The Confused Button

[Rovaeden.8546]

The Confused Button seems to be the "dislike" button here, but in reality it reads like "thinking is hard, so I press"

 

Am I missing anything?

Why do you guys use that button as opposed to another?


------------EDIT--------------
After some lively and quite entertaining debate I have my answer, which I was genuinely seeking. I now understand what the Confused Button is for and am satisfied with my answer.
Thank you to all who had helpful comments. To the rest of you, know that you were quite entertaining.

To summarize, the Confused Button exists so that Trolls can troll-lite™ without actually typing anything which leads to less work for Anet in moderating the forums and a better experience for all of us.
So yes! All you "looks good to me" guys out there, please keep smashing that Confused Button. I don't want to read what you have to say any more than anyone else!
I am no longer confused and I'm glad that button exists.
Additionally I am happy to know I can turn the whole stupid emoji thing off in settings. Going to do that now. XD



 

Edited November 28, 2022 by Rovaeden.8546

[Hashberry.4510]

You better lie down, all the thinking that went into this 🙃

[Rovaeden.8546]

Lol, first response is a confused press.

 

Saw that coming.

 

priceless XD

[Rovaeden.8546]

Just now, Hashberry.4510 said:

You better lie down, all the thinking that went into this 🙃

Actually, I should, cuz it did.

 

You take the time to write out a well reasoned position for discussion or more likely for Anet to improve the game, and instead of well reasoned and thoughtful discourse you get the "Looks good to me" guy smashing the confused button.

I'm just trying to get the pulse here.

[Tom.8029]

Yeah I don’t understand what the confused button is supposed to mean. People press it as a reaction to a post but it doesn’t really tell me anything. If it was confusing, why is it confusing?

[Tom.8029]

Confused confusion. 

[Infusion.7149]

There's a certain user that makes it their motivation on the forum to spam as many argument posts as possible when they don't even engage with instanced content or any PvP/WVW and will never use any numbers to make their point. That's the legitimate use of the confused emote because they are very confused (or people confused why they even bother posting) and only exist to troll. Responding to this person only makes the thread drag out.

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

10 minutes ago, Rovaeden.8546 said:

The Confused Button seems to be the "dislike" button here, but in reality it reads like "thinking is hard, so I press"

 

Am I missing anything?

Why do you guys use that button as opposed to another?

So what would you propose people use as a dislike button? Is there a better option on this forum than the confused emoticon?

[yoni.7015]

It’s just the dislike reaction, there is a like reaction so there needs to be a reaction that shows you disagree. 

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

2 minutes ago, Rovaeden.8546 said:

Yeah. given that there is no dislike button, just move on.

If one dislikes a post for some reason but cannot be bothered (or is unable) to articulate their position, they should just leave the conversation.

People will always dislike things. And there's nothing wrong with that. Considering the tone of the majority of people on social media, though, do you really want peope to voice their dislike instead of pushing a single button? A lot of people lack the skill to voice their negative opinion in a non-personal, constructive way. And sometimes a dislike is just a dislike, a simple no. People aren't owed explanations. But if there's a button that is consistently used as a thumbs down alternative, it does give a quick overview of the general opinion, the yes or no.

[Danikat.8537]

People use it as a dislike or disagree button because it's the most negative reaction available, even if it doesn't actually make sense.

It's best just to ignore reactions entirely. You can interpret likes as "I entirely agree with everything in this post", but anything else is too ambiguous most of the time. A confused reaction on any post covering more than one point would be ambiguous even if some people hadn't decided it has an unofficial alternate meaning and expected everyone to work out from context what the anonymous reactors actually mean.

If someone wants to actually contribute to the discussion they'll post, if they don't consider their points worth writing it's safe to assume they wouldn't be worth reading either.

[TOAD.4718]

Just people going out of their way to attempt to make a helpful community turn toxic. This type of behavior happens with just about every MMORPG that has a forum.

[yoni.7015]

3 minutes ago, Rovaeden.8546 said:

Why?
I disagree and, instead of brainlessly spamming a button I will articulate why.

Simply stated, it adds nothing of value to the conversation.
If you disagree with something, but cannot be bothered to explain why, you kinda don't deserve to be allowed to butt in on the conversation.

 You know that you can do both. When I disagree with something someone wrote I usually write something and I press the confused reaction. 

[Rovaeden.8546]

3 minutes ago, TheNecrosanct.4028 said:

People will always dislike things. And there's nothing wrong with that. Considering the tone of the majority of people on social media, though, do you really want peope to voice their dislike instead of pushing a single button? A lot of people lack the skill to voice their negative opinion in a non-personal, constructive way. And sometimes a dislike is just a dislike, a simple no. People aren't owed explanations. But if there's a button that is consistently used as a thumbs down alternative, it does give a quick overview of the general opinion, the yes or no.

