# Alternatives to ❤ for promoting / supporting posts?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternatives-to-for-promoting-supporting-posts/84342
**Category:** Community Building
**Created:** [4월 1, 2018, 8:21오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternatives-to-for-promoting-supporting-posts/84342 "2018-04-01T20:21:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@icaria36](https://meta.discourse.org/u/icaria36)
#### Post date: [4월 1, 2018, 8:21오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternatives-to-for-promoting-supporting-posts/84342/1 "2018-04-01T20:21:27Z")
Liking a first post is a good way to support or promote a topic. Using the paradigm of ❤ - _Like_ works pretty well in a forum like this one, mainly dedicated to “positive” topics.
However, today I found myself unable to “Like” a topic in our website, even if I really wanted to promote it and increase its potential visibility. The problem was that the topic featured [very sad news](https://la.confederac.io/t/dia-de-la-tierra-fuerte-represion-militar-israeli-deja-a-16-palestinos-asesinados-y-1-416-heridos/3273). I feared that “liking” the post could be interpreted as me supporting a massacre.
There is no lack of sad news, and some of them will be featured in sites with a Discourse forum. I wonder whether anyone has implemented or thought about implementing an alternative paradigm. For instance, a ⭐ would be more emotionally neutral but still supportive and clear.
It must be acknowledged that Twitter gets away with hearts as well, and there is no lack of sad news being promoted by users there. Facebook started with the famous 👍 “Like” only, but they addressed this problem some years ago by adding an array of emoticons, including sadness and anger.
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### Author:  [@tshenry](https://meta.discourse.org/u/tshenry)
#### Post date: [4월 1, 2018, 8:24오후 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternatives-to-for-promoting-supporting-posts/84342/2 "2018-04-01T20:24:34Z")
Check out this plugin:
> [@Discourse Retort](https://meta.discourse.org/t/retort-a-reaction-style-plugin-for-discourse/35903):
>
> NB This has recently been given a new lease of life thanks to sponsorship of @Hifihedgehog & the community at [https://forum.tabletpc.review/](https://forum.tabletpc.review/) and is compatible with Ember 5 and Discourse 3.2 (and so far 3.3.x), but the message is still the same, unless you really want to use Retort, please consider [Reactions](https://meta.discourse.org/t/discourse-reactions/183261) as that will eventually take on some of the Retort exclusive features (timeline TBD). Retort is a plugin which allows you to add slack-style reactions to posts Install it u…
Also this might be a helpful topic:
[https://meta.discourse.org/t/symbol-for-like-why-is-it-a-heart/14973/35](https://meta.discourse.org/t/symbol-for-like-why-is-it-a-heart/14973/35)
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [4월 2, 2018, 4:09오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternatives-to-for-promoting-supporting-posts/84342/3 "2018-04-02T04:09:06Z")
> [@icaria36](#):
>
> I found myself unable to “Like” a topic in our website, even if I really wanted to promote it and increase its potential visibility. The problem was that the topic featured very sad news .
My solution to that has been to recast the “like” in my mind from “I like what this post is talking about” to “Thank you for sharing this, [even though it’s upsetting]”.
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### Author:  [@alefattorini](https://meta.discourse.org/u/alefattorini)
#### Post date: [4월 4, 2018, 9:54오전 UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/alternatives-to-for-promoting-supporting-posts/84342/4 "2018-04-04T09:54:40Z")
What do you think about a dedicated topic?
> **[Putting a spotlight on supportive people 🎩](https://community.nethserver.org/t/putting-a-spotlight-on-supportive-people-tophat/7172)**
>
> Many people are very helpful here, giving support and advice. Some of them are awarded by badges based on “Solved” topics Others just give help and offer some point of views to the discussion, so I just created a new badge for this kind of...