Hi, I think emoji reactions aren’t productive and hinders discussion. Some like 
or 
are probably never good for fostering friendly discussion. Shouldn’t we replace them with just upvotes and downvotes (
)?
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Nope!
You also need to explain yourself here.
How?
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isn’t a selectable reaction.
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If someone says “Stupid idea A” and everyone just put a laughing emoji, this person might feel judged. It’s much better that someone says “This isn’t such a good idea, here’s why…”
Now this isn’t the end of the world, but IMO it does contribute to nefarious effects.
@jonah I think it was removed right?
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That’s one way to look at it. But there are other ways to look at it in that not being bothered by silly reactions and seeing if others have used their words to express the same sentiment while explaining the same.
And sometimes, stronger words or better ways to express “this isn’t such a good idea” or “I don’t think you’re right” or things along this verbiage are needed for a more accurate and appropriate reaction and response to one’s potentially obvious and irrational views. So an emoji helps with a more honest reaction and your words in your response can be more constructive.
This is a non issue I feel.
hard disagree the 
is by far the most useful reaction.
I think you are taking these reactions far to seriously if its hindering the discussion for you.
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I personally don’t like the emoji because it can only really be used to make fun of people, so I doubt it was ever added lol
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I think that it does impact you, even if only subconsciously.
useful for what though? yes, it’s fast and easy to use those reactions - and it feels good when you use them-, but it isn’t achieving anything useful IMO.
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Users tend to repeat the same arguments over and over again, see a thread like require open source for password managers, they also tend to use AI slop. Both deserve the emoji
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If people get offended by a laughing emoji, i think they have a problem to deal with not the other members.
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it isn’t about being offended, it’s just to see how we can make this forum better for discussing privacy in an agreeable and constructive way. those kind of thing hinders that. plus I would say it’s a compounding effect also.
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Ultimately downvotes will just be used in the same way, so I personally feel there is no reason to remove the other reactions, unless we only have positive/upvote reactions.
Some communities do do that, but I’ve come around to the idea that a dislike button serves a useful overall purpose, even though it can make the disliked person feel bad.
Sometimes it is simply not our job to explain why an idea is stupid. It can consume far more time than the original poster put in to posting that stupid idea in the first place. I would hope that people here put in at least the same level of effort that the person they’re replying to did, and not just laugh at people who have genuine questions they are willing to discuss.
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So the solution is to limit the options of expression? There are often debates of radically different opinions. This is the way people engage when they dont want to join in. I feel like there arent even enough reaction emojis by default. A lot of them aren’t very useful.
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[quote=“jonah, post:12, topic:30200”]
*only* have positive/upvote reactions.
[/quote]
That reminds me of :
The Telegram CEO did that in his own channel after his announcement of some crypto bullshit got downvoted to hell. Now he adds three weird emojis to every post and users can only choose of them. And it really makes it impossible to show or read the community census
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I honestly do not see any use in the robot emoji if it’s being used that way. AI is already prohibited. Is it supposed to be a way to tell the moderators that this is AI..? Why not report it? And if an argument is used over and over again, why not just ignore it or downvote it?
I personally never used the robot emoji that way, let alone used it at all. If anyone ever reacted to my messages with it, I would just be left wondering what it meant and would feel inclined to @ or message the person who did it to ask what they were trying to communicate to me.
OP is saying that certain emojis are not constructive to discussion, so clearly yes. OP is saying that the options of expression should be limited on the condition that it hinders discussion. As a tip, your point should be to assert why it does not hinder it.
I think that’s what OP is getting at: some people don’t put in effort, as expressed here:
so they just react, which leaves people wondering what was left unsaid.
Completely disagree. There should be emojis that reflect what someone feels about a post.
Overall, I think the emojis we have available are fine, but I am also fine with changing it if @Encounter5729 can give good, specific reasons for specific emojis. The only emoji I am inclined to remove is the robot one, since that is not being used to reflect what someone feels but rather to mock, as expressed by @anonymous378. It clearly isn’t as connotative as the clown emoji, but it’s the only one I see that stands out from the other emojis we have available.
Can you give specific reasons for specific emojis that you want to remove, on the basis that it hinders discussion? I am curious what you think of each of them. The only one I am inclined to remove is the robot one, which I expressed in my previous reply. But even then, it barely hinders discussion IMO.
It’s possible that reactions generate groupthink as well, which is a better reason to remove it than what you said here:
But I don’t think that any emojis here elicit such groupthink, other than possibly the laughing one and the robot one? But again, I really wonder what you think of them.
I use the two laughing emojis not to laugh at the post but to laugh with the post.
There are times that I just feel a bit too tired to post a more thorough and complete response against a post and in those rare moments, I use the thumbs down emoji.
I haven’t really had a use for the robot emoji though. In my mind all it does is to hint that the forum reply is that from a bot rather than a person. But other people seem to have a use for it.
Popcorn is a bit of a reaction to an original post that I anticipate (entertaining) drama, just like this one. I dont really put a mean spirit to it but perception is in the eye of the beholder.
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As we know making something prohibited stops people from doing it.
Its a way to tell the user that it might as well be AI commenting as it lacks depth, facts, or insight.
also…
sometimes its just a robot emoji, ya know?
They are silly little icons at the bottom of comments.
Here to add my few cents - I think it would be best if people had a switch to turn off emojis locally. Discord allows leaving analog happy face emoji if you set it up in the settings.
Furthermore you could even go for disabling reactions visually (local only).
It wouldn’t hurt anybody. Emojis may come off as offensive especially when someone is expressing their concern (in a controversial topic) and is flooded with laugh crying emojis.
In my opinion this community should try to be as friendly as possible to newcomers. Spamming a newbie who is asking about something simple will scare him off. That’s not what this community needs.
If people get offended by a laughing emoji, i think they have a problem to deal with not the other members.
See, with that attitude we will drive off more sensitive and younger people. It shouldn’t matter.
it’s just to see how we can make this forum better for discussing privacy in an agreeable and constructive way.
Exactly my point. I see no harm in doing that. Even if people want emojis to stay, there should be a switch to turn them off locally.
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Do you have an example of this?
In my experience, the community react accordingly to the tone of the individual comments. If the newcomer adopts a “humble” approach I noticed that people tends to help and soft the response. In other opportunities where the messages were crafted with absolute “truths” emojis are adopted and most important I didn’t see the Privacy Guide team engaging distributing “negative” emojis in these events.
In the past, I did adopted the “absolute truth” communication tone and I was educated to soft and open my mind to learn from others. I don’t feel personally attacked when people thumbs down my messages or laugh. For me it means that I still have much more to grow and that is great.
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