments. I'm always chuffed when my posts attract less than a dozen. If the post is truly crap, it will (a) be filled with derisive comments (b) be dragged to metatalk (c) be deleted, probably in that order. If it's actually a good post, you know it's good because none of that happens.

You don't need everyone leaving a [this is good] and unnecessarily cranking up the comment count. Then good threads will start to look like crap ones, if you get my drift.
posted by Jimbob at 8:01 PM on October 27, 2003

Carlos gave up on MetaFilter in May or June. How would you like it if people kept doubting your every word and saying you were me? Hmm, you're not, are you? If you are, I apologize.
posted by MiguelCardoso at 8:02 PM on October 27, 2003

I forgot to mention elegant: it's very elegant.
posted by The God Complex at 8:04 PM on October 27, 2003

Miguel, I would take it as a compliment of the highest order, and immediately draw a warm bath, composed primarily of a milk/cognac blend and scented with nutmeg.
posted by The God Complex at 8:07 PM on October 27, 2003

Generally, I don't follow art links. Those sites are always trying to sell something.
posted by mischief at 8:15 PM on October 27, 2003

"(this is good)"
posted by msacheson at 9:09 PM on October 27, 2003

You like me! You really like me!
posted by homunculus at 9:19 PM on October 27, 2003

It was a good post. I wish I'd scanned MeFi before checking MeTa, because I hadn't seen it yet. Jackowski's definitely worth a second look.
posted by dhoyt at 11:25 PM on October 27, 2003

There hasn't been a good post on MeFi since the storms of '87.
posted by i_cola at 12:46 AM on October 28, 2003

i agree with stan , you make it far too easy migs.
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:50 AM on October 28, 2003

This is one pony I really would like. For me, reading Metafilter becomes a burdern sometimes, because I want to make a comment as a sign of support in every post I really like, and of course that's impossible, so I'm always feeling guilty.

And I agree that a tiny number of comments gives the appearance of an unpopular post. For myself, I rarely get more than five or six on my posts, and I often feel that the things that interest me are not necessarily what interests most others here. If I really knew that was true, I could save the effort and post them elsewhere.

As far as I'm concerned this one single addition to the site would make a world of difference.
posted by taz at 5:16 AM on October 28, 2003

I rarely get more than five or six on my posts, and I often feel that the things that interest me are not necessarily what interests most others here. If I really knew that was true, I could save the effort and post them elsewhere.

It's not true taz. I think there are always people interested in anything we post, whether other members or outside readers of the site. It's the mix of posts that make it good here. (I try to have confidence that even if i didn't get a lot of comments on a post i make, at least i thought it was worthwhile putting it out there for other people to see and read. And I have yet to see a post of yours i wasn't interested in, fwiw)
posted by amberglow at 5:28 AM on October 28, 2003

I look forward to the day when we stop judging the quality of a post by the number of comments it gets.
posted by crunchland at 5:37 AM on October 28, 2003

...but by the content of their links. I have a dream, when one day, all the little commented posts will sit at the same table with the popular posts, and they will eat corn on the cob and biscuits with gravy.
posted by Stan Chin at 6:14 AM on October 28, 2003

Stan: when I die, will you please be me? - MiguelCardoso

Hey...no fair! I thought I got to be the next you. Oh, well...Fine! I'm putting away my cigars, donating the cognac to charity, and see if I publish my next novel in Portuguese. So there! (I'm sure this is just another case of sexual discrimination. ;)

As to the topic at hand, I believe...but could be wrong (sorry, no time to research) that an idea similar to this was brought up and vetoed by Matt. I think it was to close to the Plastic/Slashdot model of modding. Again, I could be making that up...I just seem to remember a similar discussion.
posted by dejah420 at 6:44 AM on October 28, 2003

It's pretty well accepted that the quality of a post often has an inverse relationship with the number of comments.

I disagree. Rather, I think the quality of a post has no necessary correlation whatsoever to the number of comments it receives.
posted by rushmc at 9:16 AM on October 28, 2003

...but by the content of their links. I have a dream, when one day, all the little commented posts will sit at the same table with the popular posts, and they will eat corn on the cob and biscuits with gravy.


And some of the more attractive biscuits will lick canned cranberries from the small of the corn on the cob's back in a coke-induced frenzy of gravy-shots and champagne.
posted by The God Complex at 12:39 PM on October 28, 2003

mmm. gravy-shots.
posted by taz at 12:41 PM on October 28, 2003

I believe...but could be wrong (sorry, no time to research) that an idea similar to this was brought up and vetoed by Matt.

No, actually, Matt said back in January that, having seen this idea implemented over at Metafilter: Remixed, he thought it was "a great idea to crib," had already added it to ticketstubs, and was going to copy the code over to MeFi.

Me, I'm just patiently waiting for my pony.
posted by webmutant at 12:42 PM on October 28, 2003

You may be right rushmc. Statistical analysis, regressing Jimbob's Index of Post Quality (JIPQ) with comment count for the last 2 days has a negative correlation, but with an insignificant R² value of only 0.42. And there are certainly some unfortunate outliers that skew the values. Maybe a [this is good] button would be nice, but only if people were limited to pressing it once a day.
posted by Jimbob at 1:29 PM on October 28, 2003

[this is meta]
posted by namespan at 9:34 PM on October 31, 2003