I agree with you to a point.
People will always dislike things and as you say, nothing wrong with that.

I disagree with most everything else.
I would prefer that rather than cater to the lowest common denominator, we hold people to a higher standard and even assist them in attaining that higher standard.
We are at a place where "...A lot of people lack the skill to voice their negative opinion in a non-personal, constructive way.." because people are not encouraged to develop emotional strength and reasoning skills.

Yeah, this is a bigger issue than a silly video game forum.

To the topic at hand, I am not convinced that a dislike button really serves to improve the forums or the game.
A "No" without a "Why" is useless and should be ignored.

If you can make a good argument to the contrary I could be persuaded to change my opinion in this case.

[Infusion.7149]

If I told you the sky is purple when it is blue right now and refuse to look outside would you use the confused button?

[Rovaeden.8546]

10 minutes ago, Danikat.8537 said:

People use it as a dislike or disagree button because it's the most negative reaction available, even if it doesn't actually make sense.

It's best just to ignore reactions entirely. You can interpret likes as "I entirely agree with everything in this post", but anything else is too ambiguous most of the time. A confused reaction on any post covering more than one point would be ambiguous even if some people hadn't decided it has an unofficial alternate meaning and expected everyone to work out from context what the anonymous reactors actually mean.

If someone wants to actually contribute to the discussion they'll post, if they don't consider their points worth writing it's safe to assume they wouldn't be worth reading either.

This was my sense of it too.
It all strikes me as funny, because when I read a post that makes sense to me but see a pile of "confused" presses, I immediately see in my mind a small army of "Looks good to me" guy sitting behind all those computer keyboards and it makes me laugh.

This thread is genuine however, I am curious why people use it and if my intuition is correct.

[Ashantara.8731]

28 minutes ago, Tom.8029 said:

Yeah I don’t understand what the confused button is supposed to mean.

To me, it means "Huh?!" or "I like trolling people, even though my reaction makes no sense."

[Rovaeden.8546]

8 minutes ago, yoni.7015 said:

 You know that you can do both. When I disagree with something someone wrote I usually write something and I press the confused reaction. 

I've noticed.

But regardless, you make a fair point.

[TOAD.4718]

1 minute ago, Rovaeden.8546 said:

I agree with you to a point.
People will always dislike things and as you say, nothing wrong with that.

I disagree with most everything else.
I would prefer that rather than cater to the lowest common denominator, we hold people to a higher standard and even assist them in attaining that higher standard.
We are at a place where "...A lot of people lack the skill to voice their negative opinion in a non-personal, constructive way.." because people are not encouraged to develop emotional strength and reasoning skills.

Yeah, this is a bigger issue than a silly video game forum.

To the topic at hand, I am not convinced that a dislike button really serves to improve the forums or the game.
A "No" without a "Why" is useless and should be ignored.

If you can make a good argument to the contrary I could be persuaded to change my opinion in this case.

I agree actually with some of these. People who lack the people skills to voice their negative opinions or contrasting opinions in a civil way rather than poking,proding and teasing(trolling) Is a huge problem with society in general. However I don’t hold people on the internet to any standard because I know at least 50% of them are here because they have social disorders or just simply are anti-social people so I just expect such behaviors from them.

 

My issue is just focus on you bro. Let trolls be trolls. Jerks be jerks and ignore what agitated you because life itself is agitating there is no need to let some random guy on a forum somewhere affect you.

[Rovaeden.8546]

4 minutes ago, Infusion.7149 said:

If I told you the sky is purple when it is blue right now and refuse to look outside would you use the confused button?

No. I would move on, unless your proclamation was about to set a legal precedent that something imaginary was about to be held as real, then I would fight like hell.

[HnRkLnXqZ.1870]

Those who frequently use it, love it. Those who collect them with almost every post they make, do not really like it - obviously. We also have a bunch of people who downvote/dislike/confuse all posts of a single user, no matter what they say. Instead of just blocking them and moving along.

I do not really like it myself, but I do not really care anymore. I can predict which posts will cause how many confused-reactions by now, because I know who I am going to offend with my texts. That is the price of free speech. You have to deal with the echo. 

The anonymity of the confused-reaction is one of the main reasons, why it is used so frequently. If we could see who reacted how, like we do with the public polls, a lot of people would decide to not use it for sure. (reputation)

If the confused-reaction was removed, people would post more hurtful comments again, which would then gain the Thankyou/Thumbs UP reactions. This is how it worked with the old system that only had positive reactions. The confused-reaction simplifies conflicts and and allows people to express their discontent without directly interacting with the discussion and so causing further drama.

