"Likes" and "Popularity" (Discussion)

Warning!
If you do not like my kinds of threads, that dear God do not continue any farther.

Day 1. (Of me typing)
Likes, we all know what they are, that number that appears under your profile name whenever you post something. We all have likes, big or small, no matter who we are, what we have done, and no matter what rank. However, this number has resulted in a lot of people having illusions that they somehow value over that new members account that was created a few hours ago.

Spoiler

Let me address this now, this is not either directly or indirectly referring to any specific person(s), this is only directed at those who feel like they have an advantage over anyone here just because of a number.
Basically what I am saying is that I could be referring a minority here on the forum, or an entire section of people that wish to surpass everyone else.

First, let's look at myself first with my number of likes, do you guys think that I care about it at all?
No, not by a longshot.
But I have both experienced first hand of new members being intimidated my either my number of likes, or my additude, which I do not like in the slightest.
But as you all know, I am very selfless here on the forum, even in real life I tend not to care about myself, but instead for others. But I would rather not have people praise me too much just because I choose to speak my mind.
Secondly, let's look on how this affects others and how they see themselves (From my POV).
There is only a few ways to tell if someone is under the illusion of themselves, and there is no real way we can distinguish this between persons, but anyone under the feeling that they are better than others is always a bad thing, so the rest of this thread will be devoted to sending a message to anyone feeling that way about themselves.

So, let's get started shall we?
>|< To those that are under the influence of popularity and a number:

To be frank, if you feel like in any way better than anyone else, that is a very, very bad thing.
If you feel like you will gain something out of feeling that way, you are sorrowly mistaken my friend, and even if you were to gain something a value of that, it is only a matter of time before you lose it.
Why do I say that? Look at history. Napoleon thought exactly like that, and to be honest with you, so does Kim-Jong-Un, they both have either been brought Down to Earth, or are getting close to touching it.
While these men have both gotten power, once they had it they immediately thought they were better than everyone else. Well, one of them has fallen and the other is about too.
Same goes for billionaires and (most) Hollywood stars,they feel better then everyone else, they either have to be extremely careful with what they are doing, or they will lose it all. What does that mean exactly?
It means that if a billionaire/famous person makes one mistake because of their incompetence and selfishness, they could end up in really bad places, and even in jail.
Obviously what I said above is very far from being as close to J/H likes, but it can generate the same feeling that you are somehow better the everyone else.
An example of the negative affects that this has on our community is that most of the drama had its roots planted in this feeling, but all perpetrators thought they could get away with such things, but the were wrong.
.. and also it has resulted in other bad things I would rather not mention.
All because of a number, and I hope that everyone can see it like that when you finish reading all of this
---
I sincerely hope that all of you guys can seriously take a second to fully understand that, and once you do, then I suggest moving on with reading this thread.
----
As an inspiration to those who are intimidated by either me, or anyone else just because of their popularity, all I can say to you is don't be.
In the end, everyone is a human being, equal in all ways, and the sooner everyone can understand that, this can all be "fixed". The thing is, that how we want it to be, because there will always be that one person who truely feels that way, better than everyone else, but you, the individual can maybe understand that.
If you already do, that is great!

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Day 2. (Of me typing)
Now that I have had a break, let me re-address the same topic differently from how I have covered it previously, and keep in mind I will repeat some things, but also add a few things that will make continuing this thread relevant.

This next thing I am going to be talking about is a bit of a suggestion, but hear me out on it alright?
I might make a standalone thread about that later, but as of now I am going to hint at a few things I am going to talk about.
This entire "like" and "popularity" 'issue' gets on a lot of people's nerves, especially myself, and I really do wish that, according to a user's preference, could turn off their ability to get likes entirely.
I am not entirely sure that you can do that in XenForo, (thanks @TheDiamondPicks ) but it was something I wanted to mention.
I will go more in detail about that later in a different thread, but sometimes the only way to seriously solve this issue is by having the user do it by their own free will. That way is probably the best way I could think of to separate people who are fools of themselves from people that actually care.
However.
Pay attention to what I am about to say alright? Before you go reply,
"Venom, likes and popularity are not really not a big problem."
Well, your technically right!
And my responce would be exactly..
"It really depends on the person and their personality and how they handle being popular, given that you can be on this forum. While it is not a huge threat on the forum, I would much rather have it dealt with before it does (again)."

