What's in the upgrade?

[RobPNW]

I feel bad when people are unhappy with my posts. If they are in the form of a reply, at least I can respond to them. On several occasions those replies have led me to rethink and revise my posts.

But what do I do with a "disagree" without any context?

Not to mention that regardless of the poster or the subject matter, someone on the forum is going to disagree LOL. As a person with much less experience than many people here, I welcome someone pointing out flaws in my thinking because it may save my life, save me money or help me advance my skillset. But if I have a random disagree with no reply, I'm going to dwell on what I may have gotten wrong.

 

[letterboy]

Not to mention that regardless of the poster or the subject matter, someone on the forum is going to disagree LOL. As a person with much less experience than many people here, I welcome someone pointing out flaws in my thinking because it may save my life, save me money or help me advance my skillset. But if I have a random disagree with no reply, I'm going to dwell on what I may have gotten wrong.

Or, you could ignore it as you do other inputs that have no context.

Personally I think there is a lot of energy being put into something that after a few weeks will normalize when sb users learn how to read and use the reactions.

 

[lowwall]

True. That is one of the problems with Facebook...this is no easy way to say the post is garbage.

Thanks for making it clear who will be using the negative reactions.

 

[Marie13]

Well, when it comes to happy diver, I’ll probably just be using the laughing face. I swear he is on something…

 

[lowwall]

Well, when it comes to happy diver, I’ll probably just be using the laughing face. I swear he is on something…

The mods could just replace his avatar with the Confusing icon and call it a day.

 

[Akimbo]

Again, how does this improve the experience for anyone? If you get a "confusing" on your post, what are you supposed to do with it?

In my case, I often (far too often) reread one of my posts a day later and realize it isn't that clear when my mind is not "in the moment" of that thread. You can also DM the member that is confused and ask what could have been clearer. In many ways, we learn more from mistakes than success.

 

[lowwall]

In my case, I often (far too often) reread one of my posts a day later and realize it isn't that clear when my mind is not "in the moment" of that thread. You can also DM the member that is confused and ask what could have been clearer. In many ways, we learn more from mistakes than success.

Or responders could post what they found confusing, allowing anyone to respond and clarify.

 

[letterboy]

In my case, I often (far too often) reread one of my posts a day later and realize it isn't that clear when my mind is not "in the moment" of that thread. You can also DM the member that is confused and ask what could have been clearer. In many ways, we learn more from mistakes than success.

Speaking of dm'ing we going to get quote post in a dm feature back?

 

[Akimbo]

Or responders could post what they found confusing, allowing anyone to respond and clarify.

That would certainly be ideal and I hope we encourage people to ask, in a civil way of course. Unfortunately not everyone has the self-confidence to do that. Remember that about 75% of our readers are not members (Guests) so can't leave a Reaction. It is also probable that most "Guests" don't have nearly as much experience (as divers) as most ScubaBoard members so a "Confusing" Reaction may have an even higher multiple.

A Confusing Reaction doesn't say you wrong, ignorant, or anything bad. It is just saying that individual doesn't understand what you wrote. We aren't replying with footnoted and peer reviewed research papers so it shouldn't be too surprising.

We never know when something we write changes someone's life, or even saves it. It is easy to think we are talking with a few friends when, in reality, there are thousands of eavesdroppers listening to a recording over years to come.

 

[NothingClever]

@lowwall

I think we have a tendency to bicker and litigate on SB more than any international forum I’ve belonged to since 2003 (when I started using forums to augment learning about my hobbies).

Similar to @letterboy ‘s post, my hope is that we don’t feel the need to react to every single Dislike or Confused. Similarly, it would be cheap of us to just casually fire off Dislikes and Confused without the commitment to diplomatically explain ourselves if necessary.

I think sometimes a good “policy” is to accept that we can’t accelerate someone else’s learning process no matter how much we‘d like to and instead just let the conversation go. Sometimes I see a post and think, “If I wade into this thread, do I really have the time to invest to shine a light towards the exit/ladder?”.

I think the boat will get into trim here in another few weeks and we’ll all forget how we got along before without the Dislike and Confused buttons.

If it fails, the Staff can gracefully turn them off having made a vetted observation we couldn’t get along with them.