Reactions are here - update from MNHQ

[KatyMumsnet]

We’ve listened to your feedback! While many of you have enjoyed the ‘Thanks’ button, you also told us that you'd love more ways to express your feelings on the site.

Starting today, you now have the choice of four reactions:
‘Agree’, ‘Love’, ‘Funny’, and ‘Thanks’.

Here’s how it works:

• Select the ‘React’ button underneath the OP or reply.
• Choose the reaction that reflects how you feel about the post.
• Reactions are private and are only visible to the post owner.
• You can select one reaction per post.

We hope this gives you even more ways to engage with posts and share how you feel.

Let us know your thoughts or any questions in the comments below!

Yes, this would be a very helpful upgrade.

I like having a wider range of reactions but I think it's a shame that we can't see who has reacted anymore.

Oh wait... Now we can?

🤣@AskingQuestionsAllTheTime

Thanks all for your feedback so far! And for all your reactions on my OP!

@SwordToFlamethrower we are currently updating the app! The new app is in beta phase which you are welcome to join and try out! We will be launching in the new year. If you are interested in joining the beta I can send you details on how to join.

@RoadToBeverly Thanks for your feedback - we will be keeping an eye on the way these new reactions are used and will make a decision to remove them if we think they are causing more harm than good.

@JaneJeffer there was a bug preventing this but we've fixed it now so you should be able to click on the reactions icons on your post and see who's reacted.

@Essentialblindspots Thanks has always been private and our thinking is that it will prevent posting becoming a popularity contest - when we researched this idea with users originally it was the thing that people were most worried about.

@BlackChunkyBoots You can still thank!

Indeed @RegimentalSturgeon
(I have handclapped your post, in genuine agreement)

And what of the people who want to use the "thanks" option?

Indeed surely anyone with a bit of common sense would anticipate it being misused and it being anonymous is just asking for trouble.

I don't understand what was wrong with the thanks button the way it was?

Can we have a disagree reaction?

It would have been better to have kept the thanks button and make it visible to everyone to prevent the passive aggressive thanks some people give. The laughing emoji will be used in the same way now as PPs have said.

I think we should have all the opposite reactions as well in the interests of fairness and balance

It is a social media now :)

I really wish you’d stop making MN more and more cluttered and fiddly to use. I don’t understand why you’ve picked icons that don’t match the things you’ve said - is applause meant to be like or agree or what?

They look childish.

I agree about the need for something to show agreement but it makes Thanks and Love unnecessary. And why not something to show disagreement too? That could prevent a lot of nasty bickering. I would prefer a simple choice of Upvote or Downvote, and the ability for everyone to see the numbers of each (and the names if they wanted to). It would be good to know how many people agreed with each post I read.

(Incidentally, I hope the counting becomes more accurate. I frequently get emails telling me how many people have thanked me for a particular post, but then discover that the number shown on the post itself is, and remains, completely different.)

Interested too - and is there any way to see how many users have chipped in on this versus users who have mentioned issues with the mobile app (can't vote, can't PM, very limited TIO).

You can still thank! It is the default reaction#

A handclap isn't the same as thanks. If you type [ t h a n ks ] without the spaces, you get - which is a much gentler sentiment than the one suggested by clapping hands.
Surely people will use the handclap in order to convey the kind of tribal noise that MPs make in Parliament when polarising sentiments are voiced..

The one plus that i can see to this is that at least my notifications are not now filled up with notifying me of every post of mine, even ones ten days old, which anyone has thanked me for. Each thanks was getting a notification all of its own – and opening one of them caused the others to vanish. That was just frustrating.

I don’t get why it isn’t visible to everyone. What’s the point?

That would turn threads into a popularity contest/ fight club.

No thanks.

Make it public. We can handle it 😂😂

If you're feeling adventurous I would love a page down button, we have a back to top one. A page down would be fab, saves scrolling past all the people who quoted the op post 🙄

Agree with @mathanxiety - the benefit of it being hidden to everyone but the poster means no one can post just for public praise and reactions (which people are more likely to do if there's a simple emoji than a repost and reactive comment). PLEASE keep it like that, @KatyMumsnet

For posters saying the anonymity is bad, I don't think that's the case, is it? Just "Reactions are private and are only visible to the post owner", which is how the current Thanks button works. Am I reading that wrong?

React is vile. I have no idea what the buttons are supposed to mean, which is probably just as well because with no way of the person I'm buttoning knowing who has buttoned them it serve no useful function. No thanks, nasty.

It would be better to get rid of the emoticons, so that people click on the words 'thanks', agree', 'love' and 'funny'. Then we won't be inhabiting a scary world of painted clown emotions.

Only if we’re 12.

When someone reacts to your post it is visible to you. You'll see the icons on your post and when you click them you'll see a breakdown of which reactions you've received and who did them!