Please welcome the new owners of Deskthority

[Go-Kart]

Likes should not be confused with up/down-votes Those are merely a crude substitute for not having moderators/doing their job. Those systems often degenerate into bullying of people with different opinions — which proper moderators should abstain from.
Even simple anonymous up-votes can be used for bullying, e.g. when people up-vote an abusive reply.
Reddit, where even threads are up/down-voted is not a "proper" discussion forum like this one: it is a social-media stream for news and quick posts. Deskthority has topics and posts that are more long-lived and cross-reference each-other, whereas Reddit threads automatically get locked after time period. Threads here contain deep information, and there are many links to threads and posts from the Wiki.

This.

[Bjerrk]

Likes should not be confused with up/down-votes Those are merely a crude substitute for not having moderators/doing their job [...]

This.

Wait, was that a kind of upvote-substitute?

[matt3o]

nodebb has upvotes/downvotes but you can disable downvotes and covert the upvote into a "LIKE". The people who liked a post are visible by clicking on an arrow near the like button.

that is what I was going to do... before the site was sold.

[Weezer]

So the new owner chose not to retain you as admin?

[matt3o]

So the new owner chose not to retain you as admin?

nobody knows

[Polecat]

If you're harvesting personal info and preferences or selling page views and mouse clicks then mindless engagement is more important than meaningful substance. That, plus the blatant selling of ad space, is the business model for the social media sites, but it would be sad to see it happen here. Just my opinion.

[Weezer]

nobody knows

Dang. Well I hope you get brought back on. I was always impressed with how well everything worked on the site; never any major bugs or outages or broken or partially functional features that I was aware of. I've been exposed to websites with a much larger budget that are worse off than Deskthority. Especially the mobile version- it's so easy to screw up a mobile site.

[wobbled]

nobody knows

Dang. Well I hope you get brought back on. I was always impressed with how well everything worked on the site; never any major bugs or outages or broken or partially functional features that I was aware of. I've been exposed to websites with a much larger budget that are worse off than Deskthority. Especially the mobile version- it's so easy to screw up a mobile site.

I second this

[darkcruix]

nobody knows

Dang. Well I hope you get brought back on. I was always impressed with how well everything worked on the site; never any major bugs or outages or broken or partially functional features that I was aware of. I've been exposed to websites with a much larger budget that are worse off than Deskthority. Especially the mobile version- it's so easy to screw up a mobile site.

Absolutely true - all is so polished, nice and easy to use. On all devices ...!!!...

[ifohancroft]

Welcome, Oliver!

Honestly, I am not sure how I feel about the idea of a blog. On one hand, it can be used for things like project logs, on the other, it may take away from the forum as some people may post such things there instead of here and if you are checking just the forum, you'd be missing out on such posts.

What's your idea for the blog? What type of content do you see it being used as? How would you make sure it doesn't take away from the forum?

[Muirium]

The way I’d do it is have a new subforum for the blog and duplicate its posts here. Then we can still chat DT style (Offtopicthority) and newcomers can still have a clean looking blog that won’t make them scream and run away. Forums aren’t for everyone. But they are for us!

[ddrfraser1]

Never been into blogs

[Muirium]

That’s the spirit!

[matt3o]

sorry, I don't drink

[webwit]

You can't score if you don't shoot. DT stuff ranks well in Google, keyboard enthusiasts search for stuff, and it could be a very accessible entry/introduction to DT, instead of having to dive deep into the forum at once to engage with us Cherry racists.

[Muirium]

Excuse me! I self identify as a Topre nationalist and an IBM imperialist. Get your slurs straight.

[Go-Kart]

You can't score if you don't shoot. DT stuff ranks well in Google, keyboard enthusiasts search for stuff, and it could be a very accessible entry/introduction to DT, instead of having to dive deep into the forum at once to engage with us Cherry racists.

A blog is something our web developer was constantly banging on about for years for SEO/online retail. Every single product either new or worth any kind of money had him add it to a blog. I don't think me, the boss or any of our regulars EVER looked at the blog but we were always top hit on Google for the products for which he had blogged. So, if that's the idea, yeh, it may be a side of DT that no regulars would ever visit but it could pull way more traffic if it at works the same as it did for the online retailer I used to work for.

[Muirium]

Think: gateway drug. Or: gateway, if you prefer to be “euphemistic.” (It’s a drug!)

[matt3o]

iphone
covfefe
bitcoin
gtx 3080

there, some free SEO

[hellothere]

I like the idea of a Like Button. Provided that people don't spam it, which is somewhat inevitable in the first few days/weeks, it's a really nice thing to have. You could also have an option for certain members to have the ability to "star" posts: posts that are really good, as selected by the folks that have been around forever. Or just give moderators have the ability.

It's been a while since I've had a phpBB-based forum, but I'm pretty sure you could also put up a "leader board" of posts or members that have the most likes.

============

FWIW, I don't downvote anything on Reddit. I only upvote. I am thinking about downvoting cross-posts because it's annoying to see the same video of the same cat video 15 gazillion times. But then I'd have to find the original post I upvoted ...

