Could a "Like" button be introduced?

[Lego David]

So recently, there has been an intriguing discussion here on EB about why most of the MOCs posted on the site don't get nearly as much appreciation then they should. So this got me thinking... Would it be possible to introduce some sort of system where each new thread has a "Like" button that can be pressed, so that the creator of the MOC can see how many people appreciate his MOC? 

Not that many people actually bother to comment on MOCs, not even very well made ones, but just pressing a like button is something anyone should be able to do. And so, the creator of the MOC can look at the number of likes he has and take that as a sign of how appreciated his MOC is. 

I know this site is a bit old and hasn't see major updates in years, but would it be possible to introduce this? I know of several sites that use the exact same operating system as this one, such as BZPower.com, that have still managed to incorporate a "Like" button. 

Edited January 22, 2022 by Lego David

[Classic_Spaceman]

👍

[Darkdragon]

This has come up many times over the years and we really would rather folks just post a simple comment like "good work". A like button or a upvote, or anything like that will not be implemented.

[Jack Sassy]

First thing that comes to mind is Brickset. While I do like the idea of a like button, I feel that a forum like this is a bit too classic for such feature. 

[Stuartn]

For me there are two perspectives:

1. EB has a lot of members, so if there was a like button I am sure it would be used. As someone who regularly posts MOCs I could appreciate a like button, especially as with smaller MOCs I wouldn’t necessarily expect comments though it would be good to see if others like what I have made. In addition, many other great but more obscure MOCs others completed (especially in the days of the scale modelling forum) would go unnoticed, despite massive efforts by builders.

2. On the other hand, you could see many MOCs that would otherwise get attention and constructive discussion passed over with comments usurped by just liking a post. EB is different from others places in terms of the posting features  and that is what differentiates it from IG and Reddit. Furthermore, other social media sites are now hiding likes, such as IG and YT (for dislikes), so introducing such a feature could send EB backwards rather than forwards.

[JaBaCaDaBra]

14 hours ago, Darkdragon said:

This has come up many times over the years and we really would rather folks just post a simple comment like "good work". A like button or a upvote, or anything like that will not be implemented.

It would also remind me too much of a certain data acquisition website.

[MAB]

On 1/22/2022 at 7:12 PM, Darkdragon said:

This has come up many times over the years and we really would rather folks just post a simple comment like "good work". A like button or a upvote, or anything like that will not be implemented.

Yeah, I agree. At least leaving a comment shows that you think the MOC is interesting enough to write a few words. If you cannot be bothered to do that, what good is a number to say that someone has seen a picture of something you made but writing a comment is just too much effort.

[Peppermint_M]

I said it elsewhere and I'll say it here: It doesn't take much to post a quick comment that you enjoy/like/appreciate a MOC. With most phones you get words supplied to chose from once you start typing. Even less effort! 

A Like button has been suggested before, but it is not really what a Forum is for.

[Toastie]

12 hours ago, Peppermint_M said:

what a Forum is for

May I? What >This< forum is for.

Best,
Thorsten

[MAB]

11 hours ago, Toastie said:

May I? What >This< forum is for.

Best,
Thorsten

It is mainly word based discussion forum, so discussion. There are other sites for posting pictures with minimal words or without words that use like buttons.

[Toastie]

9 hours ago, MAB said:

It is mainly word based discussion forum, so discussion.

That's what I meant. I am also on some electronics and how-to-fix-a-20-years-old-Sony-amp forums. Naturally, they don't discuss that much - it is more about showing how-to. But sometimes it gets a little ... "different", compared to this place. I believe it has much to do with educated moderation - there, virtually absent - here, well, educated moderation.

That's why I like this place so much. Wait - yes, also because it is about my favorite hobby

Best,
Thorsten

 

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

I share the opinion of @Toastie, I think the beauty of this site is the verbal comparison and comments to the various MOCs.

The "Like" button would impoverish these aspects by reducing the gratification that an AFOL would get from the opinions of others (and not just from the vote).

With respect LT12V

[Toastie]

Spoiler

Hi Emanuele,
and we had that button for so long
All the best
Thorsten

 

[Robert8]

Maybe an optional "like button" feature?

Like whenever you're going to start a new thread you can enable the option to "like" posts in that specific thread

But if you want feedback through comments, then you just don't enable said option

[Clone OPatra]

8 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

Maybe an optional "like button" feature?

Like whenever you're going to start a new thread you can enable the option to "like" posts in that specific thread

But if you want feedback through comments, then you just don't enable said option

I don't think Invision allows anything quite that fancy as every member being able to choose whether or not they want Likes in their topic.

[Robert8]

2 hours ago, Clone OPatra said:

I don't think Invision allows anything quite that fancy as every member being able to choose whether or not they want Likes in their topic.

I thought it would be like enabling a poll or something.

But if it is indeed not allowed then lets just ignore my suggestion 

[Darkdragon]

On 1/30/2022 at 8:26 PM, Clone OPatra said:

I don't think Invision allows anything quite that fancy as every member being able to choose whether or not they want Likes in their topic.

