Why can we not see who has liked a post?

[Chas]

I mean I could understand concealing the identity if it were an up/down vote, but what is the down side of a member knowing it was me who liked their post?  Or me knowing which members liked a post I made?

It just seemes an odd decision to hide this information behind the word 'Somebody' - i.e. 'Somebody liked a post'.

Has identifying people who liked a post caused some sort of trouble in the past?

Just curious.

Edited December 25, 2025 by Chas

[Big s]

26 minutes ago, Chas said:

I mean I could understand concealing the identity if it were an up/down vote, but what is the down side of a member knowing it was me who liked their post?  Or me knowing whi h mem ers liked a post I made?

It just seemes an odd decision to hide this information behind the word 'Somebody' - i.e. 'Somebody liked a post'.

Has identifying people who liked a post caused some sort of trouble in the past?

Just curious.

I thought the same for a long while, but it could be a thing to keep an identity safe in case one member makes a somewhat controversial comment and someone else likes what was said without having to be tied into the possible controversy. Something like a mildly political comment can get a warning and maybe a member agrees with what is said, but doesn’t want to get a warning or something or get tied into that as their belief as an example.

There are also silent members that don’t really join the conversations or make any posts possibly just due to shyness and don’t exactly feel comfortable sharing their thoughts, so they may just use the like to keep it a simple bit of anonymous support for a post. No controversy involved, just a bit of not being as social as others

[Chas]

That makes sense. Hadn't thought about it that way.

[MKT]

I think admins can still see who likes what post, as part of the board functionality.

I've also found the current like system a bit weird, but I understand the like system has been abused in the past by select members, and thus has been watered down more and more over the years. In fact, it is still being abused today lol, just in very sneaky ways.

 

[Chas]

8 hours ago, MKT said:

 . . . I understand the like system has been abused in the past by select members . . . In fact, it is still being abused today lol, just in very sneaky ways.

 

🙄 I suppose I just can't understand the mentality of some people 🙄

I mean, honestly . . . Why?

[Seto Kaiba]

On 12/25/2025 at 9:23 AM, Chas said:

I mean I could understand concealing the identity if it were an up/down vote, but what is the down side of a member knowing it was me who liked their post?  Or me knowing which members liked a post I made?

IIRC, the reason that the Likes are anonymous is that the Reaction pane/Like button is the last surviving piece of a long-since-deactivated upvote/downvote karma system that's built into Invision's board software.

It was originally a pure upvote/downvote system, and Invision later expanded it to include custom Facebook-style "reactions".

The admins disabled the upvote/downvote feature back in the 2010s because people were abusing it to harass and bully each other.  So now the Facebook-style reaction pane, bereft of any custom reactions, is all that's left of it.

[sketchley]

Personally, I don't think we need likes at all.  Maybe I'm old school, but I always felt that likes (or reactions) have been an unnecessary addition.

This kind of also ties back into that 'social media vs discussion forum' topic that appeared a month or so back.  Likes are arguably one of the worst aspects of social media, as it removes part of the incentive for communication (E.g. someone becomes motivated enough to type in "I agree with your post, and...", and furthers the discussion).  Never mind the potential of creating slop merely to generate likes, let alone the bullying/harassment aspects of the downvote feature...

So yeah, MW is a discussion forum, and the passive interaction of 'likes' is kinda antithetical to that.  It's a shame that Invision introduced it, and even more of a shame that they haven't also added the option to completely disable that so-called 'feature'. 

[MKT]

1 hour ago, sketchley said:

 It's a shame that Invision introduced it, and even more of a shame that they haven't also added the option to completely disable that so-called 'feature'. 

Ah so what we have now is the minimal feature. I don't presume to know what the mods think, but I get the feeling if this feature could be entirely removed, it would.

I do think the feature is ok as it is currently. Just using likes to acknowledge someone's post without necessary cluttering up the thread. Even though it's a blind system, I think many who have their posts liked can sort of tell who it is coming from given the small community here. Far as I can tell, most have been using it appropriately.

 

I see there's also remnants of the reputation system, which can still be seen when one clicks on someone's profile. This rep system is tied to how many likes one gets in total across posts if I'm not mistaken. But I wager most here do not care about rep & likewise the like system since we are mostly beyond caring about social media aspects than when we were say, 10-15 years ago? lol.

 

5 hours ago, Chas said:

🙄 I suppose I just can't understand the mentality of some people 🙄

I mean, honestly . . . Why?

Well to be honest, the continued abuse today is not really intrusive in general since the likes are not immediately visible to most folks.

Far as I can tell, it's being used mostly for self-aggrandization purposes.

But sometimes it's used to gaslight other folks, by making the offender's own opinions seem very popular to other folks who do happen to check on this kinda stuff.

Or occasionally abused to annoy other people, by clicking & liking every single of someone's post, no matter if it's just some blase post, for no other reason than I think to make that someone not being able to tell apart between genuine or trolling likes given the blind system. It’s incredibly petty, but I just find it amusing.    

 

Edited December 28, 2025 by MKT

[Hiriyu]

18 hours ago, sketchley said:

Likes are arguably one of the worst aspects of social media, as it removes part of the incentive for communication (E.g. someone becomes motivated enough to type in "I agree with your post, and...", and furthers the discussion). 

On the flip side of that though, sometimes I will tap the 'like' button in specific cases where there's not really anything of value that I can add to a conversation, but just to let the poster know that their contribution is appreciated and isn't being ignored. Oftentimes it's regarding subject matter that I have less than minimal knowledge of, but where a member posting has obviously expended substantial effort to do something useful, or just cool, for others.

[Big s]

I don’t make comments for a reputation from likes, but if someone wants to tap the button and doesn’t want to be known, I don’t have a problem with that at all. I’ll just take it as a silent high five or something 

[Shawn]

I tried disabling it many times but they kept bringing it back, so it just sort of hangs out there, some people use it some people don't.

I agree with the sentiment of this being more a discussion board and less like a 'here is some cool content, give me a quick vote yay or nay'. But I also understand most people come from the like/dislike world of social media so this is a missing piece of the normal/expected experience.

Given the choice of a like dislike, or someone breaking out the 'post' button and making a comment, I personally prefer the latter, even it if is nothing more than a 'hey that's cool'.
Just feels more personal to me, but it also probably removes a ton of quick 'likes' because it does take more time and effort, and I know we all do an insane amount of multitasking.

I've been reading the next version of Invision Power Board (ver 5) is a big huge giant change from what we are living here today, so we may be coming to the 21st century regardless of me kicking and screaming 

 

[azrael]

1 hour ago, Shawn said:

I've been reading the next version of Invision Power Board (ver 5) is a big huge giant change from what we are living here today, so we may be coming to the 21st century regardless of me kicking and screaming

[Chas]

I don't really use the like feature either, preferring to actually comment.

It's not a major concern, it just struck me as odd that there was no way for me to see who had liked posts, and I got curious as to if that was how the software was designed, or an admin. choice and what the reasoning behind it was.

Now I know. 

Thanks all.

Edited December 29, 2025 by Chas