Like settings are for determining how many likes Viima users have at their disposal, how they can distribute those likes, and how often the user can get their likes back. The default settings are perfectly fine for most users but there are cases where it makes sense to adjust them.
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This, however, requires some insight into how they are going to affect the user's behavior and the distribution of likes on your board.

This guide contains:

P.S. To be able to complete the following steps, you’ll need to have an admin user for the desired Viima board. Please contact your Viima admin for access if you don’t already have an account.

If you already know your board name, the easiest way to access your like settings is through the following URL:

https://app.viima.com/admin/organization-name/board-name/#settings
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If you do this, proceed directly to Step 2. Otherwise, start from Step 1.

Now you should have the view from Step 3 open.

There are 3 like settings that can be freely adjusted depending on how you wish to allocate individual or collective influence over the popularity of ideas:

This defines the number of likes each user has at their disposal to distribute amongst ideas. Every time a user gives a like to an idea, it is subtracted from the number of likes they have at their disposal. When enough time has passed, the likes reset, and the user again has the original amount of likes at their disposal.

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The reset period for the likes in Viima means, that individual users will get their likes reset so that they don't run out of likes over time. You can change the reset period in this setting.

Here’s an example of how the logic works: As an individual user I have 10 likes in total and the “like reset period” for the board is 7 days. I’ve got all my 10 likes when starting on Monday. On Tuesday I use 2 likes and on Wednesday I use 3 more. A week from Tuesday I will thus regain the number of likes (2 in this case) that I used on that day, 7 days ago. I will then regain another 3 likes on Wednesday that same following week, since that’s the amount I used on Wednesday the previous week.

This defines the maximum number of likes a user can give to an individual idea, regardless of how many likes they have at their disposal. This setting is not affected by the reset period.

E.g. If you have this setting at 1 and a user gives a like to an idea, they can never like the same idea again unless this setting is changed by an admin.

Depending on your goals, you might want to configure likes on a case-by-case basis. For this reason, we’ll go through the 4 main types of combinations of settings and explain how they typically affect user behavior and like distribution. We’ll also provide some use cases for these combinations.

P.S. We recommend scaling your input values depending on the number of ideas your board has or will likely have. This can be challenging to guess beforehand but the estimates below should get you in the ballpark.

In this example, people have a lot of likes which they can freely distribute however they want. One user could give all 100 likes to just one idea if they so wished. This increases the weight an individual can have on idea popularity, meaning that ideas that rarely gain initial momentum in the eyes of the wider audience, such as many radical ideas, still have a chance to get noticed due to individuals who see the full potential and are willing to "be all in". The downside is that this setting can lead to gaming and abuse in some cases.

The recommended reset period is from a few weeks to a month depending on the activity of users and the amount of likes per user.

P.S. If you execute an idea challenge, we recommend setting the reset period to the length of the challenge

Typical use case:

When you are likely to have a lot of ideas and can trust people to use their judgment. This is often the case in e.g. continuous improvement of processes, services and products within the company.

When not preferable:

This setting combination may give an unreliable idea of consensus, as ideas may create an illusion of popularity if some individuals are practicing an “all or nothing” mentality with their likes. Out of two ideas that are seemingly as popular, one may have only a few people backing it, whereas another many times that. So if you're looking to use the number of likes for a voting system, you might want to look elsewhere.

If you’re looking for ideas that are widely accepted by different people, we recommend: Many likes – Limited distribution.

In this example, people have very few likes to distribute but can do so freely amongst any ideas they want. One user could give all 10 likes to one idea if they so wished. Like in Many likes – Free distribution, this increases individual weight on idea popularity. However, since there are very limited likes, they are only given to ideas that are considered significantly valuable by the users. The recommended reset period is from a few weeks to a month depending on the activity of users and the amount of likes per user.

P.S. If you execute an idea challenge, we recommend setting the reset period to the length of the challenge

Typical use case:

When you only want focused ideas, but ones that users hold in very high regard.

When not preferable:

As in Many likes – Free distribution, the combination of this setting may also give an unreliable idea of consensus. This may also trim some potentially good ideas due to the limited number of likes users can give.

If you’re looking for ideas that are widely accepted by different people or you want all potentially worthy ideas to gain popularity, we recommend: Many likes – Limited distribution.

In this example, people have a lot of likes to distribute but they can only give 1 per idea. This means that people can show support for many different ideas, but they cannot show increased support for ideas that they really care about. It’s good for getting people to vote for all ideas that are even a little promising, but it doesn’t make any ideas stand out as well, nor does it give room for great ideas that might initially be deemed too “radical” by the popular vote. The recommended reset period is from a few weeks to a month, depending on the activity of users and the number of likes per user.

P.S. If you execute an idea challenge, we recommend setting the reset period to the length of the challenge

Typical use case:

When you want to consider a lot of ideas, but only those that are well-liked by many, such as when looking for ways to improve employee satisfaction at the workplace.

When not preferable:

The combination of this setting mostly acknowledges ideas with widespread acceptance and doesn’t typically bring up ideas that are controversial or difficult to understand but might still be valuable, as is the case with many of the ideas that might lead to radical innovation.

If you want a lot of ideas but you wish to put weight on individual influence, we recommend: Many likes – Free distribution

In this example, people have very few likes to distribute and can only give 1 per idea. This means that people can only like the ideas they really like best but can't give all their votes to a single idea. It’s usually good for getting a few generally accepted ideas to stand out, but poses a risk of many good ideas not getting the attention they deserve. The recommended reset period is from a week to a few, depending on the activity of users and the number of likes per user.

P.S. If you execute an idea challenge, we recommend setting the reset period to the length of the challenge

Typical use case:

When you only want to find a few ideas that enjoy widespread acceptance.

When not preferable:

As was the case with many likes and limited distribution, this setup does acknowledge ideas with widespread acceptance but doesn’t typically bring up ideas that are controversial or difficult to understand but might still be valuable.

If you want focused ideas but you wish to put weight on individual influence, we recommend: Few likes – Free distribution