Ability to like chat comments

Suggestions
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#1

As a frequent lurker, it would be nice if I could participate in a stream when I am unable to fully commit to chat interaction. In other words, there are instances when I need to focus on other tasks but would like to quickly interact with a stream I’m listening to without feeling like I’m committing to a conversation that I can’t maintain. To that end, it would be nice if I could “react” with a “like” on a chat message.

Possible Look and Feel

Here’s a mockup of what the changes could look like:

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  • The width of all the chat bubbles would be increased to 95% of the chat box instead of being capped at ~375 pixels. This will allow the individual bubbles to not consume as much vertical space (other than the additional line for the like button) and to spread out more on widescreen monitors. It will also ensure the like button will stay horizontally-aligned down the page.
  • The like button will only be available to logged-in users. It will also be opt-in on the streamer’s side so it will not be visible by default.
  • Liked comments will get a glimheart background image and potentially a colored border depending on what feedback I get on this.
  • Though we will track on the back-end what comments a user has liked, that information will only be used to display the appropriate button (liked or not liked) to the user and will not be available to the streamer, moderators, or the chat api (with exceptions, see below).
  • The streamer will be able to see on their statistics page the aggregate number of liked comments and the number of total likes per stream.

Chat API

  • We’ll expose the number of likes on a comment to the api so bots can use that information if they so desire. The likes will be an aggregate number and not directly attached to individual users.
  • For the mobile api, we will have to provide what comments were liked by the user that is logged in so it can be presented correctly on the mobile UI. This data will only be accessible for the currently logged in user and not for other users on the site.
  • We will likely need a chat event to fire when a comment is liked. This will not display on the Glimesh chat UI but would be available to api users for any purpose. The event will be tied to the comment, but not to any specific user.

As always, your thoughts and feedback are most welcome and appreciated!

#2

Not sure how I feel about the overall Like economy in the world today because it is short term instant gratification however I admit I like this idea.

I personally don’t like the glimheart background. Feels too much like it’s there just for the sake of being there. I love the coloured border for it though. Might I suggest it would be a pale light blue border instead of the pink? Then maybe could have the intensity of the blue increase towards a brighter light blue as the comment gets more likes? It would be a small thing but I think it’ll be an interesting engagement for chatters.

I also love that it’s the glimheart for the like icon in the bottom corner.

1 Like
#3

I have the opposite opinion as banjax. I like the subtle background image but not the border. I feel like border colors should be reserved for messages you really want to POP like mods highlighting message for the streamer, mentions, or pinned messages - Future chat improvements.

On its own the ability to like messages seems quite boring to me, but i do like the ability to use it for engagement metrics (your own, not vs. others), and the possibilities for bots to potentially show liked messages (?past a threshold?) as on-stream overlays, or bring them to the streamers attention in busy chats. It could even be used to do quick polls in chat - like one message for A, like another for B. Even for chat mini-games or other interactive experiences

2 Likes
#4

Yeah that’s a good point

1 Like
#5

I like this idea but im not a fan of the background image honestly - not because it doesn’t look cool it really does, more from a perspective of readability of chat messages. We’ve had people before who have reading difficulties express concerns over reading chat because of the lack of font styles on the site and font sizing, adding an image to the background would likely make readability for these people worse IMO. If you were to include it, i would at the very least make it optional for the streamer to have it enabled or not just to help combat that :slight_smile:

1 Like