Thank you to everyone who commented on Friday’s poll about the potential return of the purple thumbs. Unfortunately, you have not made my decision easy — there was no clear majority — but I read everything everyone wrote and am considering both sides. There were lots of good points made for pro and con, but I need a little more time before I make a decision one way or the other. I want to give it another week or two with no thumbs down option to see how it affects both traffic and the overall tone of the site and dialogue among the commenters. Thanks, again, for your insight and for being patient. Obviously, there’s no way I’ll be able to make everyone happy, so I have to just go with my gut on this one and hope you understand.
About those Purple Thumbs
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6napkinburger September 20, 2011, 3:52 pm
Just an FYI (i’m not sure if your software lets you know this) almost every time i refresh, i get an error message. and it takes a couple minutes to be able to reload the page. And then sometimes I will be able to get it to load the main page, but i get an error message going to a column, and have to start all over.
melikeycheesecake September 20, 2011, 4:15 pm
Same here
Budjer September 20, 2011, 4:17 pm
yes.
MissDre September 20, 2011, 4:18 pm
Me too.
Morgan September 20, 2011, 4:19 pm
Same here. I also haven’t been able to click any thumbs.
Wendy September 20, 2011, 4:23 pm
Ugh, I know. I’m getting the same thing. I don’t know if it’s wordpress or my host or what. I have to look into it. Sorry for the annoyance. Hope to have it fixed soon.
MsMisery September 21, 2011, 10:23 am
I don’t even SEE thumbs today. Dunno if you took them down for fixin’ or if there’s a problem…
Jess of CityGirlsWorld.com September 20, 2011, 3:07 pm
thumbs up.
Budjer September 20, 2011, 4:43 pm
So this is the scientist in me speaking and really I could care less either way based on the decision because I will post here regardless, but this error message may affect traffic to the site adding another variable into your observed traffic reports for this decision.
silver_dragon_girl September 20, 2011, 4:54 pm
Also, me refreshing 19 times/minute until it actually loads…
Budjer September 20, 2011, 4:56 pm
haha that too.
Wendy September 20, 2011, 5:14 pm
I called my web host and I think we got it fixed now. Let me know if you’re still having issues.
SGMcG September 20, 2011, 6:03 pm
Well the Database Error Connection may have been resolved, but I don’t think it’s been fully resolved. Now there is an issue that all the comments are not loading – if at all. For example, in this thread, it took me 3 browser refreshings before I could see all the comments after melikeycheesecake.
Landygirl September 20, 2011, 4:58 pm
Change the thumbs up to purple and problem solved, you’ll have purple thumbs!
spark September 20, 2011, 7:23 pm
One more thing that I wanted to add: I think the purple thumbs really help promote discussion. I enjoy knowing that there are positive and negative responses to my comments. And this is the real-world. Not everything should be sugarcoated and soft: I’m not always right, and often people are going to disagree with me and even criticize me. The same goes for all the other comments. I’ve (surprisingly) found myself a lot less engaged in the comment threads after the purple thumbs were removed. I guess I enjoy seeing where the comments are going, as a group.
Rachelgrace53 September 21, 2011, 2:51 am
THANK YOU. Couldn’t have said it better.
Public Pearl September 21, 2011, 11:15 am
“I enjoy knowing that there are positive and negative responses to my comments. And this is the real-world.”
And more than that, this is the internet. Disagreements happen. If someone is so fragile that a simple “I disagree” marker ruins their entire day, maybe the internet isn’t for them.
kali September 22, 2011, 3:14 pm
Pearl, for me the “disagreement” isn’t what bums me out. It’s when I’ve shared a painful, personal story for the LW’s benefit and it gets a purple thumbs down with no apparent rhyme or reason. THAT’s the real issue for me. And some people just don’t seem to get it.
bittergaymark September 20, 2011, 9:44 pm
Personally, I loved the purple thumbs… More often than not I viewed them as a measure as to how right I was in my post… The more right I was, the more purple thumbs!! 🙂
scattol September 21, 2011, 8:01 am
The new gray thumb up don’t layout properly on mobile phones. The green and purple ones stayed on the screen when you zoomed in (and the comments were narrowed out to stay on the screen) the green thumb also moved in. But these gray ones stay put and are now off the screen. That’s too bad, they loose their purpose on mobile phones.
AKchic September 21, 2011, 5:24 pm
Honestly – didn’t care one way or the other on the purple thumbs (although, I do like purple!). I’m not one to shy away from negativity. It’s life, we all have to deal with negativity at some point, some more than others. We don’t always say things that everyone is going to agree with.
I did have a slight issue with wanting to click on one thumb and accidentally clicking on the other for whatever reason – slow connection usually. Or trying to hit reply and accidentally hitting a thumb. With only one thumb and the reply button on the other side, it’s not so much a problem now. *shrug*
Again – don’t care one way or another on the thumb thing. If people are really compelled to disagree with me, they can comment on it and get a discussion going. Some days, I’m just not as articulate as others and don’t get my point across as well, so it may be beneficial to start a conversation. Other times, I may even get my opinion changed by something someone says. Who knows.
soandso September 22, 2011, 2:27 pm
I like not having purple thumbs. Makes me feel like I can speak my mind more without the fear of some purple thumb.