Likes

We have changed the system of Likes to a more advanced one that allows Thanks and Dislikes as well.

You may have received emails notifying you when someone thanks you. We have changed the setting and no more emails will be sent.

We hope you like the new system.

It doesn't seem to matter how many times I check all my notifications are set to OFF, my inbox is still filling up with Like notifications. I had 6 by breakfast and I've just had another 13. Any more suggestions?

That's very strange. My email inbox stopped filling yesterday afternoon, as did Richard's, I think. I have just checked, and it's empty. Have you tried flicking the steam valve on yours?

I will ask Adam to look into it, but email boxes stopped filling yesterday.

The new 'likes' system has been set since yesterday so that it doesn't send emails. Notifications should appear in the normal menu location, however. Perhaps they were emails that got delayed in the queue somehow?

Are you talking about your UE inbox, ems? Posts liked always did come in there. We now also have the posts we liked and were thanked for.

N​o, I haven't had any notifications in my UE inbox. I'm talking about my personal email account (Hotmail). I've just deleted another 8.

A temporary solution, which I used until my problem cleared up, is to send the stuff to your spam folder. Once they are marked as spam, future ones should go straight there. When you see that no more are going in there, then the problem will have disappeared, and you can unmark UE as spam. Actually, most of us are here so often that it doesn't really matter if we keep UE labelled as spam. Admins and mods can always send you a PM here - you'll see it almost as quickly as you would in your hotmail inbox.

Thanks Jed. Before I read your message, I actually went in and changed my email address that's registered with the site to one I never check! At least they'll all go in there from now on. I'll take a look in a couple of weeks and see if it's gone down at all and then change my email address back to my normal one if it's manageable. I still can't work out why they're coming through though!

emsr2d2 said:

I still can't work out why they're coming through though!

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You have been Chosen. Through you, the eternal truth shall be spreaded. Go forth and multiply.

Tdol said:

We have changed the system of Likes to a more advanced one that allows Thanks and Dislikes as well.

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Is there any guidance available on how the 'Dislikes' are meant to be used and interpreted?

PS: I note that some posters are already routinely both Liking and Thanking for posts; but it's not possible to both 'Thank' a poster and 'Dislike' their post. What if we want to thank the messenger but express a dislike for the message?

Is that a likely scenario? I don't generally thank people for saying something I didn't like. "Thanks" here surely isn't a form of "Thanks for your opinion" but it's "Thanks for helping". If the post isn't useful or helpful, I can't see it getting any thanks.

People seem to be using it for something they disagree with or think is wrong, which makes sense to me.

I can see some ambiguity. I use the "Like" button when I mean "I agree". However, if I disagree with a post purely on usage grounds (for example, an AmE vs BrE difference), I would simply write a new post explaining why I disagree and giving my opinion. If I actually think that the post contains something blatantly incorrect in any variant of English, I would hit "Dislike" but go on to make another post. I think I am unlikely to hit Disagree but make no further comment.

emsr2d2 said:

Is that a likely scenario? I don't generally thank people for saying something I didn't like. "Thanks" here surely isn't a form of "Thanks for your opinion" but it's "Thanks for helping". If the post isn't useful or helpful, I can't see it getting any thanks.

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Yes, maybe it wouldn't occur here often. The concept, however, is quite natural to me. If I sent a message saying "Your tests are back. You have cancer", or "Your car is ready; the repairs cost $2,500", this is something that could be both thanked and disliked. One possible scenario here would be a message saying "We've tried everything to restore 'Likes' applying to posts rather than to thread titles in the notifications, but unfortunately the march of progress means that that isn't possible."

not a teacher

I would hit "Disagree" but go on to make another post.

I must admit that I can't see any purpose in the "Dislike" option.
I understand your point, emsr2d2, but in fact it's not a "Disagree" but a "Dislike" button. If I disagree with an opinion, it seems to me that the best option is to post a reply. If I post a reply with a differing opinion I don't see the need to say that I "Dislike" the original post.

As the vast majority of people, including learners, respond here in a genuine attempt to help, I imagine it could be quite discouraging to have native speakers "Dislike" your post, when all that's required is a clear explanation of the error and a referral to the guidelines. I think that such situations have been handled well in the past without the need to pointedly "Dislike" somebody's efforts.

If somebody genuinely dislikes a post because they find it offensive or culturally insensitive etc, then there is the "report post" option. I have never reported a post but on the rare occasions that a post has seemed problematic to me, again, I have found that the moderators have handled these situations promptly and well.

I'll see if we can change it to Disagree.

We have changed it to Disagree, and made the buttons less wordy.
I don't think we can change the display of the page about Likes given and received- there don't appear to be any options to remove Likes or Thanks given from the list.

Raymott said:

but it's not possible to both 'Thank' a poster and 'Dislike' their post. What if we want to thank the messenger but express a dislike for the message?

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It is now possible to Thank and Disagree.

And the display of who has thanked, etc, is taking up less screen space.