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Likes for comments

I'd like the ability to "like" comments, in order to let someone know that I appreciate their comment without having to make a comment of my own. I envision this as behaving similarly to likes on posts, in that it would be invisible to everyone but the liker and the commenter. 


I could also see some sort of public-facing +1 or upvote system, which would have the added benefit of reducing the number of replies that are just "+1" or otherwise just expressions of agreement. However, I would not want this to become a full Reddit-style voting/ranking system.


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Lots of good responses here, and I think that overall I'm against likes on comments, (especially public-facing ones, which I suspect was never on the table to begin with considering how likes work on posts) but if anything like this is ever implemented, I just wanted to throw out an idea: What if only the OP or people you're replying to could like your comments?


There was a part of me that wanted likes on comments too, at first, but only because I missed being able to quietly acknowledge replies to my posts without having to think of a reply. That, to me, is the only real benefit of likes on comments. So if this was ever implemented, I think it would be best if you could only like comments directed at you specifically, both to avoid facilitating all kinds of unhealthy behavior and also to just avoid notification spam -- I don't really care if anyone likes my comments other than whoever I was talking to, and an inbox full of "random user liked your comment!" sounds annoying.


At the same time though, I also share the concern that adding an ability to like comments might make people feel like they're expected or obligated to like comments on their posts, or that adding likes might make commenters feel worse if their comment goes unacknowledged, so I can't help but wonder whether likes on comments in any form would introduce more problems than it solves. I guess I only ask that if this is ever implemented that it's implemented thoughtfully. Opt-in might be the way to go.


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i think reading other people's responses here may be changing my stance lol. i think if you did implement comment likes... the best middle-groundy way to do it would probably be to have them be the same as post likes, which i like a lot. no public facing counts or record of who likes the thing, just a private notif. but it definitely does still kind of add another venue for potential passive aggressiveness/anxiety/etc. and idk what the solution is for that. there's only so many ways you can mechanically work around something that is essentially kind of a cultural issue, haha.


anyway i think either way is fine. i'm finding that the lack of Likes just compels me to either just say something or respond with a silly emoji. also this is a v. interesting conversation you guys are smart brained

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I think training people to understand that their comments don't need validation from the op but can just Exist as additions is a good thing. I am against comment likes.

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I think you've put it into words well, SP - the button would just be a bandaid. And I think, too, that not only would it be a bandaid, it would make escaping the baggage more difficult? At least for me, it's easier to tell myself "I'm tired and it's okay if I don't write a comment (even a short one)" than it is to tell myself "I'm tired and it's okay if I don't press this one button."

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aura's "I think it gets into insecurity-inducing "politeness like" territory too quickly" is extremely relatable, but I feel like I'm kind of already experiencing it without the button being there? I ask myself if I should make a publicly visible "hey thanks" comment in lieu of a private <3 button? but maybe that's just baggage I've brought with me and the button would be a bandaid, without the button maybe it's possible to get over it entirely with time?

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Yeah, the more that I think about it, the more that I'd prefer comment likes not be implemented. I understand wanting to have an easy way to say "I read and appreciate your reply to me" but I feel like the idea that you *need* to indicate having read and appreciated a reply to begin with is a social antipattern, one that I'd rather see addressed with a cultural norm of "the OP doesn't owe you a reply" and "lack of reaction is not necessarily a lack of appreciation" than comment likes. If they *are* implemented, I strongly stand behind having them be implemented the same as post likes - invisible to everyone but the liker and commenter, with no number available to track how many likes a comment got.

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Notifications can very quickly become unreadable when Likes roll in on a post. I'd love to be able to just hide Likes outright, and save notifications for everything else - I'm way more interested in seeing comments and checking out new followers.


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The more I think about this, the more convinced I am that I don't actually want notifications for likes:

    1. The absence of likes helps encourage meaningful responses. I haven't really seen many "+1" comments. Sure, maybe there is less interaction because comments are higher-effort, but I'm not convinced that's a compelling reason to add likes, especially if doing so will discourage commenting.
    2. It's often nice not knowing whether someone liked my comments because it prevents opportunities for anxiety, e.g. "this comment got way less likes than my previous ones, what did I do wrong???" or "did this person see my comment already and hate it?". I'm not currently compelled to sit and wait for a notification to come in. I can comment and be content with the fact I'll never know whether it was read unless someone replies.
    3. I won't ever want a bunch of notifications if dozens/hundreds of people like one of my comments.

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    The concept of courtesy likes is exhausting and I don't like the way it will end up shaping social interactions on this site. I also think the current notifications page would be a poor fit for it. This reads to me like adding twitter features for the sake of pining for twitter features.


    I am especially strongly against any public-facing element of this as I've seen it used for hostile arguments or passive-aggressivity way too many times in the past. If I have to log in and see Like wars the next time there's an argument over the ToS I am going to want to immediately log back out. I would much, MUCH rather incentivize "low quality" +1 comments that can at least facilitate discussion than low-friction metrics-y things like this.


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    Personally, I personally much prefer the option of a courtesy like to having to manually reply to every comment or else ignore it completely, and I'd much rather other people be able to just give my comment a quick like than make them feel like they need to actually respond or else have no idea whether they even saw it and just keep waiting for a response. 


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    I'm a no on this, I think it gets into insecurity-inducing "politeness like" territory too quickly


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    I strongly agree with Shel and would prefer not to have comment likes.

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    i would like to forward my old idea of a circle you can fill in for comments, as distinct from a like. it has no defined meaning but the commenter knows you did it


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    I'm of two minds on it. A private like system that notifies the commenter both addresses my desire to let people know I saw their reply and appreciate it but don't have much to say and creates an impulse to do so which is not so good.

    As far as a visible number of likes on a reply... not really in favor I think. "Popularity" indicators lean back into the engagement-driven nature that leads to a lot of toxic behavior on other social media sites. I'm not sure it would lean that direction on cohost given the generally more anonymous nature of likes but it still feels... iffy


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    i do miss going "heh" via a like on a tweet, but i used to go without it on forums, and sometimes it does feel like twitter encourages people to fish for likes.  


    even if the likes were hidden on a comment, and only the commenter saw the like, well, i'm not really sure it captures the vibe i'm looking for. i don't really care too much that a random person reading the thread had a chuckle, i want to know if the person who i'm replying to is going "yep, sure" and nodding along


    similarly, i'm not sure  how i'd feel about emoji reactions—it feels like transplanting a chat feature—and i've seen how they look on github, it just encourages low effort spectator sport stuff


    one possible alternative that i haven't seen here: what if short replies took up much less screen space


    e.g i reply with an emoji, or "heh" or "sure" and instead of having a big old forum post, there's a one line reply, with a scaled down avatar, my name, the comment, and the time


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