Voting system could be more obvious

[Mr Lucky]

I guessed what the number and arrow probably meant because I have been reading the HYSs, but i think a lot of normal people wouldn't know that.
But they would understand if for example it had the word VOTE above the arrow and vote counter on the right. So this suggestion is purely to have the word, or an option to have the word there for those people who aren't used to these things.




EDIT: might also help if the box was on the left, people may be more inclined to notice it.

 

[Kevin]

Honestly, I like the arrow without the line. I do think it needs to be a bit more noticeable. Like maybe put a new square around the arrow? Like so it becomes a different hue, like it does now...?

FA has a bunch of different arrow types available. When the time comes it'll be easy enough to swap them out.

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Although there's plenty of merit in making the arrow look different/better/more it still doesn't help people who do notice it , but still don't know what on earth it is for.

Agreed, which is why I already voted on it.

But bigger/bolder and a different color

At the moment I'm thinking the long arrows for me yet because, at least on desktop, there is going to end up being a lot of 'dead' space on the right side of these kinds of posts and the longer arrows helps draw attention to over there. Combined with the word "VOTE" or something else like Mr. Lucky is suggesting will really make it obvious then.

Like others have mentioned, the user base for my main site are not tech oriented and likely have never even saw Reddit other than it being mentioned somewhere so making it as obvious as possible for them what the interface options are will be needed.

 

[Karelke]

Related to this subject, the vote button is quite invisible on mobile devices.

I overlooked it twice and when I finally found the button, it doesn't look like a vote button.

 

[Mr Lucky]

. If anything, I'd maybe make the arrows more prominent.

Having thought about it more, it would help if, instead of arrows, they were thumbs up/down icons as with the YouTube voting system. People would have more chance of recognising what it is even without the word.

 

[beerForo]

You can change that on your own easily but I am in no way going to do that. Why even have this system if it is a reaction? But I digress.

One thing they are not going to do is conflate the two systems when they just spent all this time creating two dedicated systems. You can open that can of worms if you want.

 

[Basenotes]

Having thought about it more, it would help if, instead of arrows, they were thumbs up/down icons

Though this may be visually too similar to the Like/Reactions Thumbs Up

 

[M@rc]

I hope with the new XF 3 theme, we get more display options for this. Could be on the left or in the action bar like what some forums are currently doing with addons already.

@Ozzy47's post was "liked" 3 times by members who have been here for years, but not a single upvote on the post:



Which might make the "sort by votes" filter useless for long threads.

 

[CedricV]

The upvote is as useless as the gallery. Sorry if that offends anyone.

 

[Chris D]

I hope with the new XF 3 theme, we get more display options for this. Could be on the left or in the action bar like what some forums are currently doing with addons already.

@Ozzy47's post was "liked" 3 times by members who have been here for years, but not a single upvote on the post:

View attachment 319860

Which might make the "sort by votes" filter useless for long threads.

Likes and upvotes are different use cases and in some cases it would be unreasonable to expect someone who likes a post to also upvote it.

In this case, if someone wants to non-anonymously show their support to an author's comment, liking is perfectly valid and reasonable and more so than an upvote.

It would seem, however, there isn't exactly a significant issue with people finding the upvote button where it matters. See this thread:



The likes that are there are all over 4 years old as knowledge surrounding support signalling for suggestions moving to upvotes took a little bit of time to trickle down. Some of those people might have even liked and upvoted.

 

[Mr Lucky]

It would seem, however, there isn't exactly a significant issue with people finding the upvote button where it matters.

In a forum like this, where most users are admins or developers, it is likely most will not have any problem finding the update button.

It is more about a normal forum with normal people who aren't experts on xenForo who may not know that a couple of chevrons are where they can vote.

 

[M@rc]

and in some cases it would be unreasonable to expect someone who likes a post to also upvote it.

That's why new features shouldn't be forced. An option in the specific Reaction's settings would settle it for forums that see a benefit in using it.

In this case, if someone wants to non-anonymously show their support to an author's comment, liking is perfectly valid and reasonable and more so than an upvote.

It's not about this.

It's making XF features usable (eg. Sort by votes). Right now it's useless if people only "react" to the best answers instead of upvoting them.

But I'm putting most of my focus on Q&A forums, not simple general chatter communities.

It is more about a normal forum with normal people who aren't experts on xenForo who may not know that a couple of chevrons are where they can vote.

This is what I was thinking too. More options wouldn't hurt.