Does that awnser your question? No? Maybe? I got more to say (feel free to quote me on this if you'd like):

"If people on this forum are too fool of themselves, and to only care for themselves, then they will not care for others, or put on an illusion that they do. If this does not change, we can never be truely unified.
But if this is to change, it has to be by their free will, because you can never force them to change, and if we are to get them to make this decision, we have to demonstrate this ourselves."

That right there, is probably one of the most truthful things I have ever said, and that is my advice.
I said that myself, and I am not going to contradict from that either.

Finished, for now.
(To the people that were paying attention to my profile page, you probably expected this to be a bit longer, but I tried to be a real as possible in this thread, and that took some thinking and multiple breaks to do. I do in fact admit to being a bit lazy, and some of it came of the top of my head admittedly also.
Trust me, this took at least a little bit of time, now I am truely finished with this thread. Thanks to all of you.)

 

Well, I've actually disabled all my alerts, which includes alerts caused by likes. I just really found it useless after a while seeing how dependent I've become on likes, and alerts after all. It's really helped me out a lot.

Also, I'm not saying this in a mean way, but this thread is bound to start drama. Trust me, I've made threads similar to this topic and one of them has been deleted. The others have really caused me depression seeing the hate/drama stuff I got in return. All I can say is make the smart choice, try not to go into a 'debate' with someone (that's how drama tends to start on here, and don't be afraid to lock if it goes out of control. Other than that, nice thread. :P

 

Don't worry, I have already looked a few that have.
I would like to say to the people that are going to say that you can disable alerts for likes, that is not always a permanent solution to it. I have thick skin, I can handle any backlash this may cause.

 

I understand actually. I was like that 2 years ago, but as I said before, I know it is not huge problem now, but it was to an point to where I wanted to stop it in its tracks.
I (almost entirely) agree with you, in fact to the point to where you were taking the words right out of my mouth. Once again, I know likes and popularity is not a huge problem, but I still felt like I had to make this thread.

 

I agree with a lot of this thread. I haven't seen a lot of this lately, but I have seen *insert popular user here* getting likes for saying about 1-3 words in a status, or in a thread; and the amount of likes they get, oh my lord. It's probably about 10-17.

 

This thread is very true. I'm glad you were brave and addressed this Gabe. Sometimes i get a bit peeved when people start fighting over Popularity which i feel is pointless.

People whould not fight over whos popular or not, This is a minecraft forum and i feel we should be having the same amount of popularity for all of us.

 

I used to think that the whole like system was pretty stupid, but I'm going to have to agree with Nether. It only makes sense that you receive likes if your content is something that the members in this community enjoy. So, I don't see what the problem with it is. Every once in a while, you click the 'Recent Activity' tab and you see one person spamming someone else with likes. So what? Does it actually matter to you, or do you just want to make a big deal out of it. [Not addressing anyone in particular.]
Popularity is an ongoing thing that is never really going to stop. It doesn't just happen on these forums, it happens literally everywhere on social media and everywhere irl too. It's not just something you can snap your fingers to and it will disappear.
There's popularity on these forums. Yeah, it probably has to do with likes and how much you post but it makes sense considering that you're not the person who likes your own posts, it's the community that does.
The whole topic of likes and popularity has died down and most people on the forums don't even take it so seriously anymore. I don't think it's worth typing paragraphs or getting worked up over.

 

Nobody said I would eliminate it, not even myself,
"

 

It's not really a problem at all, in my eyes. If you visit any community you will see the same thing going on, no matter the size or the type of people there. People are popular because others like their content. There's nothing wrong with that at all.
I'm also confused. What do you mean by "Nobody said I would eliminate it, not even myself,"?

