Does anyone else think having emojis as a response to a comment/thread would be a neat addition instead of only upvote/downvote?

Reddit seemed to sorta do that with awards but thats not quite what I’m suggesting.

Something similar to GitHub for instance, except we keep the upvote downvote system as-is.

This would hopefully discourage the use of upvote/downvote as a “I like/dislike this” button while also adding the ability to more accurately express the emotion the post/comment illicited

Additionally, there are a lot of people who are mostly just lurkers and have no desire to post, but they want to be able to emote further then just a upvote/downvote but DON’T want to actually post a comment like “I love this” or “You’re so right” or even just commenting an emoji, because making a comment is a whole extra action that makes them visible, opens up to comments or upvotes/downvotes.

  • @[email protected]
    13•9 months ago

    If you want the fediverse to grow, it needs content. Emoji responses are some of the lowest effort engagement you can have. That’s just asking for a race to the bottom.

    Encourage more substantial responses, not less.

    • @JakeroxsOP
      5•9 months ago

      I mean, is it really any different then upvote and downvote? Why even have that functionality if we should be focusing on requiring everyone to write a reply? :p see how that logic doesn’t really make sense?

      • qprimedEnglish
        5•9 months ago

        well… I think many people use up/down voting as a continued engagement driver (visibility and whatnot). would you also propose filters/sorting for emoji reaction (most hearted, etc)? my biases tend toward simplicity and reactions outside of actual replies “just don’t do it for me”.

        • @JakeroxsOP
          4•9 months ago

          Fair enough, I think it would give the option to more accurately express a reaction over just “I like/don’t like this” which I know isn’t really what the upvote/downvote system is supposed to be used as but uh… It is what ends up happing lol

          • radix
            5•9 months ago

            I didn’t see the point of what you were saying until you mentioned it would be a way to express disagreement without calling the post itself bad and/or limiting its reach.

            (I notice that’s what’s happening in this post: people don’t like the idea, so they downvote, which I think is uncalled for because it means we can’t distinguish low-effort spam and trolling from valid but unpopular ideas like yours.)

              • qprimedEnglish
                3•9 months ago

                it means we can’t distinguish low-effort spam and trolling from valid but unpopular ideas like yours.

                Bingo

                valid.

                edit to say that anything to get up/down votes back to meaning “this is relevant / interesting, (even if I don’t agree or like)” would be useful.