Wow, lots of thoughts on this!
I don't like that we can't click on more than one icon.
And why only one selection per person per post? Can't something be simultaneously funny and optimistic, or informative and useful?
That is a limitation of this feature. I don't think I can change that, unfortunately. I guess you'll just have to click the one button for which you feel the strongest.
Depending how people use this feature, this could just drive away anybody that doesn't fit in with the current set of active members. That is, it will tend to prevent the forum from evolving. Also even without hiding the post I imagine the "disagree" feature could discourage some people, especially newer members, if they are sensitive to such things.
I don't think there is a huge risk it will be used like that, at least not to a large degree. And I also think that while newcomers should be welcome to argue for their views, the other members should have an opportunity to give their feedback.
yes, it seems a bit like censorship....if someone doesn't like a post, they don't have to read it(barring mods, sometimes); if someone doesn't like a poster, they can put them on ignore(bar mods)
... and if someone doesn't like a negative rating, they can just ignore that too?
Yes, and it would only take 7 people that dislike a particular poster to effectively censor them. Given all the other buttons, I would think the disagree button would be more a friendly "hey, I disagree with that" but in that case it doesn't make sense to censor the post. Censoring the post makes the disagree button more like a report or red flag button.
7 ratings are actually quite a lot. In the past it's very rare that post has received as much as 7 likes. You make a good point though about the disagree button. In the default configuration, the disagree rating is categorized as neither positive nor negative - it's a neutral rating. For various reasons I changed it to negative, but I think now I would like to change it back.
Perhaps you(Indian Summer) can say what you hope to achieve by having a 'disagree' button.
Sometimes when you're disagreeing with someone in a thread, the discussion goes on back and forth for a while, until it's clear the opponent just doesn't have a very strong argument, but they are still producing blocks of text, just to get the last word. In these cases I think a simple "disagree" rating is the perfect response.
Maybe the use of disagree button should be restricted to the Debate forum and a few others, though. This is technically possible.
IS, to clarify...if a person receives a combination of 7 dislike and/or disagrees, the post will be hidden? Or is it solely the dislike button that will cause the thread to be hidden?
7 negative ratings. I have to define which ratings are negative in the configuration. (Currently, it's only "disagree".)
I don't think there is a 'dislike' button, only a 'disagree' button.
There was one, but I have disabled it.
