For the love of everything, get rid of reactions...

[The Greyhawk.9107]

31 minutes ago, Vayne.8563 said:

A fair amount of people thought adding raids to the game was a dumb idea too, should we get rid of raids?  

I thought they did? 😝

[ShadowCatz.8437]

On 11/8/2021 at 11:52 AM, Bingus.4236 said:

Apparently we need to be inclusive of those who have regressed to communicating with pictures.

There was a time on the old forum where people posted meme (during GIF era), but that was stopped as some meme could take a lot of space to scroll down (very large pictures) and also be abused.

Like everything else visual communication on Internet have to some degree matured and we don't see a lot of super large images or moving pictures (GIF) that for most part are just stealing attention.

The most reasonable use of emoij here on this forum is to count how many that have left a reaction in total as it at least is an indication of how many that have left a reaction. The main problem is that one can not be sure that those reaction is from people that have read any post before the one that gets a reaction in form of an emoij.

[Turial.1293]

Agree with the OP, remove them. However for the sake of meeting in the middle for those who do like them could we at least improve them?

Like - fine, leave it

Dislike - seriously, just add this 

Laugh - I guess it is helpful to stop posts with 'lol' clogging up a thread

Thanks - why is a trophy? Why not a heart and add an 'award' using the trophy emoji?

Confuse - useless, abused by petty people like me who track down a users ever single post to make their posts look incomprehensible.

 

If there are other emojis, I forgot them because really it's a lame system.

[Arnox.5128]

Ok then, I'm going to be posting rebuttals to the most common arguments, and I'll update the OP with them too.

1. It gives an indicator of the popular opinion.

First, who cares. We should decide on something based on whether it's right or wrong, not based on what the hivemind thinks. Second, it doesn't even somewhat reliably do that anyway. It's a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the GW2 playerbase. Talk to any statistician and they'll laugh you out of the room if you try to present a pool of ~90 people's immediate reactions as representative of the general population who play GW2, which is in the millions.

2. It's not hurting anything.

It's also not helping anything either and some people (like me) find them irritating and childish. It's like you're trying to have a conversation with 4 or 5 people, and there's other people in the background yelling out random scores based on who they think had the "best" and "worst" reply.

3. It provides a way to comment quickly on a topic.

Except you don't even know what exactly they agree with, if they actually agree or are being ironic, if they've even READ the original post fully, or even who posted the reaction in the first place. From a discussion standpoint, the reactions are COMPLETELY useless. They provide no new information, insights, user personalization, or perspectives. They don't even provide humor. And if people can't even take the literal 5 seconds it takes to post a simple, "I agree, this should be done," then they have no business being here. This is the GW2 forums, not Twitter.

4. You're just being too sensitive.

Completely irrelevant and isn't actually a reason to keep them, but I'll entertain this for a second here and just say that I've been in some hardcore forum communities. Trust me. I'm not a snowflake. lol

Edited November 9, 2021 by Arnox.5128

[robertthebard.8150]

12 minutes ago, Arnox.5128 said:

Ok then, I'm going to be posting rebuttals to the most common arguments, and I'll update the OP with them too.

1. It gives an indicator of the popular opinion.

First, who cares. We should decide on something based on whether it's right or wrong, not based on what the hivemind thinks. Second, it doesn't even somewhat reliably do that anyway. It's a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the GW2 playerbase. Talk to any statistician and they'll laugh you out of the room if you try to present a pool of ~90 people's immediate reactions as representative of the general population who play GW2, which is in the millions.

2. It's not hurting anything.

It's also not helping anything either and some people (like me) find them irritating and childish. It's like you're trying to have a conversation with 4 or 5 people, and there's other people in the background yelling out random scores based on who they think had the "best" and "worst" reply.