[ifohancroft]

The way I’d do it is have a new subforum for the blog and duplicate its posts here. Then we can still chat DT style (Offtopicthority) and newcomers can still have a clean looking blog that won’t make them scream and run away. Forums aren’t for everyone. But they are for us!

That's a brilliant solution actually!

[Bjerrk]

I don't see why we would want to bring a like-driven culture to deskthority. It usually doesn't bring any good.

[thefarside]

Welcome Oliver! I’m curious what you envision the site being like in one year and five years from now. I’m a new user and wanted to share that the wiki has been of tremendous value for me.

I don’t have a strong opinion on likes or voting buttons. I frequent Ars Technica and noticed the comment voting buttons can influence people’s opinion and sometimes the down votes offend the commenter, but it’s also nice to see what the highest rated comments are. I could take it or leave it.

[kbdfr]

I don't see why we would want to bring a like-driven culture to deskthority. It usually doesn't bring any good.

I agree.
And I find posting that I agree is thousand times more worth than simply hitting a "like" button,
which requires next to zero reflection about what one agrees to and does not state the degree to which ones agree.

As an exemple, I would like to take a post by Chyros where he introduces a new video (I’m not criticizing him here, mind you )
No doubt a few people would hit the "like" button.
But what do they like? Chyros himself? The fact that he opens a new thread? The video he links to? The keyboard he reviews? Or simply his voice? His recording technique? The structure of the video? One specific remark in the video? His overall appreciation, be it positive or negative, of the keyboard, or of the switches, or of the backlighting (or absence thereof)? Or anything else which we don’t know?

DT is a forum, not another asocial media outlet.

[Muirium]

Trouble is, Dear Choc, they don’t make ‘em like you no more.

I too remember when everything online, with more than one author, was more or less a forum. They were great. You’d wait patiently for those meteors to storm the planet a dozen times over in Netscape’s throbber, and viola! No one had answered your excellently crafted snark post yet. But you knew they would. Oh and how they’d try!

Ever less folk have that shared experience. Let alone the usernet stuff that was toast before my time. Or the dialup BBses, or that weird French version of Ceefax, or good old pen pals…

(Anti)Social media is pervasive now. People are trained to “engage” with those buttons. And you’re seeing them make their natural request here.

If you like that post so much, then tell them so by pen! we say, failing to see the point. Too busy chasing young ‘uns from our lawn.

[Palatino]

I don't see why we would want to bring a like-driven culture to deskthority. It usually doesn't bring any good.

I agree.
And I find posting that I agree is thousand times more worth than simply hitting a "like" button,
which requires next to zero reflection about what one agrees to and does not state the degree to which ones agree.

As an exemple, I would like to take a post by Chyros where he introduces a new video (I’m not criticizing him here, mind you )
No doubt a few people would hit the "like" button.
But what do they like? Chyros himself? The fact that he opens a new thread? The video he links to? The keyboard he reviews? Or simply his voice? His recording technique? The structure of the video? One specific remark in the video? His overall appreciation, be it positive or negative, of the keyboard, or of the switches, or of the backlighting (or absence thereof)? Or anything else which we don’t know?

DT is a forum, not another asocial media outlet.

I like his voice too much. It's like the voice of Saruman: it hypnotises you into agreement. I now have a room full of keyboards and no money because of that voice. But I'll still be watching his next review the day it comes out.

[Findecanor]

Trouble is, Dear Choc, they don’t make ‘em like you no more.
[...]
(Anti)Social media is pervasive now. People are trained to “engage” with those buttons. And you’re seeing them make their natural request here.

Yep. One aspect of the age/experience gap, is that younger/noobs don't understand why some things are what they are. They don't understand why likes are not useful everywhere, and in the form that they have used.

[kbdfr]

I don't see why we would want to bring a like-driven culture to deskthority. It usually doesn't bring any good.

I agree.
And I find posting that I agree is thousand times more worth than simply hitting a "like" button,
which requires next to zero reflection about what one agrees to and does not state the degree to which ones agree.

As an exemple, I would like to take a post by Chyros where he introduces a new video (I’m not criticizing him here, mind you )
No doubt a few people would hit the "like" button.
But what do they like? Chyros himself? The fact that he opens a new thread? The video he links to? The keyboard he reviews? Or simply his voice? His recording technique? The structure of the video? One specific remark in the video? His overall appreciation, be it positive or negative, of the keyboard, or of the switches, or of the backlighting (or absence thereof)? Or anything else which we don’t know?

DT is a forum, not another asocial media outlet.

I like his voice too much. It's like the voice of Saruman: it hypnotises you into agreement. I now have a room full of keyboards and no money because of that voice. But I'll still be watching his next review the day it comes out.

In a future DT with a "like" button, you could have given me a "like" just for mentioning his voice.
Which, of course, confirms my argument

[Muirium]

Thing is: if those ‘“likes”’ aren’t used to sort (or in any way even bold) the post in question, does it make a sound?

[Bjerrk]

Thing is: if those ‘“likes”’ aren’t used to sort (or in any way even bold) the post in question, does it make a sound?

I liked your post in the woods, but no-one heard it.