I'm 'connected' on Disqus, IntenseDebate and various others comment platfroms I don't remember their names but I'm automatically logged in while surfing and can 'like' various content that have these features installed. Which is great!. I can't install them on my own blog because as you say, it is the wordpress.com platform and they don't allow you to install non-wordpress.com stuff on the platform (for good technical reasons, I did get the explanation once and it is good – and it won't be possible with the current system that allows a great number of people access to free hosting and free shared templates).

Truth be told, I care very little about Facebook anymore. Once, it was nice to keep up with friends with, but now it's just a spam overload.

I like it a lot more than Facebook, though I confess I haven't been spending as much time there recently. It's a lovely interface, though, and a lot easier to filter and search. The fact that they put the few games they have on a completely separate feed was a brilliant idea from a usability perspective. Game makers have been complaining about it, but I'll take usability over some leeching social game company's viral promotion strategy any day. 🙂

There are other commenting systems out there that provide functionality similar to what you describe. Things like IntenseDebate and Disqus provide the ability to "rate" comments, though I'm not sure there's any way you can implement anything other than the default built-in WordPress system if your site is hosted on WordPress.com instead of being a self-hosted WordPress install on your own web space. But there are alternatives — and most of the time, assuming your community is large/well-adjusted enough, they don't seem to be abused too much.

Totally agree:-)
(Although I don't have that problem because I have no games and few apps)

OK good point.

Yes, the 'discover people' function of 'Liking' on WP is very useful. I have also discovered many blogs/people that way (and also via 'Follow').

The next evolutionary step of the WP 'Like' button could be to be able to 'Like' each comment, just like on Facebook. I would really like that function on WP. 'Likes' on people's comments would encourage them and also give a quick option to say "I read your reply, thank you' without having to comment again. I feel an obligation to reply to every comment on my blog within a relatively short time frame, but sometimes I don't know what to say. Not all comments naturally require a reply, but I would like to always show appreciation for the effort – 'Like' would do in those situations. No need to say anything if there's nothing to add.

Ps. Apologise for the astronomical amount of typos and grammatical mistakes in my long comment before… I'm glad you found it comprehensible. I wish I had checked it better. I'm lacking sleep. OK enough excuses. (maybe there's even mistakes in this one too… can't see any right now. I generally can't until I push the button called 'Post Comment' which acts as a sort of moment-of-truth generator ;-).

I desperately need to clean out my Facebook account from all the crap I have from reviews. The other awful thing about them is that FB's interface has no means of "batch removing" games, apps and other stuff, meaning you have to painstakingly go through and get rid of them one at a time. It's not fun!

Ironically, I actually have no issue with the "Like" button on WordPress because, as you say, you can disable it if you don't like it, and it's a good sign of people who have read your post but have nothing to add. Sometimes you write a blog and it's not something specifically designed to provoke discussion — it's in contrast to a status update or a post on a social network (key word social) in which the point (theoretically, anyway) is to get people talking.

Through the Like button on WordPress, I've discovered a number of people who are reading my posts on here that I wouldn't have known about otherwise, which is actually quite nice. On Facebook, because my Likes are coming from people I already know, they seem to serve relatively little purpose — for me, anyway. Others may — and do — disagree. 🙂