Display the number of "likes" in a thread

[LookinAround]

As I was skimming through the list of topics in the forums, I just had a thought.

If the number of "likes" in a thread was displayed somewhere in visual proximity to the number of replies, it could helpful and interesting info in deciding which threads to read for a) a technical solution or b) simply more interesting reading to see what everyone liked about a thread

 

[Jay Pfoutz]

I could see this as a possibly helpful idea, but we're still trying to figure out the best approaches for topic handling that would help a user gain the help they needed, say from a web search.

 

[DelJo63]

SURE hope this doesn't become 'facebook-like', aka social in nature. How about a confidence +/- button?

 

[cliffordcooley]

If a number is to be advertised, it is my opinion, thread related likes only should be counted. Showing the number of likes would be interesting, for those of us interested in who likes what. However a large number of likes may not be relevant to the thread topic and create deception as to which topics have more related likes.

There is another site of which I visit that has implemented a way for only the OP to flag helpful advice. For instance if I created a thread asking a question and someone gives an answer, I could mark that comment (and any other) as helpful. Afterward there would be a star showing next to my thread within the thread listings. This is basically the same as marking a thread as solved. However counting comments that were flagged as helpful, could be useful.

 

[Julio Franco]

I personally believe the like count is more relevant on a per-post basis, at least the way it works right now on the boards, but your suggestion has been noted. I also believe there's a minority of users taking advantage of the like system. To further advance it I'm considering two possibilities:

1) Adding 'likes' to the news comments (on the main site template)

2) Adding a -1 option that'd be available only to verified users and mods, so we could down-vote certain content that deserves it but is not quite as bad that has to be deleted outright