Wikipedia is not a social networking site

I agree popularity does not prove anything. But it's an interesting data point. So popularity should not decide anything (and let's not talk about "wisdom of crowds"), but it could be a tool. A way to express positive or negative feedback could increase granularity of communication, i.e. add a little oil to the mechanism of Wikipedia.

I often like individual things on Wikipedia and would like an easy way to express that, where an actual message would be overkill (example). And I wouldn't mind having things I do on Wikipedia be Liked or Unliked. Feedback can be useful. As an inexperienced editor, sometimes I follow the "Be bold" motto, but I wonder if I should or shouldn't have. If I saw an Unlike from someone who seems to do good work, I would ask them why. If I saw a Like, I might not do anything, but I would feel less isolated and more part of a community.

That this would not be a help in all areas, and especially not in areas where controversy escalates and tempers flare, doesn't mean it wouldn't be useful in some. I don't know whether Wikipedia is a democracy or not, but I am talking about something else, a small feature to add civility and communication in day-to-day matters, often more useful as an individual expression (User A Likes/Dislikes Item X) than as an aggregate (Popularity of X).

PS: The article feedback tool is definitely not the kind of thing I am talking about. "Please rate the article on a scale of 1 to 5 in the following areas: Trustworthy, Objective, Complete, Well-written" (example). It's too heavy-handed, bureaucratic, confusing, single-purpose: "Let's stick loaded questionnaires everywhere! They'll help us produce unreadable reports 6 months later!". Wikipedia can learn from the simplicity and power of successful social networking tools.