Harmful, mostly replacing high-quality comments with modest-quality reacts
Very harmful, with interest in the site draining away as commenting becomes abnormal
Helpful, with silence or low-quality comments (which could include inflammatory comments) replaced with modest-quality reacts
Very helpful, as the continuum of ability to engage escalates people into interactions they’d otherwise have skipped, as authors see that apparently unseen comments actually have a lot of eyeballs on them, and leading to a positive feedback loop in which engagement leads to more engagement
Neutral, with these trends in balance, probably in some sort of complicated manner I can’t foresee
I think any truly bad effects on the site would take place over the long run, and I think we could learn a lot by experimenting with it about whether it seems good or bad, so I tentatively support an experimental rollout.
I’m honestly not sure if this system would be:
Harmful, mostly replacing high-quality comments with modest-quality reacts
Very harmful, with interest in the site draining away as commenting becomes abnormal
Helpful, with silence or low-quality comments (which could include inflammatory comments) replaced with modest-quality reacts
Very helpful, as the continuum of ability to engage escalates people into interactions they’d otherwise have skipped, as authors see that apparently unseen comments actually have a lot of eyeballs on them, and leading to a positive feedback loop in which engagement leads to more engagement
Neutral, with these trends in balance, probably in some sort of complicated manner I can’t foresee
I think any truly bad effects on the site would take place over the long run, and I think we could learn a lot by experimenting with it about whether it seems good or bad, so I tentatively support an experimental rollout.