Forum postings - meaning of reaction emojis and reputation feature?

[Derek Uzzell]

Nowadays, when a post has been submitted to one of the  Out&AboutLive forums, there is the opportunity for other form-members to ‘react’ to the post by going to the right-hand bottom corner of the post and choosing one of the 5 emojis shown below.

From right to left these are LIKE, SAD, CONFUSED, HA HA and THANKS. (I think this 5-strong group is the default for Invision Community platforms and can be pruned (by an Administrator?) except for LIKE.)

A THANKS reaction is fine (and reduces the need for a separate 'Thank You' reply posting) and LIKE is OK if one is a Facebook fan. HA-HA is not unreasonable if a brilliantly amusing post has been made, but could you please explain the purpose of the CONFUSED and SAD reactions?

Does the CONFUSED emoji mean that the person ‘reacting’ is expressing confusion, or is criticising the content of the post for being confusing - or what? 

SAD is a mystery to me.  A forum-member has decided to add the SAD emoji to each of my posts since the new forum was introduced. This childishness doesn’t much surprise me (It’s just sad  😃🤣) but it’s plainly intended to annoy and thus conflicts with 15.4.11 of Warners’ Terms of Website Acceptable use’. So what non-malicious value does the SAD reaction have and how do you envisage it should be be usefully used, please?

On to Reputation…

In the ‘Your Achievements’ section of my forum Profile, my ‘Reputation’ has a 5 marking which (apparently) equates to “Neutral”. Clicking on the “5” produces an expansion revealing that I have received 3 LIKE reactions, 1 THANKS, 1 HA-HA and 47 SADs (Unfortunately No CONFUSED, or I would have a full-house.)

Can you explain, please, what the Reputation feature is for and how the number (5 in my case) is calculated? The ‘positive’ reactions (LIKE, THANKS, HA_HA) add up to 5, but if the 47 ‘negative’ SADs were included, my Reputation should be -42.

[Derek Uzzell]

On 11/13/2022 at 6:29 PM, Derek Uzzell said:

Thanks for the kind offer Keith, but I've now developed a taste for SADs. 

I've now been 'awarded' a total of 60 SADs - 21,585 Derek Uzzell postings to go.

 

On 11/14/2022 at 9:46 AM, PaulD said:

Oh sorry, I added a confused emoji immediately upon reading your first post. 

I must admit the choice of emoji faces is a bit peculiar. I presume the 'sad' face it to say that your post made me sad, like responding to a post about a puncture on the motorway (or something like that). The confused emoji I have never used (apart from the one instance above where it's use was sarcastic).

I was fully expecting one of the pre-set emojis to be a 'menu' that would open a panel with 100 emojis to choose from. Sadly not.

So, I agree that the emoji feedback part is a little strange and lacking in functionality.

Best wishes,

Paul
 

Paul

While the forum is being twiddled, can I suggest that you get rid of the CONFUSED and SAD reaction emojis.

I've now been 'awarded' a total of 108 SAD reactions - all by forum-member witzend. I've no idea what this is supposed to achieve, as it makes no difference to my forum 'reputation' (EXCELLENT as only LIKE, HAHA and THANKS reactions count and  CONFUSED and SAD reactions are ignored). 

If the purpose of the CONFUSED and SAD reaction emojis is ambiguous, get shot of them.

[Derek Uzzell]

On 12/6/2022 at 8:01 PM, Geeco said:

Yes Derek I understand the potential for "bullying" on all social media however you do not need to read any or all posts if you choose not to do so. cheers,

My original (November 12) post related to the SAD and CONFUSED reaction emojis that were provided as part this forum's Reputation feature when the old O&AL forum was transferred to the present Invision Community platform. I questioned the value of those two emojis, highlighted that forum-member witzend was pleasuring himself by awarding my postings SADs and mentioned that, by December 2, the total of SADs I had received from him had risen to 116. At that point the forum's Administrator removed the SAD and CONFUSED emojis from the Reputation feature, leaving in place just the LIKE, THANKS and HAHA emojis that (one might think) were unambiguous.