One of the moderators once locked a thread about this topic with something like "This discussion is going nowhere, neither will the confused-reactions. get used to it". The fact that this is a reoccurring topic should be hint enough that emoji-reaction might not be a perfect solution. Is there a perfect solution? Every system is flawed. We are dealing with humans here. Conflicts are inevitable /shrug. 

[TheNecrosanct.4028]

5 minutes ago, Rovaeden.8546 said:

I agree with you to a point.
People will always dislike things and as you say, nothing wrong with that.

I disagree with most everything else.
I would prefer that rather than cater to the lowest common denominator, we hold people to a higher standard and even assist them in attaining that higher standard.
We are at a place where "...A lot of people lack the skill to voice their negative opinion in a non-personal, constructive way.." because people are not encouraged to develop emotional strength and reasoning skills.

Yeah, this is a bigger issue than a silly video game forum.

To the topic at hand, I am not convinced that a dislike button really serves to improve the forums or the game.
A "No" without a "Why" is useless and should be ignored.

If you can make a good argument to the contrary I could be persuaded to change my opinion in this case.

Holding people to a higher standard and/or helping them attain it would be great. But that is just never going to happen on an online forum. If only for the simple "Who are you to tell me [blank]?", which in itself is a valid question, people not caring enough to elaborate, trolls (as old as humanity itself and will never go away) and a myriad of other reasons. Trying to create and maintain such an online platform requires an inordinate amount of moderating. It's also very difficult to try and get people to do something through reasoning when they are complete strangers to you. You don't know their level of (emotional) intelligence, background, personal experiences that might influence behavior, etc. Changing or bettering behavior is usually not achieved through online communication with strangers.

So while I do firmly support the principle, I don't see it working in practice. And even if we do ever reach such a state, people still don't owe anyone explanations for their opinions, and a lack of elaboration on said opinion does not make that opinion any less valid.

[TOAD.4718]

1 minute ago, HnRkLnXqZ.1870 said:

Those who frequently use it, love it. Those who collect them with almost every post they make, do not really like it - obviously. We also have a bunch of people who downvote/dislike/confuse all posts of a single user, no matter what they say. Instead of just blocking them and moving along.

I do not really like it myself, but I do not really care anymore. I can predict which posts will cause how many confused-reactions by now, because I know who I am going to offend with my texts. That is the price of free speech. You have to deal with the echo. 

The anonymity of the confused-reaction is one of the main reasons, why it is used so frequently. If we could see who reacted how, like we do with the public polls, a lot of people would decide to not use it for sure. (reputation)

If the confused-reaction was removed, people would post more hurtful comments again, which would then gain the Thankyou/Thumbs UP reactions. This is how it worked with the old system that only had positive reactions. The confused-reaction simplifies conflicts and and allows people to express their discontent without directly interacting with the discussion and so causing further drama.

One of the moderators once locked a thread about this topic with something like "This discussion is going nowhere, neither will the confused-reactions. get used to it". The fact that this is a reoccurring topic should be hint enough that emoji-reaction might not be a perfect solution. Is there a perfect solution? Every system is flawed. We are dealing with humans here. Conflicts are inevitable /shrug. 

The anonymity definitely keeps the more “trolly” confused clickers doing it. Half would stop fast otherwise cause eventually people would start reporting them for harassment like in other games if they abused it. ArenaNet knows that too which is smart to leave it anonymous if they want to avoid a HUGE influx in tickets.

[SoftFootpaws.9134]

There's a few specific players on the forum who make it a habit to spam everything with a confused emoji. I've even had them go back hundreds of posts into my history doing it.

 

It has nothing to do with the posts or the topic, they just don't like other people.

[Rovaeden.8546]

11 minutes ago, TOAD.4718 said:

I agree actually with some of these. People who lack the people skills to voice their negative opinions or contrasting opinions in a civil way rather than poking,proding and teasing(trolling) Is a huge problem with society in general. However I don’t hold people on the internet to any standard because I know at least 50% of them are here because they have social disorders or just simply are anti-social people so I just expect such behaviors from them.

 

My issue is just focus on you bro. Let trolls be trolls. Jerks be jerks and ignore what agitated you because life itself is agitating there is no need to let some random guy on a forum somewhere affect you.

Actually, I am anti-social with a social disorder.

I struggle to understand social norms. They are strange to me.
I am apparently very literal. Confused means confused. To use a button labeled Confused in another way is strange to me.

I'm not at all agitated. I'm trying to understand the "accepted but unwritten social rule" that the Confused Button holds around here.
I find its use to be funny, as I have stated. The "Looks good to me" meme guy smashing the button because thinking is hard is what crosses my mind every time I see the confused reaction has been used.