Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#1

Post by sw1205 » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:01 AM UTC

I was on Facebook the other day and updated my status, it was nothing dramatic - just congratulations Ellie on the baby'. I could have just as easily updated this status on Twitter.

Around 4 hours later I logged into Facebook and to my amazement 9 people had liked my status. They didn't comment but were clearly happy that Ellie had had the baby and felt compelled 'to like'.

This got me to thinking - why is there not a 'like' button on Twitter. I know you can Retweet but some of the friends who liked my status have a different set of friends to me and so if they would have posted the news on their Facebook stream it would have meant nothing to anybody.

The amount of times I see good news on Twitter and think 'yeah that is cool' if I see it on Facebook I can like it and that person (however sad this may be) is pleased because they have brightened up someones day.

If Twitter introduced 'like' I would use it. Would you?

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#2

Post by pclark » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:04 AM UTC

No.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#3

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:05 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#4

Post by sw1205 » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:09 AM UTC

pclark wrote: post #2

No.

I appreciate that it is not for everyone, but given how many people use the Facebook like functionality do you think that this could not carry over to Twitter and be equally effective?

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#5

Post by RBerenguel » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:09 AM UTC

Probably no. Twitter is good as it is: a mean of comunication

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#6

Post by sw1205 » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:12 AM UTC

RBerenguel wrote: post #5

Probably no. Twitter is good as it is: a mean of comunication

The Facebook Status and the Twitter status are fundamentally the same thing. You are telling the world what is on your mind. The like functionality in Facebook is a means of communication - someone clicks like and says I like your opinion on this, your good news, your joke, the fact you are in a good mood.

Now if Twitter has the same status functionality could 'like' not be equally effective?

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#7

Post by gaius » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:15 AM UTC

The twitter analogue is the "re-tweet" which IMHO is pretty obnoxious; your stream gets clogged with your friends RT'ing things about people you've a) never heard of and b) if you had and you cared, you'd just follow them yourself.

Twitter at scale is a one-way "write only" medium.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#8

Post by mootothemax » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:16 AM UTC

Twitter does have this functionality - it's called a ReTweet. Terminology differs, but it's essentially the same thing - both likes and retweets show up in the user's timelines, and both indicate liking what someone else has said.

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#9

Post by adrianoconnor » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:17 AM UTC

What about the little 'favourite star'? Surely that achieves the exact same thing ultimately?. I think, but I can't remember for sure, that the number of times a tweet has been favourited is returned by the api, so clients could show it if they wanted.

FWIW, I do not personally like the 'Like' button in Facebook at all. The most banal things get 'liked' which totally devalues it. A 'Does not like' button would have been more interesting :)

Re: Ask HN: Why is there no 'like' button on Twitter?

#10

Post by rick_2047 » Fri, Oct 15, 2010, 11:18 AM UTC

I don't understand your line of thinking. I agree that facebook status and twitter are essentially the same thing (and the same level of useless), but if you like one particular feature of one site why not just use that site and not the other site. If twitter keeps on replicating the same things fb does then why do we have two different websites.