Was that end of the matter? NO.

Yesterday - between 9.46AM and 9.49AM - witzend delighted himself by placing 5 HAHA emojis on this thread and guess whose postings he 'reacted' to with the those emojis ⁉️ (Apparently that emoji indicates a rhetorical question.)

Although this forum has an 'Ignore' feature that (amongst other things) should prevent a forum-member from seeing posts from other forum-members they have taken a dislike to

https://forums.outandaboutlive.co.uk/topic/56067-ignore-button/

this has no effect on the reaction/reputation system. The reactions-per-day maximum has now been increased from 10 to 50, so anyone wishing to exploit the forum's reputation/reaction system for their own strange purpose could splatter posts with HAHA emojis with wild abandon.

Perhaps the answer is to remove the HAHA reaction emoji too, as that would just leave THANKS (and I don't mind witzend sticking THANKS on all my postings) and LIKE which cannot be removed (and I'm pretty sure i would not be getting any LIKEs from witzend).

[Barry Lineker]

41 minutes ago, Geeco said:

Yes Derek I understand the potential for "bullying" on all social media however you do not need to read any or all posts if you choose not to do so. cheers,

I recall when a former member got bullied on here by those of a certain bias, but he never complained. 

Unfortunately he was banned for making a factually correct statement about another forum member.

It's a funny old world here in Up Under🤣

[Geeco]

Yes Derek I understand the potential for "bullying" on all social media however you do not need to read any or all posts if you choose not to do so. cheers,

[Derek Uzzell]

The 'old' Out&AboutLive forum's software was feature-light. Conversely, the Invision Community  (IC) platform now being used is heavily endowed with features, some of which O&AL forum members have requested in the past.

One feature asked for, and now provided,  is the 'reaction', allowing a forum member to easily express an opinion (eg. Like, Thanks, Amused) on a posting's content by clicking on an icon. But this is just the beginning, as the IC platform permits this feature to be used 'competitively'.

Now you (or I) may think this is kindergarten stuff, but it's a basic feature of the IC platform and (apparently) it's a significant selling point

https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/member-functions/reputation-and-reactions-r171/

and there is plenty of discussion about it on the IC forum (example here)

https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/460720-allow-for-many-reaction-emojis/

It's a potentially dangerous feature as negative reactions (Disagree, Rubbish, etc.) can offend, and it's open to abuse as happened with the SAD/witzend episode I highlighted above.

[Geeco]

It is currently 5:02pm in sunny Sydney 28 minutes before "happy hour" commences and I have been killing time reading this post. I am fascinated that some much time has been wasted on such a trivial topic by all the live contributors (including me!). Move on people there is more to live than an emoji. cheers,

[PaulD]

On 11/15/2022 at 11:56 AM, Barryd999 said:

Can someone explain why I can no longer add reactions?  I just get a message saying I cant add anymore reactions today which I discovered yesterday but today being a brand new day, its still saying it.  Have I been banned from giving people a lick? 

 

On 11/16/2022 at 4:38 PM, Derek Uzzell said:

My experiments show that the forums' reactions-per-day limit is indeed 10.

Your experience suggests that the day may be a rolling 24-hour period rather than based on a 'calendar day'. Anyway, the forum Administrator should easily be able to alter the per-day limit or choose to have no limit.

The plethora of 'social media' features provided by the Invision Community platform will be of interest to few O&AL forum-members, but I can't see an increase from a 10 per-day reactions limit to (say) 50 per-day causing any problems and it would benefit people who use the forum a lot and are keen on 'reacting'.

 

I have followed this great suggestion and changed the daily reaction limit to 50. If this becomes an issue we can always change it down again should the need arise, but I doubt it will.

Thank you for the great suggestion.

