To wish that everybody could see the total number of ‘Thanks’

[Starlingexpress]

On thread comments rather than just the author of the comment?

I’m not sure why this is not viewable to everybody but reckon it could be really useful.

Never in the history of AIBU have I seen an OP or a particularly rude or argumentative poster EVER admit they are BU but I sometimes wish a comment which gets loads of thanks might just sow a seed 😆

The thing is, I am often surprised by the threads that take off (stuff like “What have you eaten today?”) and the direction that a particular thread ends up going on. Seeing that a particular post got a lot of likes won’t make me think that they are right - just that a lot of people on here are a bit odd.

I’ve given you a thanks even though I know you won’t see it 😎

Yes, but the discussion itself encourages responses, and you can justify notifying everybody who voted to bring them back to the discussion, which increases traffic. Content and traffic are king, especially on a site that runs largely by advertising.

You can't really justify doing the same thing with a Like button, and comments don't invite further comment the way the thread-starter does.

In general, these things are true and borne out by everybody who's run a forum, which is why most forum functionality ends up looking similar, even though there's so much variation in software (from off-the-shelf open source packages to custom builds).

It would skew the debate. If you look at the Daily Mail comments, the top rated ones are usually the most outrageous. I’ve always suspected bot farms spam with likes to skew public opinion.

Ha 😂 See, this immediately made me feel like "I HARDLY EVER GET DOUBLE FIGURES, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME??!!!" It's extremely likely that, if thanks were public, I'd be trying to fine-tune alter my replies to get more applause.

I'm not even particularly desperate for approval, just an averagely flawed human. That shit could make or break a sensitive person.

If you want to be webloved, make TikToks!

I think 38 is my highest but I mostly use the app so don't always see them. Probably have a few hundred somewhere 🤪

And that means if I gave you thanks I had to go on the mobile site especially to do it so I hope you're really grateful 🤨

Honoured 😉

I ain’t got the face for tiktoks 😁

I agree. There was a thread the other day started by soneone where one poster (not the OP) kept coming after me and I wish I could have just said tell you what let's compare how many thanks we are getting on these posts to see whether it's you or me that would score higher on an AIBU basis because I am pretty sure the 36 I had may win!

Double figures are rare for me, trust me. 🤣

New proposal; MNHQ to create a league table of posters by total ‘thanks’ 🍿

I come back to check the final result of the poll and then close the thread again and I still haven't posted anything. In fact most of my notifications are final poll results. I just check them and close them.

Could be an added feature of an ‘Oldies you REALLY miss’ thread 😂

Great, but...it's not all about you. It's about all the site's members in aggregate.

Finally fit triple figures with this thread 😂

How can you have over a hundred thanks but only three hundred voted? People voting and thanking seems weird.

You want a screenshot? 😂

Why would anyone care? Seriously?

You care enough to comment 😁

Amazing 😂

How many people do you think read MN?

Are they real then? I get messages saying "you've been thanked" but I just assumed it was an MN thing to make you feel good and keep posting.

Guess I was wrong 🫢

I'm just baffled at how people are using the thanks button, tbh. Why would the OP of this thread be something that particularly deserves a thanks? And if people wanted to agree with it without bothering to post, they could just vote. Given the number of posts and votes, this doesn't seem to be a particularly popular thread.

So are people voting and thanking, which would be doubling up on effort, or are people thanking and not voting, which would be weird as voting is the visible one?

I’m not sure this thread is a great example to be honest and would hazard a guess that the 130 or so people who’ve thanked my OP are doing it in a pretty light hearted way. Been an interesting thread for me-the world of profit driven/social media strategy stuff is a whole other world and it’s interesting to know a bit more about it.

And for now I’ll just continue to cherish all my thanks privately 😉 Even if they are given on an unpopular thread 🥲