I don’t know what you mean they don’t matter. Whether someone’s like matters is subjective. Do you mean the bystanders don’t matter to you specifically?
Discussion
A reaction is between two people. Third parties may be curious to see them but it’s not intended for them. Do you give likes to give feedback? Or is it to get attention from others? That is what it boils down to.
In that case, one could implement private likes. Basically a DM where the payload is “I liked this thing you posted”.
Personally, as a bystander, I like to see like counts on other peoples’ posts. This provides feedback about what types of content are connecting with readers. It’s a weak signal, but signal nonetheless.
Fair enough. It doesn’t matter to me to see them and I don’t feel obligated to receive them only so you can see them. Difference of preference. 🤷♂️
What I’m learning from this conversation is that there seem to be a surprisingly broad range of ways people think about likes and their relative value. I would not have expected this. The concept of a “like” seems straightforward at first blush, but what that like means (to the creator, the recipient, and the bystanders) is definitely not obvious. 😅
Agreed! 😅 Definitely a broad range of perspectives. If nothing else this feature has sparked some great discussion
Feedback! (For me)
I send zaps when I find some truly valuable. 🤙’s and 🖤’s are just a nice passive “hey I like this”
The basic idea of zaps is to reward good content and avoid bot spamming. I’m not decided on what is the best way at the moment, but I do see a possibility for people to give likes too much weight and enabling bot manipulation again. Likes are essentially Fiat money as they hold no weight and it isn’t verifiable whether the account leaving it is real.