Likes given and likes received

[Monica]

How can you know the intent of a person giving the like?
how can you say it is divisive?
Isn't it more that maybe you didn't agree with the message conveyed in the post, and thusly you might feel uncomfortable someone else expressing a like for this post?
I think it belongs to everyone's free will to press the like button, or not. Why speculate on any kind of motivation behind it?

I agree with all that Pablisimo said in answer to your questions, and add this:

My only issue with the like button is when people use it not to like, but to dislike.

What I mean by that is when someone says something harsh, critical, or even downright nasty about someone, and that negative post gets the most likes of any post in the whole thread.

That is divisive. There's no speculation here. It's blatant. It's negative, it's divisive, it's hurtful, and it's contrary to the original intention of the like button. It's using something that was intended to be positive and uplifting, to tear someone down.

I've seen this happen many, many, many times here at B4. And what's interesting is that it's almost always the same clusters of people. A year or so ago, there was a certain cluster of people who 'liked' negative posts directed at a certain individual. Later, a different cluster of people did the same thing, directed at a different individual. And then that same cluster of people did it towards yet another individual. So I've observed maybe 2 or 3 clusters of people using the like button in a negative way, towards maybe 5 or 6 particular people.

At one of these times, the term dog-pile was used. That sums it up. It's a subtle, sneaky way to ostracize.

I don't think this has any place in a community with such high values as Bring4th. I think the negative outweighs the positive. Of course, as with any tool, it's not the fault of the tool. It's just a tool. Like a knife intended to chop vegetables, being used to kill someone. It's not the fault of the knife; the fault is in how it's used. But as long as people are going to use something that was intended as an uplifting thing, in a way to hurt others, then at least we shouldn't make it easy for them by handing over the knife.