I don't recall seeing a great many unadorned +1s. Mostly, people quote, put a plus +1, and then add thoughts of their own. Having metering devices within posts would not change that kind of post.

Moreover, suppose we get the undisputed ***greatest post of all time***, and the in-post metering devices rack up jackpots, 64 bit real number overflows, and googleplexes of adoration. Wouldn't the post and thread slip into the oblivion of past posts just the same? If it matters to the search engines, it's real; otherwise, it's just glitter on the evanescent.

Twitter and Facebook are conversations among members who enjoy being liked; the permanence or truth of the thoughts being liked is irrelevant. Stack overflow and some of the Reddits are more reference than conversation oriented. HB threads often are both conversations where likes are appropriate, and reference content. Is there some automatic way to "crowd source" marking reference content? Perhaps a "did this post answer a question you had" button.

My vote is for "Helpful" and "Not Helpful" as it embodies the idea that we are a help site. And yes, sometimes witty banter can even be helpful but caustic comments can be not helpful.

Amazon has this for their reviews and Fixya.com uses Helpful.

another_jim wrote:Is there some automatic way to "crowd source" marking reference content? Perhaps a "did this post answer a question you had" button.

If there were such a designation, then it could be search-able. For example, search for all topics about "XYZ" where there's a helpful answer. Or sort the posts in a thread by helpful answers (thus side banter would be moved to the bottom). To be truly helpful, the voters on helpfulness would probably need to be limited to those with enough experience to judge.

MNate wrote:Amazon has this for their reviews and Fixya.com uses Helpful.

That's true, Amazon's "most helpful" and "most critical" reviews are often reliable.

another_jim wrote:I don't recall seeing a great many unadorned +1s...

I tried searching for "+1" and was told the search term was too frequent.

How to find and mark the best content is a separate issue. Re: reactions, Coffee Forums UK does both "thanks" and "likes" under each post. Here's a screen shot:



I think "thanks" would suffice for the reasons I mentioned earlier.

^^^ Sure, that would work.

LBIespresso wrote:I love this idea. It is useful without any hint of the needy like me feeling that turns so many people off to social media.

+1

If you go that way, might I suggest being able to mark _multiple_ answers as answering a question. And, allow more people than just the OP who asked the question to one able to mark an answer.

I've been to a few forums where you start a topic to ask a question, and then get a few replies. The OP marks a reply as answering his question...but the problem is, that might not end up being the best answer, or even a correct one.

Here's a mockup of a "helpful" post:


I looked at Amazon and they favor messages like "10 people found this helpful". They don't indicate unhelpful reviews, at least from what I saw. They do show a summary of the most positive / most critical review. I wanted something a bit more subtle, so I simply indicated a post is helpful with a bottom color border and "Helpful". I added a star just for giggles. To avoid encouraging a contest for "most helpfulness", I didn't indicate how many had given it a thumbs up. I was thinking of using color instead, i.e., the background would get darker with the more helpful votes it got.

HB wrote:I was thinking of using color instead, i.e., the background would get darker with the more helpful votes it got.

If you're thinking of making helpfulness something you can search for, the number of votes would need to be visible on the back end at least, right?

Another question: would the author of the post receiving a "helpful" vote be able to see who rated it as such, possibly in a notification? That's a feature I'd want.

I'm happy you're considering this. Thanks!