WHOA, SLOW DOWN THERE, SPEED RACER.
A lot of you are COMPLETELY, and I mean COMPLETELY, missing the point of this topic, to the point where no amount of BBcode and screaming at my monitor and farting from the force of how hard my abdomen is contracting from belting out these screams of absolute FURRRYYYYYYYYYYYY does not serve the justice of explaining just how much you guys are missing it... I thought the concept behind this idea could be easily grasped without much explanation :x
No, this is not supposed to be ANYTHING like Facebook, dawg. I simply used the term "like button" as it can basically be used as an umbrella term for any feature that refers to the "+1-ing" of a post. The purpose of this idea is to:
1. Eliminate any "+1" posts or any of similar nature; in other words, any posts that do nothing but show a user agrees with a post. On especially "hot" threads, this can eliminate thread clutter and allow the big essays to be more easily sifted through.
2. Allow users to easily discern the quality of posts without necessarily reading the post in detail and decide if it is worth reading... again, helpful in "hot" threads, especially the fun ones that get controversial and passionate... mmmm, sounds like anal.
3. Get posters to strive to make posts with a higher quality in order to achieve more +1's. I know it sounds silly but e-penising and self-fulfillment is behind this.
This idea is to apply to individual posts rather than topics. Many forums, especially those regarding the acquisition/inquiry of information, have these types of features to back up the quality of the post. I've seen (and regularly visit) a forum that has a post rating system that allows a user to add green/red stars, green being positive and red being negative, along with comments next to the stars that justify their rating without the rater's name. These ratings have to be approved by moderators before taking effect, in order to prevent blatant hate-rating or other forms of abuse.
Of course, with only a PLUS system in place that has no effect on the profile, abuse shouldn't really be an issue.