I don't get the hate on like/dislike

[DANDAN_THE_DANDAN]

Just to be clear, this isn't a suggestion to add to the forums. I know how much you all hate the idea. That's why it's in general not suggestions.

I don't get why everyone think the like/dislike system is a horrible idea. I made a forum page like this a long time ago but I still don't really get it, haven't thought about asking again until now. Why does everyone hate it?

The two most common arguments is that it acts as a toxic tool and raises a hive-mind community. I am going to argue against the first one.

It raises a toxic community

I don't get this, you would see Reddit being the most toxic place on Earth if this is true but if anything, Reddit is a circlejerk for having subreddits more than it's toxic for keeping count of karma. Yes, you have karma whores - but are they toxic? Depending on the community, no, they just repost a lot. And that is an entirely different can of worms which I don't feel like debating.

YouTube also has a like (and a dysfunctional dislike) system and there's no toxicity. Everytime you see a toxic comment you would read dozens of replies with many times the number of likes. The real toxicity is when you see two sides replying back and forth over the course of the day with both having roughly the same number of likes but does the like/dislike system cause that? I highly doubt it.

And take Twitter as an example: it doesn't have a like/dislike system. My opinion? (And take it with a grain of salt cause I don't use twitter to avoid doom scrolling) It's far more toxic than the two aforementioned social medias. Why? Because words are the sharpest tools to attack and Twitter has a word limit which prevents from complete and well-thought-out posts from occuring without extending the tweet over multiple parts which just looks ugly.

TL;DR, I feel like the blame on the like/dislike system is misplaced because the real problem is circlejerking which feedbacks toxicity with toxicity and let's talk about that.

It raises a hive mind community

And is that a bad thing? YouTube comments, rated by top comments, is a hive mind. It fosters low effort comments and if it's juicy drama, sharks will smell blood and everyone will like them thus putting them on a pedestal. But I see a light at the end of the tunnel that others don't and it's that the like system does indeed benefit a community in that it creates inside jokes specific to the channel. A funny joke gets tons of likes, others repeat the joke in another video which also gets tons of likes, even more repeat the joke, and now the channel had an inside joke which has become an identity for the channel.

Let's compare that to MangaDex:
-Does MD accept low effort comments that accumulates thousands likes?
- - - My gosh absolutely not. Everyone is tired of "Nobody:" comments.
-Does MD foster drama which the like/dislike system will add fuel to the fire to?
- - - There were only two dramas with MD that I can remember and MD has existed for about 3 years (correct me if I'm wrong). I'd argue that MD has little enough drama for this to not matter that much.
-Does MD need inside jokes?
- - - No, the MD community mostly exist in the forums and by recognizing usernames in comments of mangas. This is a manga site that don't need inside jokes outside of the manga itself.

TL;DR
For the second argument alone I agree that we shouldn't have a like/dislike system in MD but every time someone says that a like/dislike system is "toxic" I just want to copypaste my argument and @ them in the replies because I think this mindset is stupid.

I also think that a hive mind is a double edged sword which enhances drama while making it possible to establish a community identity, the latter of which MD does not need.

 

[justforthelulz]

_{I saw the shitpost opportunity and went for it.}

 

[Afiaki]

Actually, the internet.

That would be my thoughts.

 

[sterven]

everytime someone says toxic i can't help but hear it in dsps voice.

Spoiler

Anyways the reason I don't like this feature is due to the sheer laziness it propagates as well as bringing out the attention whores who are seeking some sort of cheap validation from the community.

 

[pandascepter]

Dadan, my dude, be sure to have a good sleep schedule, internet might be alrd infected you with hatred.

edit : @justforthelulz hey hey hey, *pritt pritt. You crossed the line.

 

[schlo]

to me dislike/like is just another rating system similar to the 1-10 on manga. Don't hate it. Don't think forums for the most part need it. I go to forums to discuss topics I'm interested in and view it as a conversation. I don't typically rate conversations and don't think it is useful or good to rate conversations in general. You might push someone to not contribute as much. I have seen it used on one forum where it was somewhat useful. It is a small forum, if a post get's enough dislikes it is hidden with a link to see it. Most of the time no one uses the dislike but there is one quasi troll and the members occasionally use it to hide a post when he flares up.

I can see a use for them on youtube. They might help someone decide to watch a video or not. The only spot I could see here where it might be interesting is on the titles. Maybe instead of like/dislike do two here, a entertaining/not entertaining and a good quality / poor quality. With the info that e/ne is not was it a quality story but did you find it enjoyable, are you glad you read it or wish you spent the time reading something else. The GQ/PQ would not be that you necessarily found it enjoyable but that you thought it was well done or poorly done. I think that would be interesting to see, more so than the 1-10 rating here.