3. It provides a way to comment quickly on a topic.

Except you don't even know what exactly they agree with, if they actually agree or are being ironic, if they've even READ the original post fully, or even who posted the reaction in the first place. From a discussion standpoint, the reactions are COMPLETELY useless. They provide no new information, insights, user personalization, or perspectives. They don't even provide humor. And if people can't even take the literal 5 seconds it takes to post a simple, "I agree, this should be done," then they have no business being here. This is the GW2 forums, not Twitter.

4. You're just being too sensitive.

Completely irrelevant and isn't actually a reason to keep them, but I'll entertain this for a second here and just say that I've been in some hardcore forum communities. Trust me. I'm not a snowflake. lol

 

1.  According to whom?  Using this thread as an example, it would seem that you believe that only your opinion, and those that share it, are "right".  Shocker:  That's ok, but that doesn't mean you're "right".  There are people that disagree with your premise for this iteration of this thread, and they are right too, from their perspective.

2.  It's a public forum.  If they were posting their "random scores", you'd be just as irritated that they "invaded" your thread with nothing to add to it.

3.  So far as you know?  Do you really know how many people that reacted to a post didn't reply to it, even if they didn't quote it?  Let's use this post as an example, you didn't quote anyone, but just posted some random stuff that you find objectionable.

4.  Then why even address it?

For me, I'll use them on posts from people that, in the past, have had me removed from the conversations via the "Report" button.  They'll be cruising along, being all snarky, and as soon as I hit them with some snark, BOOM, a PM from a Moderator about how my post was removed.  I've even had some time off because of it.  I've been banned from a forum for doing exactly what I did here, responding to bullet points with bullet points of my own, because the poster didn't like having their arguments, or posting style used against them.

I had a poster on Larian's forums get all indignant with me because they told me my opinion was worthless, and I pointed to posts that disagreed with the posters sentiments, and said that to some, his opinion was worthless too, and he's like "but you were being abrasive".  It was ok for him, but abrasive for me...  Emojis on their posts would be the best bet.

[TwinFrozr.6214]

Can't agree more. Reactions only tend to lower the average post value, highlighting public opinion and disencouraging different thinking.

[Gibson.4036]

1 hour ago, Arnox.5128 said:

 

It's also not helping anything either ...

Except it is providing the main function of a forum, which is to give people a place to vent. It's catharsis. It's the illusion of being heard. It's just like all those clickbait ads that ask you to vote on some political thing. They could care less about your opinion, they just want to appeal to your need to be heard. Same with the poll option here. As you yourself point out, the vast majority of these forum discussions are meaningless, beyond giving us all a way to air our opinions. The sample size of forum users in relation to entire player base is just too small. You can't dismiss emoji counts and hold on to typed out posts as somehow more meaningful.

I'm not saying ArenaNet doesn't read the forums. They are clearly aware of some issues raised here, and they even respond from time to time. Most likely because they are also seeing the same feedback through player reports, on reddit, from streamers, not just here.

But the vast majority of the forum functions as release valve for player feelings. Reaction emojis are just another layer of that. They give us all the illusion of participation and agency.

[Gibson.4036]

3 minutes ago, TwinFrozr.6214 said:

Can't agree more. Reactions only tend to lower the average post value, highlighting public opinion and disencouraging different thinking.

You really think there are people out there holding back valuable truths because they are afraid they'll get a negative emoji?

[Ashgar.3024]

Just make it a toggle if you want to see them or not and if you want to be notified about them or not.

 

Not hard.

[Mungrul.9358]

I'd have much less of a problem with them if they weren't anonymous.

 

Also, if they're here to stay, can you at least let me know in the notifications what kind of emoji was the last one left?

I have no way to know which emoji was the latest one left on a post of mine.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

How to disable the reactions:

1.) If you do not already have it, get yourself AdBlocker Ultimate as an extension for your browser.

2.) Rightclick anywhere in this thread, preferably a page where one of the posts has all reactions visible you want to block.

