"thanks" mod?

[Landy]

Got mod running on my board and it's pretty popular and a good way to encourage people to post more.

[Jason]

It's odd, I was only thinking about this the other day... I'll look into perhaps trialling this for a couple of weeks and seeing how it goes.

[Konrad]

Guaranteed to be liked by ALL users on your forum!

And do you get your money back if not? :p
I was on a forum with a function like this before. It's all nice and sound except for two things:

1) Nobody used it.
2) Except for the two admins who spammed my notifications with thanked posts in an attempt to stimulate the system.


My beef with this is as usual, of unnecessary fat.
However, I also am not a fan of the fact that this both discourages effort, and takes away from the personal interaction that is already hard to come by on the internet.

I dunno, I think I'd much rather have someone say "Thanks dude, awesome link" than press a button. I have to say, I don't necessarily see expression of gratitude as spam. Not every reply on a forum has to be an essay.

Don't mind me too much though, I'm just here to shoot down every innovation to the forum system.

[Jason]

Don't mind me too much though, I'm just here to shoot down every innovation to the forum system.
He is, you know... it's his official title. :p

I think this is one of those things that varies wildly from forum to forum. I've seen forums where it's massively popular and everyone uses it, and other forums where it does nothing but take up server space.

I'll give it a couple of weeks (perhaps after Christmas) and see how it takes. :)

[Hayek]

I am with Konrad on this one- what is the point? It works for some forums that might be more about showing off one's creations or for a download forum, etc., but don't think it is really necessary at a gaming forum. I am also a webmaster and I believe that when it comes to layout/clutter simplicity is the best option. My strongest defense? Just look at Google. :p

[MyNameDidntFit]

I've always seen that mod as useless when coupled with the Reputation mod.

[nilihanth]

I've always seen that mod as useless when coupled with the Reputation mod.


I agree

[Brakkish]

It really depends on the forum.

New forums I would not recommend the mod. As a growing forum you savor every post, even if it is as someone said previously only a "Thanks dude."

However on a much busier forum, a thanks button is a good way to cut down on unneeded clutter within threads. Nobody wants to read through 40 posts with just a "Thanks dude." - it devalues the thread and certainly discourages anyone from posting anything else meaningful in the thread for fear it won't be read anyhow.