Good comment and I completely agree. On a side note @digitalpoint has indicated that he considers the likes of little value but he still gave one out to @browntwn. Why on earth would you bother to give out something you consider worthless? I for one respect browntwn enough that I'd want to give something of value to him. Can it not be argued therefore that a like from me who values them, is worth more than a like from digitalpoint who places no value on them? Shawn, you are technically brilliant and honestly your knowledge impresses the hell out of me. But you really need to work on your PR a bit, in regards to how you deal with the regular members here. Without meaning to I feel that you have insulted some of us. If you don't care about that then this is a problem for you, not for me.
The larger the site you are managing, the more of a disconnect you end up having with the end users. I mean I run across users with 10,000 posts that I've never even heard of before. It's not an intentional thing, but the reality is that my "job" is to give people a platform that works well for most (obviously you can't make everyone happy about everything). And yes, the larger the site, the less a single individual user can be taken into account. While I always read/listen and I don't always respond, I always take a ton into account with anything. Things I do usually have deeper reasons than what appears at first glance. At the end of the day, the "overall masses" are more important than an individual user. When was the last time a Facebook or Google system administrator even talked to you at all?
Probably never. For Facebook, there is probably an automated system to talk to and frustrate you. I remember once trying to report a "warez" site on BlogSpot [to Google] and eventually giving up. It seemed it wasn't possible unless I was the copyright holder. To your credit (and the mods), you are managing one of the biggest (if not the biggest) sites of its type (webmaster/SEO related), yet still respond and interact with members, despite the huge amount of crap you all have to deal with. DP is a different place since the changes and it seems like, to me anyway, a much improved community overall (I know not everyone is happy, but that's life - can't please everyone). So, whilst it might feel frustrating sometimes, it could be worse.
Exactly my point, yes it felt nice....You could say that it was a metaphorical pat on the back. You are a new member and getting a *Best Answer* probably encouraged you, and made you feel like you were a part of the site. So in this way the point system does have merit. And has also been said by others here, means different things to different people. I feel they are in no way irrelevant, and in their own way help to build a sense of community here on DP.