Please restore the choice of reactions here at IPS!

[jackflash]

10 hours ago, Jordan Invision said:

why not write something out every time you feel compelled to use a sad reaction? I imagine it'd make the person you're quoting feel seen and heard far more than a sad reaction. 

I'm not completely opposed to adding the sad reaction back, but I am also having trouble advocating for this change. Communities are designed for members to contribute and convey emotion. Sadness is an emotion (imo) that deserves some extra attention. 

😕

Why even have reactions at all if a user can't simply chose one to convey their thoughts?

 

[jackflash]

On 4/10/2021 at 3:28 AM, Kjell Iver Johansen said:

No not at all.

Just a sidenote:

But english is not my first language and I try my best to understand the humour  and «in between lines stuff» that happens in a language that is not my first language.

My grandmother spoke at least European 12 languages.  During our conversations, she would often pause before telling me something and explaining that I wouldn't understand a certain proverb or joke because it was from x-culture.

[Morrigan]

14 hours ago, Jordan Invision said:

why not write something out every time you feel compelled to use a sad reaction?

I answered this here:

On 4/10/2021 at 9:16 AM, Morrigan said:

You don't always have the words to express that you are feeling for that person's difficult time and seeing a bunch of empty "I'm so sorry"'s in a thread I think is just as damning as no one replying at all to someone's rough time. The sad reaction gave people a means to offer support, show that they read the post without replying with an empty platitude that means even less than a supportive reaction.

I can offer my condolences to a friend in a discord chat with a sad emoji without making them feel bad that all I have to say is "I'm sorry".

When it comes to bad faeces that happens in someone's life there isn't always "words" that can convey the empathy that you feel for them. I'm going to throwback to when I admitted why I disappeared in December and had a complete breakdown and was upset about a really faecesty update announcement that I couldn't install. I don't think I need to bring back that particular hardship but I can say, save for 3 people that actually replied (1 IPS person and 2 members I think) most of the people that responded were exclusively in reactions, which I actually appreciated significantly more than them replying to the thread with "I'm so sorry Morrigan I hope everything is okay". I knew, from the reaction, that they felt for me and they wished me the best. In fact those reactions were almost more meaningful to me in the moment.

There is a significant difference between empathy and sympathy (I've been taught that through years upon years of tech support). Empathy means you feel for the person and their plight while sympathy means you feel bad for their plight but don't understand it. For the most part people that are empathetic/understand what you're going through and may have meaningful ways to express how they feel to you and give you great words of wisdom or at least a true kind word that may help. Someone that feels sympathetic for you won't have those words but they will understand that you are going through a rough time. The Sympathetic ones won't have anything meaningful to say but they can certainly say "I support you" with a simple reaction.

To me, sad, was never a negative reaction. It was always a sympathetic reaction. "I know its hard but hang in there boo"

 

7 hours ago, The Old Man said:

FBF

Follow Back Friday, its a reference to a Twitter trend

 

To The Old Man, at this point I think the Meow is more of an ironic reaction now lololol.

 

 

 

Quick edit:

This thread in particular:

There are many posts in it that can do with a "sad" reaction that don't require empty platitudes of "I'm sorry" in it. Otherwise this whole thread would be filled with apologies about how negatively the virus has affected people's lives. Being able to share your trouble and get support without in-genuine apologies is SUPER important in a thread like this.

Edited April 13, 2021 by Morrigan

[christopher-w]

On 4/10/2021 at 12:43 AM, Chris Anderson said:

I launched my first BBS in 1988 using the Wildcat BBS software. So I've actually been around forums for 33 years.  

In the early 80s I'd just left warring Sudan and found myself instead building my first PC in Hong Kong - 40 years ago no less. I'd upgraded the motherboard to include a NEC V20, replacing the 8088 and later on added a ripped off Mountain Race Card with a 286 and on board ramdisk - great for Flight Simulator. I went on to be an assembler programmer and a well known hacker (those days are behind me), so the experience wasn't wasted. Nor were the pubs outside my apartment in Wanchai ☺️.

2 hours ago, Morrigan said:

I don't think I need to bring back that particular hardship but I can say, save for 3 people that actually replied (1 IPS person and 2 members I think) most of the people that responded were exclusively in reactions, which I actually appreciated significantly more than them replying to the thread with "I'm so sorry Morrigan I hope everything is okay".

I'm caught in a middle ground. I'm empathetic by nature and my first reaction is always to try and put myself in that person's shoes. The issue comes with how to show support. I often feel that an emoji is not enough, but on the other hand a reply often seems too much - or invasive. I suppose it comes down to having the choice and applying judgement to that choice - as best one can. But more often than not I don't respond at all (or write something and delete it, sometimes many times a day) and I don't think that's necessarily solved by more granular emoji choices, but it's definitely not solved by lack of choice.

But, thinking more on this, one of the barriers to offering more support, be that via emoji, gag video/animation, or heartfelt comment, is the often lack of feedback from those actions. It seems that a lot of folks want sympathy and support only from a subset of their audience (friends, sympathisers etc), not from their audience as a whole.

