Hello BitBees, thank you for your question. The parenthesis around the zap icon means I’m in #onlyzaps mode in Damus.

It’s a special setting, where I’ve chosen not to be able to like anyone’s posts, nor receive any notifications of likes on my posts.

It encourages conversation and higher quality content curation. I can quote notes, renote, comment, or zap. These options tend to give and signal greater value than likes.