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Bug #9835

closed

add a “like” function?

Added by Marilyn Weber over 6 years ago. Updated about 1 year ago.

Status:
Rejected
Priority name:
Normal
Assignee:
Erik Trainer
Category name:
Group Forums
Target version:
Start date:
2018-05-25
Due date:
% Done:

0%

Estimated time:
Deployment actions:

Description

Hannah House (one of the new MA in Digital Humanities students) asks " Is it possible to add a “like” function to posts and replies? I find similar functions on Slack, Facebook, Teams, etc handy. I’d love to be able to positively connect with/support a post or comment without having to clutter the thread with a trivial worded reply."


Files

like button placement.png (129 KB) like button placement.png Erik Trainer, 2018-05-28 11:06 AM
like emoji selection.png (167 KB) like emoji selection.png Erik Trainer, 2018-05-28 11:06 AM
like stats after like.png (156 KB) like stats after like.png Erik Trainer, 2018-05-28 11:06 AM
like stats clicked 1.png (147 KB) like stats clicked 1.png Erik Trainer, 2018-05-28 11:06 AM
like stats placement.png (153 KB) like stats placement.png Erik Trainer, 2018-05-28 11:06 AM
user hovers over like.png (165 KB) user hovers over like.png Erik Trainer, 2018-05-28 11:06 AM
notifications.tiff (97.1 KB) notifications.tiff Erik Trainer, 2018-05-28 11:07 AM
like stats clicked 2 modal.png (311 KB) like stats clicked 2 modal.png Erik Trainer, 2018-05-28 11:18 AM
Screenshot_2018-05-29_14-39-26.png (18.2 KB) Screenshot_2018-05-29_14-39-26.png github 1 Boone Gorges, 2018-05-29 10:39 AM
Screenshot_2018-05-29_14-43-34.png (231 KB) Screenshot_2018-05-29_14-43-34.png github 2 Boone Gorges, 2018-05-29 10:43 AM

Related issues

Related to CUNY Academic Commons - Feature #377: Like buttonsAssignedBoone Gorges2010-10-26

Actions
Has duplicate CUNY Academic Commons - Support #9834: add a “like” function Duplicate2018-05-25

Actions
Actions #1

Updated by Matt Gold over 6 years ago

  • Category name set to Group Forums
  • Status changed from New to Assigned
  • Assignee set to Boone Gorges

FYI she is talking about group forum posts; I think it might be a nice feature to add.

Also, she is a new Commons user and a new student in our MA in DH program, starting this Fall. It's good to get a feature request from a new user!

Actions #2

Updated by Matt Gold over 6 years ago

(also I am wondering whether there are BbPress plugins we could easily add to create this functionality; I can't imagine that they don't already exist)

I realize there would be other questions -- like would this tie into the notification system and/or trigger emails (I'd say it doesn't have to) --but I think it's worthy of discussion

Actions #3

Updated by Boone Gorges over 6 years ago

Actions #4

Updated by Boone Gorges over 6 years ago

  • Assignee changed from Boone Gorges to Erik Trainer
  • Target version set to Future release

(also I am wondering whether there are BbPress plugins we could easily add to create this functionality; I can't imagine that they don't already exist)

I'm unconcerned about the technical parts of the request. There are existing tools; most are likely to need some customization to work for us. See eg https://wordpress.org/plugins/likebtn-like-button/#description.

A few primary questions. There may be lots of other questions, depending on the answers to these:
1. Where does this appear in the forum interface, and what should it look like?
2. Do the likes do anything other than display counts/buttons on the items themselves? (Are they surfaced in search results? Can you sort/filter by likes? Can a user see a list of items he's liked?)
3. Do we envision a future where other things - sites, users, specific profile fields, activity updates, blog posts, blog comments - can be liked?

For the record, I think that emoji reactions are more 2018 than a simple Like button. Likes are more of a popularity measure, while emoji reactions can potentially be part of a conversation (votes, etc). https://wordpress.org/plugins/bp-reactions/

Assigning to Erik for thoughts about whether/how this might fit into the Commons.

