back to article Hey, Facebook – these are the new Like buttons you should have used

Facebook has announced a range of new buttons intended to give its users the ability to express a wider range of emotions – certainly wider than today's "Like." The buttons, labelled with emojis, cover common feelings such as excitement, sadness, anger, and so on and will be made available first to users in Spain and Ireland. …

  1. wayne 8

    UMMM

    Great buttons. Can we haz for El Reg forum posts? Can we? Please?

    1. Steven Roper

      Re: UMMM

      Well, as to the "fresh air" ones - we hardly need those for El Reg, since the Reg doesn't take over people's lives the way Facebook does. And the other emojis I think are adequately covered by the existing icons - Fail/Facepalm for Idiot and Umm, for example.

      That said, we do need a Click Bait icon because this is something El Reg is occasionally guilty of, and as to the Privacy icon - the ability to put certain commentards on ignore could be worthwhile, although I personally think that doing so would reduce the liveliness of some the arguments we have here. So I'm none too sure where I stand on that one.

      1. Graham Marsden
        Trollface

        Re: UMMM

        > the ability to put certain commentards on ignore could be worthwhile

        Or certain Authors Or Leader-writers Perhaps?...

        1. Jonathan Richards 1

          Re: UMMM

          I have this useful algorithm programmed into my wetware:

          <pseudocode>

          AUTHOR == 'Worstall' & next_article()

          COMMENTARD == 'amanfrommars | *Bryant*' & next_comment()

          </pseudocode>

          Having said that, my wetware is non-deterministic: I don't want *never to see* the option.

          On the subject of El Reg post icons, there are several that I don't even understand: what is the purpose of "Your foster parents are dead", for instance?

          1. Elmer Phud

            Re: UMMM

            Hmm, far too many people faied to actually read AMFM posts - just ignored or downvoted as a matter of course.

          2. tim 13
            Terminator

            Re: UMMM

            Now its been pointed out, I just wanted to use it

          3. Steven Roper

            Re: UMMM

            "On the subject of El Reg post icons, there are several that I don't even understand: what is the purpose of "Your foster parents are dead", for instance?"

            "Your foster parents are dead" is what the T-800 (Arnie) in Terminator 2: Judgement Day says to the young John Connor, when Connor phones his foster parents; Arnie takes the phone off him and listens to Connor's "foster mother" (actually the T-1000, which has just killed her), and identifies its voice.

            So that icon relates to the Terminator, and by extension, that aspect of El Reg culture concerned with the Rise of the Machines and robots/cyborgs taking over the world.

      2. DF118

        Re: UMMM

        the Reg doesn't take over people's lives the way Facebook does

        Dunno, for a while there back in 2002-9 (ish) when LP was on top form as a contributor, the Reg did take up a considerable portion of my day*. Defence procurement being one of those things you don't know you're angry about until someone like Lewis comes along, lays it all out for you and goes: "SEE?!"

        * Work day, of course.

        1. Naughtyhorse

          Re:when LP was on top form

          good days indeed...

          so about that Umm icon....

  2. Drew 11

    Facepalm. Where is the Facepalm?

    1. RhetoricComment
      Meh

      Where is the face palm

      I'll use the passive aggressive icon for this - lol

    2. Mark 85
      Facepalm

      @Drew11

      The label is "D'oh!"... ----------------------------------------->

    3. zen1

      the facepalm would be awesome, but I'm holding out for a "fuck you!" button, like those weenies would ever allow something like that to go out...

  3. PleebSmash
    Big Brother

    4 people have shared this on Facebook

    function(e) {

    e.preventDefault();

    facebook_share_popup(live_url);

    }

  4. Frumious Bandersnatch
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All your Smileys are belong to us ...

    ... The Smiley Company

  6. Tim 11

    novel??

    "While Facebook's response is a novel one"

    err, a forum site allowing smileys to be used in posts - novel?? it's only been around since about 1986

  7. Nick L

    Sign up for premium already!

    Facebook Premium users have had this for a few weeks, and more besides. It's well worth the £5.99 a month.

    1. Graham Marsden
      Devil

      Re: Sign up for premium already!

      Mark, I know El Reg allows people to use pseudonyms, but, come on...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    a video?

    ... to show you how to use emoticons?

  9. werdsmith Silver badge

    I don't get how Facebook has a (widely ignored) minimum age requirement of 13 yet proposes these icons that look as if they are designed to appeal directly to a cbeebies audience!

    Even more immature than the upvote/downvote buttons on the Register and other discussion pages.

    Come on Register! Give us over 12 year olds an option to switch them off at a user level please!

    1. Known Hero

      Ummm...

      What is wrong with up and down arrows ?

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Some folk are kind of deterred from saying what exactly what they want to because they take up and down vote arrows seriously and are worried about popularity.

        The correct approach is to not give a shit, say what you want.

        1. Known Hero

          "The correct approach is to not give a shit, say what you want."

          Fair Enough. Pineapples

          1. Steven Raith

            Fuck your pineapples.

