There are like buttons and there are like buttons - a public service announcement

[Trills]

Like button #1 At the top of (nearly) every thread there is now a "Facebook like" button.

This button can be found all over the web. If you click it (and then click "yes") a link to whatever website you were on will be posted to your Facebook wall. No information from the website is transferred to Facebook, just a link to the page you were on. A button with this functionality (and one that does the same for Twitter) has been in the Viewport bar for a number of months now.

Like button #2 Recently there has also been discussion of having a "like post" button.

This is a common feature in many forums. If you click it, the count next to the post goes up. "3 users like this post". Sometimes it will say "Jenn, Worley and Vools like this post". It is entirely internal to the forum and has nothing to do with Facebook. MNHQ said that they might trial this on a limited number of topics.

If you cannot tell the difference between these two then (IMO) you are not qualified to have an opinion on either.

I do not think that such a condescending post is likely to win friends or influence people, or assist discussion.

Thank u for clarifying Having come late to the discusion I really did not have a clue other than it was probable not as scary as sdome posts made it sound

Yet another thread on this!?

Yes!!!!

We all KNOW..... We have for some time. You are late to this....

I think we all need to get out more.

It's good that you know LittlestLight but "we all" clearly don't, I have seen posts written this morning that still refer to "trialling on a limited number of topics" on threads about the Facebook like button, which is what MNHQ said they would do for the post like button.

(and yes I am a bad bad person for starting another thread about the bloody button but it's either that or copy the above onto 50 different threads)

The impression I get is that this new button IS what MNHQ had in mind when they said they wouold be trialling a Like button "in response to user requests." It was initially a bit puzzling when they said that they would go ahead with such a trial despite years of repeated user rebuffs for such an idea. The only thing that made it easy to understand their about-turn was the thought that the Like button would turn out to be the Facebook button, which of course has revenue potential.

I don't have a problem with them sticking the Facebook button on -- it is a natural progression of the increasingly commercial nature of the site, and I've pretty much got reconciled to tolerating that. But if they do use the requests from some posters for an internal, MN-only, Like button as the alleged rationale for the introduction of the highly commercial Facebook Like button, then I would feel that they would be leaving themselves open to a charge of misrepresenting user-opinion to make a business development seem like a development in response to user demand. I HATE it when the "community" is used as the alleged driver for business decisions. I know most decisions have something of a mixed motive in that respect, but I still think there is scope for a lot more clarity about the relationship between business and community motives.

I understand the two different types of 'like button'. I understood that most people wanted the second type so they could show they 'liked' a particular post within a thread. I use lots of forums with that facility and am used to seeing it.

I don't think many/any really were asking for a 'Facebook like' button - which is why it has caused such a furore. Many people (including me) though we were getting the 'internal post like' button.

Would you like some help removing that broom stick from your arse, Trills?

No thanks - it helps me to fly

::applause::

And if that FB like button is what MNHQ has been talking about 'trialling' against the wishes of it's users then HQ has not been reading the threads about a site like button.

So like button 2 is a bit like like button one but not quite like it? have I, like, got that right like about the like buttons?

Like button 2 is not very like like button 1 at all, they're just, like, both called like buttons