3.) AdBlocker Ultimate > Block ad on this website

4.) You enter an ad-selection mode where you can hover over all elements of the website with a red border

5.) Select the reactions-box in any of the posts, make sure to hit the entire thing.

6.) Enable checkboxes "Apply this rule to every website" and "Block similar elements"

7.) Press that shiny red "Block" button

8.) Reload (F5)

 

Want to see the reactions again:

1.) Rightclick anywhere again

2.) AdBlocker Ultimate > AdBlocker Ultimate settings...

3.) Select the filter

4.) Press the "- Remove selected" button.

5.) Close the tab and reload (F5)

 

Note: If you leave the heart-icon out, as I did it in the picture, you can still react to other posts.

Edited November 9, 2021 by HnRkLnXqZ.1870

[Ashen.2907]

There is no justification given in the OP for spending the resources, however minute, to remove the current system. "They are lame," is no better than posting an eye roll emoji.

[AgentMoore.9453]

On 11/8/2021 at 3:19 PM, Doggie.3184 said:

I dont mind them but just wish I could hide the notification since there's no reason to revisit my post unless someone quoted it.

 

22 hours ago, Just a flesh wound.3589 said:

Personally I think Anet should give us the option to stop receiving notifications when someone reacts to a post.

 

18 hours ago, Sir Alymer.3406 said:

It'd be real easy to (ignore reactions) if the notifications for responses to your posts were divorced from reactions to your post.

💙 🏆

Edited November 9, 2021 by AgentMoore.9453
I agree with these posts, if that wasn't clear.

[Linken.6345]

10 hours ago, Turial.1293 said:

Agree with the OP, remove them. However for the sake of meeting in the middle for those who do like them could we at least improve them?

Like - fine, leave it

Dislike - seriously, just add this 

Laugh - I guess it is helpful to stop posts with 'lol' clogging up a thread

Thanks - why is a trophy? Why not a heart and add an 'award' using the trophy emoji?

Confuse - useless, abused by petty people like me who track down a users ever single post to make their posts look incomprehensible.

 

If there are other emojis, I forgot them because really it's a lame system.

We used to have a thumbs down untill an anet post got was it 121 thumbs down and it got removed quickly after.

[TwinFrozr.6214]

10 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

You really think there are people out there holding back valuable truths because they are afraid they'll get a negative emoji?

Certainly. If you don't understand that people are affected by public reaction, and how it steers them toward generic opinions and commentary, you have a lot to learn. People are afraid of receiving/sending "hate" (criticism) and form opinions thereafter. 

From my experience, the highest value of discussion normally comes from forums without likes, reactions, etcetera. They open for a geniunely open-minded discussion, where things people even hate to read, is treated as equally valuable information.

Don't you feel different levels of motivation from the reactions of other people?

Edited November 10, 2021 by TwinFrozr.6214

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

And here I thought the whole point of them is to see whether or not I could get all 5 of them in perfect balance, like all things should be according to a Purple Genocidal Warlord. 

Edited November 10, 2021 by ChronoPinoyX.7923

[JusticeRetroHunter.7684]

It should be removed. It adds nothing, it gets abused by snowflakes and makes discussing topics that are by their nature confusing, an emoji pissing match.

 

some abusers make it too obvious…guarantee you that if you asked them for proof they wouldn’t show you an image of their behavior of abusing it. 

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

6 hours ago, AgentMoore.9453 said:

 

 

💙 🏆

If this is how people will go about it in the future, I'm pretty sure that counts as spam. 😆

[NotTooFoolish.7412]

18 hours ago, Turial.1293 said:

Confuse - useless, abused by petty people like me who track down a users ever single post to make their posts look incomprehensible

There is a good reason for this one to exist. Some threads/posts are phrased in a way it's hard to undestand the author's goal. This way they get a reaction saying "where are you going with this?" or "what do you mean by that?". Throwing in a dozen of replies asking to rephrase would be way worse. 

Honestly cannot see anything wrong with reactions. 

