People shouldn't be so reluctant to follow/like

Has anybody else noticed that for some of the most popularly solved problems, there will be 20 likes for it? For a problem with 3,000 people who have solved it! Really? As a matter of fact, the "like" and "reshare" and "favorite" buttons aren't there to look pretty (although they are marvelous, aren't they). I would really like to encourage more people to occasionally hit any one of those buttons. For example, I have like 300 followers, and I don't think this note will get more than 5 likes. Seriously. In fact, all of the above mentioned buttons DO serve a purpose:

Likes: when there are a lot of likes for a problem/note, it encourages others to view it. Remember the Law of Large numbers? It applies to liking, too! Pretend that all notes/problems have around 3 likes. Then the distinguishment between problems would be lacking. If all notes had in the 100's of likes, then it would be clear how "good" that note/problem is!
Reshares: One of the things that makes Brilliant awesome is the social media aspect of it that allows people to interact and work together on challenging problems. To circulate good problems, it is vital that people reshare problems! The other thing that is critical to this is the following:
Following: Following allows you to see others problems (otherwise what would be the point :P of Brilliant). For those of you who follow "only the most distinguished problem-posters", the only thing that would allow you to see lots of good problems (besides those "elite" few) would be those people resharing! It's all connected! And the people who reshare problems have seen that the problems are popular and deserve to be spread!

Markdown

Appears as

*italics* or _italics_

italics

**bold** or __bold__

bold


- bulleted
- list

bulleted
list


1. numbered
2. list

numbered
list

Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly

paragraph 1

paragraph 2

paragraph 1

paragraph 2

[example link](https://brilliant.org)

example link

> This is a quote

This is a quote

    # I indented these lines
    # 4 spaces, and now they show
    # up as a code block.

    print "hello world"

# I indented these lines
# 4 spaces, and now they show
# up as a code block.

print "hello world"

Math

Appears as

Remember to wrap math in $ ... $ or \[ ... \] to ensure proper formatting.

2 \times 3

2 \times 3

2^{34}

2^{34}

a_{i-1}

a_{i-1}

\frac{2}{3}

\frac{2}{3}

\sqrt{2}

\sqrt{2}

\sum_{i=1}^3

\sum_{i=1}^3

\sin \theta

\sin \theta

\boxed{123}

\boxed{123}

Easy Math Editor

This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

When posting on Brilliant:

Use the emojis to react to an explanation, whether you're congratulating a job well done , or just really confused .
Ask specific questions about the challenge or the steps in somebody's explanation. Well-posed questions can add a lot to the discussion, but posting "I don't understand!" doesn't help anyone.
Try to contribute something new to the discussion, whether it is an extension, generalization or other idea related to the challenge.
Stay on topic — we're all here to learn more about math and science, not to hear about your favorite get-rich-quick scheme or current world events.

Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Yeah click those buttons everybody!

If you want to go browse for new things to like and reshare to your followers, then check out the explore section. The explore section chronologically lists notes and problems as people publish them.

It is where I go to find new people to follow as well.

Peter Taylor Staff - 7 years, 3 months ago

Yup! Speaking of... Are you following me?

Finn Hulse - 7 years, 3 months ago

I am and have been for some time now. See you are just barely beating me this week :)

leaderboard

@Peter Taylor – Hmm. I thought that you weren't. The reason for being that when I look in my "Followers" tab, the people aren't sorted by anything. I'd really like to be able to have them sorted by how many followers they have.

@Finn Hulse – Your followers are sorted (approximately) by the number of followers that they have. Just take a look down your followers page.

However, in order to give others more face time, we've chosen to not display certain staff accounts, like mine and Pete, which would (unfairly?) always appear at the top.

Calvin Lin Staff - 7 years, 3 months ago

@Calvin Lin – Hmm... I'd actually prefer to be either able to choose how they're sorted or at least have them sorted by followers.

@Calvin Lin – Calvin? Did you hear what I said about how they should be sorted?

@Finn Hulse – HEY LUCKYCHAP! Calvin & Pete have replied to you !!!!!!!!!!!!

Harsh Shrivastava - 7 years, 3 months ago

@Harsh Shrivastava – :D Yeah, I know right!

@Finn Hulse – 7 likes :P

Sam Thompson - 7 years, 3 months ago

@Sam Thompson – $7^2$ . :P

Finn Hulse - 7 years ago

I think it would be good if a feature was added to bookmark a problem as I mostly use the like feature as a way to come back to a problem that I want to solve later on or come back to. I want to like more problems that are good, but I don't want to have so many liked I cant find the ones I want to come back to. Thats my suggestion anyway, it would be good to see more great problems getting liked :)

Katie Gardner - 7 years, 3 months ago

Hi Katie, we definitely agree with you. We will soon make a better bookmarking feature that will disentangle your need to save problems from offering a gesture of appreciation.

I have never used the like button ever so far, so I am a little reluctant to start using it.

A nice analogy of what I think you want us to do is Social Media. Do you want us to like stuff much like how we like stuff on social media?

Daniel Liu - 7 years, 3 months ago

Never ever?

I definitely agree that people should reshare good problems when they see them. I am a bit like Daniel in that I am more hesitant to press the like button over the reshare button and I try to reserve favouriting a problem for very good problems and notes. I do like having a good number of people to follow to keep a steady stream of problems coming into my feed but I wouldn't want to follow as many people as you just because there would be no difference between the firehose feed and your personal feed. I tend to follow people who consistently make good problems and it is generally reflected by their number of followers. Like Peter said though, I do go to the firehose feed to find new people to follow and I have found quite a few good people to follow from here that don't have a high number of followers. One of my favourite finds on the firehose feed was Andrzej Veitia who had less than 30 followers at the time I found him and now has over 100.

Cole Coupland - 7 years, 3 months ago

I use the like and reshare button if I want to view the problem/post in the future. When I like/reshare anything, it comes up in my feed and I can easily refer it whenever I want.

Shabarish Ch - 7 years, 3 months ago

I agree! Before I read this I would only "like" things I absolutely loved. Anything else, and I was reluctant. Then I read this and it made me a lot more willing to go to the small effort of liking something, and showing that I enjoyed their question or disscussion. An insightfull and thought prevoking artical!

Matthew Eyre - 6 years, 12 months ago

Thanks! :D

Finn Hulse - 6 years, 12 months ago

You make a huge point. My most popular question has over 4000 tries, yet it only has 15 likes.

Robert Fritz - 7 years, 3 months ago

I'd argue that number of tries and number of likes/reshares aren't that correlated. For me, I only like/reshare a problem I greatly enjoy, but I solve many problems (to increase my rating :P ) even if they aren't that interesting.

Ivan Koswara - 7 years, 3 months ago

I rarely use the "Like" button; rather, I reserve it for problems/notes that leave me with a very fond memory. Resharing, I find, is a lot better because if I like something, other people can't see that directly from their feed, but if I reshare it, it goes directly to others' feeds.

You will notice that I reshared this discussion and not "liked," although in real life, I do like this discussion.

Trevor B. - 7 years, 3 months ago

Hmm. Good point.

Hmm... for harder problems ranged over all topics, I suggest you to follow Vishnuram Leonardodavinci. He shares lots of tough problems, sometimes my homepage is all of his reshares!

Christopher Boo - 7 years, 3 months ago

Ha, yeah.

I agree everybody should hit all those button. I have hitted those buttons more than 500 times in the last week.

Aayush Mani - 7 years ago

@Finn Hulse: This note has gotten 62 likes! :D

Victor Loh - 6 years, 2 months ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$