Adding a "Like" button and similar features

Brian Edwards78 said:That was just a donation to keep the site running. This is about paying membership dues. And honestly, both types of payments show which account or card was used. 🤷

Our college forum, let's say it's like a private subreddit, uses annual bank transfers
. The transfer just had this unique code I got from the admins. As far as I know, the actual account number is kept private by the bank, right? Plus, you aren't even 100% anonymous on a forum anyway; the police could probably track you down via an IP address that Reddit and AT&T are required to keep on file. $10

I mean, sure, there are ways to bypass all that, but I guess in a decent community on a simple little forum, there's really no need to go there, 🙄

Sarah Sanders34 said:I think I started a thread once where I asked if the forum could ever allow Facebook-style likes.

Even though I felt a little embarrassed about starting that thread, I guess I was secretly hoping for an answer. 😁

The whole thing came from seeing so many massive posts where everyone just replies with stuff like "I agree" or "This," and honestly, it happens all the time. It’s especially tough if you’re a moderator because then you have to go around deleting all those repetitive comments.

To me, it seemed like if you could just like a post, you’d lose all those tiny, one or two-word responses or random emojis, and instead, you'd get a clean, readable thread without a million quotes from people who don't really have anything else to say other than they like someone's opinion or a photo.

I’m not sure if it would actually reduce the number of posts, but if we're being realistic, maybe it's better if some people write less and just hit the like button instead. 😁

It would be pretty easy to add a forum like/thanks/whatever button; they probably just need to find and install a ready-made vBulletin script for it.

Jeffrey Bennett77 said:He mentioned setting up some kind of Verizon tier, and I guess you compared us to a site where everyone pays a subscription, so naturally, people can get banned there. But if we started banning our Verizon members here, the site would basically run out of money since we'd be left with just the free users and maybe a few decent VIPs. 🙂

Wait, what do you mean by "run out of money"? 🤷 I mean, the money isn't exactly sitting here right now, so the only way to get it is to actually earn it, I guess. 😁

And honestly, I don't really see many serious, long-term members getting banned often, and they’re usually the ones most likely to use a service like that anyway. I don't think a Troll with only three posts is going to pay extra for a bigger inbox...

northerncyclist2 said:What do you mean "out of money"? 🤷 If the cash isn't there, it means they can only get it via donations 😁

And honestly, I don't see many serious, long-term users getting banned—and those are the ones most likely to actually pay for a service like this. A Troll with three posts isn't exactly going to be upgrading their inbox size...

If people were paying, they’d probably get (hopefully) better servers or a newer version of the forum that actually works properly. Then, if donations dropped, there wouldn't be enough money to maintain all that high-end stuff 🙂 Personally, all I do is troll—I've got plenty of receipts to prove it 😁 so I definitely need that bigger inbox

Jeffrey Bennett77 said:I mean, if people actually paid, we'd probably get a better server or maybe a newer version of the forum that actually works. But then again, if donations dropped because of that, there wouldn't be enough cash to keep all those fancy upgrades running. 🙂 As for me, I'm mostly just here to troll—and I've got the receipts to prove it 😁 so I really just need a bigger inbox.

Could you maybe explain to me why a new server would cost more to maintain than this old junk? 😁

I honestly don't mind paying a little something...
As long as it isn't for a bloated inbox (not really here for the DMs), Verizon status, or any of those other gimmicks. I mean strictly technical upgrades for the site...

On some other sites, like Reddit, they collect donations toward the end of the year. There’s always enough to go around (to give the owner a nice little bonus for Christmas 😁). But instead of bank transfers, they just use PayPal or credit cards.

Since there are quite a few of us living out of state, how could we even contribute via traditional transfers? 🙄

PS. Speaking of which, whenever I hear about Facebook, I'm totally out!

northerncyclist2 said:Can you walk me through why a brand-new server would actually cost more to maintain than this old junk we're running? 😁

Man, people on this site always grab onto the tiniest little detail and run with it like it's some massive deal. 😁 I mean, keeping this site up and running isn't exactly the same thing as managing a platform that basically never hits a snag...

I honestly don't get this endless, constant whining about the server being "bad." It’s not like your heart rate or your ability to breathe depends on it, right?

I mean, seriously, what is the deal? Yeah, sure, occasionally pages load a bit slow, sometimes you hit a "500 error," and—God forbid—very rarely does the server actually go down for a significant amount of time. And then what? Everyone starts panicking, losing their minds, taking it out on their families or random strangers on the street—life loses all meaning, angels lose their wings and start weeping, or whatever. Is that really where we are?

