The Phantom Smiter - And changes to the forum

[Raggs]

I'm curious as to WonkyWasp's total. He's doing quite well!

She, and I cheated.

I know you cheated to get your numbers, I'm just wondering how WonkyWasp got her numbers?

[Wombles]

Honestly, what in the world are you lot talking about?

[WonkyWasp]

Bribery.  Sandwiches and wine in the Cabinet Room ...........  oh .... sorry .................... Redact that

[Beasties]

Honestly, what in the world are you lot talking about?

+1
Scratchy head emoji.

[Rossm]

Honestly, what in the world are you lot talking about?

Wombles: What do you use to access this site? DesktopPC, laptop, tablet, phone or something else? To the left of the posts, you should see something like this:

Wombles
Sr. Member
****
Posts: 297
Karma: +73/-46
 Thanks for Post
Wasps Rugby Fan
View Profile Personal Message (Online)

Underneath 'Karma' there was an option to applaud/smite. It is now no longer there. However you can see your score - you have +73 (Applauds) and -46 (Smites). It was pretty much harmless fun, until someone started dishing out smites willynilly and very frequently. Hope this goes some way to an explanation.

 

[westwaleswasp]

VV, thank you. I take it the non standard SMF thing worked then, or one similar at least.
I am replying here as, bizzarely, in our PMs I can see all yours that have been sent to me, but nothing of what I sent to you (the "sent" box is empty). So when I sent you private response ( which was basically "awesome") I can't actually see if I have sent you anything at all. 

Anyway, I do wonder if the smiting was due to (a) soccer fans or (b) related to the hacking of the site on google in some way. Either way we are best off without it.
 

[Rossm]

westwales: When you send a PM, you have to check the box 'send a copy to my outbox'.

[Hymenoptera]

Thanks for the change VV. But, I would have actually preferred a like/dislike button which refers specifically to the post and not the poster. I've seen plenty of posts replying "+1" but never seen a "-1"

You've just removed something that I was winning at..I'd like to keep mine please. I didn't post for a couple of months and accumulated 60 smites from the 'fake woke' brigade.
I dislike this idea more than I disliked the smite facility. Why does someone need a pat on the back for a post? - Some radical thinking here, but why not have some debate instead. The smite thing was just a debate and conversation stifler, let's not have another version of it.
Q for VV. Given this fundamental change, will there be a relaxing of the Opinion Policing? Or do we all still have to ignore our differences and pretend to get along?

[westwaleswasp]

westwales: When you send a PM, you have to check the box 'send a copy to my outbox'.

Thanks, I did not know that.

[westwaleswasp]

Thanks for the change VV. But, I would have actually preferred a like/dislike button which refers specifically to the post and not the poster. I've seen plenty of posts replying "+1" but never seen a "-1"

You've just removed something that I was winning at..I'd like to keep mine please. I didn't post for a couple of months and accumulated 60 smites from the 'fake woke' brigade.
I dislike this idea more than I disliked the smite facility. Why does someone need a pat on the back for a post? - Some radical thinking here, but why not have some debate instead. The smite thing was just a debate and conversation stifler, let's not have another version of it.
Q for VV. Given this fundamental change, will there be a relaxing of the Opinion Policing? Or do we all still have to ignore our differences and pretend to get along?

I very much doubt you accumulated those smites from a brigade, woke or otherwise. It may not have been aimed specifically at you. Certain threads seem to pick them up in huge numbers, where nobody was in disagreement on the thread, but everyone was smited, and the threads did nothing more than discuss injuries or say if they were going to match.  Given the number of huge overnight jumps on some posters, and the fact that you cannot repeat an action within an hour, and that some people literally gained 15-20 in a couple of days without posting, something odd was going on. If it was a group,I doubt it was not a group of Wasps rugby fans here.
 
Smites themselves disable conversations, and this removes the possibility that someone was attempting to target the entirity of the site users on particular threads at random times.  Now if you want to express an opinion against what has been written you have to respond in print, which is fair enough, if someone was randomly doing it to spread discord they can't now, and we can have the debates about rugby instead. FWIW I don't think it is possible to remove all buttons, from my limited digging around the best you can do is reset totals and/or disable smites. Maybe it would be better to have none at all, but that is not an option.
 

[Mellie]

I like the idea but the button is visually repellent. Can you change it to something less obtrusive please VV?

Personally I couldn't care less if I receive an applause or smite and never look. What does bug me though is posts that only say +1 when I'm reading new posts. Hopefully people can now use the like button instead.  Showing the number of likes for a particular post would be good.

If someone disagrees with something then posting the reason is far better than a button, as it adds no insight.

[Rossm]

I like the idea but the button is visually repellent. Can you change it to something less obtrusive please VV?

I was going to say the same but I was going to say it is not aesthetically pleasing

[Nigel Med]

The principal of being able to "Like" a post is great but it falls down because it's recorded against who posted the comment and therefore it becomes personal rather than against the post itself which might be a better indication of what subjects and discussions are preferred.

Would it be possible to have a total of "likes" for the post not the postee (is that a word?). What do people think of that as an alternative if it's possible?

[Vespula Vulgaris]

Q for VV. Given this fundamental change, will there be a relaxing of the Opinion Policing? Or do we all still have to ignore our differences and pretend to get along?

No-one has to pretend to get along, but just like before deliberately aggressive or personal posts won't be tolerated. Disagree by all means, but do it respectfully.

[Rossm]

On Shedweb, they have a heart/broken heart (like/dislike) beneath each individual post. Seems a better idea to me, though I've never actually used them. Probably the software that VV uses doesn't allow it.