Like Bill I am also a member of another plant growing forum which has a like button. I have never seen the button being used in any negative way and would seriously doubt that the members of this forum, being extremely polite individuals on the whole, would use it as a weapon against moderators or anybody else. On the other forum typically a post/photo might get a handful of likes, never anything approaching 50. There is also a feature in the personal profile area which tells you when you have "won" the day by having the most liked post. The last time I won was with a post gaining 2 likes. To put it into perspective I would say that forum is also far more active than this one and has, if I might say, a younger demographic who might be more inclined to hot-headedness than us older folk. That isn't to say there aren't any disagreements because there definitely are on occasion, it's just that nobody uses the Like button in such cases, I'd guess that would be far too subtle. Besides, aren't personal criticisms the sort of thing the moderator is supposed moderate.Bill wrote:Well I have to say I belong to 2 forums with thanks for the post buttons and 1 with a post rating button and and only one has a clique and that has nothing to do with the thanks/rating. All three are very active forums and have plenty of new posters and very little moderation issues apart from posts in the wrong place.
I think Keith and Ragamala have summed it up nicely and the Like button is a quick and easy way to give approval to a post/photo without any unnecessary verbal clutter. I'm all for it.