Remove forum reactions.

[Girdio]

It's been only a few months, but it feels like the forum reactions have quickly snowballed into something negative. I'm guilty of it on occasion as well, but the (haha) and (confused) reactions have been simply used to foster negativity on the forums. 

I feel like this doesn't need much explanation, as you can go through most of the Complaints/Unban/Whitelist threads and see a trend of people reacting with (haha) and (confused) reactions to things that they're not involved with. It is funny sometimes, but I feel like it's more-so making a conversation negative without any positive impact.

If forums reactions could be selectively removed, or limited to certain boards that would be fantastic, but apparently it's not possible. So, until that point I feel like the worthwhile steps towards fostering a positive community is to simply remove the forum reactions.

By taking them away, nothing truly is lost. It can be chalked up as a failed experiment (which happens), and possibly brought back in the system can be changed. Conversations go back to the way they were before, which wasn't a bad thing to begin with.

[Garnascus]

Voting for removal. Interested to see what the community as a whole thinks. I kind of want to just remove them right now but first i have to figure out where the option is. What do you think @Alberyk

[Sheeplets]

I'd have to agree with this, the emojis only ever seem to get used to passive aggressively snipe at other people or more recently to just completely and utterly dogpile a certain, unnamed someone's post(s) straight to hell.

[canon35]

Nothing really lost with their removal IMO, at best they're something you glance over and at worst they're something some stupid metagroup spams on your posts for whatever reason.

[UponASeaOfStars]

19 minutes ago, Sheeplets said:

I'd have to agree with this, the emojis only ever seem to get used to passive aggressively snipe at other people or more recently to just completely and utterly dogpile a certain, unnamed someone's post(s) straight to hell.

At the very least, remove them from staff complaints / unban requests, I think. As funny as it is to have the entire staff team laughing at someone's appeal, it's... perhaps not the best look.

[ImmortalRedshirt]

+1 to this idea. In the other places I've seen reactions beyond a simple like added, they're often used as a way to make some kind of snarky remark without having the spine to actually say it in front of everyone else. I will not mourn its loss.

We have haha'd our last ha.

[Dreamix]

Can we just leave the like/love/positive reactions, and remove the snarky dumb other ones (haha, confused).

 

edit: I mean yeah. If I were to choose between "keep reaction" and "fuck em", then yeah, fuck reactions.

Edited February 7, 2023 by Dreamix

[Meep]

14 minutes ago, Dreamix said:

Can we just leave the like/love/positive reactions, and remove the snarky dumb other ones (haha, confused).

I agree with this tbh. Sometimes you wanna give a thread or post a nod of approval but don't really have enough to say to warrant a full post. This is where reactions come in handy.

[SilverSZ]

I disagree with keeping positive reactions, plainly because people will twist them to be used for negative connotations if they remain and more negative ones don't.

 

Forum reactions are funny, yes. But at the end of the day the community has proven they can't be trusted with them and we should remove them, it really is no loss and I've never seen them used in a way that simply posting "I agree" couldn't change. And in cases where you can't post it's on stuff you also shouldn't be reacting too if you aren't involved.

Forum Fiends, It's over.

[Scheveningen]

Forum reacts should be removed, period. Leaving only the "positive ones" will simply lead to later complaints down the line of forum post ratioing, which will summon the same discourse about forum toxicity.

I wouldn't hold the view that this was a failed experiment, we all knew how this was going to go. It's so over.

[Gem]

i want to see a removal of all reactions as well.

[Alberyk]

I don't think there is any benefit in keeping them as it is. Besides what people already said, it is kinda of spammy.

[Carver]

I suspected this would happen given the community's prior history with likes on the forum and, similarly, reactions on discord announcements/rulings.