SUGGESTION: Idea to replace laugh emoji with something less open to abuse

[AmethystAnnotation]

This was just an idea I had.

The laugh emoji was being abused by posters who used it to laugh sarcastically at serious posts. Instead of having an emoji which is aimed at recognising a post is funny, why not introduce an emoji that recognises the wit of the poster?

This could be a positive icon such as a little trophy, scroll or rosette. It could be used for funny posts but also if a poster suggests a particularly clever answer to a dilemma, or solves a puzzle, identifies a book or item that is being searched for, etc.

Since the aim of the icon would be to say 'you are very witty/clever' I think it would be less effective as a 'sarcastic' reaction but would still allow posters to specifically recognise a post that is funny or clever.

Interested to know if others think this might work and what MNHQ think of the idea.

🏆📜🏵

Does that everyone would have to hover over every post to see if someone had posted a 😂 ?

I'd rather see up/down voting.

On other platforms you can click on the visible emojis at the bottom of a post and it will list everyone who gave that reaction in a popup dialogue box.

Not a fan of that personally. You'd see downvotes and possibly have no idea why which would lead to paranoia.

@SirChenjins I think you can usually see what emojis have been used at the bottom of a post like this

❤️😂

and then see the names if you click on them. It can differ slightly on different sites.

The other alternative, of course, is just to remove them totally. The current halfway house seems a bit silly to me.

People still comment on replies, though.
I think you're about 25 years too late trying to change the internet, though...

I avoid places that have downvoting. As I said earlier, it's all subjective - not expecting everyone to feel the same way I do.

And that's exactly what down voting would indicate: disagreement

I would be clicking that ⬇️ like nobody’s business

I think 'negative emojis' would be even more open to abuse on a site like MN than the laugh emoji.

So you mean that emojis would be visible and posters would have to click on each of them to see who had posted them?

Well theres threads with 50+ posters saying cancel the cheque…

This wasn't my idea/suggestion, I was just explaining how it works elsewhere.

But yes, each emoji that has been used at least once appears at the foot of the post, you'd hover or click and it would bring up a list of the names who'd used it. Similar to how it works with the current private emojis, only they would be visible to everyone.

I'm not advocating this particularly. My thread was started on the premise that two things are a given -

The emojis are private
We can't have the laugh emoji back

and on that basis, what could we have instead?

There have been numerous threads requesting the return of the laugh emoji but MNHQ seem intractable so my intention wasn't to add to the existing threads but to suggest something new which MNHQ might think workable or at least worth trialling.

Yes, sorry for hijacking your thread, @AmethystAnnotation

No problem at all!

That could work- providing the person posting the emoji would be visible to everyone and could be reported if needed. I still feel it's an extra step that isn't needed - it relies on other posters having to click on the emoji in order to see who has posted it.

I suppose it would lead to the same issues of threads being cumbersome if a list of names were to be shown by default after every post with reactions.

I still think it can be solved by keeping the existing system but finding a less controversial emoji than 'laugh' which conveys a positive meaning other than thanks, support, love or agree.