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Re:Would the internet be healthier without 'like' counts? (2... by josephg on Saturday September 12, 2020 @06:36PM (#24456484)
Yes.

A few years ago I installed a browser extension that removed display of likes from Facebook posts. I could still like things, but when I made a post or a comment I wouldn’t be able to know how my friends reacted.

I didn’t expect this, but it made me feel way more free when I posted. A lot of my anxiety went away, and I posting or commenting felt more like an act of personal expression rather than a performance that would be judged by my friends. I highly recommend giving it a try if you can.

Re:Would the internet be healthier without 'like' counts? (2... by Tarsul on Sunday September 13, 2020 @12:41PM (#24462041)
Cool! Maybe HN could add a feature that hides your own like-number (in the top right corner) so that even the last remnants of "gaming" your likability can be eradicated from HN? (at least for those who then do hide their number in their config options) edit: o wait, there's already a discussion about this :)
Re:Would the internet be healthier without 'like' counts? (2... by smichel17 on Sunday September 13, 2020 @11:32PM (#24466496)
I mostly use the app Materialistic, which does not show vote numbers on your comments. Went through a phase of using the website more (I'd really rather use a pc than phone), but found that the existence of the page that shows your comments (/threads?id=username, I think) warped my behavior in ways I didn't like (compulsively scanning for new replies, thinking about how upvoted different of my posts were. The app has a similar page, but notably it doesn't provide a way to see replies to your comments -- without scores or replies, there's not much incentive to check it. I also enabled email notifications using hnreplies.com, so I wouldn't have to worry about missing replies I might care about, overall it's worked out well and I I'm back to just commenting when I feel like it.