Actions #5

Updated by Boone Gorges over 6 years ago

Actions #6

Updated by Matt Gold over 6 years ago

Thanks. FWIW, here are my answers to this question:

-- I think the user is suggesting something like the "clap" feature on Basecamp discussions or the like button that the like button you pointed to shows. The button, in other words, would not create a new, separate post entry but would instead be a sort of meta object attached to the post being liked. So it might go where other action buttons on that post are, like reply, edit, delete etc.
-- If we can post emoji as meta info on the original post, I think that would be great (that is basically what Slack allows you to do -- to, say, add a little heart that appears underneath a message. I couldn't quite tell, but it appears to me like the emoji plugin you linked to would allow people to add emjois to new posts, which I don't think is what is being sought here
-- I don't think ew need to integrate results into searches, etc. their meaning and importance would be focused specifically within the group context/intervace
-- I also don't think we need to envision a future where other things have likes, though I will note that we do have the follow button currently for sites (I'm not sure whether Erik knows about that; to see it, log into the Commons, visit a site, and then look at the bottom right hand of the page

Actions #7

Updated by Erik Trainer over 6 years ago

*EDIT: Using Facebook's emojis and other icons for example purposes only. Could we use ones provided by plug-ins Boone suggested? *

This is a fun one! See attachments for some mock-ups.

I agree with Matt in that the like feature should appear in the same grouping as our other post "actions" - reply, quote etc. That's where users will be looking to take action. I'm in favor of including the ubiquitous thumbs up icon alongside the "Like" text ("like button placement.png"). Like "statistics" could be displayed below the post actions ("like stats placement.png").

Emojis seem like a reasonable ask, and I like Boone's idea of them supporting interaction among group members. As such, we might allow users to click the like "stats" and pull up a list of people who liked the post ("like stats clicked 1.png"). Including an "Add Friend" or "Send Message" option in the modal window could facilitate further conversation ("like stats clicked 2 modal.png").

Boone Gorges wrote:

2. Do the likes do anything other than display counts/buttons on the items themselves? (Are they surfaced in search results? Can you sort/filter by likes? Can a user see a list of items he's liked?)
3. Do we envision a future where other things - sites, users, specific profile fields, activity updates, blog posts, blog comments - can be liked?

I think these are good questions but would prefer holding off until we have some more evidence that users would find such features useful. Sticking to what's being asked for in the ticket, the ability to like a post and then for the poster to receive appropriate feedback. Keeping the metadata info would set us up to possibly implement these features down the road, yeah?

In terms of notifications, 2 places come to mind: in the group's "Recent group activity" and in the "notifications" sidebar ("notifications.tiff") when logged into the Commons. Matt, to your point about likes focused specifically within the group context/interface, it seems like "recent group activity" is the place for them rather than the "notifications" bar.

Thoughts?

Actions #8

Updated by Boone Gorges over 6 years ago

Thanks, Erik! This feels well thought-out.

Regarding emoji reactions vs like - my thought is that they're mutually exclusive, and if you used emoji, then you wouldn't use the term 'LIKE' anywhere. So the Like toggle might be a smiley or something (this is the way it works in Slack and on Gitub). I'd also suggest that counts - at least, unified counts - don't make much sense in this context. You'd need the counts to be broken out on a per-reaction basis. See attached screenshot (github 1) of how Github does this. If we go with Like only, it's a bit simpler.

As sketched here, the project is a pretty large one. In addition to the Like toggle/count interface, we'd have new popups for selecting responses and viewing existing responses, as well as all notification integration. It may be worth considering whether it's possible or prudent to build a scaled-back version of this that is still worth using. What would a staged implementation look like? Say, for instance, we built the toggle interface alone, with a simpler interface to see likes (see hover state in screenshot github 2). Then, we develop some mechanism (user testing, analytics, etc) for determining whether a v2 was necessary or wise.

Actions #9

Updated by Matt Gold over 6 years ago

Hi all -- I'll respond in more detail later. but I'd vote for keeping this as simple as possible and restricted to the forum interface -- ie, I don't see a need for this to pipe into the activity stream at all.

Actions #10

Updated by Erik Trainer over 6 years ago

Awesome. So I think we're in agreement on the location of the functionality (at least the toggle), but disagree a bit on presentation. Boone, I'm with you on not using the word 'LIKE' but I do think the toggle image should be the thumbs up emoji. IMO it's a bit more neutral in that it can elicit more kinds of responses. A smiley is a more specific reaction, perhaps requiring more of a commitment to push. I do like the way GitHub separates out the counts for each emoji as you point out rather than presenting a unified count.

Also agree with Matt that we should limit the work to building the toggle/count interface.

Actions #11

Updated by Marilyn Weber over 6 years ago

Matt -

Should Hannah have a Redmine account so she can be added to this?

If not, happy to pass along any updates. Thanks!

Actions #12

Updated by Matt Gold over 6 years ago

sure! please let her know and I'll create onefor her

Actions #13

Updated by Marilyn Weber about 1 year ago

I'm going through my old tickets. I think this can be closed.

Actions #14

Updated by Boone Gorges about 1 year ago

  • Status changed from Assigned to Rejected
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