Support and no support button

I would be interested in having a “Support” and “No support” button for this board so it would be easier to know who likes the suggestion and who dislikes the suggestion. It would also be easier for staff to know what other users’ opinions are since the alternative would be staff having to scroll through pages of replies to know if users like the suggestion or not. It should be made so only the creator of the topic and staff can see the results. It would be set up this way so that users do not feel persuaded to vote one way or the other and so the creator of the topic could edit their topic according to positive/negative feedback and constructive criticism, therefore updating and upgrading their suggestion accordingly. When you vote there should be an option to change your vote just in case you changed your mind later or if you clicked the wrong button.

I would like to have buttons like that BUT only if we aren't shown how others decided unless we are staff. 

Reason: Psychological. Humans are easily swayed by public opinion. And if the first thing we see is how majority of people decided, we are not as open to differing arguments that follow underneath. It's also too tempting to just click on Support/Not support button instead of continuing to read on and see potential arguments that we might have agreed with. 

yes. i support. this is will make it easier to see who has support or not supported the idea. even if they don't reply to the thread. 

you can click on the support button or the no support button .

i imagine it would like  look something like this 

example 100 supports/ 67 no supports. 


please let me know if i am on the right track what you had in mind. 

This would be great. I usually don't have stuff to add to the conversation and just want to put my "vote" in.

Edit: I think that is an interesting addition,  Vampirette. Maybe only once you've voted you can see the results? 

On another note, if I see that mass opinion is against what I was thinking of voting, I am more likely to look into what everyone else is saying in the comments.

I might have voter regret if I change my mind later. So, it would be nice if we could change our votes if someone comes in with a viewpoint I didn't consider initially. 

I like this idea but I agree that the result should only be shown to staff, so that it doesn’t turn into a popularity contest. A feature like this might actually be quite helpful for the staff to see which suggestions are creating the most buzz.

I don't like the idea personally, as I think it would lead to less thorough discussion of a suggestion - people might find it easier to just click "no support" than give a solid reason.

If this were to come in, I strongly agree with Vampirette that the results should be hidden from view for everyone but staff - not even the person who made the suggestion should be able to see it. This way the staff would get an idea of how popular a suggestion is, but other users wouldn't be swayed by popular opinion, and the person who made the suggestion wouldn't feel either disheartened or hurt if they got a lot of "no supports"

I agree. Right now it's pretty hard to accurately see what people do and don't agree because rules state "Comments that simply state "I support" or "I don't support" will be removed."

Which, in turn, can lead to some people not commenting or speaking up because of laziness or the idea that they may not have much to contribute to a conversation.

@Lily: crud, I read the rules and must not have seen that one. I've totally posted "I do/don't support" a few times. Sorry, board clean-up crew! D: