Shouldn't the "Favorite System" in Q2A be changed to "Follow System"?

Question

I am using Q2A for over a year now, but this favorite system has neither attracted me nor my website users. So I asked some of my friends and users what about if this favorite system is changed to Follow system.

Their replies were much positive about following things is more sensible than favoriting things. Even those who use social media a lot (almost everyone does that) are very much familiar with Follow functionality. If Q2A favorite system can be changed to Follow system then this feature can be used much more and people can easily relate the follow feature to social media.

Comments

Can you explain your expected behavior in terms of user interaction with the system? E.G.: "User clicks in button W and system performs action X. Then user clicks in link Y and system returns a report with Z"

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Sorry but I didn't got what you are saying Gabriel. I simply meant to change favorite to follow so that it can be used more.

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Oh, do you mean just changing the text or changing some kind of behaviour? I though you meant the latter

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Yes I meant by changing text to Follow and placing Follow buttons instead of stars. If I take a simple example, How does it sound that a users favorited another user?? I feel it awkward as people are not favorited instead they are Followed. So now if we make two different systems, one for users and another for qeustions, categories and tags then that would be even more confusing. So its a suggestion to change complete Favorite to Follow. And if possible then some development in relation to Follow system can also be done, like
# Number of followers for a user.
#At the time of registration some recommendations can be done to follow a category or tags.
Even more can be done with Follow system, but favorite system is just not that appealing and non of my users are using it. So wouldn't it be better to change it to something which is better and users can be attracted towards that.

Answer 1

Hi. I tottaly agree with you. I cahnged it in one of my sites to follow. You can do this (tricky way) by turning the star favoriting buttons to Follow buttons and make the appropriate language changes. That should do the work. Also you can use some free plugins/widgets by sama55(i think) like Follow users or Following users etc.

Comments

I use all those but still it'll be good to make and suggest these changes to be done in Q2A core as favorite system is not used very much but Follow system is universal.

Answer 2

I was questioning the favorite feature as well in May 2012: http://www.question2answer.org/qa/14896/general-question-somebody-really-using-the-favorite-feature The only one who gave an answer was Scott.

Even in my biggest forum with currently 3900 users, nearly nobody used the favorite feature.

That's why I changed it to:

1. on user profile page the button becomes "Say thank you to this user"
http://www.question2answer.org/qa/40951/new-plugin-handsome-user-profile-release-soon

2. on question pages the button becomes "Follow this question"
http://www.question2answer.org/qa/38227/plugin-development-favorites-follow-question-activity-email
Plugin at: http://www.q2apro.com/plugins/follow-question

Both new features are used on a daily basis :)

Comments

Its good that you have made a plugin for this, but it would be better if this change is made in core. As very few are making use of favorite then it would be good to say it to Scott and he makes the necessary changes.

Answer 3

I agree. At first, it is necessary to change dictionary (base language) of Q2A core. For example, "favorite" is translated as "フォロー (en: follow)" in my Japanese translation files. In addition, nuance of "favorite" and "follow" are different. Therefore, we will also need to review UI (User Interface) and additional features.

Comments

Its good that you liked the idea @Sama. :)
But will you try propose some changes in Q2A core at github so that this can be implemented fast.