Upgraded the Like system

Hello everybody!

Today I am pleased to bring to you a new add-on that will allow us to get more flexibility to our reputation system. It is called post ratings. Instead of simply 'liking' you will be able to select from a range of options. You can undo your ratings if you change your mind, but you can only choose one of the ratings per post.

I've carried over the ones we've used in La Caverna de Zelda, our sister community. You will find it in every post that isn't yours, right under the signature field.

You don't have to worry about accidentally affecting someone reputation, each icon will clearly indicate in the title if it will grant a (+1) or a (-1) of reputation. I also order them to have the Positive ratings to the left and the negative ones to the right.

To find them just hover your mouse to the right around the "reply" text, just under the signature part of the post .

Here is what they look right now:
Green: Positive reputation
Red: Negative reputation
White: Neutral. they have no impact.

POSITIVE REPUTATION
I want to be able to positively acknowledge people for doing something right and encourage them to keep on doing it.

• The thumb up is the usual "I like this".
• Thanks will make it easier to acknowledge people answering us or going the extra mile directly in the post.
• The handy tool is meant for posts you find useful.
• The bowing down one is to acknowledge those magnificent posts and their authors.

NEUTRAL REPUTATION
These allow you to express your opinion (positive or negative) without affecting the user. They are mostly reaction emoticons. Funny, sad, confusing, lame, etc.

NEGATIVE REPUTATION
Last resort. Be aware that the last three icons are thought for serious issues as they will affect the user standing and their post.

If a post gets a certain amount of negative ratings it will be soft-hidden. This means you will need to click an overlay to expand the message. This is useful to help staff to identify bots posts and other malicious activity.

• SPAM is for bots advertising stuff, posts completely unrelated or just plain spammy.
  
• Troll or inflammatory comments. Don't use it of friendly banter but if someone is being toxic and you recognise the troll, mark the post.
  
• Horrible spelling. This is not to go grammar nazi on people, this is reserved for those posts exceptionally poorly written that are impossible to understand.

This is something I wanted to bring for a while since I think it is a good way to minimise fluff posts while still have a way to let our opinions accross. Those shy to post can still leave their thoughts.

It is possible that I will tweak the ratings in the future to better suit our needs or to accommodate possible requests.

I believe it should be already covered by our second rule. :XD:

Quote from LinkSkywalker

That's a lot of choices.

Is that a good or a bad thing?

Quote from LinkSkywalker

It's a little overwhelming. I don't see myself using most of them.

Fair enough. I tried to give an array that allowed to cover different things but as I said, they are not set in stone.
I am also trying not to put duplicates. I already think I want to disable the Bad spelling one, since if a post readability is garbage enough to deserve it, then it basically qualifies as SPAM anyway.

Quote from 'zilla

That's a nice function. On mobile it takes up a bit of space though, it displays all choices since I can't hover. I'll attach a screenshot.

Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention.
I am definitely disabling at least one of the icons so even in mobile thy only take up one line.
From what I see in your screenshot ditching around 3 of the icons would work nicely.

With that out of the way:
I am all ears to hear what are the reactions or kind of options you would actually be interested in having, and which ones of the ones I selected worked.
I want to encourage positive rating for different actions and have a few reactions to joke around, but I am interested in having options you actually feel will benefit us, so I don't mind ditching a few of the less likely to be used.

I took off the disappear-unless-hovered thing. They will be there so we can see at a glance if we can or cannot rate a post.
Disabling dizzy as well. I think in mobile it can be very distracting. I need shorter names too.
Woo! Onwards to mobile optimisation.

Quote from 'zilla

I would probably not use the negative ones, rather just ignoring a post then giving it attention.

I don't really like to encourage negative ratings, but I find the soft hide a useful tool to give a little control on members to help if they find questionable content and staff is not around.
I want to leave the negative in just one icon that basically indicates you are choosing to take from that user reputation, instead of icons on why.
Going by the same logic, perhaps instead of the like, I should find a clear icon just to willingly add reputation for whatever reasoning.

Here is where I am a bit divided. I think having different options that will give reputation is a good way to increase the possibility of getting some good reputation rather than just a generic +1.
It also gives more of an insight on what they did to earn that reputation, so while I am all up to make the extremes a [+1] and [-1] sort of icons, I am torn regarding if thanks, useful, etc should stay the way they are.

[+1] [ty] [handy] (N E U T R A L) [-1]

Or just... [+1] (N E U T R A L) [-1]

Quote from 'zilla

Ah, I didn't notice the soft-hide, that's a good function. Does it require a confirmation, like a prompt box? Otherwise I'd be worried I might touch the icons by mistake.

Soft-hide triggers when a post receives a certain amount of negative ratings, so it only happens if many users decide it is a bad post.

Quote from 'zilla

I'm on a computer now and it makes more sense because I can hover and see the descriptions. I'm not sure about crazy, dumb and TL;DR. These might be used in a funny way, but the one who made the post might not always get it, and it can seem negative. Not sure how I'd feel getting these on my posts

That's a very good concern. The idea is to have a welcoming atmosphere after all.

I tried shortening the names of the icons because of the mobile display, so dumb I originally named it 'have a tomato'. I think naming it something else less mean spirited than dumb and we could leave the tomato.

The TealDeer I added it be because, just like with thanks, some members tend to just post that. But point taken. It is not nice to be in the receiving end.

The sarcastic clap one might just go altogether.

Quote from 'zilla

How about an angry one, though? (Of course, that makes it very similar to Facebook.) It has a negative element too, though, so I'm not sure.

Well reactions are most about the content than the poster so I am okay exchanging one of the icons mentioned before for an angry one for those outrageous news and stuf.

Quote from 'zilla

If the range of reactions was hidden until you click/hover the "box of different like options", that would make it even cleaner. But I know how those things can be a pain in the butt to customize!

The add-on by default has the icons hidden until you hover. I changed that to a constant 10 opacity because I thought it made it easier on members, but I can revert it back with a tick.

Quote from 'zilla

The confused reaction could be useful, but perhaps one that isn't an animation, like a question mark. I'd love to know when my posts are super confusing.

Sounds good. I'll try to find something more discreet.

Quote from 'zilla

And it is a bit of clutter. I could imagine a more compact way for listing reactions:
+7
where the number is the number of counted reactions and hovering gives the detailed number (again, Facebook did it, I'm brainwashed)

That's okay, it allows me to understand better what you mean. I think is doable, but that will most likely mean messing with the code more than just clicking options. Who knows. I haven't tried to change that so the option could be there and I overlooked or something. I will check.

Thank you so kuch zilla. I am teally appreaciating all the feedback.

Quote from CM30

Oh, you installed the post ratings plugin as well? Yeah, it's great, and it looks good here too.

Yeah, I've been itching to bring it here for a while. I used it before and I saw results.
I am still tweaking it as you can see, but I am happy we have it.

Okay, taking into account the feedback I made some tweaks, please check around and let me know what you think.
Namely took the TLDR, the bow and the crazy one.
Renamed dumb into tomato-ed (still not convinced if it should go or it should stay)
added the angry and replaced dizzy with confused.
I think I won't be trying to mess with the code. I will give the developer the feedback regarding the mobile, as it might be something that I think he could benefit from to keep his plugin up.

Anyway, please do let me know what you think.
Need to check how it looks on mobile too. I noticed that it will take two lines if a post has been rated but you haven't.

Quote from alakazam

It looks cool. For some reason, I've always thought that this was a default feature of XenForo. I didn't know it was a third-party plugin.

Yeah. Same thing happened to me. It is used in many forums I used to frequent so I thought it was an optional thing of the software, same with the moods.