New post 'liking' and 'rating' feature

[Daniel]

On behalf of the Administrators I would like to give everyone a heads up about a new feature which we are trialing on the forum. You may now notice a new 'thumbs up' button on other people's posts, this is a 'like' feature for posts (similar to Facebook for those who are familiar). This aims to reduce posts which are simply "thank you" or "I agree" as you can just like the post instead. You can also see those "giving thanks" for posts in a list within your post. This aims to encourage high quality posts.

If any one has any queries please contact me, but hopefully this is straight forward. Remember this is for trial at the moment only, so please place feedback here. We will be trying a few different options over the next few days/weeks so hopefully we can get people's opinions, after all this is your forum. Thank you all!

[busrider]

I thought that when this feature was originally introduced, it was possible to view how many "thanks" one had given and received on their member profile page, but now this doesn't appear to be possible...

[Daniel]

I just edited the package, does that work for you now?

[busrider]

It does now... Thank you sir.

[Mr OC Benz]

For some reason, I am unable to see any like icon for most posts??? Although ironically I was browsing upon a Bangkok buses thread, that was the only one that a like button appeared. But I have noted some of my posts have been thanked. Also is it just me, or is the sub-forums for the board appearing in a very untidy manor? i.e. the thread title is overlapping the thread icon (standard, sticky, announcement etc...)

Edit: After a bit of investigating, I've narrowed it down to just on Chrome on this computer that it is displaying funny. It seems alright on Firefox and my iPad (besides the fact it displays a little different due to the screen size anyway).

[Off The Rails]

I quite like our little new 'like' and 'rate' system. At the least, all of us wish to thank you, ADMIN members for the effort and time taken into doing it.

Cheers from all of us at Bus Australia!!

[busrider]

I just hope that people don't go and over-use this feature, it'll be made a bit pointless if people go and "thank" every post they see...

[PoweredByCNG]

IMO the colour of the bar denoting the % of likes is too distracting.

[busrider]

Can I ask, what that "rating" on threads and posts is actually supposed to mean? It's a bit confusing to me.

[Mr OC Benz]

I also personally think that the "thanks" should be exempt from the Lunch Room sub-forum as the lunch room is already what it is, it doesn't really require "thanks" which doesn't really benefit anything in that section because it is an off-topic section basically.

[busrider]

I agree. Since posts in The Lunch Room, Where Is It and Which Vehicle Is It don't count towards post counts, the "thanks" feature should also be disabled in these sections.

[T1200]

Any people who are having trouble with the forum topic lists not displaying properly since the changes should clear their web browser's cache (instructions differ depending on what web browser you use).

[Fleet Lists]

Can I ask, what that "rating" on threads and posts is actually supposed to mean? It's a bit confusing to me.

I appreciate getting the chance the chance to make some comments on this.

I was confused too until I spent about an hour earlier today trying to figure it out.

Please note that I am not involved in making these changes.

I have in fact suggested some changes to the ratings.

But basically the rating is the number of thank you received by either the topic or post as a percentage of the peak number of thank yous received by a topic or post respectively.

In the case of the list of top list of thank yous I have no difficulty with the percentage rating being shown.

However on the forum pages where there is a new column with heading "Rating" with a percentage being shown against those topics which have had a Thank You, I believe this is meaningless. I would prefer to see a column with heading "Thank Yous" and the actual number of Thank Yous being shown.

In the case of individual posts where a rating is shown I do wonder whether it has any meaning ie if the post has the top number of Thank yous for any posts that it is 100%, if it is half the peak, it is 50% and so on. I would like to get some feedback as to whether this is really meaningful.

[Daniel]

The percentage ratings can be turned off altogether and I agree with Fleet Lists and would prefer them not to be there as it is just complicated. I have already removed the red bar, which some of you may have seen last night. Comments?

We have decided to remove it from the Lunch Room, Where Is It? and New Users sections in line with people's comments and our own opinions.

[Mr OC Benz]

The next biggest problem that may arise is the excessive use of the thanks feature by particular users... As busrider mentioned, it'll be pointless if almost every post has a thanks next to it. But I guess we'll see what happens.

But thanks for removing it from the Miscellaneous section, I could already see that it was being used in that section with no real potential benefit, considering posts don't even count in that section anyway.

Is it possible considering the ratings work in a weird way to change it to be as such like a "star" rating with no relation to the amount of thanks received? So users can click five stars or one star for a thread to show that is worthwhile reading and has interesting information that may benefit users??? Just some ideas...

[busdriver12]

I've noticed a couple of thank you's against my name, but for the life of me cannot find where they were done. Is there anyway of an individual being able to find the posts that garnered a Thank You? It's an onerous task to trawl through all my posts to see where some one has left a thank you note.

[Mr OC Benz]

Normally under your profile if you click on has thanked, or been thanked, it'll list the users that have thanked or you have thanked followed by a link to that particular post.

[busdriver12]

Normally under your profile if you click on has thanked, or been thanked, it'll list the users that have thanked or you have thanked followed by a link to that particular post.

Not quite.

I found the answer in a roundabout fashion. It's found by clicking the Thanks List, if you click on the number in the table, it takes you to list list of post(s) that have been thanked with further links to the post itself, the thread it appeared in or the forum it appeared in.

Thanks for putting me on the scent Zack (no pun intended!)

[Fleet Lists]

That does not show the posts which triggered the thank yous but you can click on the thank you list icon at the top of the page which goes to thankslist.php and then find your user name which will show the posts concerned.

Edit: Oops you seemed to have found it just before I posted my reply.

[noofnoof]

Can someone post a screencap with a big circle on it showing where the buttons to 'Thank' is? I can't for the life of me see it anywhere.
Cheers.

[Eagle Eye]

I second the above post – where is the thumbs up button to like a post? Or is my browser maybe, I'm using Safari 5.1.7?

Edit: Logged onto Firefox and all the thumbs up and ratings percentages appear, must be a browser thing...

[Daniel]

Please everyone, clear your cache if you are having issues with this mod.

[macpro622776]

For some reason, I am unable to see any like icon for most posts??? Although ironically I was browsing upon a Bangkok buses thread, that was the only one that a like button appeared. But I have noted some of my posts have been thanked. Also is it just me, or is the sub-forums for the board appearing in a very untidy manor? i.e. the thread title is overlapping the thread icon (standard, sticky, announcement etc...)

Edit: After a bit of investigating, I've narrowed it down to just on Chrome on this computer that it is displaying funny. It seems alright on Firefox and my iPad (besides the fact it displays a little different due to the screen size anyway).

I have this issue on Firefox 12, and Chrome 19 on another computer is doing the same thing as well.
I've tried to clear my cache, but it has no effect.
Also I can't see the thanks icons either.

EDIT: Actually forget that, it's fine now. Perhaps clearing the cache (and waiting) did work.

[Fleet Lists]

The rating column has been removed as it caused considerable confusion. However the other parts of the Thank You function are still working.

[ADX666]

This is a great idea, now I dont feel like I am clogging up posts by thanking somebody for posting up their photos!