2y ago

How hard would it be to implement an emoji reaction system (like Telegram) instead of Up or Downvotes?

I recently read a funny comment and wanted to give it the 😂 reaction like I would on a Telegram post, but upvoted instead. Reddit had upvoting downvoting but wondering if Lemmy, being an open source innovative software, should evolve past the upvote downvote and allow for a wide range of emoji reactions to a post.

19 comments

That sounds a bit like a support question, and also up votes and downvotes aren't just there for appearance, they have an impact on post ordering. Emoji reactions wouldn't be a replacement for that, if anything it would be more like reddit's award system.
I would hate such a change. I can't see emoji reactions ever being better than seeing a single number for vote count.
Reddit did kinda have their own emoji reactions, but they locked them behind a paywall, and called them awards. I don't think anyone liked them, even if it wasn't for the money. They cluttered the UI, they were annoying, even Reddit didn't like them, since they're removing them now.
Now imagine that but instead of a few people who paid Reddit for some reason, everyone can do it, for free. Thousands of emoji reactions per post.
Emoji reactions work for chat platforms since only a few people see each chat, but after a few hundred people see the post it becomes meaningless emoji spam (see discord announcement channels)
- IMO I like Discords emoji flood on posts.
Clown and poop emojis everywhere.
Honestly, upvotes and downvotes are IMO good enough.
You mean like facebook? 😑
I would only be okay with that if we were able to completely hide them so I never have to see them.
- I feel like I have made an unpopular opinion.
  
  Hey, don't worry, there are plenty of people who like those things, but they're probably mostly using Firefish/Calckey and Misskey.
  You should probably check those out, as an additional place. They are also in the fediverse, and people there have a lot of fun with emojis and other visuals.
Leaving this up because it looks like more of a hypothetical and open question rather than a support question.
- Yes I'm wondering if it's possible through activity pub/wanted to see if people were also interested. So far it seems like people don't want this feature.
Emojis make everything worse. But I would be down for awards like Steam, the only platform soon, which has awards for coins. Now we only need a way to purchase them... while everyone can create their own fediversed lemmy, it sounds hard to implement it in a fair way.
For some reason, steam awards kind of has its place as you can't purchase a 200$ award or smth but rather use cheap coins that you don't need. Reddit awards always felt kinda wrong, especially after you know that someone spent so much money.
I use it on Firefish (calckey) and Discord, so I don't mind, but I remember reddit being anti-emoji.

19 comments