It's also worth noting that RPoL (or rather the site's owner and it's Moderators) have always very clearly stated that a system for rating, upvoting, liking, or generally expressing approval (or disapproval) of other users will never be added as an official part of this site.  If you want to tell somebody you liked what they posted, then actually tell them that, and maybe even take a few seconds to tell them why you liked it.

Here, for example:

          /help/?t=faqs&page=frf

If you want to tell somebody you liked what they posted, then actually tell them that, and maybe even take a few seconds to tell them why you liked it.

In reply to steelsmiter (msg # 9):

Yeah, I actually do see PMing about this as a waste of time. Check it:
You're playing at the tabletop. Somebody says something that's cute or makes a cool reference. You give them a fist bump or a thumbs up or say 'Nice!'. If you're playing Savage Worlds, you toss them one of your Bennies.
You don't have to spend a paragraph establishing context, because you're right there, in-line, and everybody knows what you're talking about. You don't have to waste time explaining exactly what it was about the reference that you liked, because everybody was there and everybody saw it.
You just acknowledge a well-played moment. It takes literally two seconds, and then it's over and you can move on.

If someone changes my life with their mastery of English prose, I'm absolutely going to take the time to write out a post expressing my gratitude. But if somebody makes a subtle reference to Bleach, it's not worth making a big deal over. It made me smile--that's it. I appreciated their joke.

It's not a reflection on who they are as a person or even a user, so it shouldn't have anything to do with their user profile, IMHO. There's no need for a thumbs-down button--if I care enough about something somebody said that I'm going to take issue with it, you can bet I'll be posting about it.
But yeah, it'd be nice to be able to applaud a well-phrased post or a witty retort. That's my opinion, and I still stand by it.

Just thought I'd chime in my support for leaving RPoL one of the few bastions not needing to be any more like social media.

IF jase ever does add thumbs up / thumbs down buttons -- and if you're doing one, why not the other? -- it is my fervent hope that he will make it applicable on the game boards only and able to be turned on or off by the GMs of the game like any other game setting.

Personally, I don't mind the lack of a like button, but I do see value in it. I even use it sometimes on the Paizo boards. And I don't use social media at all.

A thumbs down button though, I'm not seeing any positive value in that. Not for a forum like this anyway. That's more of an art critique thing, and at that point, I'd rather see a star rating than a binary like/dislike.

I am quite happy about that.


Yup.  Takes less than a minute to properly express gratitude or happiness or mirth or whatever over a post.  I've seen and done it plenty of times in games I'm in.





Then the post clearly wasn't worth your effort to reward.

Takes more than a minute, at least on phone with a not quote "2g" connection.

Hmm, yes, that's a good point.  I retract my previous suggestion!

Aw, come on. If we were the type of people that stuck our nose up at useful innovations just because they were innovative, we wouldn't have started doing play-by-post instead of tabletop roleplaying back in the 80s, would we have?

;) lol

I don't turn my nose up at useful innovations.

me neither.

Excellent!
I'll accept that iff you'll accept that I don't want RPoL to be anything like social media.

We'll accept that, if you'll accept that we have already said that we are not going to give you any kind of thumbs up button.  Ever.

Glad that's sorted out.

In reply to bigbadron (msg # 23):

No worries. It just irks me when people demonize features based on where they come from, instead of discussing them based on their own merits.
If a body has an opinion, he or she should be able to articulate it without calling on base prejudices to support your position. Anything less is the enemy of rational argument.

As such, if more people find the feature pointless than find it helpful, then it's not worth spending time coding. It's just a suggestion.


Incidentally, based on my research, this is the best alternative I can find to the feature discussed:

• You have to link the message:

link to a message in this forum

• Then you have to quote the message (or part thereof) because the link doesn't actually tell you which message it links unless you copy-paste the link and read it for yourself:

From Message #17:

• Then you have to put in your message:

Nice!

Am I getting that right? Is there an easier way to do it?
This message was last edited by the user at 14:19, Wed 01 Aug 2018.

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.

To quote your message above, I used the [quote] link on your post and then removed all the stuff I wasn't addressing.

So if I wanted to compliment someone's post and make sure they knew which one I was complimenting, I'd use the quote link on the post, copy from the resulting screen, and paste into my rmail or copy into my reply in an OOC thread or PM.

Or, more likely, I'd just put '(Name of poster/character), nice post!' in the OOC thread of the game.
This message was last edited by the user at 15:02, Wed 01 Aug 2018.

That's what I've always done.  And if I do want to quote a piece of the message, like a specific phrase I liked, I'll just copy-and-paste it in for the quote like... I did here.

Like I said when it was the Applause thing - on a massive, often far more public, site like G+ or Facebook, where it's often expected that hundreds or thousands of people might be looking at a post and potentially want to react to it (or at least feed their analytics data they can sell), I think it makes total sense to have a quick, non-cluttery way to do that.  But on RPoL you never have that.  There are a few games big enough that it might get irritating it everybody in the game wanted to compliment the same post, but that just seems... like... super niche.  In almost every game, it's no trouble at all if every single active participant in the game feels the need to chime in, because you're usually talking like 4-6 people.