[ugrakarma.9416]

19 hours ago, Turial.1293 said:

Agree with the OP, remove them. However for the sake of meeting in the middle for those who do like them could we at least improve them?

Confuse - useless, abused by petty people like me who track down a users ever single post to make their posts look incomprehensible.

its amaze me, that theres some people believe that most users look to reactions first, then decide to read a post, then some way "negative reactions" is a big obstacle, the nemesis of to their genius, preventing it's shine like sun............lolzzzzzz,

so im the only "weird guy" whos ignore reactions?

Edited November 10, 2021 by ugrakarma.9416

[Epsilon Indi.2031]

4 hours ago, NotTooFoolish.7412 said:

There is a good reason for this one to exist. Some threads/posts are phrased in a way it's hard to undestand the author's goal. This way they get a reaction saying "where are you going with this?" or "what do you mean by that?". Throwing in a dozen of replies asking to rephrase would be way worse. 

Honestly cannot see anything wrong with reactions. 

Well no , confusion as a reaction is an all or nothing sort of deal.  See, when someone makes a response to a thread, they can discuss exactly what they found confusing about a post.

[Dondarrion.2748]

Many people do not feel the need to add anything more to a conversation other than a quick reaction to support someone else's argument.

Say you've started a discussion or request for a change to how something works. You've got 15 likes and 5 confused (disagree really), and someone posts a reply with a counter argument why things should stay the way they are and gets 50 likes, 10 confused...

While you've got your discussion going with someone, you will also see fairly quickly that your counter part currently has more backing for their opinion than your original suggestion.

I'd rather have the reactions instead of 65 replies in your discussion saying "This! ^^" or "Heck no"... it's these short, meaningless answers that reactions remove the need for. If someone has more thoughts on a subject you've raised, you're bound to get your replies anyway.

EDIT: BUT, I would propose a change to which reactions are available... wth is the need to differentiate "Like" from "Thanks" anyway... one should be sufficient, e.g. a green upward arrow for upvote, as in Reddit.

And like wise, find something like "Thumbs Down" or red downward arrow to downvote, as in Reddit. Sad and confused... ambiguous and ultimately showing a reaction of disagreement of some sort.

Upvote - downvote

The only reactions we really need.

Edited November 10, 2021 by Dondarrion.2748

[Tukaram.8256]

I find the reaction emojis pretty much useless. I rarely use them on any site (not even FB or IG), and do not pay attention to them when others use them.  They offer nothing to the conversation.  If I have something to say - I say it - I do not click an emoji.

But I do like my sunglasses guy...  😎

[Strider Pj.2193]

53 minutes ago, Tukaram.8256 said:

I find the reaction emojis pretty much useless. I rarely use them on any site (not even FB or IG), and do not pay attention to them when others use them.  They offer nothing to the conversation.  If I have something to say - I say it - I do not click an emoji.

But I do like my sunglasses guy...  😎

🤷

[robertthebard.8150]

12 hours ago, TwinFrozr.6214 said:

Certainly. If you don't understand that people are affected by public reaction, and how it steers them toward generic opinions and commentary, you have a lot to learn. People are afraid of receiving/sending "hate" (criticism) and form opinions thereafter. 

From my experience, the highest value of discussion normally comes from forums without likes, reactions, etcetera. They open for a geniunely open-minded discussion, where things people even hate to read, is treated as equally valuable information.

Don't you feel different levels of motivation from the reactions of other people?

No.  Their reactions mean nothing to me.  What Joe Random believes about what I've said doesn't change what I believe, or how I feel about what I said, whatever that may be.

9 hours ago, JusticeRetroHunter.7684 said:

It should be removed. It adds nothing, it gets abused by snowflakes and makes discussing topics that are by their nature confusing, an emoji pissing match.

 

some abusers make it too obvious…guarantee you that if you asked them for proof they wouldn’t show you an image of their behavior of abusing it. 

Using a function as intended is not abuse.