Disqus – the commenting system I am using on this blog – recently added reactions, a quick way to react to posts without having to write a comment. If you scroll to the end of the post you will find the reactions buttons. They look like this.
What I like about this feature is the ability to use it effortlessly. Unlike commenting, you don’t have to login to Disqus to give a reaction on a post. You hit a button and it is done.
What is missing is dopaminification. As the blog owner I don’t get any notifications when someone react to one of my posts. I don’t even get a digest with the total number of reactions I am getting. It is also not clear which reaction is getting more clicked, which feels unnatural to what users are used to on FB. Sometimes familiarity trumps novelty.
This makes the reward cycle of this feature broken. People react to posts and I don’t get the dopamine rush of such acts, which should trigger me to post more, to get more reactions, and maybe on the longer run upgrade my Disqus account.