Facebook, Buzz, Reader, and other social networking sites all have one thing in common: if you like something then you get to like it. But you never get to dislike what you dislike. (Sure you can unlike what you previously liked, but just as with that other interest rate you are constrained by the zero lower bound. You can’t go negative.)
This kind of system seems to pander to people such as me who obsessively count likes (and twitter followers, and google reader subscribers and…) because for people like us even a single dislike would be devastating. With only positive feedback possible we are spared the bad news.
But after a while we start to get the nagging suspicion that the lack of a like is tantamount to being disliked. We put ourselves in the mind of each individual reader. If she liked it then she will like it. If she didn’t like it, she would like to dislike it but she can’t. So she’s silent. But then if she was neutral she now knows that by being silent she is going to be pooled with with the dislike haters. She doesn’t want to hurt my feelings so she likes. Kindhearted but cruel: now I know that everyone who didn’t like indeed didn’t like. It’s exactly as if there was a dislike button. Despair.
But wait. One wrinkle saves our fragile ego. Some people are just too busy to like. Or they don’t know about the like button. And who knows exactly how many people read the article anyway. So a non-like could be any one of these. Which means that kindhearted neutrals can safely stay on the sidelines and pool with these non-participants. A pool big enough to drown out the haters. Joyful noise! And as a bonus I get to know for sure that the likers are likers and not just patronizers.
Finally there’s the personal aspect, it’s flattering to see who likes. The serial likers keep me going. Especially this one regular reader who by amazing coincidence has the same name as me and who likes everything I write.
(drawing: emotional baggage from www.f1me.net)
Cheap Talk 
8 comments
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December 14, 2010 at 12:13 am
Mallesh Pai
*like*
addendum based on everything i’ve learned from your previous posts- you might have a case where a post simply slips through the cracks based on time of posting and is not read by most of your regular readership. as a result, since it is never common knowledge how many people read your blog post/ tweet/ buzz, neither you nor anyone else can infer quality from the number of likes. and you can rationalize any ‘underliked’ post as a fall through the cracks.
but then you run this blog for 2-odd years and get a large fan following. at this point, a law of large numbers kicks in, and you can’t run this inference. leading us to the rather counterintuitive: you should run a worse blog with fewer followers to be happier with your blog, due to relatively noisy inference assisting your ability to ex-post rationalize.
December 14, 2010 at 6:06 pm
random
I haven’t paid enough attention to this, but in many Chinese news sites and web forums you can indeed express your “dislike”, as well as “like”, of an article or post. Just look at the comments at the end of this random article from a Chinese newspaper: http://www.infzm.com/content/53361 . A thumb-up means you like the comment, a thumb-down means you dislike it. Chinese web forums almost always have this function.
But I guess you were talking about disliking an entire web site or account, not just a specific post.
December 15, 2010 at 9:08 am
Chris Angell
I really love what you guys come up with. This is my favorite blog, and I view it daily. However, I almost never have anything to add to the conversation. Just remember, you guys have fans out there, even if they are silent followers!
I like how YouTube has a thumbs up and thumbs down like/dislike feature. Facebook will never have an unlike feature because then some users would cease to incessantly blather on about whatever first comes to thought. Part of my theory is that Facebook wants as many status updates, comments, and other user-generated content as possible so it can harvest and analyze what is created.
December 15, 2010 at 10:10 am
Divya
*like* *like* *like*
December 15, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Robert Veit
I personally don’t use the like button often b/c I want my likes to have more value. If I liked most things I like, then there would be no way (beyond commenting) to differentiate my likes from really likes. Furthermore, I care most that people know when I really like something. So absent a use of the like button, I may dislike, be apathetic towards, or like a comment.
December 29, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Lones Smith
http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/post/2433396662
December 29, 2010 at 11:23 pm
jeff
I get the sense that there is a message in there somewhere.
July 14, 2013 at 8:42 am
Midsmmxxxti
The Washington Nationals went 5-2 over a topical seven-day home position beside the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Diego Padres. Highlighting the week was the very anticipated come back of twenty-year older occurrence Bryce Harper. It was whispered by management and yearned for by fans that his energy might jump-start an offense that was deader than a five-year older auto series in the Minnesota winter.
The bullpen unmoving mystifies Washingtonians that includes fans and players alike. Storen inclined back-to-back sports event against the Brewers and gave up seven earned runs with a 1-1 record.Then he pitched ideal eighth innings on Saturday and Sunday that maintained crucial leads for the Nats. Because shortly as Storen got on road, fellow reliever Craig Stammen began to weaken. He inclined two scoreless innings July 3rd beside the Brewers and afterward proceeded to provide awake two earned runs in equally weekend sports competition. It’s like when a player gets through one mental lump only to have a new surface in a new area. Inside the Nats’ bullpen in attendance has always been one jug struggling this year, excluding the offense has lastly arrived.
What was missing in version in the midst of the Harper hubbub was the return of yet a new power hitter to the Nats’ lineup in catcher Wilson Ramos. When he returned rancid the disabled catalog to make his first create following not there 58 sports meeting. Within comparison, Harper only missed 31. During the aftermath of Drew Storen blowing a three-run lead, Ramos hit an eventual game-winning three-run home lope in the seventh with two outs.
On America’s 237th birthday, Washington by the side of extended preceding had their unique gap daytime arrangement in the game, replacing Danny Espinosa with Anthony Rendon. The result was flattering and to an extent compassion warming to watch the offense move toward to life approximating an explosive firework over the Potomac River. Perhaps it was worth the remain as well.
In the five wins this long-ago week, which incise the Atlanta Braves’ NL East splitting up guide to four, the Nationals averaged 8.4 runs apiece victory. During all seven sports competition the Nats scored 43 runs total, 6.14 for each game, and had a plus nine lope differential. Combine that with a shrewd decision-making conclusion by Davey Johnson of swapping Ian Desmond and Jayson Werth in the battering organize. Now they hit following and sixth correspondingly and there is no notion before plausible cause to vary what has worked.
Harper electrified the baseball earth by striking the next pitch he saw not in of the park on top of his first swing flipside on or after the DL; otherwise does the ensure swing he took on the pitch earlier than officially build it one and a half? It ruined awake organism simply a short-term mock because he went hitless in his next four sports meeting consisting of 19 at-bats. Over the week because Harper has been reinstated, he has gone 5 meant for 25, high-quality intended for an even .200 batting standard with a .313 resting on pedestal percentage.
In truth, Harper’s performance was therefore dismal that Johnson well thought-out meeting him for equally Saturday and Sunday against San Diego. Harper texted him “play me or trade me” and what do you know his bat was in the lineup meant for the full weekend. Maybe the whole bench fixation scared him into settling downward before perchance he finally originate his rhythm another time for the reason that he once yet again had an direct shock. Inside those two sports meeting, Harper went 4 meant for 6 with four RBIs, two walks, and two stolen bases.
Over the past week, Washington got their offense flipside in its entirety and was intelligent to string mutually a four sport charming line leave-taking them over three sports competition the five hundred spot intended for the first point in time given that May 18th. This is not captivating a small example bulk, approximating the June 4th walk-off alongside the Mets that only amounted to insufficient stimulate that leaves the Nats’ offense absent in the frosty. There has been sufficient steadiness proven greater than the long-ago week, arranged next to two sub-par teams, that gives Washingtonians a legitimate cause to suppose. It seems as condition the Nats will refusal longer drift approximately five hundred and there is no justification at the moment to do so.
Regards – midsummer midsummer – m1dsumm3rxx