Official Like-bombing, like abuse and related social activities

Kabu said:
Why is this even a thing that the mods should have to waste their time about? The things that some people will do for status just boggles my mind.
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True status comes to those who earn their position honestly.


In other news, I realize something that I am very proud of. If you knock Steve and Jet (notorious for being like bombed) off the top of the list, that leaves @Cenx, @Baconfry, and myself as the top 3 most liked members of TCF. Apparently, outside of posting spoilers, making lots of likable suggestion threads is the best way to earn likes, but I guess that's Cenx's job description anyways. :p
 
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SilverBird said:
... why not remove the "most likes" and "most posts" things... it seems like a contest to most people.
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Most people don't have enough influence to even compete. Besides, a little friendly competition is fine, and now that there are more rules to go by, going too far isn't as much of a concern anymore.
 
Does this also make liking every post in a thread, regardless of who posted it, illegal? That would finally stop clogging up the Recent Activity.

Kefke said:
Well this is completely ridiculous. Why even have the system, at this point? If people aren't free to like what they want, then it's superfluous. I certainly won't be giving out likes any more, and I request that no one give me any, either. Apparently liking things or receiving likes is now a suspicious activity that brings you under scrutiny, and I certainly don't need that kind of stress.

Seriously, no one like my posts. Especially this one. I'm not going to like anything you post, and if you like anything I post I will be seriously upset.
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On the risk of you being very sarcastic and me not noticing (which you shouldn't be in this thread):

Liking one thing or even ten does not make you suspicious, nor does receiving one or ten likes. There are some pretty clear guidelines for a like bomb, which have very little to do with actually personally liking a post.
 
This is why I generally disaprove of upvote systems. On most occassions it derails all conversation to a petty contest of "see who can win the most internet gratification points", typically by trying their hardest to sound "witty" or funny or agreeable, and all that. It's even worse with downvotes, which end up promoting hivemind thoughts on a community, at least in my opinion. I can understand the satisfaction behind it, it's always good to know that there's people who find you agreeable, but if you're just going to :red: yourself just to make yourself feel better because of some glorified agreement points, you don't deserve any like. Not from me at least.
 
To be honest, I'd get rid of every single "leaderboard" feature. Every feature that promotes competition between the users that has no relevance to the forum's topic is potentially harmful to the community. While we are definitelly not going for an iron fist kind of moderatorship, at the same time I don't think we want people spamming useless or badly thought replies just because they wish so much to increase their messages count. I also don't agree with the complete negation of even trying to speak about your own or someone else's likes, they are a thing that does actually exist and we cannot give people a feature to promote a specific person's grade of posts quality and then completelly prohibite people from even speaking about it.
 
W1K said:
To be honest, I'd get rid of every single "leaderboard" feature. Every feature that promotes competition between the users that has no relevance to the forum's topic is potentially harmful to the community. While we are definitelly not going for an iron fist kind of moderatorship, at the same time I don't think we want people spamming useless or badly thought replies just because they wish so much to increase their messages count. I also don't agree with the complete negation of even trying to speak about your own or someone else's likes, they are a thing that does actually exist and we cannot give people a feature to promote a specific person's grade of posts quality and then completelly prohibite people from even speaking about it.
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Paradox Sandwich said:
This is why I generally disaprove of upvote systems. On most occassions it derails all conversation to a petty contest of "see who can win the most internet gratification points", typically by trying their hardest to sound "witty" or funny or agreeable, and all that. It's even worse with downvotes, which end up promoting hivemind thoughts on a community, at least in my opinion. I can understand the satisfaction behind it, it's always good to know that there's people who find you agreeable, but if you're just going to :red: yourself just to make yourself feel better because of some glorified agreement points, you don't deserve any like. Not from me at least.
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Kazzymodus said:
Does this also make liking every post in a thread, regardless of who posted it, illegal? That would finally stop clogging up the Recent Activity.



On the risk of you being very sarcastic and me not noticing (which you shouldn't be in this thread):

Liking one thing or even ten does not make you suspicious, nor does receiving one or ten likes. There are some pretty clear guidelines for a like bomb, which have very little to do with actually personally liking a post.
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SzGamer227 said:
Most people don't have enough influence to even compete. Besides, a little friendly competition is fine, and now that there are more rules to go by, going too far isn't as much of a concern anymore.
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This is why competitions are unecessary
 
To address a few of the mentioned issues.

1) If you only like posts that you like and do not have any intention of being annoying or gaming the system, then you have no reason to worry and you can pretty much ignore the entire issue as it doesn't relate to you.

2) Removing the most liked list, as I believe Tunnel King mentioned earlier, is something that is being seriously looked into, but I'm not sure if it is something that would require skiphs time or not, so it most likely won't happen super soon.

If everyone follows the rules, posts with good intentions, treats others with mutual respect, and uses the forum systems as intended, then everything can chug along smashingly. :)
 
I applaud everyone's positive and forward-focused attitude on this subject. I'm glad awareness on this topic finally got out. It's not a competition to the top, nor the middle, nor to stay afloat on the "notable members". To have the affection of real friends cannot be conveyed by hitting a button. Nor can it show how much someone appreciates something or the extent of their agreement with an idea. It's merely to keep track of...Who likes what. I'm glad I could successfully become the personification of this craze that has taken over my dear friends' minds. I don't know how else I could have raised awareness to the situation without becoming a bad guy myself. I was and am always willing to martyr myself for the betterment of the community I so dearly love.
 