That's correct, there is no granular control like the one suggested. 

[Tube Map Central]

Late to the party, but so what ...

Eurobricks is dying, that much is obvious. The traffic has dropped noticeably in the last eighteen months. I keep reading responses to suggestions such as this one above along the lines of "Eurobricks doesn't do that" and "Eurobricks isn't an X website". Well sorry, but your forum is dying, so however Eurobricks is doing it might be the wrong way. Complacency like this might be dangerous.

Yes please. I want a like button. As an occasional poster of MOCs I would never consider a like to be a low-energy cop-out. I'm just delighted that people took the time to pause and express pleasure. Indeed, wading through all those (diminishing) "very nice, well done" comments gets repetitive after a while. I'm really looking for suggestions for improvement, constructive criticism, or something that makes me smile.

And while I am here, what else? ...

1) Host images. This is the 21st century. The cloud exists. Images can be auto-trimmed down. Twitter does it. Most image hosting websites permit likes and comments, so why go through all the performance of reposting images to dying-forum, low-traffic Eurobricks? Where is the added value when you can get plenty of feedback from thriving sites that are now effectively rivals?

2) Fix those editing 'tools'. I am sure that having supposedly helpful editing tools is well-intentioned, but the reality is that my iPad gets into a terrible fight with them. It's almost impossible to compose a post on notes and paste it in. It doesn't make sense to have a desktop-friendly tablet-hostile website any more.

3) Wake up the mods. I've used messaging to try and contact them about, for example, which forum is most appropriate for a post.  Never got a reply.

4) Permit discussion of non-law-breaking clones. The name of this forum is EuroBRICKS not EuroTLG. Yes, I hear that this forum has some sort of special status with TLG, well not much point of that if the forum is dying. Clones exist, and they do some stuff that TLG does not. If TLG products really are superior then there is nothing to fear. Show up non-TLG products for what they are.

5) Impossible to fix, but will say this anyway. The cultists are driving people away. I swear that if some of these people found that TLG was grinding up babies to colour their bricks, they would still spring to TLG defence. Hard to decide what is the more tedious, the aggressive "TLG is cleverer than you and knows everything so shut up" ones, or the passive-aggressive long responses that go on and on and on. Yes, this post is long, but at least I broke it up into bullet points.

Edited May 22, 2022 by Tube Map Central

[TeriXeri]

28 minutes ago, Tube Map Central said:

1) Host images. This is the 21st century. The cloud exists. Images can be auto-trimmed down. Twitter does it. Most image hosting websites permit likes and comments, so why go through all the performance of reposting images to dying-forum, low-traffic Eurobricks? Where is the added value when you can get plenty of feedback from thriving sites that are now effectively rivals?

Completely not needed when sites like imgur let you upload an imagine in 2 seconds, and people who want more permanent solutions would host on other places.

Eurobricks has image / video embed, takes no skill to use compared to the old html code and whatever was needed years ago, you can even set the dimensions of images now.

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Tube Map Central]

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

Completely not needed when sites like imgur let you upload an imagine in 2 seconds, and people who want more permanent solutions would host on other places.

Eurobricks has image / video embed, takes no skill to use compared to the old html code and whatever was needed years ago, you can even set the dimensions of images now.

 

Well, no, it might work for you but you are not everyone else, and everyone else is giving up Eurobricks. Try to find reasons for this rather than dismissing complaints as trivial/worthless. I was alluding to this on my OP.

I want to take a photo on my device and post on Eurobricks, no hassle, no signing away my personal data to a free-for-now social media website that can change its rules at a moments notice. How many dead photos on old posts on EB with no chance of ever seeing them again?

If EB can't accommodate this then I will be gone like everyone else soon enough, and then there will be no one left for you to be patronising to.

[TeriXeri]

5 hours ago, Tube Map Central said:

If EB can't accommodate this then I will be gone like everyone else soon enough, and then there will be no one left for you to be patronising to.

I'm not patronising for anyone, nice try 

That said, I'm not an admin here, so I'll leave the word about image uploading/hosting to them now, okay? 

Edited May 22, 2022 by TeriXeri

[koalayummies]

19 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

I'm not patronising for anyone, nice try 

Teri, if they don't turn this place into all those other places then everyone will leave this place for all those other places.

Edit: in case it wasn't clear; this is satirical.

Edited May 23, 2022 by koalayummies

[Peppermint_M]

Those other sites are businesses. Eurobricks is a site run by volunteers (so no, we staff are not paid, the admin are not paid...) There is no "revenue" just some ad money that pays for hosting on servers and software licensing to run the site. 

Cloud storage services aren't free, private users have a limit, or "pay" in personal data. An entity like this site would have to license or subscribe for cloud storage services for all users.

Yes, the internet has changed since the site was established, but we can't afford to change into some new sort of social media site. That would be just as much a disaster as the slow drain of activity.

[Darkdragon]

On 5/22/2022 at 8:47 AM, Tube Map Central said:

Late to the party, but so what ...

Ah, great, this is already off to a wonderful start!

