5 ms·

It finally went away. I'm hoping the same for all counters because from a reader's perspective they are pointless. so I have only positive feelings about this :

by calind 11y ago

It finally went away. I'm hoping the same for all counters because from a reader's perspective they are pointless. so I have only positive feelings about this :).

stevesearer 11y ago
Yeah, I am torn about caring or not caring. On the one hand, it is a decent way to show readers how popular a post is and maybe feel more encouraged to share. On the other, now that I don't receive that count portion of the service, keeping the button installed means Twitter gets to still track my users. People do use the buttons though to share. Before I added a LinkedIn button I received a number of emails from people asking for one so they could more easily share links. I may just remove it though because when Facebook and LinkedIn have a good amount of shares or likes, it looks strange to have a button with no shares.
loceng 11y ago
People don't trust themselves as much as we should, which is why people are more likely to share something if it looks like it is "safe" to do - if others are doing it. I agree though that it would be better that if people shared something because they were compelled enough to do it on their own.
- rustynails 11y ago
  I find value in the popularity of a comment because it gives me some insight to how a community thinks, collectively. I've observed a number of times that the most popular web sites and the most popular news sites (as ranked by web traffic) are the most controversial (eg. sexist) and least informative. Hence, trusting the average person is like trusting populist politics.. The Kardadhians rule. Aka race to the bottom, aka McDonalds journalism.
  - loceng 11y ago
    That type of thinking may not be able to pool together as easily then, and therefore that thinking may not be reenforced as much. And I agree, it is interesting to see it - and obviously Twitter would have that data, so they could make it available to researchers as well. On a daily basis I wonder how it impacts everything.

by calind 11y ago

It finally went away. I'm hoping the same for all counters because from a reader's perspective they are pointless. so I have only positive feelings about this :).

stevesearer 11y ago

Yeah, I am torn about caring or not caring. On the one hand, it is a decent way to show readers how popular a post is and maybe feel more encouraged to share. On the other, now that I don't receive that count portion of the service, keeping the button installed means Twitter gets to still track my users. People do use the buttons though to share. Before I added a LinkedIn button I received a number of emails from people asking for one so they could more easily share links. I may just remove it though because when Facebook and LinkedIn have a good amount of shares or likes, it looks strange to have a button with no shares.

loceng 11y ago

People don't trust themselves as much as we should, which is why people are more likely to share something if it looks like it is "safe" to do - if others are doing it. I agree though that it would be better that if people shared something because they were compelled enough to do it on their own.

rustynails 11y ago
I find value in the popularity of a comment because it gives me some insight to how a community thinks, collectively. I've observed a number of times that the most popular web sites and the most popular news sites (as ranked by web traffic) are the most controversial (eg. sexist) and least informative. Hence, trusting the average person is like trusting populist politics.. The Kardadhians rule. Aka race to the bottom, aka McDonalds journalism.
- loceng 11y ago
  That type of thinking may not be able to pool together as easily then, and therefore that thinking may not be reenforced as much. And I agree, it is interesting to see it - and obviously Twitter would have that data, so they could make it available to researchers as well. On a daily basis I wonder how it impacts everything.