What is the point of lurve?

I like the acknowledgement. Helps me feel I’m connecting with individuals, not just as mass of people.

i rekon its just a way of showing someone you liked there answer or question.

the jellyfish with the most lurve will aquire the knowledge needed to rule the worl.. muhumuhuhahahahahahah!!!!

@ShoulderPadQueen But why is that important?

That’s a good question. It’s supposed to simply define how many people have appreciated your comments and questions, but that measure can be misleading, especially if there is people you know on the site or people on the site who want to give you more lurve than you deserve simply because they like you, not necessarily your answer.

So, it’s not a real indicator of whether your answers and questions are popular, but unfortunately, could be more about whether you’ve developed relationships with others and are given lurve because you made any answer. Also, as discussed in other threads, sometimes people like to award a user lurve just because they answered a question (ie like the person asking a question and hoping for participation).

So I say, take lurve with a grain of salt!

It’s kinda fun. And I really don’t think it needs to be looked into any more than that.

@wundayatta well its not really important i dont rekon. its just a nice gesture.

Measuring your addiction to Fluther.

Ha ha! And what @qashqai said.

Sigh, questions, questions and more questions.

@ShoulderPadQueen Why do you use “nice gestures” here? (Or anywhere, for that matter).

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities Why did you say that? I’m sure that no question needs to be asked. I just wanted the information. Is that bad? Have I misunderstood the nature of this place?

@qashqai Why does anyone care about anyone else’s addiction to fluther? Is there some status associated with those who are more (or less) addicted? And what do you mean by addiction, anyway?

Again, I apologize. I seem to be very testy today. Well. No coffee. What do you expect?

I like being affirmed. It makes me feel a since of self value. I don’t NEED it, but it makes me feel like I might, in some small way, have touched someone. I lurve Lurve!

@wundayatta No it’s not bad to ask about it, it’s just that this question has been asked numerous, numerous times, and it seems like an endless point of debate. I guess I don’t understand why people are so curious about it, it just seems like a fun way of recognizing users for their input.

Sorry if I came off sounding like an ass. I too need more coffee.

One of the points of lurve is a Zen high five to another Flutherer for giving a good answer.

One thing it serves as is a way of connection for the community. If people are congratulating someone for an achievement for example, they will give lurve.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities: Yes, some people take it seriously (gotta have more lurve!) and some people are not so ambitious and just enjoy using the site and don’t care one way or another. So really lurve is as important or as unimportant as each user makes it. I forgot to mention it can also be a potential meter of how long or how frequently someone has used the site. I think it has its merits and like that it was implemented into the fluther structure.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities And once again—what purpose does “a fun way of recognizing users for their input” serve. I am not asking one of your usual questions. I looked. I couldn’t find this one. Maybe you misunderstood the question? Maybe I didn’t write it well. Does one need to put everything in the question instead of the details for people to pay attention to it?

Ah. I see that @Marina understands.

is this another enoegawki question or whatever his name is

the one from ab that had rainbow brite questions

@Marina Lurve as connection for the community. A kind of social glue? Somehow binding people closer to each other? Or to the idea of fluther? Or to feel a part of it, in a way they wouldn’t feel without it? Interesting. Very tricky, too. Thank you.

@trailsillustrated Ahh, now I see. Thank you.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities you know- did he change his name or something

You kind of have to distinguish between the “GA”/“GQ” part of lurve and the “total lurve score” part of lurve. GAs and GQs fulfill the very basic desire that most people have for feedback on their comments. Without some way for others to register their approval, answering here would be kind of like shouting down a well. People need some form of acknowledgement.

The “total score” thing really doesn’t serve much purpose because there are too many variables involved. You can’t draw many conclusions at all from it. someone who posts inteligent, well-written Qs & As can accumulate a lot of lurve in a short time, but even a less stellar jelly will get into 5 figures given enough time. I guess some folks kind of take pride in their score, but many claim to not give it any consideration at all. Unlike the GAs and GQs, I think we could do away with the total scores and Fluther wouldn’t be the worse for it.

@Harp Perhaps total score serves as some kind of experience indicator, not an indicator of quality? So I can look at a score, say yours, and see that you have much experience. Then I look at @Marina‘s score and I see it is even higher. Can it be a coincidence that the two most helpful answers were the two of yours? Two cases do not an argument make, but it is suggestive that there is more to total score than you might aver.

I’m a little curious about this enoegawki reference. Is this some kind of inside joke? Or is it meant to be a slam against my bona fides? It sounds a bit aggressive. Is that the way this place is? I’m surprised. My friend had nothing but good things to say about fluther.

The point of lurve is to see how many times you can click the little Great Answer button below.

go ahead. give it a try. all of the cool kids are doing it.

@wundayatta Yes, I’d agree that it’s a better experience indicator than a quality indicator, but then I’m not sure what I gain from knowing another user’s experience level, or why I should want to publicize mine. Just doesn’t seem useful. And too, take a look at Ben and Andrew ‘s scores; they freaking own Fluther. None of us has more experience than they do, but you can’t tell that from their scores. You could easily rack up a big score on Fluther by posting nothing but funny quips and never actually answering a question. That’s neither experience nor quality (just for the record, I don’t put AstroChuck in that category).

Lurve is a drug

@Harp do they participate as much as other people? I mean, participate on the boards, or whatever you call them?

As to what you get from knowing experience—I am reminded of teachers unions who fight tooth and nail against merit pay. Why? Because they don’t believe it will be handed out without favoritism. They use seniority as a way to determine raises, instead. So some not-so-good teachers make the same as good teachers with the same seniority.

Anyway, thanks for paying attention to my question. I feel a little better about those people with a lot less seniority who seemed to think this was a stupid question.

@wundayatta Yes, it serves as shared laughter or shared applause. Look at a congratulatory thread such as this one.

@Marina That’s quite amazing. It actually brought tears to my eyes. But I’m a sucker for romance, I guess. I see what you mean. There’s more to this place than meets the eye. Perhaps I will find out some of it in the time I am here.

@wundayatta How much a member participates is recorded at the top of their profile page as “Questions asked” and “Responses written”. Start looking around and you’ll see that there’s only a loose correlation between these numbers and total lurve score. Quality is one variable, of course, but then there’s also a limit on the amount of lurve one user can give another, and a limit on how many points a user can receive for a single question or answer. The end result is that the number is more suggestive than informative.

I suppose it’s just a numeric form of feedback outside of the awards. If you’d been here since the beginning of the site and you only had a few GAs, then you’d probably know there was something amiss with your answer quality.

The way I understand it, the original intent is to allow the users to validate the answers since the internet is notoriously lacking of credibility. However, because of the nature of the user, the lurve system does not accomplish that goal.

I feel LURVED

Lurve is all you need…~ The Beatles

What’s Lurve Got To Do With It…~ Tina Turner

Lurve is a Many Splendored Thing -Frank Sinatra

@jonsblond

Taffeta darling Taffeta