[Quix]

Maybe the concept of abuse button needs expanded.

Perhaps the abuse button would have various options:

--cursing
--sexually explicit or sexual language assaults
--personal attacks on individuals personhood
--racism
--trolls
--etc.

and each of those would be rated 1-10 with 10 most severe.

By the same token, perhaps some positive feedback would be reinforcing enough to help raise the quality of the posts and forum interactions.

Perhaps we could have a

HUG BUTTON with options like:

--A BIG HUG for your great prose and good ideas
--A BIG HUG for your contribution to the discussion
--A BIG HUG for your activism described in this thread
--A BIG HUG for your patience with other posters
--A BIG HUG for spreading peace and calm on troubled waters in this discussion
--A BIG HUG for your helpful research
--A BIG HUG for introducing new FREEPERS

AND, say someone with a standard deviation or 1.5 or 2.0 sd's above the average number of hugs would get a FREEPER T-shirt or mug or some such.

It would be nice to have a way to formally register acolades to those well deserving on FR. And such feedbac, motivating incentive would probably contribute to an improved forum.

[NittanyLion]

What you suggest sounds nice in theory, but doesn't work in practice. It encourages cliques to form and give each other accolades while continually downrating the posts of those whom they dislike.

I've seen a similar system on another forum, and it hasn't yielded the potential benefits.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I have a few suggestions on where, exactly, the "Hug Button" could be put, too...