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.

[Quercus]

Hi Amanda,

Part of what you wrote has stuck in my head and I've been considering it...

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 made me wonder if the button is not the only issue that needs to be addressed.

Whenever I am faced with feelings of inadequacy or unwelcome there are two threads I go to...

www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/online-forums/staying-well/taking-things-the-wrong-way-(on-the-forums-and-in-life)

www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/online-forums/staying-well/talking-to-your-inner-critic-can-it-be-tamed

I visit these regularly to remind myself how to identify and challenge unhelpful thoughts. It is a work in progress but very worthwhile.

Summer Rose mentioned that replacing the words may have little impact. I think she has a valid point. Will a new title improve anything if members are still counting clicks?

Another thing that has stuck in my head that helps me immensely is something Chris B mentioned once (wish I could remember the thread).

He said we need to expect the best intentions. So when I see a post of mine and it is the only one not acknowledged I could expect the worst. Or I could expect the best of others. That noone means to hurt me.

I hope these help you and others too.

Nat

[Sueetties]

I am on read-only mode most of the time. So I am not qualified for a vote here ...

I notice that if I don’t login i’m unable to reply a post as the reply button dorsnt show up. Though i can still see the helpful button but i’m unable to mark it. Maybe you can remove it?

I wonder if you can display the name who actually press this helpful button rather than showing a number? Like the Facebook...

[Sophie_M]

Hi again Sueetties, anyone who uses the forums is entitled to vote in this survey, even if you only read posts and don't make posts.  The vast majority of forum users only read, and never actually post (we have over 100,000 unique visitors monthly to these pages).  

However, you do have to be logged in to mark posts as helpful at the moment - that's just the way the button was built.  We also don't have the ability to display the name of the member who has clicked the button.

For anyone reading who is a regular visitor to these pages and is not currently a member, we would encourage you to register.  You don't have to post if you don't want to, but there are a number of benefits to being logged in when you browse the forums, including:

* being able to access a list of all the new threads and posts that have been made since your last visit
* highlighting threads within each section that you have already read, or are new
* remembering your place within a longer thread, so when you click into it on a later visit you are taken straight to the latest post
 

[Sophie_M]

Happy new year to all!

We are going to leave this survey open until the end of this week, and will let you know the results on the morning of Monday 7 January.

If you haven't already voted, please follow the link to the Survey Monkey in the original post and have your say.

[Chris_B]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking part in this survey. A total of 29 members answered the survey. The results are as follows:

Leave it as is - 38%
Keep it but call it something else - 28%
Remove it - 34%

The majority of respondents (66%) were in favour of keeping the button. For those who were in favour of keeping the button but calling it something else, the most common suggestion for retitling was "Thanks" or "Thank you".

We also asked respondents whether members who have marked posts as helpful should be able to change their minds and unmark it. The results are as follows:

No - 54%
Yes - 46%

Based on these results, we are going to leave the button as it is for now, but we acknowledge these results were quite close, and a relatively small number of members took part in the survey.

We will leave this thread open as an ongoing discussion on the "helpful" button and will look at running a similar survey again in the future if the discussion here progresses further.

[geoff]

Hello Chris, thanks for letting us know.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

[Quercus]

Thanks Chris. Such a small number of respondents. If it was a huge problem surely people would have voted.

[Rabbit33]

Hi Chris,

I quite like the 'Mark this post as helpful' button. So long as it's used to genuinely agree and promote the comment people are agreeing with. It indicates other users that it's a good read, useful info and that others have read the thread and agree with the context of the poster.

It may be worth being able to unmark it though, incase it was accidentally clicked. Otherwise, i'm all for it! 🙂

P.S Sorry that my input was delayed.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO Y'ALL 🙂

[Guest_1055]

I am aware the survey is done now. But I wanted to voice what this button means to me. Most likely I will press the button in another members post for a variety of reasons. One being to give the people validation that they are worthwhile, like they matter because someone has heard there voice. This is what I hoped they would know and feel. ( but now that I really think about it it may be very very own lack of self worth and my own rejection issues that get all mixed up in that)

Another reason would be is because it was actually helpful in someway to myself or I could see that it would help someone else.

mmm that’s about it I think

[Birdy77]

Hi everyone,

Have you seen recently that Instagram and Facebook are trialling a period of hiding the number of Likes a post receives on their platforms, as they face pressure over the impact it has on user's mental health?

The thumbs up symbol signifies popularity and approval in a lot of online interactions in social media etc., and it must be a *thing* for insta and fb to make a move like that, not just something a few sensitive people over here on bb felt.

I found it interesting in light of this discussion from almost a year ago.

This is just a thought, but instead of changing the button's name from "helpful", maybe the symbol could be changed so it isn't a thumbs up?

It's not something that personally bugs me so much anymore, but i just thought I'd put it out there since other platforms are attempting to reduce the impacts that measuring the number of likes has on the mental wellbeing of users.

And, seeing as this is a platform 100% concerned with member's mental health, i thought it was worth bringing up again, in light of the changes that are happening elsewhere.

Just some thoughts!