Probably wouldn't have this issue if the leaderboard was removed. Also I don't know if this has been asked yet, but what if like bombing became a literal attack method where people like bomb someone to get them in trouble? Will the moderator be willing to consider this?
 
Hie said:
Probably wouldn't have this issue if the leaderboard was removed. Also I don't know if this has been asked yet, but what if like bombing became a literal attack method where people like bomb someone to get them in trouble? Will the moderator be willing to consider this?
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See here v
Loki said:
Guys, we aren't going on big witch hunts for handfuls of likes...nor is here some magic number wherein it's immediately bad. Things - as always - will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

In the few "legit" examples given earlier, nothing would happen. Either it wouldn't get reported (likely), noticed (likely), or - if it were - the context would either be clear in the thread or after a quick chat about it. No big deal, no harm, no foul. :)

The stuff we are mostly dealing with here dealt in the hundreds or thousands.

While I get that some find this silly or "just pixels", it was a legitimate enough issue to blow up the report queue daily as well as inboxes. So, clearly, it bothers a swath of the community. As LikeBombing serves no discernible purpose, we have to respect those members' experiences.

All that said - a huge thanks to everyone for taking this in stride. The overall reaction has been supportive and inquisitive, with only a few tangential quips thrown in. I can't say enough about how well that reflects on each of you and the community as a whole. Thanks for your understanding, maturity, and respect for your fellow member in adjusting to this new guidance.

Cheers!
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To give you a more specific answer. The perpetrator of the like bomb (the one doing the liking) is the one who will get the warning points. The receiver of the bomb will only have their likes dropped back down to the levels they were before the bomb was dropped. Under these circumstances, using a like-bomb as an attack has greater consequences for the bomber than the bombed.
 
W1K said:
To be honest, I'd get rid of every single "leaderboard" feature. Every feature that promotes competition between the users that has no relevance to the forum's topic is potentially harmful to the community. While we are definitelly not going for an iron fist kind of moderatorship, at the same time I don't think we want people spamming useless or badly thought replies just because they wish so much to increase their messages count. I also don't agree with the complete negation of even trying to speak about your own or someone else's likes, they are a thing that does actually exist and we cannot give people a feature to promote a specific person's grade of posts quality and then completelly prohibite people from even speaking about it.
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To me, this feels like the only rational response. If you don't make it a competition, people won't treat it as a competition. The ability to like posts, in itself, is not the problem. Making it significant outside of tracking people's opinion of an individual post is a problem. Contained to only how it relates to a post, discussion of it would even be useful. Someone saying "I have 1500 likes" is just trying to win a popularity contest, but someone saying "My post has 1500 likes" may actually be making a valid point about the amount of support their ideas have. While being popular certainly isn't the same as being right, in a limited context it can be a very useful thing to consider...for example, in seeing where popular opinion lies on whether a given suggestion would be wanted by the average Terraria player or not.

{EDIT: I should also comment on the fact that who likes a post can be as important, if not moreso, than how many people like it. For instance, a suggestion thread being liked by someone with no manners, grammar, or spelling skills is pretty certain not to matter as much as if, for example, Cenx were to like it. Not entirely sure that needs to be said, but it's often helpful to make sure everyone is on the same page.}

Dettbizzle said:
The post count however, is an excellent method of seeing how much an individual contributes. The only flaw in that system, short of people posting in suggestion threads simply to boost their count, are Forum Games, RP threads, and Social Groups. Just the topic; and this is only an example; of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has a tendency to whip people into a posting frenzy, and thus, increasing counts in that fashion.
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I wouldn't say that's necessarily true either. If someone makes a lot of short posts amounting to "I like this, Support." or "No Support, that's dumb." they will have a lot of posts, but they may not really be contributing anything. Even if there is more to their posts than that, someone who gets into a lot of pointless arguments, or makes unhelpful statements that are only tangentially related to the topic being discussed, will be able to amass posts more quickly than someone actually making insightful, researched, and well-reasoned posts. Also, there's a bit of bias in your reasoning. You list Forum Games, RP threads, and Social Groups, as categories that shouldn't be considered as "contributing" to the community, but isn't that just a little bit elitist? Those sections are a part of the community too, and the people who frequent those threads surely appreciate the involvement of others who participate. Maybe, rather than excluding certain sections, what is needed is to add a Breakdown page, that shows not merely the total posts a user has made, but how many of them were in each section of the forums.

While it might contradict a bit with what I said earlier, if a tight reign must be put on the likes system, it could even be put to good use. Likes are, technically, a measure of a post's quality. At least, they can be if people are free to use them, and not capped to prevent "excessive liking". Tracking something like the average likes per post could help to identify where people's contributions are most appreciated. Though, I am leery of suggesting that, since it gets back into "popularity contest" territory.
 
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