            Steven "taking this all a bit literally - no, not like that" R

            1. Known Hero

              Fuck your pineapples.

              OWOOWWWWWW , Steven wasn't the only one to take you literally !!!!!!!

        2. Dan Paul

          @werdsmith

          The only people who really care about "likes" or "dislikes" in the comments, are the target audience for Facebitch.

          As you say, the correct approach is to not give a shit as to whether some subjective popularity contest is being used by those numpties. Have an upvote!

          Remember, this is the same Pavlovian reaction that those two idiots who formed "Peeple" are counting on. Yelp has the same business model.

          "Fear my useless opinion because I have the power of a dislike button or a negative review"

          To that, I say so what, who frikkin cares. If you want "social", unplug, get out in the real world and SPEAK to some real people. You may learn something life changing.

  10. David Gosnell

    Some more...

    "Obvious fraud/fake"

    "Look, a f***ing sunrise doesn't automatically make it inspirational"

    "David Avocado Wolfe level woo"

    "Not more bl**dy privacy/conspiracy bulls***"

    "Am I supposed to take you seriously with spelling/grammar/capitalisation like that?"

    "I tried to report this s*** but Facebook conveniently removed the relevant option, thus avoiding accountability for the borderline criminal content published"

    "Meh"

    1. dotdavid

      Re: Some more...

      Also how about

      "The fact that only two people like this post thankfully shows your friends are uncomfortable with the political views you can't help but spew out every other post"

      I get a lot of those

    2. Amorous Cowherder
      Happy

      Re: Some more...

      ""Look, a f***ing sunrise doesn't automatically make it inspirational"

      And for the serious photographers...

      "Look, a f***ing sunrise/mountain doesn't automatically make you David Noton"

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    where's the "sucks" button?!

    when I need it?!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: where's the "sucks" button?!

      You mean "Suck my ***" ones?

      AC for obvious reasons.

  12. Yugguy

    You missed the classics

    Would.

    Wouldn't.

    Not even with yours.

  13. AimanA

    Well..

    that's enough internet for today, as I am laughing so hard that I am in tears.

  14. DropBear

    Me, I'm a big fan of the PA suggested ones - especially the eff-your-sprog one - and I don't even have an FB account!

  15. Simon Harris

    El Reg 'Like' symbol.

    I think you forgot to rotate that icon 90 degrees and raise the middle finger.

  16. dotdavid

    We need a "FFS look on Snopes" icon in my experience with Facebook.

    Yeah I know the idiot one might work, but I don't really want to go around insulting my more gullible friends.

    1. Steven Roper

      Oh yes, this one.

      I'm sure my Facebook activity log contains more links to Snopes than to all other web sites combined.

      I'm rapidly getting to the point where if I see one more long-debunked "Muslims want to ban Christmas in <insert town name here>" image I'm going to print it out 50 times and shove it down the poster's throat.

      If Islamic immigration to the West is that big a problem at least get your fucking facts straight first. You aren't doing your cause any favours by constantly posting debunked bullshit!

  17. macaroo

    Where is the icon for sarcasm??

  18. Adair Silver badge

    The zipped emoji...

    is clearly gimped.

    And where, oh where is the steaming pile icon?

  19. Stevie

    Bah!

    As someone who once ran a forum and put up light-hearted themed polls as a Friday distraction I can say with some certainty that the more options you offer the less worth the mechanism has, and that no matter how many you offer there will be a sizable and vocal claque who will whine that they can't express their response within the narrow confines provided to them.

    But if I had to use any of these stupid buttons I'd rather use The Register's. Kudos.

  20. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

    2 missing

    No Facepalm and still no FOAD button

  21. Bob Vistakin
  22. Midnight

    Missing one.

    There should be a "petri dish" icon as well.

    As in "This post is like a petri dish filled with friendship germs."

  23. The Vociferous Time Waster

    A picture of a seagul

    Get in the sea

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Holiday?

    Why is the Christmas hat icon labelled "holiday"? Frigging Americans.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Put my opinion in a box.

    Convenient!

  26. Klek
    Pint

    What? No HATE button?

    Seriously, we need some overtly negative optinos. Idiot is good, clearly. But I think Farcebook misses the bot if they don't include the following:

    Dislike

    Mistrust

    Dubious, at best

    Hate

    Loathe

    Troll

    "SafeWord"

    Fuck

    Marry

    Kill

    You know, just to keep things on the up and up.

  27. Roland6 Silver badge

    So when are El Reg going to roll this out here?

    My understanding is that these are in addition to the 'up' and 'down' vote icons, rather than icons attach to their comments. Hence for any given posting I might receive: 2 up votes, 50 down votes 23 facepalms and 71 Linux is the solution to your problem votes...

    1. Swarthy
      Unhappy

      Re: So when are El Reg going to roll this out here?

      I've been asking for a "You are completely insane" vote button for yonks. I was hoping it would have appeared with the site re-design.. but no joy.

  28. johnwerneken

    They should use this one!

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10205214547109754&set=a.10205214548069778.1073741840.1428284599&type=3

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