New Feature Idea: Adding a '+1' Feature
Hello!
As noted in our news post a few days ago about the redesign, we want to get better about asking for your feedback on new feature ideas or upcoming changes prior to rolling them out. We'll be reviving this lj_feedback community as part of that endeavor, and this 'new feature idea' post will get things started. (We're still monitoring the redesign post and will have some updates in another news post later about that, so keep commenting there about the redesign.)
Over the past year or two, we've noticed a marked increase in the number of users asking for a "+1" feature on LJ -- a way to indicate you 'like' a particular entry or comment. We have some ideas on how such a feature could work on LJ (while also allowing journal/community owners to decide whether they want to offer that ability on their accounts at all), and want to not only run our ideas past you, but also get your opinions/ideas about it as well.
So first, here's a general list of our thoughts on how we could implement this type of feature (numbered so you can easily reference them in your comments):
1) Terminology. We're going to refer to this feature idea as "+1" throughout this entry for ease of use, and because it's the term that's already used heavily by LiveJournal users to denote agreement to a particular comment. Other possibilities might be "like" or a graphic-only button, such as an up-arrow or a thumbs-up type of image. (For the remainder of this post, we will use "+1" in our terminology for simplicity, but please comment with your other ideas or thoughts about the term/icons to use.)
2) Visibility. There are several ways to give people control over a +1 feature. We're leaning towards the idea that each account (whether a personal journal or a community owner/maintainer) would have control over whether to display the +1 feature for their journal. To allow control, we'd put in a toggle option somewhere, either in the style options or the display settings. So if you didn't want viewers to be able to +1 things on your journal, then you'd just be able to turn it off.
3) Comments only, or both comments/entries. The ability to +1 something could potentially be applicable to both Comments and Entries. If only one of these is wanted, a simple 'on/off' setting for each journal/community would make sense. If available for both entries and comments, a setting where you would chose which items you wanted to show the +1 ability on: Comments Only, Entries Only, or Comments and Entries Both. (And of course a 'None' option to turn the feature off for that account.)
So which of these items (entries and/or comments) would you want to have +1 ability for?
Poll
4) Viewing/sorting. How to view +1's is a little different from whether or not people want to display them at all. It seems that when viewing a journal/comm that has the +1 feature activated, it would be best for the viewer to have the control over how they want to see comments ordered. Does the viewer want to see comments chronologically, or ranked by the most/least +1's? To allow this control, a setting could be added so you could choose your preferred/default sort order (it could be an account setting so that it will 'stick' better than it does for some other sites), but then you'd be able to select a different option on a per entry basis as well.
So, there's our thoughts on how such a feature could work. Please comment with your thoughts and ideas about it -- anything jump out as missing, do you have a preference for any of the possible options, do you not want this implemented, are there additional options or functionality you want to suggest, etc?
Thanks, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on it! :)
Edit: We've been reading through your comments, and appreciate all the very thoughtful and constructive feedback you have provided! The reaction has been quite mixed, with some people in favor of the idea, but also many against it primarily due to concerns that this type of feature could be too trivial of a way for people to respond to something and lead to less comments of substance being posted. Given your feedback, we feel that the best option is to not move forward with developing/adding this feature to LiveJournal at this time.
As noted in our news post a few days ago about the redesign, we want to get better about asking for your feedback on new feature ideas or upcoming changes prior to rolling them out. We'll be reviving this lj_feedback community as part of that endeavor, and this 'new feature idea' post will get things started. (We're still monitoring the redesign post and will have some updates in another news post later about that, so keep commenting there about the redesign.)
Over the past year or two, we've noticed a marked increase in the number of users asking for a "+1" feature on LJ -- a way to indicate you 'like' a particular entry or comment. We have some ideas on how such a feature could work on LJ (while also allowing journal/community owners to decide whether they want to offer that ability on their accounts at all), and want to not only run our ideas past you, but also get your opinions/ideas about it as well.
So first, here's a general list of our thoughts on how we could implement this type of feature (numbered so you can easily reference them in your comments):
1) Terminology. We're going to refer to this feature idea as "+1" throughout this entry for ease of use, and because it's the term that's already used heavily by LiveJournal users to denote agreement to a particular comment. Other possibilities might be "like" or a graphic-only button, such as an up-arrow or a thumbs-up type of image. (For the remainder of this post, we will use "+1" in our terminology for simplicity, but please comment with your other ideas or thoughts about the term/icons to use.)
2) Visibility. There are several ways to give people control over a +1 feature. We're leaning towards the idea that each account (whether a personal journal or a community owner/maintainer) would have control over whether to display the +1 feature for their journal. To allow control, we'd put in a toggle option somewhere, either in the style options or the display settings. So if you didn't want viewers to be able to +1 things on your journal, then you'd just be able to turn it off.
3) Comments only, or both comments/entries. The ability to +1 something could potentially be applicable to both Comments and Entries. If only one of these is wanted, a simple 'on/off' setting for each journal/community would make sense. If available for both entries and comments, a setting where you would chose which items you wanted to show the +1 ability on: Comments Only, Entries Only, or Comments and Entries Both. (And of course a 'None' option to turn the feature off for that account.)
So which of these items (entries and/or comments) would you want to have +1 ability for?
Poll
4) Viewing/sorting. How to view +1's is a little different from whether or not people want to display them at all. It seems that when viewing a journal/comm that has the +1 feature activated, it would be best for the viewer to have the control over how they want to see comments ordered. Does the viewer want to see comments chronologically, or ranked by the most/least +1's? To allow this control, a setting could be added so you could choose your preferred/default sort order (it could be an account setting so that it will 'stick' better than it does for some other sites), but then you'd be able to select a different option on a per entry basis as well.
So, there's our thoughts on how such a feature could work. Please comment with your thoughts and ideas about it -- anything jump out as missing, do you have a preference for any of the possible options, do you not want this implemented, are there additional options or functionality you want to suggest, etc?
Thanks, and we look forward to hearing your thoughts on it! :)
Edit: We've been reading through your comments, and appreciate all the very thoughtful and constructive feedback you have provided! The reaction has been quite mixed, with some people in favor of the idea, but also many against it primarily due to concerns that this type of feature could be too trivial of a way for people to respond to something and lead to less comments of substance being posted. Given your feedback, we feel that the best option is to not move forward with developing/adding this feature to LiveJournal at this time.