@moonmehta Why do you dislike the "like" function. Serious Q. @manton agrees apparently What if "likes" were private to the person who authored the post ? I realize on micro.blog i can do this with a reply but that's enough friction i reserve it for when I have a comment. mumble mumble. LOL
@ronkjeffries @moonmehta Private likes are essentially the same thing as bookmarks, so that's the approach we take with Micro.blog. We used to call them favorites and renamed them so that it's more clear they are just for you.
@manton here on micro.blog I do miss the easy “I like this post” interaction of like buttons, on both ends of it. I don’t need this interaction to be visible to others but I like to know that people can signal to me they appreciated my post even if they don’t have anything to say about it.
@pajp I've started to appreciate the 'favourite' star on mastodon for this reason. It signals a happy reader, without triggering an algorithmic avalanche. Only the author sees who favourites their post.
@ronkjeffries Because the like button single-handedly drives a core part of the issues of the attention economy, reducing attention spans for nothing more than instant gratification. It amounts to nearly no conversations but those in our heads. And it makes us lazy; makes us feel we did something without doing anything.
@writingslowly @pajp I agree completely but it seems to be a dividing bit of dogma for some that it encourages bad behaviour. Perhaps it should be a choice for the author, whether or not to allow silent acknowledgments (but do away with the word “like”!)?