 

[frm]

It's making XF features usable (eg. Sort by votes). Right now it's useless if people only "react" to the best answers instead of upvoting them.

Simple solution: Hide the Like button for the node you want to use up votes on. Or, custom development to strip it from the back end on a node basis. Remove current reactions either way. Then it's totally up vote in that node.

Edit: I might be mistaken, but you may be able to set "react to posts" permission to Never (or No) on the up vote node for the Registered group, then remove existing reactions. I'd have to double check node permissions to be for certain though.

 

[MentaL]

Why not have it that an alert can be sent to the thread starter if theres no reply after a period of time in which a favourable answer could be marked.

 

[M@rc]

Simple solution: Hide the Like button for the node you want to use up votes on. Or, custom development to strip it from the back end on a node basis. Remove current reactions either way. Then it's totally up vote in that node.

Edit: I might be mistaken, but you may be able to set "react to posts" permission to Never (or No) on the up vote node for the Registered group, then remove existing reactions. I'd have to double check node permissions to be for certain though.

That wouldn't work out for people who have a general discussion forum type which allows a mixture of thread types.

Why not have it that an alert can be sent to the thread starter if theres no reply after a period of time in which a favourable answer could be marked.

This is yet another thing I'd like to see implemented:

Thread 'Alerts to prompt people to select a best answer for their question thread'

Jun 22, 2020

In my experience from using a Q&A addon for Xenforo 1, folks who have asked a question very often do not bother to pick the best answer.
Can we please have an option to nag them periodically to pick an answer once they have replies to their thread with upvotes?
Please like this suggestion if you agree that this would help correctly manage threads which need marking as solved.

• Stuart Wright
• Replies: 16
• Forum: XenForo suggestions

• 

Generally, I hope more QoF stuff comes to major features like upvoting and best answers. Not every forum is going to have tech-savvy peeps. A lot of forums have the people who mash a "like" button or type a message in an editor because that's what they know from social media.

It feels like some big features are added and then forgotten about to me

 

[frm]

That wouldn't work out for people who have a general discussion forum type which allows a mixture of thread types.

Yes it would. Edit thread_view to not display the reactions if it's a voting node (I'm almost certain that's possible, but would need to check the variables to confirm). Then, remove all reactions in the voting threads (recommended with XF front end, or with a DB query [on a test site first] and then rebuild reactions).

 

[Gemma]

I must have the least computer-savvy members ever - I don't think they'd mind me saying that - I tweaked things a little on my site, moved the vote buttons to the bottom of the message container so it was similar to the mobile view and added some little customisations and tooltips to finish it off. None of my members have ever had any problems recognising or finding the vote buttons...

 

[Wildcat Media]

EDIT: might also help if the box was on the left, people may be more inclined to notice it.

That was my first thought--if you move the column to the left side of the post, ideally between the postbit and the message body, it's something "unusual" that members would pay attention to, and I would think adding the word "VOTE" to the top of it would also help.

Wouldn't "VOTE" just be a simple template edit to add? I tested it in the inspector in this thread and it was just one line; ideally I'd toss that into phrases.

Related to this subject, the vote button is quite invisible on mobile devices.

I overlooked it twice and when I finally found the button, it doesn't look like a vote button.

I don't like that either--to me it looks like I should be tapping that to expand (open)....something? As that is a common use for the caret symbol.

Yet when the same carets/inverted carets (^) appear above/below a number, to me it looks as though it should be incrementing or decrementing the number, so those make more sense to me than arrows. (It's like a selector in a form.)

 

[Suzanne O]

I'm happy with how it is now.
Most cases you don't need to vote for things.
I'm just amazed at how many people whinge about things that are there and they say they don't like.

 

[Ozzy47]

Here is an addon based off of @Gemma rendering

[OzzModz] Move Vote Below First Post

Mar 25, 2025

Make voting more prominent

• Ozzy47
• Add-ons [2.x]

 

[Foxtrek_64]

Perhaps this could be wired up to the built-in Reaction Score setting. Here's an example from the built-in Like reaction.

If people reacting instead of voting is a problem, then we could handle it as though positive reactions also count as upvotes. Neutral would not count at all and Negative would count as a downvote, if enabled.

Implementation-wise, clicking the Like button would both cause the Like reaction to be added to the post as well as automatically voting for the post as though the user had clicked the upvote button. If they only want to react but not upvote, they can click the upvote button separately to remove their vote.