I don't know if there's any type of search algorithm the mods can run, but it would be really cool to see a thread that has the most thumbed posts of all time here.

It would be especially awesome if it were a locked thread so it could be a hall of fame. Say, every time I post gets 10 thumbs (or 5), it gets posted to that thread. The thing will be a disjointed mess, but it'll be OUR disjointed mess. It would be fun to revisit some of the most epic posts of all time. Yondar just posted a comic strip that it going to stand the test of time. Would love to see it honored, and then was wondering which other posts over the years may have gone forgotten.

This awesome idea brought to you by your friendly neighbourhood Barney.

does anyone actually use the thumbs system?



PS: also 100% sure that if we start recording this it'll immediately get co-opted. SOURCE: having existed on the internet for like five minutes

i doubt it. And if that happens, it's easily to turn off. I just wish I could look back for the most epic posts in the search function (search for posts with 5 thumbs or more, etc)

There's not any good way to pull those pieces of functionality together. That said, I can pull out a few stats manually...

Currently the five most-liked posts are all in the Duels area, and come from:
Author | Likes
Hakeem928 | 24
megabeast37215 | 15
Yondar | 10
megabeast37215 | 10
drclawx | 9

There are another two posts with 8 likes, five with 7, nineteen with 6, and so on.
Overall, 17573 posts (out of 541699) have received a total of 20858 likes.

I'd responded, but this post isn't thumbs up worthy.


Shut up
Shut up + insult
Meme (I think Barney deca upvoted?)
Shut up
Helpful link

Yup, that's Duels.

Wasn't the previous most liked post Miss_Bun telling some Cyclone guy to shut up? People dig that stuff.

The top 2 posts were hating on Chiang lol. Says it all really.

Thanks Welder!! Really appreciate you digging that up

Welder, let's go through this exercise once a year if you're up for it. It would be cool to see which are the top five (or so) posts on NGA, based on thumbing. It'll sort of indicate what the hot points of the year were and it's a fun way of looking back. I'll try to think of doing it just after the Oscars as our own little awards show

it's cool to see all the action/drama is on the Duels subform

Sure thing! Just remind me at that time so that it actually happens.

Why would you want to be reddit

thumbs up are a part of the duels forum culture i think

i have been to forums where people attach significance to "like" buttons and forums where people do not and it is something i can get into and something i can do without

The problem with "like" buttons is that you gameify posting. People want to feel like winners, so they'll try to make posts that get as many "likes" as possible, and the easiest way to do that is to make low effort posts that everyone agrees with. At best, this leads to the board being cluttered by uncontroversial truisms like "good thing is good" and "bad thing is bad" being unnecessarily posted for the millionth time. At worst, this leads to a herd mentality where everyone posts the same stupid and wrong opinion because it's popular, and has a chilling effect on people who disagree with it.

"Likes" also influence how a post is perceived. If a post is liked by a lot of people, it's not just "an opinion that someone had", it's "an opinion that was good enough to get lots of likes." And if two people are arguing and one of them has more likes than the other one, you're going to go into the thread biased in favor of the one with more "likes". Maybe you'll even "like" their posts, creating a feedback loop. It's corrosive to discussion to have opinions be evaluated on their popularity rather than their merit.

Furthermore, "likes" gameify discussion, changing it from a process by which people can arrive at the truth of a matter to a team sport that you "win" by getting more likes on your side's posts than the other side's. These are at odds because listening to opinions you disagree with and only posting intellectually honest arguments, while necessary for a productive discussion, are actively discouraged by an adversarial mentality.

Im not thumbing that boring post