Apologies if this has been posted before.
I was thinking it would be nice to have a “like” or a “heart” button on comments on observations, sort of like how it is on the forum, to show thanks or to agree with the comment. It would prevent a lot of unnecessary comments that don’t really contribute to the ob and would be a way for the community to show appreciation for a good comment.
Are you proposing this only for comments and comments on IDs? What about IDs only?
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People have asked for a way for new users to not use Agree as a Thank you. I suppose this could help with that.
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I do like this idea for comments; not sure how it would be interpreted for ID’s.
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similar to this ol’ one https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/provide-a-non-comment-way-to-let-iders-know-you-received-their-helpful-information/5087?
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with a default setting for notifications, only if we choose to ask for them.
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I think this could be useful to show appreciation for a comment…esp. b/c oftentimes IDers share additional, helpful info or are IDing my obs in response to a request for help confirming an initial ID…a simple “Like” button would be a quick show of appreciation w/o cluttering the Comments section.
Yes…it should definitely be something the users agree to be notified about…b/c it could be really annoying to receive hundreds of Likes from well-meaning Community members!
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I would definitely second this! I’m a beginner and also grateful to people who take the time to offer comments or suggestions, so this would be a welcome addition!
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Hmm, I don’t know, I guess having them on both would be nice but I’m not sure it would work well on just IDs.
I can see the value of a thank button for IDs (in that someone who might otherwise want to click “Agree” would click “Thank” instead) but I’m not sure a Like button for a comment would be as beneficial. Remember, every like would have to be recorded somewhere, growing the iNat database quite a bit and possibly slowing things down. For sure it’s great being able to add a like to a comment, but would it be worth the extra burden?
Something like a yes/no vote if a comment is helpful, which could then be used to populate an ID page for a taxon, would probably be a better use of a button there. My two cents.
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Yeah, that would be very cool.
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Welcome to the forum @Erin_MA!
Should this feature request be closed since that one is under review?
There is a nice inatter around in my area, but she nearly writes a thank you comment for every ID she gets…
So I get a lot of notifications for “thank yous” to people from her…
As for me, she is the only one in my “feed”, so I can handle that she is that way. She is really nice, and if we both wouldn’t have health issues with the distance, we would have met.
But I can assume if somebody has many people in their “feed” who uses the commantary for so many thank yous, it can get annoying.
A friend of mine, always asks me, if there is a possibility to like an observation.
So I would like to see the possibility of hearts and likes…
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My vote is no. To me this would create competition around comments and people acting solely to get likes. I see iNat as a place everyone cooperates to understand nature and enjoy it, not competes to get more approval from others. iNat is not Facebook or any other social media site and shouldn’t aspire to be like them.
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Fully agree. Social media and its system of “likes” is a mistake to begin with imo, no need to open inat up to validation farming (now somebody please like my comment and give me those sweet meaningless internet points)
I have no interest in collecting ‘likes’, but I’d love a way to show appreciation for someone’s comment without needing to write a comment when I have nothing in particular to say. And if it could only notify the person I was responding to, rather than everyone on the thread as a comment does, even better.
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A like button on comments would prevent good intentions from agreeing to an ID - since that is the only option to respond that they can see.
After all - it works for us here in the Forum.
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What if the “like” symbol was only visible to the one who made the comment and the one who made the like.
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