Best wishes,

Paul

 

[PaulD]

I wondered when I took them off the reputation, how it would deal with existing data, but fortunately the system seems to deal with it sensibly. When I checked and saw them gone from profiles too, I was really pleased.

Hopefully that will help but should this type of needling continue from another forum member we will take further action, although hopefully this will be the end of the matter.

[Derek Uzzell]

Thanks

I notice that doing that has also removed the SAD and CONFUSED statistics from a forum-member's 'Reputation' - which is an added benefit.

[PaulD]

Hi,

A quick update. This morning I have removed the sad and confused emojis from the reputation system.

Hopefully this will prevent further abuse, we are discussing further actions at the moment.

Best wishes,

Paul

[webby1]

Of course it's not immediately obvious to others so thanks for pointing this out. What seems like a pointless personal attack clearly breeches Warners code and the idiot doing it should be held responsible.What a waste of time and space...both actions and actor.

You have been very matter of fact and laughed it off Derek, but others might not be so resilient. Now I know there is an idiot amongst us I can act accordingly...............unless of course there is an explanation for this behaviour.

[Derek Uzzell]

On 12/1/2022 at 4:39 PM, Derek Uzzell said:

 

Paul

While the forum is being twiddled, can I suggest that you get rid of the CONFUSED and SAD reaction emojis.

I've now been 'awarded' a total of 108 SAD reactions - all by forum-member witzend. I've no idea what this is supposed to achieve, as it makes no difference to my forum 'reputation' (EXCELLENT as only LIKE, HAHA and THANKS reactions count and  CONFUSED and SAD reactions are ignored). 

If the purpose of the CONFUSED and SAD reaction emojis is ambiguous, get shot of them.

Paul

This is a current screen shot of the 'REPUTATION' part of my forum Profile and It will be seen that I have now received 116 SAD reactions.

I'm confident that these have been awarded by forum-member "witzend" and a current screen shot of the 'REPUTATION' part of his forum Profile is here. This shows that he has given 125 SAD reactions since the latest forum was introduced, so he is clearly not targeting just me.

I've studied the Warners Group Terms of Website Acceptable Use, and witzend's 'campaign' breaches these two prohibitions

15.4.10

be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety;

 

15.4.11

be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person;

 

If I were not annoyed by witzend's puerile actions I would not be posting this, so could you please comment as a forum Administrator as to whether you consider adding SAD reactions in this way is acceptable.

[Derek Uzzell]

7 hours ago, Barryd999 said:

Yes its weird.  I assumed someone had fixed something but I thought that was after I posted my post on here.  I was able to add a few likes then I got the same message again. Odd that there is a limit at all. 

My experiments show that the forums' reactions-per-day limit is indeed 10.

Your experience suggests that the day may be a rolling 24-hour period rather than based on a 'calendar day'. Anyway, the forum Administrator should easily be able to alter the per-day limit or choose to have no limit.

The plethora of 'social media' features provided by the Invision Community platform will be of interest to few O&AL forum-members, but I can't see an increase from a 10 per-day reactions limit to (say) 50 per-day causing any problems and it would benefit people who use the forum a lot and are keen on 'reacting'.

 

[Derek Uzzell]

Barry 

Think yourself lucky that you haven't got Mr Witty adding a SAD reaction to every posting you make (5 times on this thread so far). Tragic really, but perhaps this is the best one might expect from someone whose literacy skills are so sadly lacking.

[Barryd999]

14 hours ago, Derek Uzzell said:

This 2020 Invision Community forum thread mentioned a Reactions daily limit.

https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/459299-setting-for-user-level-reaction-limit/

Apparently (at least in late-2020) the default limit for a forum-member was 10 'reactions' per day. 

See also

https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/460113-reactions-daily-limit/

I notice that you LIKEd a Chatterbox posting  made 30 minutes ago, so you must now be able to 'react' today (Tuesday 15).

Yes its weird.  I assumed someone had fixed something but I thought that was after I posted my post on here.  I was able to add a few likes then I got the same message again. Odd that there is a limit at all. 