I get where you're coming from, Ionathas.  Having an even simpler way than posting, "That was great!" might encourage people to say it even more often.  And moving to a more mobile responsive site does change the math on how valuable that is, quite honestly - that's super simple on a keyboard, but less convenient on a phone or tablet.  But as BBR has noted, if you're here to respond to anything, presumably you've overcome the "typing" obstacle somehow^*.  That's what RPoL is.  So it doesn't really make sense to implement features, however innovative, designed to cater to people who aren't interested in typing.

And as it becomes more convenient, it also becomes a lot less meaningful when they do.  Honestly, if there was a "Thumbs Up" count, the people who wanted to know would have to constantly scroll back up through the threads to see how their old post was doing.  How many people would really do that?  As a question of `clutter', it seems like it's taking up screen space for something that, once the first week's novelty wears off, hardly anyone is even going to see anymore.


^{*-Frankly, my answer has always been to wait. I'll read stuff on my phone, but I only reply if it's, like, super important that I get this in fast.  Otherwise I'll just keep it in my head until I check in on a real computer again.  To be fair, though, I have a bit of a tendency to ramble.  I'm not sure anyone's noticed, but even simple things, like a quick footnote, I often have difficulty keeping short.  I don't know what it is.  Possibly something I should discuss with my therapist?  Maybe a succinct message murdered my parents when I was young, or something.  Anyway, yeah, I like to have a keyboard.}

Just pointing out that you have requested a feature which has been requested before, and which has been turned down, in no uncertain terms, on each occasion.

It's also worth noting that your argument that posting a response to "applaud" another user is somehow less convenient than posting a response to disagree with what they said doesn't actually make any sense.  Both take exactly the same amount of effort (excluding the factor of how much text you put into your post).

Compare, "Well said!" with "Fruit you!"
This message was last edited by the user at 15:53, Wed 01 Aug 2018.

In reply to bigbadron (msg # 27):

Yeah, I didn't notice the 'Applaud' thread when I did my initial search for this topic, and I'm starting to see why that one was called 'Applaud' instead of 'Thumbs Up'... there's apparently a lot less baggage associated with that word. And it doesn't immediately have supporters clamoring for a 'Thumbs Down' button, which I can't imagine coming to any good end.
But seeing as how there were 21 other posts on the topic in the past 2 days, it doesn't feel like it's not something worth revisiting every now and again.



I see what you're saying, Shannara. It's still not as easy to post or read as having something on the same screen, though. You could just click the [applaud] link on the post instead of the [quote] link, and it'd save you several minutes of navigation, pasting, and editing. I dunno about you, but I treasure every minute I get on here, and I'd rather spend them roleplaying than formatting. :)

And thanks for the continued understanding, Utsukushi. (That's a nifty handle, BTW!) I don't usually bother trying to post on my mobile, but you're right, that would be a serious consideration, more so if the site ever does trend toward the mobile-friendly format.

So... thanks for the answers. :-D I had fun discussing it with you guys!
I think that's pretty much all I had to contribute on the subject.

A custom on another forum I frequent goes something like this:

1.)  Someone posts something useful, insightful, funny, etc.

2.)  Someone else replies simply:  +1 (expressing agreement/liking) or -1 (for disagreement/disliking).  I've even seen the occasional 0 (neutrality/meh).

This would seem to work for Fate or other in-game purposes without chewing up excessive bandwidth or time.  It wouldn't be beyond the pale to append a short message with whatever signal is chosen.

I don't believe post should be rated.

In any case, players and GM's should have a reputation for consistency and age, not qualiy and likeability.

Something to help identify consistent polite players, GM's vs flakey, abandon/ghost games without warning types.

To help promote fairness, it could require GM and at least two other players to rate a departing player or 3 players for a GM rating.  Not on quality or likeableness but just on consistency.  I am so tired of the effort put into games that die due to having few consistent players or flakey GM's that are impossible to identify later.

I know this may be completly out of the scope of what is wanted but it doesn't hurt to ask.

In reply to jaws78 (msg # 30):

It also falls under the heading of, "things that RPoL will never add".

          /help/?t=faqs&page=frf

Sadly if you are a player, identifying other players who are amazing or flake is only possible if they self-reveal.

But as I said, wishful thinking doesn't hurt.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yep.  RPoL's privacy policy means that we won't reveal what games a player participates in, what characters they play, what times they are online, or any of several other details which might be considered personal/private.

They are, however, free to give you that information themselves, if they so choose.

In reply to bigbadron (msg # 33):

Sighs.... The price of privacy... the struggles of anonymity.

If you like another player, you can always rMail them from the Cast List.  If they choose to reply, revealing their user name, that's their decision.

Me, apparently.  Ugh!  I just want to say thank you, Jase and The Mods^*, for having the foresight to keep saying no to this!  I've gotten more involved on Boardgamegeek lately and...I don't know why I care how many "thumbs ups" my posts get, but I totally do.  I'll make a post and then go back and be like, "Only five people liked that?  Hmph."  Or even be making a post and thinking, "Yeah, I bet this is going to get a lot."  And it's stupid, and I know that, but there's just something... visceral about it.  Argh.  The first month or so I hardly noticed, but once I did it's like... it stops being about people and becomes points, and for some reason you just want a `high score'.  I don't know.

Anyway.  I'm super glad I've never had to think about it here.  Honestly, if I can't shake it there, I might just let the site go.  It can sometimes feel nice to give them, and they do indeed have enough people in most places that it makes sense, but it's weirdly stressing.


^{*--Also my favorite Josie and the Pussycats cover band.}