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What should Facebook's 'Dislike' button really be called?

What should Facebook's 'Dislike' button really be called?

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For expressing empathy — and everything else

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Facebook is at last listening to users and considering the addition of a "Dislike" button to the social networking site. For the nearly 1.5 billion Facebook users who have been forced to "Like" everything up until now no matter how negative — funerals, a lost job, missing the cutoff for McDonald's breakfast — CEO Mark Zuckerberg is offering respite. The company is even close to shipping a test version, Zuckerberg announced during a public Q&A session today.

It likely won't be called the "Dislike" button

Of course, it may not be called the "Dislike" button at all. In fact, Facebook's primary goal is to figure out how to let users "express empathy," Zuckerberg added, in situations in which liking a status, article, or photo is inappropriate. That means a "Dislike" button is likely off the table, as it's not complex enough for what Zuckerberg sounds like he wants it to do. And we all know how subtle Facebook really is. Many of the ways we communicate on the site, from the passive-aggressive like to the poke to the manipulative use of read receipts, can have hidden meanings. Those meanings change depending on which friend we're interacting with, giving Facebook users a series of social cues that go beyond words.

So we at The Verge decided to break down some of the more common sentiments we express with Facebook everyday without an explicit button for doing so. We're putting it to a vote to determine which one should deserves its own button as the companion to "Like."

Poll

What should Facebook's "Not-Like" button be called?

This poll is closed

  • 14%
    "I'm sorry" button
    (647 votes)
  • 20%
    "Acknowledge" button
    (883 votes)
  • 8%
    "In a cosmic sense, this isn’t such a big deal" button
    (360 votes)
  • 11%
    "I find you attractive, but have nothing of substance to say" button
    (506 votes)
  • 5%
    "Overshare" button
    (218 votes)
  • 3%
    "Humble brag" button
    (117 votes)
  • 16%
    "Cool story bro" button
    (713 votes)
  • 5%
    "Please stop changing your profile picture" button
    (208 votes)
  • 8%
    "Whoa this is racist" button
    (341 votes)
  • 5%
    "Your politics are reprehensible" button
    (238 votes)
  • 6%
    "Uninvited to Thanksgiving" button
    (287 votes)
4518 votes total