Which echoes the real world I guess, with the obvious difference being that it's very difficult to ignore anyone face to face, whereas in a forum, turning your back is as easy as ignoring a reaction or scrolling past a comment. For example this thread might have prompted 1000 physical responses in the form of reactions and comments, but it's a fraction of the total number of emotional responses experienced by folks reading it. Perhaps that's one of the metrics of an online community - how much of what is felt actually makes its way into the thread in the way of visible support and other appropriate behaviour.

 

10 hours ago, The Old Man said:

We seem to be going backwards with this community, against a backdrop of pandemic's emotional and financial turmoil going on, ideally we need to either be moving forwards or finding some stability...

Given the economic climate I would have liked to have seen some form of loyalty coupons over the past year, redeemable against licence renewals. The cash value isn't important, but the sentiment is. 

 

11 hours ago, The Old Man said:

Also, apologies as I'm in my early fifties and I'm not firing on all thrusters these days, but I just don't understand the cat reaction! What does it actually mean or reference, if it wasn't solely an April Fool's day inspired joke to make us chuckle, which it did me? I mean I've used it for fun which I thought it was for, and I'm not against it, but going back to your challenge, why do feel that adding a cat is any different or more acceptable than that of a saddened/empathy reaction in that it should require a follow up post/comment?

Whilst wholly supporting attempts to address the non communityness of the community here, there are times like today and yesterday and..., that  I wish the energies were instead directed into the platform.

 

 

[Davyc]

I've watched this topic with interest and have evaluated the responses, both positive and negative.  My own personal take on reactions is that they should emulate the forum type, both in its fundamental basis and consideration for its members. These two combined should be the foundation of the reactions types, along with their meanings so that people can 'react' accordingly in reference to the topics generated.

Reactions should be carefully curated to enhance rather than detract from the responses you want from people.  If there are no defined meanings to the reaction images and their alternate text references, they become meaningless and pointless.

I would imagine that as a base admins would want reactions for the following (all entirely optional):

• Like
• Thanks
• Agree
• Funny
• Sad
• Disagree 

The above cover most of the reactions people will respond with to potentially the vast number of responses to topics/posts.  What images are used can be anything that reflects the nature of the site.  Anything else can be added as an optional, but there must be some significant interpretation to them otherwise they would be unproductive.  The Meow Cat on here for example; what does it mean or signify?

Reactions are emotive symbolism and as such need to be curated to accentuate an emotional response - whereby a written response should be deemed as objective/subjective depending on the topic and it's responses.  These are important aspects of a site and should be added with consideration, rather than a whim.  Just my two penneth 🙂

 

[The Old Man]

Quick thanks to everyone for sharing their thoughts in this topic and I really appreciate the time spent in doing so. Whether we agree or disagree on things, it's nice to see dialogue and always good to read other people's perspectives.

Morrigan, quick thanks for the explanations on those terms! I thought I was up to speed on Twitter acronyms but haven't used it much in recent years, far too much bile for my liking!

[Dll]

I like the irony in the fact that @Jordan Invision seems to definitely be in the more is more camp when it comes to the use of emoji's in his own posts but is firmly in the less is more camp when it comes to controlling the emoji reactions people can give to posts 🙃

Maybe those wanting to express a negative emotion can just make a one emoji post instead, that ought to be conducive to a constructive, easy to follow discussion!

Edited April 13, 2021 by Dll

[PPlanet]

Maybe not exactly on topic, but today I noticed that I have become a "newbie" (And not just me, even some IPS staff too) :)

Not that I care, but I find it a bit odd. I've been a member since 2010 and have near 700 posts. I'm certainly not here everyday, and only post when I need to ask something or when I bump across a question I can answer. But "newbie" doesn't seem to capture the situation very accurately.

 

[The Old Man]

Hi @PPlanet

It's probably just temporary. They have launched the long awaited Awards facility, so that's probably the reason. Possibly it's configuring itself with such a large community, and they'll probably be tweaking it a bit too, setting up the points system/ranks etc. 

🙂

 

[Jordan Miller]

On 4/13/2021 at 8:36 AM, Dll said:

I like the irony in the fact that @Jordan Invision seems to definitely be in the more is more camp when it comes to the use of emoji's in his own posts but is firmly in the less is more camp when it comes to controlling the emoji reactions people can give to posts 🙃

Maybe those wanting to express a negative emotion can just make a one emoji post instead, that ought to be conducive to a constructive, easy to follow discussion!

I'm all for members using as many sad or happy emojis as they please. 🙏  Whether that's 1 sad face or 50 of them. 

I'd like to point out I'm not trying to control anyones' emotions. 

[Morrigan]

 

😭😭😭😭

Well this didn't work as intended. I intended to post 50 of the same emoji and well... I'm just not that cruel to scroll bars but not as simple as you'd think which just makes me more sad.