# Likes vs thumbs up **URL:** \ **Category:** Site Feedback\ **Created:** [13 December 2022 03:46 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264 "2022-12-13T03:46:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MartinDix](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/martindix/32/32_2.png) [@MartinDix](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/MartinDix)\ **Post date:** [13 December 2022 03:46 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/1 "2022-12-13T03:46:39Z")
I’ve been ‘liking’ posts with a thumbs up and others have been doing the same. However discourse doesn’t count this as a true like for the purposes of advancing users through trust levels, [Understanding Discourse Trust Levels](https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discourse-trust-levels) It seems we have to be less restrained and use the heart option instead of just a thumbs up (unless this is somehow configurable). ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [13 December 2022 23:24 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/2 "2022-12-13T23:24:02Z")
We can change the icon from heart, which maybe us cold calculating scientific types don’t really get on board with. I would be happy to change the heart to something else. Perhaps a star? > **[Change the Like Icon to 👍](https://meta.discourse.org/t/change-the-like-icon-to/87748/46)** > > Hi guys, I installed this component and, while it works great and it successfully replace the heart icon on the post list, the email notifications that my users are receiving are still showing the old heart icon. Am I missing something? do I need to... There is a linked discussion about the effect of changing icons, but the results are very forum specific > **[People are not using the ❤ button](https://meta.discourse.org/t/people-are-not-using-the-heart-button/70783)** > > Is anyone else having trouble with getting people to like posts they obviously find useful? I have been posting dozens of canned replies over the past weeks encouraging people to like posts whenever someone said “thank you” etc but didn’t ❤ the... ---
**Author:** ![heidi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/heidi/32/335_2.png) [@heidi](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/heidi)\ **Post date:** [14 December 2022 00:35 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/3 "2022-12-14T00:35:22Z")
I agree! ⭐ or is more attractive than a ❤ ---
**Author:** ![clairecarouge](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/clairecarouge/32/380_2.png) [@clairecarouge](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/clairecarouge)\ **Post date:** [14 December 2022 04:58 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/4 "2022-12-14T04:58:24Z")
What’s the benefits of “liking” a post? I usually never use “like” anywhere as I don’t want to be tracked from these. I guess there isn’t any tracker here but it’s easier to apply everywhere tan pick and choose. ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [14 December 2022 05:05 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/5 "2022-12-14T05:05:29Z")
> [@clairecarouge](#): > > What’s the benefits of “liking” a post As Martin alluded to above, it assists members to progress through the trust levels of the discourse forum. It is other members essentially saying what they post is useful. ---
**Author:** ![atteggiani](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/atteggiani/32/212_2.png) [@atteggiani](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/atteggiani)\ **Post date:** [14 December 2022 09:24 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/6 "2022-12-14T09:24:24Z")
In my opinion, the heart is an effective way to “like” something as it is used in other social medias as well (see Instagram or tiktok). So I would not see any problem with it. I prefer a heart to a star if I want to “like” something. I think what could be very useful in the forum, is a way to let people who ask questions (mostly users) know that we have seen the question and are “looking into it”, without necessarily having to write a reply. This because sometimes questions need some time to be addressed and answered. My suggestion for this would be the “eyes” icon → 👀 , with hovering which says something like “looking into it”. ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [14 December 2022 23:26 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/7 "2022-12-14T23:26:24Z")
> [@atteggiani](#): > > My suggestion for this would be the “eyes” icon → 👀 , with hovering which says something like “looking into it”. There is a [plugin which can be used to customise these icons](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-reactions/183261). It is installed, so I’ve added the 👀 reaction as requested @atteggiani. Unfortunately the text is the name of the icon. I could add a custom eyes icon but name it something appropriate, like “looking into this”. Let me know if you think this is necessary. Do we want to get rid of some of those reactions? 🎊 is a bit random. If there are any people think would be useful I can add them, but they will undoubtedly lead to fewer people “liking” posts. And the plugin allows to change the icon used for “Likes”. So this can be done easily depending on what people think. It does sound like ❤ is quite well used for like, so perhaps it is a matter of educating members as to it’s meaning. ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [15 December 2022 00:01 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/8 "2022-12-15T00:01:08Z")
> [@MartinDix](#): > > I’ve been ‘liking’ posts with a thumbs up and others have been doing the same. However discourse doesn’t count this as a true like for the purposes of advancing users through trust levels, [Understanding Discourse Trust Levels](https://blog.discourse.org/2018/06/understanding-discourse-trust-levels) We can also turn off the like requirement for TL advancement. ---
