The +1 Phenomenon on Google Code Issue Tracker
If you don't know what is +1 phenomenon yet, please take a look at the following screenshot. It is the Issue 116 of Google Code Support Project.
I don't know the exact time of starting of this phenomenon on Google Code Issue Tracker. My first time of seeing this phenomenon is on some Chinese forums. After the first time, in the very short time, this kind of behavior is prohibited. Forums administrators or moderators started to set up a rule for stopping +1. It's easy to understand why did these are not allowed to post as comments. Firstly, as the reader, you have to skip all these pointless posts in order to read those having real comment posts. Secondly, as the administrators, a +1 slightly increases system load. When the total number of +1 increases, it will not only slightly increase system load.
There are Issue 677 and Issue 203 of Google App Engine, which exclusively deal with +1. Luckily, I didn't get bombed. Check out the missing comments of this issue, I can realized why was issue 203 created.
What is comment? Many people see no point of it, they just want to get attention for solving their problem. However, the truth is that makes things worse and that creates another problem. +1 likes saying Hey, I like this., I want this feature, or This is a brilliant idea!.
When you try to leave a +1, it turns out:
For the Issue 123, what suggestions or comments do you have? This is a brilliant idea! <STOP>
Well, you don't have to be a native English speaker, you can tell that is completely pointless. It's not meaningless, you say that's the thing you want, but you say nothing about why. So, it's pointless. You don't make developers or others get your priceless point. You have the chance to express, but you just blow it up.
Google Code Issue Tracker provides you the star button, you can simply click on it and let others notice that how many people are watching this issue. If you don't know where is the start at, see the following screenshot. Beside Issue Tracker, you can see many variant implementations of star, e.g. Flickr and YouTube's favorite button.
When you try to get help from issue tracker or many other things, please try to help those developers first, expressing you point clearly.
