Pros:

• You could like comments that are very constructive or are funny.
  
• This could help prevent wasting the reply limit in studios with “love-its.”
  
• It shows appreciation to a user who only makes comments, and doesn't share projects. This is basically what likes do on projects as of now.
  

Cons:

• Like beggars will end up on Scratch and try to get people to like their comments.
  
• Some evil people will make likebots, since people are usually attracted to comments with the most likes, so this could be used to hack people.
  

King of the page

Spaceandmoon1 wrote:

HelloJelloPeople wrote:

Spaceandmoon1 wrote:

If the project creator would be the only one to be able to like comments, then I don't think that this would be worth implementing.

I'm pretty sure this means anyone can like/upvote comments.

@astro-peach was suggesting that only the project creator could like (#920)

That much I know, but what I'm saying is the suggestion itself likely is saying everyone can like comments.
Maybe this could include a toggle for the creator, where the creator can only like? Or similar to how YT has the channel heart, so if the creator likes, their PFP shows up next to the like button.

Also, one thing to add about a possible moderation punishment is for like beggers, who post multiple reported like begging comments, to no longer be able to recieve likes for a period of time, even from the project creator or profile owner.

I agree! That would be great!

Support.
This would be a great idea. Sometimes, I want to have the commenter know that their comment has been seen, even if I'm not sure how to respond. Also saves time.

However, I did think of some issues that could come with a liking system for comments.

X Like beggars may come into Scratch, begging for likes on their comments, or even making doomsday posts for likes (i.e. saying that the world will end if their comment isn't liked). This is already a problem when it comes to project likes and favorites, but allowing comments to also be liked could bring even more beggars.
X People would make bots to give themselves more likes, making them seem more popular. Also already a problem with project likes and favorites.
X People may start drama over not having liked comments. Once again, a problem with project likes and favorites, but also people may get mad over not having many responses to their comments already.

Also, if this is added, it should allow only liking comments. No disliking them. The ability to dislike comments would cause way more drama than the ability to like them. And no, it doesn't matter if you can see who liked/disliked them or not. It can still cause issues potentially.

warriorcatsfreakalt wrote:

(#944)
However, I did think of some issues that could come with a liking system for comments.

you stole my ideas

even worse was my ideas were king of the page

/j

warriorcatsfreakalt wrote:

However, I did think of some issues that could come with a liking system for comments.

There is one solution to this: reporting.
If need be, a new comment report category can be created for like begging comments.

About the bots…yeah, every platform with likes will find a way, if it hasn't been found already.

BringUpYourPost wrote:

-cloudcoding- wrote:

Definitly support. It'll help peple to show emotion quickly and easily. Though will there be a notification for it?

Why though? if you have an emotion you don't need to tell people. A comment is a thought, and liking it is saying you agree with a thought, or think it is funny. If somebody says an opinion you agree with do you reply “I agree with this sentiment” No you don't. Also if a comment is spam and somebody likes the comment we are affirming that comment. Making the spammer want to spam more as they think people are ok with it. In conclusion, liking comments doesn't add anything of value to scratch.

I say “I agree”. Speak for yourself

A-MARIO-PLAYER wrote:

Pros:

• You could like comments that are very constructive or are funny.
  
• This could help prevent wasting the reply limit in studios with “love-its.”
  
• It shows appreciation to a user who only makes comments, and doesn't share projects. This is basically what likes do on projects as of now.
  

Cons:

• Like beggars will end up on Scratch and try to get people to like their comments.
  
• Some evil people will make likebots, since people are usually attracted to comments with the most likes, so this could be used to hack people.
  

King of the page

Those don't seem like huge problems to me, just warn people that do that.

Kippyz49 wrote:

(#948)
Those don't seem like huge problems to me, just warn people that do that.

What do you mean by “warn?” Send them an alert?

You literally can't warn a likebot, because likebots only speak json.

A-MARIO-PLAYER wrote:

Kippyz49 wrote:

(#948)
Those don't seem like huge problems to me, just warn people that do that.

What do you mean by “warn?” Send them an alert?

You literally can't warn a likebot, because likebots only speak json.

Surely people tried to like bot on projects, wouldn't the solution be the same?

No support. It doesn't fit in with the goal of scratch. Not to mention the extra computational strain it would put on the already struggling Scratch servers. I imagine the server strain would be even worse than the rejected live-updating comment sections suggestion. Also, adding an upvote system would make scratch even more like a social media site.

Paddle2See wrote:

While Scratch has a social media aspect, we want the primary focus to continue to be making and sharing Scratch projects.

And if the most basic features like pinning comments on projects won't get implemented, this absolutely won't either.

the_sus_girl wrote:

I agree! That would be great!

What will be great?

I've seen people on Youtube being accused of comment “stealing” and sadly many people do it. It would be very annoying to see this on Scratch. No thanks.

Elijah999999 wrote:

I've seen people on Youtube being accused of comment “stealing” and sadly many people do it. It would be very annoying to see this on Scratch. No thanks.

What's “comment stealing”?

Then we'd get.

Fame Hungry Kid wrote:

\/ People Viewing in { insert year here }

sonic__fan wrote:

(#954)

Elijah999999 wrote:

I've seen people on Youtube being accused of comment “stealing” and sadly many people do it. It would be very annoying to see this on Scratch. No thanks.

What's “comment stealing”?

