Hey, what's up? I'm noticing that the forum's "reactions" (the little emojis that say "like" or "agree") are ONLY "like" and "agree." This is a problem. What if you disagree, or don't like someone's post? Reactions are an easy way of replying, and having to write a reply to criticize someone doesn't seem right, when it can be done with a simple emoji. This might also discourage people from criticizing things, meaning the people who aren't getting criticized have nothing to fix. I think there needs to be a "disagree" or "dislike" emoji. People deserve to know if they have support on their ideas to be helpful.
This used to be a thing, but then it got removed along with other great stuff because people were abusing and spamming it. @Alewyx (srry for ping) has a nice picture that shows some things that were removed on his profile, I'll put it here:
I knew I remembered those... I thought I was thinking of another forum. Also Daddel, nice picture there. Anyways, with spamming it could easily be dealt with by cooldowns after an amount of times used, or punishments for excessive use in the intention of spamming.
IMO it is so much better now than it was with more... There's no reason for how it was, we've been getting along fine for however long it's been like this
Disagreed here, wish I had an emoji to convey that. Anyways, it's no more useful to remove something. And for instance I say: "Should I make a mod to create a Honda replica?" People could choose either agree or disagree, rather than me having to look at a bunch of replies, and decide which one has more, knowing that less people can disagree anyways. Who would take the time to write a reply just to suggest me to not do it? Also, you could verbally berate those before, there was just an added way to disagree that was useful in certain situations.
The issue is that if you asked "should I make a mod like this or this" most people would just click "agree" because why not, and the people who have valid reasons against it would be overwhelmed. It's more convinient to write your opinion with an explanation.
In some situations, you're completely correct, but for even the most rare situations it shouldn't be taken away. Sorry if I come off a bit harsh to the counter-arguments by the way. I just kind of hold something against them because in this situations, I usually get like 50% of the counter arguments saying because being disliked offends them... Luckily not for BeamNG so far, but yeah, not trying to be rude or anything if you disagree!
The fact is they've tried different combinations and had problems with many of them and they've settled on one that works. They tried a dislike button, for awhile there was "informative" and "funny" and some others, but they never worked out. So why would it work out if they tried the same thing again?
Didn't they get removed because the devs wanted the forums to be more of a safe space with little to no negativity?
Forcing people to write out why they don't like something is better. You can't have constructive criticism without someone replying to the post anyways, so what would the difference be? Just telling somebody you disagree without providing any reason why doesn't promote healthy discussion and isn't constructive. Also people tend to abuse the negative ratings. I remember the short time when we had disagree and it was used in a very destructive way. Nobody used it to do anything other than mock people and disagreed with posts that were not even opinions or something that could be disagreed with. It was also probably a nightmare for moderation to constantly get flooded with reports of people abusing the negative reactions.
People always find ways to abuse things, but this could be easily fixed through certain methods. We can simply have a cooldown on reactions, punishments for spamming reactions, and etc. "safe place with little to no negativity." What is this forum then? A bunch of 10 year olds who can't handle someone negative against there ideas? People who don't want negativity shouldn't join a forum anyways. (sorry if this sounds harsh) From your standpoint, same thing goes with positive feedback. I believe that negative feedback can be helpful in such as "Should I do (something) or not?" And people would either agree or disagree. What if in this situation where you disagreed with adding reactions, but you didn't want to write a book on why, It would keep the conversation from being cluttered with responses, and encourage people to stand up against what they don't agree with. A lot of people use it to do anything other than mock people. There is no such thing as something that can't be disagreed with, I can't think of anything that wouldn't have a single use for a disagree reaction. Again, cooldowns and such will work. It's moderations job to keep the forums from false use. Also, with proper conduct, it would work out normally. EDIT: I'd like to say, not being sarcastic btw, I'm serious here. I'm very happy that most of you guys are giving legit reasons that aren't "bcuz negativity bad" So yeah, thanks for actually having good reasons... especially Harkin Labs Gaming.
The whole point of a forum is that it is a discussion. Like and agree are there so the place doesn't become an echo chamber of people saying the same things. Forcing people to think about what they don't like about something creates more posts with a wider range of opinions. The current system is working almost perfectly because there is healthy discussion and arguements where people bring up valid points. The negative reactions were abused heavily, which you obviously wouldn't know because you joined long after they were removed. People were posting simple things like what they did that day and it would have at least 50 disagrees and 20 dislikes. Moderation could not keep up with the problem, so their solution was to remove it, and the system is working quite nicely. A forum is not a place to "stand up against" anything, its a place to voice your opinion and have casual discussion on the topic of whatever thread you're in. If you can't take the time to write a post providing reasons as to why you disagree, then maybe a forum environment is not for you. If you want to see if people want you to do _____ yes or no, make a poll. We already have that feature and it has been used many times in the past for the exact situations you described. The current system has been working great. There is no clutter from people that have nothing to add because we have like and agree, and anyone who has a differing opinion has to provide reasons why they disagree. You don't have people spamming disagree because they don't like something or someone, but if someone has valid criticism you can agree with their post and get the same thing done as disagree while still providing reasons. EDIT: 3 people saw my previous post and agreed with it, which basically shows how well the current system works. They disagreed with your post but don't feel like writing a book about it, so they agree with someone else's post that provides valid arguements that align with their own grievences.