[Derek Uzzell]

This 2020 Invision Community forum thread mentioned a Reactions daily limit.

https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/459299-setting-for-user-level-reaction-limit/

Apparently (at least in late-2020) the default limit for a forum-member was 10 'reactions' per day. 

See also

https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/460113-reactions-daily-limit/

I notice that you LIKEd a Chatterbox posting  made 30 minutes ago, so you must now be able to 'react' today (Tuesday 15).

[Barryd999]

Can someone explain why I can no longer add reactions?  I just get a message saying I cant add anymore reactions today which I discovered yesterday but today being a brand new day, its still saying it.  Have I been banned from giving people a lick? 

[Derek Uzzell]

The Out&AboutLive forums are now based on an Invision Community platform.

The Invision Community (IC) forum (https://invisioncommunity.com/forums) allows people who have chosen to run their forums on this platform to discuss its pro and cons, problems with it, suggested improvements etc. It's not there for end users (ie. forum members).

Reaction emojis were discussed here

https://invisioncommunity.com/forums/topic/460720-allow-for-many-reaction-emojis/

https://invisioncommunity.com/news/invision-community/new-reactions-r1016/

and my understanding is that, when the 'vanilla' version of the IC platform is purchased, the 5 reaction emojis shown in my original posting above are provided as standard.

Apparently the LIKE (heart) emoji is a non-negotiable fixture, but any (or all) of the other 4 emojis can be removed via the ACP (Admin Control Panel).

Custom emojis can be added - for example, these two are claimed to show (respectively) extreme anger (fairly obvious) and disappointed-but-relieved (a subtle emotional nuance) 

 

and although I can see the 'angry' reaction being attractive on the O&AL forums (especially on Chatterbox) the other emoji would have no real value.

"...I presume the 'sad' face it to say that your post made me sad, like responding to a post about a puncture on the motorway (or something like that)."

 It should be plain that, where the SAD reaction emoji has been affixed to my postings (now up to 62 SADs) the forum-member doing this is not the least bit unhappy. It's a pity there is no reaction emoji to reflect his feelings more appropriately (Basically, "You are a sad bu**er and on my black-list")  so perhaps adding this one could be considered.

 

 

[PaulD]

15 hours ago, Derek Uzzell said:

Thanks for the kind offer Keith, but I've now developed a taste for SADs. 

I've now been 'awarded' a total of 60 SADs - 21,585 Derek Uzzell postings to go.

Oh sorry, I added a confused emoji immediately upon reading your first post. 

I must admit the choice of emoji faces is a bit peculiar. I presume the 'sad' face it to say that your post made me sad, like responding to a post about a puncture on the motorway (or something like that). The confused emoji I have never used (apart from the one instance above where it's use was sarcastic).

I was fully expecting one of the pre-set emojis to be a 'menu' that would open a panel with 100 emojis to choose from. Sadly not.

So, I agree that the emoji feedback part is a little strange and lacking in functionality.

Best wishes,

Paul
 

[Derek Uzzell]

Thanks for the kind offer Keith, but I've now developed a taste for SADs. 

I've now been 'awarded' a total of 60 SADs - 21,585 Derek Uzzell postings to go.

[Keithl]

2 minutes ago, Derek Uzzell said:

But if a witless forum-member continues to entertain himself by adding the Sad emoji to my forum posts, why should I seek to deny him that small pleasure.

Would you like me to respond with a Confused emoji then Derek 😁

[Derek Uzzell]

I've looked at a few relevant Invision Community forum discussions and I now understand enough about the Reactions and Reputation features to satisfy me. So no need to answer the questions  in my initial posting...

(I still can't see any genuine value for the Confused and Sad reaction emojis while there is no Administrator explanation as to how they should be used. But if a witless forum-member continues to entertain himself by adding the Sad emoji to my forum posts, why should I seek to deny him that small pleasure.)