One person makes a funny/really good comment. Then, someone copies word for word and gets more social points for it, causing even more drama. I agree. We don't need that in Scratch :(

RobotChickens wrote:

sonic__fan wrote:

(#954)

Elijah999999 wrote:

I've seen people on Youtube being accused of comment “stealing” and sadly many people do it. It would be very annoying to see this on Scratch. No thanks.

What's “comment stealing”?

One person makes a funny/really good comment. Then, someone copies word for word and gets more social points for it, causing even more drama. I agree. We don't need that in Scratch :(

Just report it.

sonic__fan wrote:

(#957)

RobotChickens wrote:

sonic__fan wrote:

(#954)

Elijah999999 wrote:

I've seen people on Youtube being accused of comment “stealing” and sadly many people do it. It would be very annoying to see this on Scratch. No thanks.

What's “comment stealing”?

One person makes a funny/really good comment. Then, someone copies word for word and gets more social points for it, causing even more drama. I agree. We don't need that in Scratch :(

Just report it.

And add even more things for the moderation team to deal with? And all for what?

I went through the most well-made posts on this topic and I have concluded with my own opinion on the subject.

Everyone is going to have their own mixed opinions on the matter, but in my own personal opinion the downsides are too much to ignore. In general, comments on Scratch are used for feedback and making online friends, not to gather attention to yourself. But hear me out still and please read the rest of my post.

Chainmanner wrote:

As much as a good idea this might be, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to turn that upvote for this thread upside-down. It might encourage unfriendly competition to get the higher comment, some memes might get higher ratings than a comment better in quality, etc.

This is a good point right here. Most people won’t be actively posting constructive comments on projects and usually are just having fun, which is cool! The main issue I’m seeing here is that being able to upvote comments puts too much of an emphasis on fame. This may be a point you will see later in the topic but I am also going to bring this up.

• Example: A user posts a comment that’s not meant to be taken seriously. The joke they make however, gets a good amount of attention and received a good chunk of upvotes. Another user sees this comment and thinks that making jokes can get you upvotes. This is not a good habit to behold, because the user is encouraged to make meme comments on projects solely for upvotes.
  

Now, I do think that utilizing upvotes to bring attention to actually constructive comments can actually happen. Except, you don’t see constructive comments very often on Scratch, and the example I brought up almost discourages creating helpful comments.

little_kitten wrote:

I like the idea. What if you could like forum posts too? I think we'd need that!

Forum posts could actually benefit more from upvotes mainly because you’re usually on the forums asking for help or helping others out. If you see a post which responds to the OP in a helpful and constructive manner, like a post from Help with Scripts, that would probably get you some well-deserved upvotes. And unlike the rest of the Scratch website, it’s much rarer to find people joking around for attention. In fact, upvotes on the forums actually could encourage the making of constructive posts.

awesome5185 wrote:

Hi Scratchers, I think it would really be useful to add a like button to comments and discussion comments just to see weather the community agrees with you without having to reply.

It should just be better to reply to the comment or forum post as a way of feedback, especially if you find flaws in their wording. Upvotes don’t really signify feedback, they simply just mean whoever upvotes your post happens to like it; no other response from them.

Zro716 wrote:

Here is the post if you want to read it. For now, I am going to to grab my pair of scissors and snip it.

Absolutely great post you have here. Too bad to think you aren’t very active nowadays…
Sorry.
Your post brought up the core issue of fame and ramped it up to 60. But a good point you brought up is the rule of thumb:

If you look at places that have “like” buttons for comments, i.e. Facebook, YouTube, and Google, you can see one predominant problem: the surfacing of humanity's worst. As a rule of thumb on the Internet, people are willing to do literally anything for likes. Some of the people who farm for likes are the biggest disappointments I have ever seen. Even if it's just for laughs, “just kidding”, reposting memes, etc., it's still not worth the value it shows because there is a lot more to someone's personality than a number.

People and the small brains contained in their skulls, yes, can and will do anything for attention. But this also doesn’t just apply to the younger demographic of Scratch. Everyone; teens, young adults, and even above that has that reaction in their brain thinking, “Big number is good!”. Even myself can relate to having wanted the attention.

You are absolutely correct about there being more to someone’s personality. People on the internet will think of others as some digital star when they get lots of upvotes on a good post. But you don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes; it could be much darker than what the comment implies.

alexphan wrote:

There probably should be a hidden thumbs up next to the comment you want to like, and to get rid of the like (rather than going from 1 to -1), you click on it again. It wouldn't show how many likes a comment has, but comments with more likes will appear on the top. There also should be a filter saying “top comments” and “new comments”

This is an interesting way of adding upvotes to Scratch without encouraging competition. But my main issue here is that it requires comments to be sorted via popularity by default if the upvotes are going to be hidden. A filter with the options of most upvoted and most recent would pretty much contradict the suggestion you made as people would quickly figure out that’s it used as a bulletin board.

alexphan wrote:

-You should be able to report comments that say “Like if…” or “If you (don't) like this comment…” or “Today's (…), can I get some likes?” or any other comment that tries to get “upvotes.”

People ask for likes and favorites on their projects all the time. This isn’t much different from that and shouldn’t really warrant a report, but someone else can make that judgement for me.

I think that there are already an adequate amount of ways that you could express an upvote without this feature because by replying, you could type things like: Thanks, :), :P, :D, :3, I agree and that would send the same kind of of message. Although with so many replies of this there would be lots of scrolling so… yeah.

I feel that it's a little much with this feature though because then people could lazily like a comment without much thought when replying is more genuine.
Does anyone think that this is likely? Does anyone think that replying can be used for the same thing as upvoting?