What's your reaction to User Reactions?

We've enabled it! We love how it adds in an extra level of interaction for those people who want to comment on a story without actually commenting. I would like to see a simple "smile/happy" icon though.

I agree, it feels like they are missing the basic "Like" reaction.

I agree with Robert and Kevin. A simple smiley face would be a nice addition.

I wrote to TN about this directly, but I'd like to be able to query for social reactions with URL parameters in addition to being able to use the queries in block templates. I'd like to use that to create RSS feeds of assets with the most loves or hates or even the most total social reactions.

I have asked our developers about this. I will let you know if that's available, otherwise I'll put in a feature request.

Yes, we are working on a more generic "like" button to go with reactions. Right now the tech requires login so we separated it out and are evaluating it. But I agree, I end up clicking "love" on everything, because it is the closest thing.

Let me know if you have any ideas for improving the visibility of this, as well... I'm thinking we need some kind of "teaser" at the top of the page so people can look for it... sort of like we have the comment count?

Maybe it shows the top few reactions with the total votes? Sort of like what Facebook does...

What face do we show if there are no votes?

I am also looking at putting reaction count onto a few blocks, so that when you show a "Most beloved stories" block (via reaction sort rules), you'll be able to show the count there.

If we do something like the image above, we could add it to blocks as well.

Any brilliant ideas? =)

Check out Christine's blog post about User Reactions!

I like it conceptually. Agree that a "Like" button would be nice. But Christine, to your question about "improving the visibility"...

This should definitely be at the top of every article, not at the bottom.

I, as much as anyone, wish that everyone read to the end of my articles. But we all know that far less than 100% of readers reach the end. So I'd much rather the reactions be at the top. Because really, they're going to read the headline and the lead, and they already know how they feel about it. If they want to wait to react until they've read the whole article, they can scroll back up to the top.
Please at least have the design team add the option to put it at the top of the article, just above the body text. See my attached image below, for where I think it oughta be...

Hey Nathan! If you look at my post below, that's similar to the request I have in now. We think we can actually make the icons actionable as well - so when you hover on them, they expand and you can vote. So yes, totally agree with you!

We've started using this feature but ended up disabling it due to people leaving "Love" and "Funny" reactions on stories where people have died. It's a great feature but people just don't seem to show any semblance of compassion or empathy. We're talking 20% improper reactions sometimes. I just don't think it's worth the negativity.

Would a solution be to add in a "disable user reactions for this story" box, or even "Select which user reactions are visible for this story."

Although I think option 1 would be more ideal.

There are already enough boxes and options to click in BLOX. I think this is something publishers can either be OK with as-is and let people be people or decide it's not worth the negativity.

You already can disable reactions on individual stories. It's on the "other" tab along with the "do not publish" box.

Hey guys!

A few quick notes... 

Firstly, we do have the ability to turn off user reactions on a per-asset basis. Go to the article -> Other tab -> disallow reactions.

Additionally, you also can disable User Reactions on a per-section basis. Go to URL properties -> Social interactions -> User Reactions.

We actually mention disabling User Reactions on the Obituary section in our online documentation.

It could even be something where you turn these off on several sections... but just keep for main non-crime news, or entertainment, or Letters to the Editor, etc. Lots of options! =)

I do think Like or Recommend would be great to add, but it bothers me that Angry is listed first, left to right... Anyone think it should read the opposite? Perhaps reordering could be an option, or adding custom ones? Thanks!

Sounds like a regular "Like" option will not be coming. I just heard this from support:

"It appears that the general like icon was rejected and we will not be moving forward with that."