Member survey: what should we do with the mark this post as helpful button?

[Chris_B]

Hi everyone,

Under each post on the forum is a button called "mark this post as helpful".

This button was originally introduced following feedback from members that they would like a way to be able to show appreciation or acknowledgement for a post when they weren't up to writing an entire reply in response.

Recent discussion on the thread What stops you from joining in? has seen some members questioning the value of this button and suggesting that it can be used in an exclusionary way.

We are running a Survey Monkey to gather wider feedback on what we should do with the "mark this post as helpful" button. The three options we are canvassing are:

* Remove the button
* Keep the button
* Keep the button but call it something else

Please click here to take the survey, which we will leave open until the week of January 1 to give as many members as possible the opportunity to have their say.

You can also leave more in-depth comments here in this thread for discussion.

[blondguy]

Hi Everyone

Hey Summer Rose....I really appreciate your clarity when you post including this......

Summer Rose mentioned "I use the tool to show my appreciation to others when it occurs to me because that makes sense to me" Absolutely spot on and thankyou Summer Rose

Hey Quercus....I am with you on this....I also voted to leave the 'Mark This Post as Helpful' as it is. You made an excellent point referring to.... its how we interpret this button and not overthinking what it represents. Good1

Just my humble opinion....If its not broken...dont fix it!

Have a great day everyone 🙂

Paul

[blondguy]

Hi Amanda (excuse I for the double post ChrisB/Sophie_M)

Always great to read your thoughts on any thread including this one too!

I have posted several times that new or existing members' posts are just as highly valued/appreciated as any CC , VC or Life members' .

You mentioned "There is also, I believe, an incorrect perception that CCs and VCs posts are more valuable than ordinary members and they are automatically given a thumbs up simply for that reason" You have drawn a long bow here Amanda

Its only my humble opinion as a member this 'button' is there to show that someone's post was helpful to others..Its a form of positive encouragement so to speak which is the basis for the forums in the first place 🙂

Your posts are just as valued as mine or anyone else's Amanda. There is no difference

[geoff]

Hello Everyone, if you like a thread or a reply that someone has so generously made, then you are entitled to click 'Mark This Post as Helpful', this shows an appreciation to the person that their reply is helpful, supportive and very encouraging.

If you don't want to click it, that's your choice, it's not about any competition, this is a depression site helping those people who are asking us for assistance.

Leave it alone, and keep it there, no change, and as Paul says,

If it's not broken...dont fix it!.

Geoff.

[Suet suet]

I hope I am ok to join the discussion here as well. 🙂

I am surprised that different people interpret and use this button differently. The words is pretty much self explanatory “mark it when you find it useful for you”. For me, I tried this button before thinking to bookmark and appreciate a post and that was all it. But at the end it really just added a number in. I don’t use that much now. Does that imply the more click tagged to a post, the more useful it is?! I have no idea.

On the other hand, I would appreciate if the button could be served as a bookmark. For some reason, I have troubles of finding a particular thread/ post. To fully digest a long post often takes time (for me). I might have to go back and read again at times

For example, the other week I was rushing to a meeting while I was in the middle of a reading a long thread. After I logged off, I was unable to locate that particular post - it was lost somewhere. I thought if I had some sort of a bookmark or the like i would be able to find it - it just makes things easier.

It’s just what I feel maybe helpful! Not sure if anyone has the same problem?!

[Suet suet]

So I vote to remove the button and replace another one with a bookmark or the like.

[Sophie_M]

Thanks Suet suet - if you haven't already, could you please follow the survey link in the original post to ensure your vote is counted?  

In terms of bookmarks, we don't have the ability within the forum software to allow members to bookmark threads, but you can use the bookmark function in your browser to save a thread in the same way you would save any other webpage you're looking at.  You can even set up a separate folder in your browser's bookmarks tab for saving Beyond Blue forum threads.

Depending on which browser you are using, there are plenty of tutorials available online if you google "Organise boomarks for [browser, e.g. Chrome, Safari, etc]".

[PamelaR]

Hi all

I'm pleased to see the discussion that's happening here. How better to get some understanding about what people are thinking. It's great!

When I first joined I viewed that button as one to mark when I appreciated the time someone put in to provide a comment and I thought the post was helpful. A month or so in I began realising that the button was not necessarily used for this purpose as highlighted by Birdy.

So, I began to ignore it. Never use it anymore and take no notice of the numbers.

I'm with Nat and Paul that the use of this post is ... it is simply a way to acknowledge a post when I'm unwell and helpful to others..Its a form of positive encouragement.

However, I do see that not all use it for this purpose and it has the potential to make people feel excluded. I must confess in the beginning I felt that way too. Now that I've ignored it I don't get that feeling anymore.

Mandy, I'm with Paul. I don't think that that button is used for CCs and VCs at all. In fact I think it the opposite and think a little along the lines of Birdy.

For me, it is being used as a popularity button by some, a thank you button by some, and a yes this was helpful by some.

I have no particular views on whether the button stays or goes, so will find it difficult to do the survey.

[PamelaR]

I opted to change it's name to - Thank you.

Not sure how helpful this is going to be though.

[Guest8901]

The very fact that management has deemed this survey necessary is a clear indication that the currently named 'helpful' button is a contentious issue. Why court controversy and possible exclusionary behaviour, when to simply remove or fix the cause is a simple process?

I believe the helpful button causes comparisons between members. Who has the most 'thumbs ups' on their posts? Oh, so they must be better than me. My posts are not good enough, and therefore I'm not good enough. This type of thinking is hard to prevent when most of us with MH already have strong feelings of inadequacy, and of not being accepted. It's very normal behaviour for human beings to compare themselves to others.

The purpose of the button was meant to show appreciation of particularly supportive and helpful posts. It's not currently being used that way, as is evidenced by the various responses here.

Incidentally I would not like to see the button removed entirely. It remains, for most, a very useful tool to acknowledge a post or to reassure others that we're okay, though not up to posting at this time. Calling the box 'helpful' is not applicable to how the button is now commonly being used. Nor is it a fair assessment of the value or helpfulness of posts. As such, I believe the use of it could be seen as discriminatory or divisive. I would be much more in favour of having a box called simply - 'read', 'thanks' or 'acknowledged'.

Amanda

[Summer Rose]

Hi Mandy8

I don't agree that management has initiated this survey because the "helpful" button is a contentious issue. Management introduced the button in the first place to serve a need expressed by members, the need to show appreciation to others.

I believe management simply care about all members and are interested in garnering other views and being responsive to all concerns, which is exactly how I feel. I want this forum to be a place of warmth and acceptance for everyone, just as I'm sure you do.

I can appreciate how you feel but to say that the helpful button, designed as a way to permit members to show appreciation, is "not currently being used that way" is inaccurate. I use it that way and have said so, as have others. Perhaps we should let the survey run it's course before making definitive statements.

For the record, I don't think "read" hits the mark but "thank you" could work (as I said earlier). The elephant in the room, of course, is that some people may start counting how many people ticked "read" or "thank you" and reading into it all over again.