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Emojis and Lemmy (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Does anyone else think having emojis as a response to a comment/thread would be a neat addition instead of only upvote/downvote?

Reddit seemed to sorta do that with awards but thats not quite what I'm suggesting.

Something similar to GitHub for instance, except we keep the upvote downvote system as-is.

This would hopefully discourage the use of upvote/downvote as a "I like/dislike this" button while also adding the ability to more accurately express the emotion the post/comment illicited

Additionally, there are a lot of people who are mostly just lurkers and have no desire to post, but they want to be able to emote further then just a upvote/downvote but DON'T want to actually post a comment like "I love this" or "You're so right" or even just commenting an emoji, because making a comment is a whole extra action that makes them visible, opens up to comments or upvotes/downvotes.

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[-] [email protected] 23 points 11 months ago

No, I don't think that. I like that Lemmy is not facebook, or whatsapp, or instagram, or youtube, ir reddit.

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[-] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

No thanks. Up and downvotes is all Lemmy needs, keep it simple.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I wouldn't mind seeing tags for posts to categorizes discussions in a community tho,

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Yeah, but tags are a type of reaction. OP is talking about reactions to posts and comments.

Tags would be great to have.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Right, tags are a different concept, I do mean just a reaction option in addition to upvote or downvote

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

IIRC it's going to be added

[-] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago

I think that when Facebook swapped like and dislike out for the set of five emoji responses they noticeably reduced the feedback it was possible to leave on a post. They removed the ability to disagree with a post and turned every response into an affirmation of some kind.

I'd prefer not to degrade lemmy in the same way.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I would definitely advocate for both, not removing upvote downvote at all

Like I mentioned on another reply, I'm thinking more akin to discord wherein you can upvote/downvote but also add 1 emoji if you'd like

[-] [email protected] 15 points 11 months ago

โ˜น๏ธ

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Lol

[-] [email protected] 12 points 11 months ago

If you want the fediverse to grow, it needs content. Emoji responses are some of the lowest effort engagement you can have. That's just asking for a race to the bottom.

Encourage more substantial responses, not less.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I mean, is it really any different then upvote and downvote? Why even have that functionality if we should be focusing on requiring everyone to write a reply? :p see how that logic doesn't really make sense?

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

well... I think many people use up/down voting as a continued engagement driver (visibility and whatnot). would you also propose filters/sorting for emoji reaction (most hearted, etc)? my biases tend toward simplicity and reactions outside of actual replies "just don't do it for me".

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Fair enough, I think it would give the option to more accurately express a reaction over just "I like/don't like this" which I know isn't really what the upvote/downvote system is supposed to be used as but uh... It is what ends up happing lol

[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I didn't see the point of what you were saying until you mentioned it would be a way to express disagreement without calling the post itself bad and/or limiting its reach.

(I notice that's what's happening in this post: people don't like the idea, so they downvote, which I think is uncalled for because it means we can't distinguish low-effort spam and trolling from valid but unpopular ideas like yours.)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Bingo

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

it means we can't distinguish low-effort spam and trolling from valid but unpopular ideas like yours.

Bingo

valid.

edit to say that anything to get up/down votes back to meaning "this is relevant / interesting, (even if I don't agree or like)" would be useful.

[-] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago

I think it's fine to just leave the emoji as a comment.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

My only problem with this is threads can quickly become overrun if everyone did that, I'm thinking like discord style

[-] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

๐Ÿคท

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Idk if you saw like Hexbear users putting emojis and everyone getting upset about it because it displays different to them with their version of Lemmy (apparently)

[-] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

I don't forsee threads being overrun on Lemmy anytime soon (with the exception of hexbear spam perhaps).

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I've already seen many examples where a top level comment has 15-20 replies (not each continuing into their own thread) which is difficult to keep track of sometimes and having more emotive options would likely cut down on certain responses like just an emoji comment or things like "this" because an upvote doesn't feel like "enough" but a comment is also not really adding to the discussion

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

If people on Lemmy start responding with "this" I'm fuckin out of here

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[-] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Emojis don't have fixed meanings. A better solution to what you're asking for would be Slashdot-style moderation, where you can apply an upvote/downvote and specify a reason, and then the system would kind of average them together and say whether a comment is generally thought to be insightful, informative, trolling, etc.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I don't see how that'd work within the framework of Lemmy/Reddit, that'd be a COMPLETE overhaul to the entire system

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I don't entirely disagree, but at least it would be effective at its stated purpose of showing how people feel about a post.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I guess I'm not looking for additional moderation or something to that extent, just more ability to express a feeling or emotion without needing to make a full on comment and more expressive then up arrow or down arrow.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

๐Ÿ‘Ž

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I think it could be fun if it were opt-in per community, similar to custom awards on Reddit but free. The downside would be losing compatibility with other ActivityPub implementations (although FireFish does have emoji reactions so implementing it the same way as FF would help to set a standard).

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I'm actually curious what does the upvote/downvote button equate to for other activitypub implementations?

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Upvote is like a Mastodon favorite, and should be used similar to a favorite across other ActivityPub implementations. Boost, likewise, is common across other implementations.

(Fun fact though: kbin originally had these reversed - upvote performed a boost, and what is now called "boost" was originally favorite! This was switched a bit ago for better interoperability with Lemmy and other AP implementations.)

Downvote, to my knowledge, is a unique implementation to Lemmy/kbin.

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[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Yes. Like what github does. It'd allow expressing agreement or a brief opinion, while supporting the "upvote if it's interesting, not if you agree," without forcing everyone to either resort to "me too" comments or being mute.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Exactly like that! Better example then Discord style thank you!

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I would like that. Only thing, we need to figure out a way to calculate a score for posts and comments to be able to sort them.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I feel like that would be a much harder aspect, which is why I was advocating to keep the upvote/downvote system unchanged.

Would certainly be interesting to think about how something like that could be accomplished though ๐Ÿ‘

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Having two competing systems in parallel maybe isn't the best choice. People probably don't want to click 2 buttons everytime. And then you lose their votes. Also this way the emojis are mere decoration and not something useful to grade the posts.

I read some people don't like the way down-voting works. A new system would be a good opportunity to fix this and provide ways to distinguish between disapproval and wanting to lower visibility.

Idk. If it's a well-made, elaborate new system. I'm okay to replace the old one.

I think some Fediverse software already has emoji reactions. Could be Misskey or Pleroma or something like that.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Eh, I think most would still use upvote and downvotes majority and add on with a emoji sometimes, just like awards on reddit, just without needing to pay for the ability to use them.

Again though, it would be interesting to think about some sort of system that replaces it altogether, but I don't see a way to make that viable at the moment.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

A first idea would be to have 3 categories of emojis. positive reactions (thumbsup, smiley, rocket, ...), neutral ones (hat, ...) and negative ones (vomiting, ...). Together with a proper downvote symbol, this could map onto the old categories.

But that'd have to be transparent and intuitive. many users don't want to learn about specifics. and what exactly votes and what's decoration. It has to be obvious and work without learning things.

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this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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