1---
 2title: "The case for dopamine dispensers"
 3subtitles: "Likes and clicks and green badges and comments and analytics and ____ can be helpful, actually"
 4author: ["Amolith"]
 5published: 2023-02-26T23:09:00-05:00
 6categories: ["Technology"]
 7tags: ["TODO"]
 8draft: true
 9toc: false
10---
11
12Dopamine dispensers --- likes on social media platforms, stars on GitHub, clicks
13on your website, etc. --- are inherently damaging and lead only to addiction ...
14is what I used to say. Lately, I've begun thinking otherwise. They absolutely
15are dangerous and can promote harmful behaviour, _but in moderation_, I believe
16that they can be quite helpful.
17
18[pra]: /privacy-respecting-analytics/
19
20There are a few examples I often see vilified and I'll address each one:
21
22- Social media "likes" (fediverse favourites, Reddit upvotes, etc.)
23- GitHub stars
24- Website views
25
26# Software development
27
28- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31963467
29- https://ntietz.com/blog/moving-off-github/
30- https://lists.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/sr.ht-discuss/%3CF98B7AC8-6EAF-4884-9C3B-DA3711BE7085%40traduction-libre.org%3E#%3CCBMEJKAUK9CL.34S27FE2XA4G0@taiga%3E
31- https://www.coss.community/cossc/ocs-2020-breakout-drew-devault-4407
32- https://drewdevault.com/2019/05/24/What-is-a-fork.html
33
34# Website traffic
35
36# Social media
37
38This is perhaps the more dangerous