New Forum Feature: Likes!

In keeping with DCSki’s long tradition of implementing user suggestions at lightning speed, I’m pleased to announce a new forum feature that I’m pretty sure was first requested sometime before smartphones debuted.

You can now Like forum posts.

You’ll see a new 👍 Like button beneath forum posts when you’re logged into your DCSki account. Click it to give a post a thumbs-up; click it again if you change your mind. The number of Likes is visible to everyone, and you can hover over or click the count to see who has liked a post. You’ll need a free DCSki account and must be logged in to Like posts.  (Don't have an account?  You can register one here.)

That’s it. No complicated reactions, no downvotes, no algorithms trying to maximize engagement. Just a simple way to say, “Hey, good post.”

I know some variation of this feature has been suggested by DCSki readers over the years. Possibly many years. Maybe even decades. Better late than never, amiright?

As always, let me know if you encounter any glitches. This is fresh code bolted onto decidedly non-fresh forum code, so what could possibly go wrong? 😄

And, if there are other features you'd like to see implemented (maybe even in less than geologic time), please feel free to post them below.

Scott - nice that you added that for a quick and easy way to show support for a post or comment.  I'll just say that - even without it though - over the years I've felt that one of DCSki's main advantages is that posts are simply commented on through the solid group of folks you've attracted here over the years.  Just sayin' good feature, but I hope it doesn't detract from people hesitating to write a well thought out response or opinion.  Thanks again!

Scott wrote:

In keeping with DCSki’s long tradition of implementing user suggestions at lightning speed, I’m pleased to announce a new forum feature that I’m pretty sure was first requested sometime before smartphones debuted.

You can now Like forum posts.

You’ll see a new 👍 Like button beneath forum posts when you’re logged into your DCSki account. Click it to give a post a thumbs-up; click it again if you change your mind. The number of Likes is visible to everyone, and you can hover over or click the count to see who has liked a post. You’ll need a free DCSki account and must be logged in to Like posts.  (Don't have an account?  You can register one here.)

That’s it. No complicated reactions, no downvotes, no algorithms trying to maximize engagement. Just a simple way to say, “Hey, good post.”

I know some variation of this feature has been suggested by DCSki readers over the years. Possibly many years. Maybe even decades. Better late than never, amiright?

As always, let me know if you encounter any glitches. This is fresh code bolted onto decidedly non-fresh forum code, so what could possibly go wrong? 😄

And, if there are other features you'd like to see implemented (maybe even in less than geologic time), please feel free to post them below.

needawax wrote:

Scott - nice that you added that for a quick and easy way to show support for a post or comment.  I'll just say that - even without it though - over the years I've felt that one of DCSki's main advantages is that posts are simply commented on through the solid group of folks you've attracted here over the years.  Just sayin' good feature, but I hope it doesn't detract from people hesitating to write a well thought out response or opinion.  Thanks again!

That's a good thing to watch out for, and I'll keep an eye on that.  And it may be that it doesn't get used much as well, in which case I'd also re-evaluate it.

One of the underlying goals in implementing it is to help identify discussion topics that seem to resonate with DCSki's user base. I'm thinking about some future features that could automatically connect different parts of DCSki – for example, showing relevant forum discussions at the end of an article.

There are already several signals I can use to figure out which discussions might be relevant or interesting: how many people have viewed a thread, how many replies it has received, how quickly those replies came in, how recently the discussion has been active, how closely its content matches the article, and so forth. Likes potentially add another useful signal because they represent a bit of human judgment from DCSki readers themselves.

That's particularly valuable here because the people reading and participating in the forums collectively have an enormous amount of knowledge about Mid-Atlantic skiing. If several of those people give a post or discussion a thumbs-up, that's information an automated algorithm can't easily derive just by counting words, views, or replies.  (But, to be fair, there are a lot of lurkers too that read the forums regularly but don't have an account and don't post, and I can't track likes for anonymous users, so sentiment will be biased towards those who have created accounts.)

So I'm hoping Likes can serve two purposes: the simple one of letting someone quickly say "good post," and, over time, providing another small piece of information I can use to make DCSki better at surfacing worthwhile content.  Of course, none of this is a perfect science, so I'll have to see what makes sense as time goes on.

Scott wrote:

needawax wrote:

Scott - nice that you added that for a quick and easy way to show support for a post or comment.  I'll just say that - even without it though - over the years I've felt that one of DCSki's main advantages is that posts are simply commented on through the solid group of folks you've attracted here over the years.  Just sayin' good feature, but I hope it doesn't detract from people hesitating to write a well thought out response or opinion.  Thanks again!

That's a good thing to watch out for, and I'll keep an eye on that.  And it may be that it doesn't get used much as well, in which case I'd also re-evaluate it.

One of the underlying goals in implementing it is to help identify discussion topics that seem to resonate with DCSki's user base. I'm thinking about some future features that could automatically connect different parts of DCSki – for example, showing relevant forum discussions at the end of an article.

There are already several signals I can use to figure out which discussions might be relevant or interesting: how many people have viewed a thread, how many replies it has received, how quickly those replies came in, how recently the discussion has been active, how closely its content matches the article, and so forth. Likes potentially add another useful signal because they represent a bit of human judgment from DCSki readers themselves.

That's particularly valuable here because the people reading and participating in the forums collectively have an enormous amount of knowledge about Mid-Atlantic skiing. If several of those people give a post or discussion a thumbs-up, that's information an automated algorithm can't easily derive just by counting words, views, or replies.  (But, to be fair, there are a lot of lurkers too that read the forums regularly but don't have an account and don't post, and I can't track likes for anonymous users, so sentiment will be biased towards those who have created accounts.)

So I'm hoping Likes can serve two purposes: the simple one of letting someone quickly say "good post," and, over time, providing another small piece of information I can use to make DCSki better at surfacing worthwhile content.  Of course, none of this is a perfect science, so I'll have to see what makes sense as time goes on.

Can't have too much data, as they say (or maybe, in fact, you can in 2026!)  (Bottom posting now a la usenet in the 90s and 2000s).  I get your strategy.  There are a lot of things you can look for - too many, actually.  I can tell you that I read the entire archive of the lost areas before I was a supporter or even had an account.  As for deciding what's "worthwhile" maybe you could do some raw log analysis and look for some agreement between topics hot with unregistered users, and what topics are getting all the "likes," etc...  Not sure how I would tackle it, but hope it helps you decide what content to provide.