@alex soapbox would benefit from having a public "likes" feature equivalent to twitter. looking at an individual users likes on twitter allows lurkers like me to use it as the individuals personally curated timeline of things worth looking at. it also helps with finding new people that the person i follow finds interesting with a preview of what they offer. this provides more avenues of discovering compelling users you wouldnt otherwise have been able to find as easily, which overall helps with retrieving better content you would prefer to see. the current "likes" and how they function on soapbox should be replaced by "reactions". likes how they are featured on twitter on soapbox can be called "favorites" and would be public for all to see. making "reactions" public to work like "likes" on twitter now would be bad as many users have used it not thinking it would be, reacting to stuff they otherwise wouldnt have wanted anyone else to see. reposting is not the same as it can lead to clutter on your main timeline and is used far more liberally by many because of this fact. likes are more passive while also showing your approval of the material and also boosting it at the same time.