Post History

I don't think many want the site to behave like social media. In particular, we don't need the narcissism of social media - I truly don't care if "Bob likes this" or "Ten people found this funny".

The use of smileys `:)` to indicate that you are joking is another thing, this is fine and well-established since the dawn of Internet, where it was early on predicted that it would be difficult to communicate jokes and irony across text media.

As for repeating the same thing over and over in comments, we should simply not do that, it is poor form. If you have nothing new to say, then don't say it.

If a user has already posted "it is not clear what you mean with x, could you clarify that part?" then some second user shouldn't post "what do you mean with x?" in case their comment adds nothing which wasn't already said. Often they didn't even bother reading previous comments before leaving their own. That kind of "bandwagon" commenting is discouraging for the poster and just adds noise. It's in my opinion recommended that moderators delete such superfluous comments.

The general stance of Someplace Else, that Codidact also seems to mostly adhere to is "comments are not important". If something super important was said in a comment, that everyone feel they need to up-vote, then perhaps it would have been better off as an answer of its own. Posting complementary answers is generally ok in most communities.