On 5/22/2022 at 8:47 AM, Tube Map Central said:

Eurobricks is dying, that much is obvious. The traffic has dropped noticeably in the last eighteen months. I keep reading responses to suggestions such as this one above along the lines of "Eurobricks doesn't do that" and "Eurobricks isn't an X website". Well sorry, but your forum is dying, so however Eurobricks is doing it might be the wrong way. Complacency like this might be dangerous.

Nope, forums are dying everywhere because people aren't using them as much anymore. It's not a Eurobricks problem, it's simply people using different types of communication and media these days. I know quite a few dying forums and can assure you that Eurobricks is far from it. 

On 5/22/2022 at 8:47 AM, Tube Map Central said:

Yes please. I want a like button. As an occasional poster of MOCs I would never consider a like to be a low-energy cop-out. I'm just delighted that people took the time to pause and express pleasure. Indeed, wading through all those (diminishing) "very nice, well done" comments gets repetitive after a while. I'm really looking for suggestions for improvement, constructive criticism, or something that makes me smile.

And while I am here, what else? ...

1) Host images. This is the 21st century. The cloud exists. Images can be auto-trimmed down. Twitter does it. Most image hosting websites permit likes and comments, so why go through all the performance of reposting images to dying-forum, low-traffic Eurobricks? Where is the added value when you can get plenty of feedback from thriving sites that are now effectively rivals?

2) Fix those editing 'tools'. I am sure that having supposedly helpful editing tools is well-intentioned, but the reality is that my iPad gets into a terrible fight with them. It's almost impossible to compose a post on notes and paste it in. It doesn't make sense to have a desktop-friendly tablet-hostile website any more.

All of this looks like you just want the site to work differently because you don't feel like using a forum. Well, if you don't want to post and use a forum and would rather use a site with like buttons then feel free to use those sites. Nobody is holding you prisoner here, but we won't rewrite the whole site because you don't feel like using it as a forum.

You talk about Twitter being able to host images, that's funny, comparing this small fan-run forum to a multi-billon dollar company and demanding we run like they do. No, we can't host images, it is too expensive. Would you like to fund image hosting here?

On 5/22/2022 at 8:47 AM, Tube Map Central said:

3) Wake up the mods. I've used messaging to try and contact them about, for example, which forum is most appropriate for a post.  Never got a reply.

Directly messaging a moderator to ask where to post is not the right way. The moderators are here to help run things not handhold everyone with things that are already covered in the help section. This is exactly why we have the forum help area which you are obviously capable of posting in.

On 5/22/2022 at 8:47 AM, Tube Map Central said:

4) Permit discussion of non-law-breaking clones. The name of this forum is EuroBRICKS not EuroTLG. Yes, I hear that this forum has some sort of special status with TLG, well not much point of that if the forum is dying. Clones exist, and they do some stuff that TLG does not. If TLG products really are superior then there is nothing to fear. Show up non-TLG products for what they are.

Nobody is blocked from talking about 3rd party and clone products, we even have reviews for many of the clone brand sets that are not stolen MOCs or Lego sets. These are found in the Community forum. A moderator of a specific theme could disallow discussion if they feel the clone items are infringement.

On 5/22/2022 at 8:47 AM, Tube Map Central said:

5) Impossible to fix, but will say this anyway. The cultists are driving people away. I swear that if some of these people found that TLG was grinding up babies to colour their bricks, they would still spring to TLG defence. Hard to decide what is the more tedious, the aggressive "TLG is cleverer than you and knows everything so shut up" ones, or the passive-aggressive long responses that go on and on and on. Yes, this post is long, but at least I broke it up into bullet points.

You're one to talk about long winded passive-aggressive responses. Oh my goodness. Though I guess yours is more aggressive-aggressive. 
Yes, there are some folks that are difficult to get along with - also not a Eurobricks problem. Have you been anywhere else on the internet?  It's not a pretty place, a person must learn how to ignore the more argumentative folks.

[Toastie]

Well then, I am outing myself:

I love this place. Everything. Particularly the etiquette here. The way moderators moderate.

Even playing hide and seek with the mods on clippable blocks is fun (in Germany, we for some years now have the word "Klemmbausteine", which - to me - is less disrespectful as "clone bricks" or other weird words, c'mon, we all do the Chinese Dance on so many other things, and with impetus - just look for the "Made in NotChina" tag on stuff you buy - but not LEGO, oh no! - and then we brag about THE DEALS we got ...).

Yes, I am old. Yes, maybe forums are dying. Well, so do washing machines. Even Luke Skywalker!

I found my home here on EB. Should it die, I go along. No other place for me then to tell people that I'm da man. And that BB rocks. And that I like the bricks TLG makes but not the company - anymore. Or just feel as I never got anything decent to work when looking at the so many beautiful MOCs introduced here on EB. Introduced, not thrown at me/us.

And no, I will not praise the mods, all their work and time (voluntary!), their compassion, and their resilience. Why not? Because they know already. 

I sure hope that EB will be around for long. Best place on the LEGO internet - for me. Thank you all!!!

Best,
Thorsten