 

Sorry, I am having a hard time doing stuff and focusing because I am focused on playing Halo right now.
I will address it later:

 

2 likes of the thread = Humanity Destroyed

I'd be honest, I only thing I want likes is to make Illuminati jokes about it in my profile page.

I always think about "Milestone" threads created by other members are signs of appreciation of helping them do a lil own mini-achievement just to make forums a bit fun. Likes makes people feel special and making them special release stress.

Why not just shut the fucking likes?

Likes shows an appreciation to the person who posted a reply/thread for making them amazed, inspired, laughed or making something awesome. It makes someone feel better that they shouldn't be sad always.

If you're trying to be popular in the forums then don't be, people wouldn't be liking you when they see the real you (meaning you just want fame).
"Too much something is bad" That's mostly true. Too much likes can change your personality.

There are Kinds of People why they want likes in the forums:

1. Selfish ones: People who wants more of these likes. They want to be popular and they get jealous to people who has more than them. They can stay like this forever or change for a reason.

2. Smart and Caring ones: These people are different. They get popular and use it to help in some way which alot of people are gonna look at their message because "they are technically famous". They pretty much don't care about the likes but they wanted to be popular so more people can realize that they are doing wrong / thinking wrong / would know that it is wrong.

3. Different Reasons:

• Curious People:
These people are trying to be like the popular ones to know the reason or to know what will be the benefits of it. Their decisions may lead them to wrong or good. They are curious about it so they try their best to be popular.

• Lonely Ones / Want Have More Friends:
These people want to have friends or more friends. They'd think its an easier and efficient way to get friends. They just want to hang out like we hang out with others.

Popularity Topic:

So What is Popularity?:
Popularity is when a person is famous / really know to the public. They are popular for a good or bad reason.

Can the community like deny it?:
You can't escape popularity. Its literally everywhere in the world. Popular because of their talent, skills in games or IRL, or intelligence, you can't literally escape it except if the world is just full of heartless robots, doesn't see the invisible and hard to obtained things that a robot cannot have.

I say to you, what's the point of being so fucking popular.They'll just use you just for something they want. So you can get $$$? You ain't getting cash in this forum. To get promoted? Lmao No, being so popular ain't giving you advantages to be staff.

People are popular because one likes the content they shared to the community.

I'm neutral to all of these. I'm agree-ing I'm disagree-ing. If you're confused it means I'm pointing out the Agreed and Disagreed of Popularity and Likes in the community.

 

HALO.

I agree with you, on that, too. All I don't like about the liking system is that popular people get likes for saying one word some times.

This post. This post seriously makes sense. I agree with this post so much.

 

You can't tell me to not take this as an attack and then be "salty" as you said. I am taking offense to it because you're being sarcastic on points that I was stating seriously, which isn't what I did to you. I'm just stating my opinion like I'm allowed to do, just like you have done by posting this thread.
I never told you to stop making threads; I just said what I thought about the topic of this particular thread. I also never said I don't like people writing paragraphs, I just think it's unneeded over such small topics that in my opinion are not worth typing paragraphs over.

 

It wasn't an attack, but I was admitted how I was emotionally feeling at the time.
I am stating my opinion also.
Did you read the warning at the beginning of the thread.
That is actually a serious question. If you do not like my threads nor the topics they are talking about, then why are you even posting on it in the first place.
I really wanted to address this issue myself and with my opinion and spread awareness about this, no (autocorrect sucks) matter how big the issue is.

 

All I'm going to say is that I have the right to post my opinion on your thread, and my posts were not hate nor anywhere near causing a flame war. I read the warnings on all of your threads, by the way. And yes, I still take it as an attack because the way you worded things was really rude and sarcastic, and it doesn't make me feel so good.
If you want to talk about this further, feel free to PM me.

 

Indeed, PMing you now.
I will edit this post once it is resolved. I'm not going to lock this thread unless someone else hops on the bandwagon.
[EDIT] Resolved my dear friends!