The actual issues regarding user experience and the real reasons why our engagement numbers are dipping lie somewhere else entirely, and they have absolutely nothing to do with the server. This whole server obsession is—well, I guess you could say it's like falling off your bike and then kicking the damn thing because you think it's the one at fault...

I'm just saying it sucks...
What if calling something bad right away is just us complaining about the flaws?
If that's even how I see things...

Was I quoting you? Or anyone else specifically? 😕

Am I really following you? 🤣

Nicholas King said:I don't really get all this constant complaining about the servers being bad. I mean, it's not like your entire life or your ability to breathe depends on them, right? I guess people just overreact sometimes.

I feel like everyone’s obsessing over the user experience and technical glitches, but if you ask me, the real reasons why engagement numbers are tanking have nothing to do with server stability. Honestly, blaming the server is kind of like falling off your bike and then kicking the damn thing because you think it's the bike's fault... I mean, maybe that's just how I see it, but the core issues are somewhere else entirely.

🤦
If every single update meant to actually improve this place ends up being stalled because of some server issue, then I guess you could say the server itself is part of the problem. But honestly, that’s probably just one of many things holding this forum back...

northerncyclist2 said:Could you walk me through why a brand-new server would actually cost more to maintain than this old junk? 😁

Don't sweat it, it's just a silly misconception. Honestly, trying to keep end-of-life gear running is way more expensive than just buying something new.

rustydrifter10 said:It was an idea we toyed with for a bit, but we’ve decided to pull the plug on it—at least for now. I honestly don't know what the future holds, but for the time being, that option isn't going to be spreading across the Reddit community.

Honestly, don't even bother listening to her.

rustydrifter10 said:I think there was a thread somewhere about that "thank you" feature—there was actually quite a bit of buzz surrounding it. At the end of the day, though, it’s entirely up to the owner, and they haven't said a word about it yet.

I honestly think the owner should just sell Reddit to the community. If we all owned the place, they wouldn't even need to bother with advertising. If anyone's interested, we could always just put together a PDF of the classified ads.

Andy, think about it—you could actually make a killing. 😉

rustydrifter10 said:He doesn't care, honestly. It’s just that there's no budget for a new server right now, so he's avoiding anything that might strain the current setup. I'm not entirely sure how much of a load this would actually put on the system, but maybe there's some other reason behind it too.

If he actually follows through on selling us that server, we can get to work on setting it up. There’s a massive amount of decent hardware just sitting around the country right now, gathering dust while everyone obsesses over the latest iPhones and high-end smartphones. It's a waste.

rustydrifter10 said:This forum was originally pitched as a free space for everyone to hang out, but man, things have changed. It’s been a long time since we first launched, and looking back, the whole vibe feels completely different than it did just a few years ago.

Everything’s different now. Times are changing.

Suggestion: we should really consider adding some quick reaction buttons to the Reddit interface, like a "thanks," a "lol," or even a "disagree"...

It would be such a nice way for people to share feedback on posts or just show some appreciation without having to clutter up everyone's feed with extra replies.

To be honest, I feel like our platform is lagging a little behind most other sites these days, so implementing something like this would honestly be a huge step in the right direction. ☕

Reddit isn't Facebook

lol button 🤦

It’d be smarter if they finally brought back the old Facebook—honestly, it's impossible to function without it.

Honestly, this whole forum feels like it’s stuck in the last century, so I can't believe you haven't stumbled upon features like that before elsewhere

And that whole thing about the Facebook reaction? It's basically just a poster at this point, especially since they haven't managed to fix it even after all these months, lol

Those kinds of nonsense don't belong on forums—doesn't matter how much they're used. Let this place stay stuck in the 19th century if it has to, just so we don't have to deal with that kind of crap.

Just because you're resistant to change and want to stay stuck in the 90s forever doesn't mean the rest of us have to be dragged down with you

It would honestly be such a huge help if people stopped cluttering things up with pointless thank-you posts, and maybe we could dial back on all the "lol" comments and endless strings of emojis whenever something is slightly funny instead of just spamming the feed

I have a feeling nothing is actually going to change, and this site will probably look just as outdated in five years as it does now, though I really think we should take a page out of Stack Overflow's book regarding design

not to mention those constant errors that seem to pop up all the time, haha

I’ve been on the other side of this before, and I was around when some of these things were actually active before they got scrapped.

A lot of nonsense can stem from these kinds of situations, especially when people just want to fight their own little tribal wars.