Likes given and likes received

[Monica]

a parallel could be found in the system of democracy, and counting 'votes'. While it seems as though one is advocating equality (one vote=one voice), you end up dividing society down the middle, and giving labels to people.

Well anything can be construed as 'divisive' but whether that's a bad thing or not, is subject to debate. We're in the density of Choice. In order to choose A, we decline B. That's a whole 'nother topic!

I wouldn't say voting is inherently divisive. It's the labels attached to the voting that could be divisive. I also think too much fuss is made about 'divisiveness' while other equally important issues (like Choice) are ignored. (But again...that's a whole 'nother topic!)

for the longest time, I didn't realise that you could click the little 'check box' and see the names of people who liked a particular post. I would have preferred to keep my anonymity lol.

Yeah me too. Maybe the solution is to keep the like button, but remove the details. (Assuming there's a way to do that.) Although, that could present its own problems. Let's say Person A criticizes Person B (not their views but personally) and 7 people like that post. Person B then agonizes over "who in the community thinks I'm an idiot or a scumbag."

Another negative about the like button is when someone composes a particularly well-thought-out post and then gets only 1 like, or maybe none. It's kinda deflating.

Then along comes some inane comment (or even a jab) and it gets 7 likes.

The strongest argument made in favor of the like button was so that lurkers could have their voices heard. In practice, that didn't turn out to be the case, because lurkers don't use the like button much anyway.

All things considered, I think we oughtta nuke it.