Agnostic.com

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Is this the situation with the majority of Agnostics.com members - "37 per cent said they also felt it was important to post content that gets a lot of likes and comments" - a problem exacerbated by the system of levels:

[abc.net.au]

FrayedBear 9 Sep 27
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31 comments

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6

I'm an introvert and just desire interaction. To converse with like minds and thinking.

6

IMHO, we all like approval. Some like approval more than others and some really need approval to validate who they are.
I wanted likes and comments to my posts when I was going for the t-shirt or leveling up, going from 9 to 10 is gonna require a lot work and I don't have the energy or time to get there quickly, might take years. On this site it just seemed a friendly sort of incentive.

You can do it !!

Way to go man! A long, long way to go. 🙂

LOL
I joined the site 12/2017, hit Level 9 in August of 2018. I just noticed that I reached 9.4 a few days ago.
I have absolutely no idea how that works.
Nor do I really care.

@KKGator I joined the site before you and am stuck at level 7 XD Though admittedly I did not start seriously engaging on this site until 2018 or even 2019 (don't remember specifics atm).

6

I prefer approval to disapproval. That seems normal to me.

5

No matter what people say about not giving a damned about what others feel or think, we all have that need to be accepted and liked. There is always a part in each of us that crave recognition and acceptance to a degree. Some people are happy with a small token of acknowledgement, while others are obsessed with it. We are all social animals. It feels good to all of us when we see that someone likes anything that we post. Some of us don't interact well in the outside world with others. Certain people get on our nerves. Here on this site as well as other social media sites, is one way of socializing with like minded people, where we seek acknowledgment and acceptance whether we realize it or not.

Well said that man!

4

There are a few people who post just to garner points, but most people post to initiate a dialogue. Of course, that means getting likes and comments, but for those people levels aren't their concern.

P.S. please like this because it's taken me two years to get halfway to level 9, and it's not getting easier.

JimG Level 8 Sep 28, 2019
4

When I post, I don't care if I get likes or not.

But then again, I've never been big on popularity contests.

4

No...not at all. I don’t post what I think will be popular, but what I like and believe will be of interest to others.

3

Nope, don't really care if I get likes or not.

3

No. I post about topics I am passionate or interested about or about information I'd like to share with others... I am way less concerned with likes than I am with people reading or learning from the post.... obviously some of my posts are non-sensical or silly so those don't matter at all. XD

3

Nah, I post things that I hope others get something out of, some may like it, some may. It is more important to get people involved, excited and/or curious than to get likes or not.

2

I love giving my friends here a chuckle and some happiness

bobwjr Level 10 Sep 28, 2019
2

I am glad to see likes to know that someone enjoyed what I posted, but I only post what I think is important and/or interesting on Facebook. Here I mainly post about things where I want to know the opinions of the group.

2

If it was all about "getting likes" I would lose out for sure. At least I find more reasonable people here on this site.

2

I really don't care, one way or the other ... I try to post things that folks here will find interesting or relatable.

2

I don’t post for the sole purpose of collecting likes. As a matter of fact I posted something here the other day for no other reason than to get an answer to a question and received a lashing. I know I would have gained dislikes and if they had the power would have deleted some of my likes.

But as others have said I enjoy the approval. The main reason, however, for most of my posts are to engage others for the purpose of provoking something in my thought process or opinion that I had not thought of prior. It’s all about building a better me so I may be able to help others.

2

I seriously doubt that anyone will agree with much of what I say much less "like" or respond.

At least you can spell and are coherent!

@Austin-Cambridge ONLY after extensive editing. Cell phones sux

1

I’m level 1 and it really doesn’t matter. I only joined a few days ago but was attracted to having a place to discuss, vent, learn, from like minded individuals. I’m a lot older so maybe that’s why I don’t pay much attention to “likes” and levels. I’m just enjoying the discussions. BTW facebook is experimenting with having “likes” hidden from friends and would only be visible to the original poster. Will be interesting to learn the results.

Cinco Level 5 Oct 3, 2019
1

I applaud this idea. My son is only 9 years old ... yet when I show him something I’ve posted on Facebook, his first question is always: “How many likes did you get?” 😳

This is disturbing because it’s not something I’ve taught him ... so it’s clearly something important to the kids at his school, where he’s surely learned more “likes” means you matter more.

1

It will be interesting to see what the people think of it or if it changes their behaviors in any way, or makes them feel any different, good or bad. One thing though, is it does not stop trolls from making negative comments. As for myself, here, I make comments more than post and the post I have made were to share something I found interesting or to educate others on something I knew a little about and thought others might like to know.

1

I don’t think so. Some newbies might begin acting that way but I don’t think it’s a problem among most of the well-liked regulars. I’ve been accused of being a point whore by some insecure sadsack simply because I posted a thank you to the community/site for the lvl 8 shirt. I’ve made it a point to say what’s on my mind regardless of whether or not it’ll be popular.

Well that’s just ridiculous. You get, what, 5 points for posting a “thank you”? At level 8, that’s kind of inconsequential. Plus everyone posts a thank you when they get their Agnostic shirt.

@Apunzelle yeah I think it was less about that particular post than accusing me of caring about the points too much, as if everyone doesn’t enjoy a free t shirt. But yeah no angle on it makes sense, I musta pissed that guy off elsewhere and that’s the best he could come up with 🤷♂️ no time for manchildren but every so often a 70 year old asshole will pick a fight with me and I’ll give it right back. I’ve got a few anger issues because my dad is an asshole too, but at least he’s got the balls to do it in person instead of being an internet troll.

1

It’s nice to have a place where you can give your honest opinions and not worry about offending the religious fanatics. Everybody seems to except reasonable ideas here.

1

Ppl Just want to get lvl

1

Quite right Mr. Bear, there is a lot of inane crap posted on this site, presumably to gather points, mainly the ones with "?" at the end inviting responses or just drivel for drivels sake. 😉

Or those give us their daily or weekly brags of all they have done or accomplished... we get it you do alot of shit!! blah

1

I guess I'm not among those 37%. And I wasn't surveyed.

0

Once you get to Level 8 here, whatever psychological motivation the level system provides pretty much goes away, at least if you have ANY kind of a life. Moving from, e.g., 8.4 to 8.5 takes forever (about 15,000 points between each 0.1 step) and I honestly don't know how people get to 9 or 10.

Systems of points or likes or whatever provide little "dopamine hits" that encourage participation in the same soulless way that putting nickels into slot machines and occasionally winning a few bucks encourages you to keep feeding the machine nickels.

Personally I prefer rep points to mere participation (quality vs quantity) and have long advocated for the point system here to be skewed more toward comments than to likes -- the theory being that the number of replies you get is a rough measure of the quality of engagement you're creating with your post.

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