**Author:** ![atteggiani](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/atteggiani/32/212_2.png) [@atteggiani](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/atteggiani)\ **Post date:** [15 December 2022 00:39 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/9 "2022-12-15T00:39:09Z")
> [@Aidan](#): > > There is a [plugin which can be used to customise these icons](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-reactions/183261). It is installed, so I’ve added the 👀 reaction as requested @atteggiani. Unfortunately the text is the name of the icon. I could add a custom eyes icon but name it something appropriate, like “looking into this”. Let me know if you think this is necessary. I think that looks good. Something better than “eyes” would probably be more understandable, but if that requires too much work I would say like this is pretty good already. > [@Aidan](#): > > Do we want to get rid of some of those reactions? 🎊 is a bit random. If there are any people think would be useful I can add them, but they will undoubtedly lead to fewer people “liking” posts. I personally think the ones that should be there are: ❤ 👍👀 and maybe 😆 Then if it’s possible, I would add a “+” option to select a custom emoticon if anybody wants to use another one. ---
**Author:** ![MartinDix](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/martindix/32/32_2.png) [@MartinDix](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/MartinDix)\ **Post date:** [15 December 2022 00:48 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/10 "2022-12-15T00:48:06Z")
[https://cylc.discourse.group/](https://cylc.discourse.group/) has gone the other way and shows only the heart icon for like with no other reactions available. I like the idea of “looking into it” as an option, but it’ll need some explanation. Perhaps we need something on good practices for asking questions and responding. ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [15 December 2022 01:47 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/11 "2022-12-15T01:47:08Z")
> [@MartinDix](#): > > [https://cylc.discourse.group/](https://cylc.discourse.group/) has gone the other way and shows only the heart icon for like with no other reactions available. I didn’t know about this group! We should add this to ACCESS-Hive. > [@MartinDix](#): > > Perhaps we need something on good practices for asking questions and responding. Sounds like a good idea. I have created a start here: > [@Best practice for creating your own topics and responding to others](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/best-practivce-for-creating-your-own-topics-and-responding-to-others/276): > > Introduction General technical information on how to create topics and respond are covered in the [user-guide](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/forum-user-guide/95). This is topic is a best practice guide for creating and interacting with topics on the ACCESS-Hive. Creating a topic Before creating a topic make sure to search to see if this has already been covered in an existing topic. Take care to choose a category that is most appropriate to your topic. The categories are mostly aligned with [working-groups](https://access-hive.org.au/working_groups/), but there is always some fuzziness wher… It is a wiki page, so feel free to edit it. I have added a link to it on the [Welcome Page](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/welcome-to-the-access-hive-forum/7). ---
**Author:** ![MartinDix](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/martindix/32/32_2.png) [@MartinDix](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/MartinDix)\ **Post date:** [15 December 2022 03:59 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/12 "2022-12-15T03:59:12Z")
This looks good, though I’m not sure that everyone will know what the working groups are. ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [15 December 2022 04:05 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/13 "2022-12-15T04:05:53Z")
> [@MartinDix](#): > > I’m not sure that everyone will know what the working groups are No. I thought as I wrote it “Now I should write a page about the working groups”, but have they been signed off completely? For now I was going to leave as-is, but if there is scope to write a description of the Working Groups, what they are etc, then that would be great. ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [16 December 2022 05:04 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/14 "2022-12-16T05:04:38Z")
> [@MartinDix](#): > > I’m not sure that everyone will know what the working groups are. I’ve added a link to the empty working groups page on the ACCESS-Hive, so at least when that gets populated it will point to something that explains working groups. ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [16 December 2022 05:09 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/15 "2022-12-16T05:09:24Z")
I’ve added 🥳 and 🎉 to the reactions, as they are ones I’ve seen more on slack at least, and removed 🎊 which doesn’t seem familiar to our community. ---
**Author:** ![Aidan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.access-hive.org.au/aidan/32/42_2.png) [@Aidan](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/u/Aidan)\ **Post date:** [21 December 2022 01:25 UTC](https://forum.access-hive.org.au/t/likes-vs-thumbs-up/264/16 "2022-12-21T01:25:47Z")
I have added a custom theme component that allows the text for emoji to be specified, and animates when hovering. I have installed it and added custom labels that hopefully better reflect the purpose of each emoji. Happy to take feedback on the emoji and accompanying labels.