Demetrification: improving social media by removing public like/follower/repost counts

boing
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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/09/12/flickrs-glory-days.html

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I liked this post. It’s very conflicting.

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I know artists that put too much stock into the number of likes they get on instagram. I find myself checking like counts after making a post. And i’ll probably do it again! #sickneedforapproval

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Color me skeptical that the big Social Media companies are putting user’s interest first-- I suspect that in Instagram’s case at least, the idea of hiding “Like” counts is to cover for the fact that many creators have seen their engagement drop significantly over the past couple of years.

Can’t complain about the new algorithms if you don’t know how you are being affected.

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I’m only liking it with my brain.

And, ah, this comment. So much for that.

I keep forgetting IG even exists.

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Maybe Boing Boing should get rid of the number beside the heart on comments?

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I could live without it being public. It is nice to see privately, but that’s not absolutely necessary, either. The count might be a useful metric for the mods and admins, though, and I do enjoy supporting consistently good commenters by Liking their posts.

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You’ll have to take the heart from my cold, dead chest cavity.

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I for one like knowing how Good other people’s opinions are

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I just count the nice reply badges but then never think much of them later as a lot are for being first with the appropriate gif/meme.
I think it amuses me more than it gives my life meaning.

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I saw the headline and thought it would be about converting from metric to imperial units. Thank goodness it’s not!

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I live in secret terror that my life force will dwindle without public validation, much like how Tinkerbell dies if she doesn’t get enough applause from the audience.

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Seeing lots of likes on a post makes me less likely to hit ‘Like’ on it, cos, y’know, they’ve got enough already.

My understanding is you’d still be able to see privately how many people liked your post, but admittedly this change would make it more difficult to compare your posts to others’.

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Metric kilohearts.

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