Here on Discourse, what does “Liking” someone’s post with the Like button signify?
Not being a social media user, I’m not familiar with this Internet concept. I understand upvotes and GitHub-style emoji reactions, but not likes. This is the first site I’ve signed up to that has a “Like” feature. I get the impression it’s not the same thing as saying “I like this” in a conversation.
Did find this in a search, but am still confused.
On the one hand, the “Like” button icon is a heart. In an emoji reaction type system, reacting with heart usually means something along the lines of “Thank you very much, much appreciated!” or “Wow, this is really nice of you!”. On the other hand, the term “like” does not carry such strong meaning, so maybe it’s closer to a “thumbs up” or maybe an upvote?
It seems understanding the “Like” button is required to make full use of this site, in that choosing not to use this feature will have long-term negative impact on my use of this site. So would appreciate clarification of what the “Like” button means here on Ubuntu Discourse, to be able to determine when to use it. Thanks!