Mëtålštêęd.
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I’m trying to view it from both sides too. I saw some initial comments from internal (BB and Discourse) members regarding raising the cap, and wondering if it shouldn’t have been done on a user level basis. Not that we need to know all the details, but there are apparently some concerns.
ETA: (I’m regretting saying both sides. It’s not an Us vs Them situation.)
Clearly I need some rest…
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No, I agree; I saw that over on the other thread too. pi x 10^4 likes is kind of an overreaction. Someone was obviously in a testy mood; maybe too much traffic in Mill Valley over the weekend.
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Seconded!
ETA: we don’t have an org chart, just these pitchforks and torches.
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Needs more ginger pie and oat straw tea.
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I like likes.
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I was (and am) in your corner, believe me:
ETA: Jeff’s response has emboldened me to drop the niceties and echo @jlw: this is ridiculous. LikeStrikers, call off the whambulance and just start enjoying BB again, FFS.
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If it suits you or anyone else to see likestrikers are babies then I might point out that yelling at babies to stop crying isn’t very effective. This approach has never resolved a conflict in history and it isn’t going to start now.
People’s feeling are hurt. If that doesn’t upset you because they are hurt about something silly and you think it will just pass, then just let it pass. But when I see @jlw’s post about no one noticing the change, I don’t see someone who thinks this is silly and will pass, I see someone whose feelings are hurt by the hurt feelings.
I have no opinion of who is in the right and who is in the wrong. I know that when a community member leaves because the service doesn’t work for them there is going to be backlash. I know that when someone says, “no one is listening” the fact that someone was listening is an irrelevant aside if the thread started by the person who is listening is shut down for being stupid. I know that we aren’t needed here and the BoingBoing as a website would survive if none of the regular commenters ever visited again, and I don’t even know what the motivation for this forum existing is.
Whoever is making decisions about the like system is well within their rights to do so and anyone who is unhappy with the like system is well within their rights not use the BBS. BB would also be well within their rights to shut down the BBS completely and to lock threads if the threads are about things they don’t like and users are well within their rights to continue to post threads that don’t violate the rules of the forums, which currently don’t include a rule against whining about how the forums work.
So for me and my catastrophic thinking I see mom and dad fighting and I just wish it would stop.
In other words, your hurt feelings over other people’s hurt feelings have hurt my feelings.
But if the intention is to make users feel that their input is valuable, then increasing the like limit without responding to complaints about the like limit and using that as proof that people are being foolish whiners then locking a discussion is not a good way to accomplish that. If customers of a bank were upset about high monthly fees and the bank lowered the fees, good PR would be, “We heard you, and we lowered your fees”, bad PR would be “We lowered the fees and you are still complaining, you shitheads.” Again by this analogy I am not suggesting we are customers who are paying for this service, and even if we were the choice of how to behave towards us would be entirely up to those running the place. I’m talking about how people’s actions make other people feel, not about what anyone is obligated to do or not do.
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Firstly, thanks. Thanks also to @codinghorror for the history and broader perspective from other discourses.
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So the limit is 30K now, or was that hyperbolic sarcasm?
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This tempest over the likes limit earned its blowback once commenters went beyond complaining and started questioning Jeff’s character as a software developer.
As an aside: between your comment and @jlw’s, I’m now confused as to how anyone’s reporting running out of likes if it’s effectively impossible to do so. Someone please clarify this for me.
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I don’t think anyone is.
I don’t think anyone mentioned that the limit had been raised until jlw closed that thread.
As far as I see it, the limit has been raised, @chgoliz can come back and the “I’ve run out of likes! threads will go away”.
And there will be much rejoicing.
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@codinghorror - you are my hero & remember to use the oxymoronic admin self-affirmation that when user communities get you down… being an admin would be the best job in the world if it wasn’t for the gd users.
I use it regularly 
Just wanted to add that when “we” talk about “feels” its possible that no one is in the wrong. It’s one of those rare times when this doesn’t necessarily apply /psy
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I can see my “trust level”, but I don’t know what number level that is. Where would I find that information?
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Haaaaaaaaaaahahahaha . . . I wasn’t on strike, and I was flinging out likes with mad abandon yesterday (especially towards the end of the day), and I did wonder why I wasn’t running out. But I’m a bit stingier than some, so I rarely run out anyway. So I just thought my estimation of how many likes I was giving out was off.
But yeah, if people who usually give out tons of likes were on strike, how would anyone know the limit had been raised?
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I was away for a bit since the like strike was a little too much for me to deal with.
First off, @codinghorror, I’m very sorry I was misunderstanding the responsibilities of devs. vs. site admins. I’d mentioned before that I thought you did great work on Discourse, and were generally really responsive, but it bears repeating. The bbs works really well, and is a fun place to hang out due to the work you @sam and others have done on the software and I really appreciate it. So I’m sorry for my role in misdirecting wrath, and also thanks for your work and patience.
Second, @jlw, thanks for sorting out raising the limit, I think the bbs will be a bit more wonderful with the new setting.
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the Discouse default values are very similar to the ones used here
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