What is your idea?

I'll try to keep this simple. I have an idea that may give people more incentive to write Speeches/RPs/Storys in the Street.
At the moment, seeing how many views it got just tells you how many people got curious about the title. If there was a way to add a link that people could click, that would send the thread-maker a personal saying "July 25 '12 16:41 Bobby_Z liked your (name of thread)" just like it does when someone posts in one.
This would give the writers a boost of confidence to continue writing without messing up the integrity of a thread with "Great read!" etc.

Has your idea already been suggested in some form or another before? (Check the Suggestions forum for past threads with ideas the same or similar to yours.)

Not that I can see. I read every title that had the word thread in it.

What does your idea entail?

Just a simple link would work I think, along the lines of whatever is used now to let people know someone Posted in their thread in personals.

How can your idea be successfully implemented into the game as it stands?

I'm hoping a few people like this idea so it can be.

What major changes would be needed to make your idea work?

I'm not a programer, but I can't see it being too hard since that type of thing is already in place when someone posts.

What is the positive impact of your idea?

People will finally get more feedback for their work.

What is the negative impact of your idea?

I can't really see any, but I am sure some people will let me know in response here if there is one.

How may your idea affect the rest of the userbase?

I'm hoping it draws more people into the street while giving incentive to people who may have stopped in the past because they had gotten no feedback.

PS: It would be up to the powers that be if a small amount of experience was awarded as well with each "like".

a LIKE button!

*likes this post*

PS: It would be up to the powers that be if a small amount of experience was awarded as well with each "like".

If this were the case then it could be exploited. Crew members could purposely "like" other member's threads to help them level, thus more spam threads could be written and "liked" by friends/crew members.

That is the only downside I see, the possibility to exploit it in this way to gain experience.

I would prefer not to see this introduced.

The reason for this is because ultimately this is a roleplaying Mafia game. You play the role of your character, so a Wise Guy in the mob. A Wise Guy in the mob is unlikely to take to the streets and tell stories or to work in his own businesses on a day to day basis, these are intended to be legitimate fronts for operations.

I feel that a "like" button would be taking us a step towards Facebook, rather than further down the path of a roleplaying Mafia game. I think it takes little to no effort, should you like a thread, to mail the guy who wrote it and say "good job!".

However, with that said, I wouldn't hate the idea of an option to like something and it only went to the personal of the author and didn't show up anywhere else in the game. So, for example, if I like this thread, it wouldn't look or appear any differently, only the author would get the personal notification.

I wouldn't hate that, however I'm not convinced enough to sponsor this.

In response to Achilles, are there not much bigger exploitations going on as we speak?

Demotion for BG's, wacking with no skill for protection, for two examples.

In response to Grin, other than the business districts and coffee shops, the Street is really the only place we can develop an interactive story for our character. As for what a Wise Guy in the mafia would do, I think realism only goes so far in this game...we can attempt to keep it as true to 1930's - 1940's as we can in our RP etc, but when it comes down to game mechanics, its impossible to keep it realistic. I do respect what you are saying, but I would like to see if everyone else thinks the same way before I start delving into whats realistic and what is not.

As for Facebook, we could call it the "kudos" button, so we do not step on any toes.

In response to Achilles, are there not much bigger exploitations going on as we speak?

Demotion for BG's, wacking with no skill for protection, for two examples.

Just because there are things currently being exploited in the game, doesn't mean we should add more things that can be exploited easily. Two wrongs don't make a right.

I'm sorry, I should have been more clear. I am in no way trying to support more exploitation of the game. What I was trying to point out was some of the things that are being exploited now, and that a good idea shouldn't be overlooked just because it could be exploited by unscrupulous characters.

I also think that the experience part was barely a footnote, and not the reason for this suggestion. It could be made so that crew members or city members for that matter would NOT garnesh you any exp when they like your thread, therefore taking the exploitation opportunity out of it completely.

Still, I am only trying to give people incentive to put more great content on the street. I was in no way wanting to make it exploitable in any way.