I've been confused for a long time now on the purpose of both heart (I love it) and star (favorite) icons provided by the scratch website.
Should merge those or provide tooltips that are more informative if they have any real difference / usage scenario.

As for existing data, could just merge it into a new value using an OR operator (if either heart of star is used consider it a Like or whatever thumbs-up style marking you decide)

No support for merging the two, as they have fairly different uses.

“Loves” are for saying you enjoyed a project, and the amount of loves feeds in to the “what's trending” algorithm. They're also a bit less “public” than Favorites, as the only way to know a user has Loved a project is if it is still in their top 5 recent actions. (The “What's Happening” and “What I've Been Doing” sections of the home page and user page, respectively.)

Favorites, on the other hand, act as a sort of “public bookmark” for projects, adding them to a specific tab on your profile page for quick access to you and whoever visits your profile page. Unlike “Loves”, they don't affect the trending algorithms.

@epicRedHot is right — these buttons are not the same thing. To put it in simpler terms, you love a project if you enjoyed it, and you favorite a project if you want to see it again.

Why not name it bookmark then and show a vertical ribbon / bookmark icon?
It is not enough to be different, it has to be obvious to the user how they differ

I think it's already pretty obvious to most users.

I haven't seen any other questions asking about what the difference is.

In other words:

When you love a project, you show that you enjoy it.
When you favorite a project, you show that you really enjoyed it and want to view that project again some time. All of the projects that you favorited will remain public on your profile and you can view every single one of them again; whereas you can't view all of the projects that you loved since you joined.

No support. epicRedHot makes a good point in why:

epicRedHot wrote:

“Loves” are for saying you enjoyed a project, and the amount of loves feeds in to the “what's trending” algorithm. They're also a bit less “public” than Favorites, as the only way to know a user has Loved a project is if it is still in their top 5 recent actions. (The “What's Happening” and “What I've Been Doing” sections of the home page and user page, respectively.)

Favorites, on the other hand, act as a sort of “public bookmark” for projects, adding them to a specific tab on your profile page for quick access to you and whoever visits your profile page. Unlike “Loves”, they don't affect the trending algorithms.

Having two buttons with slightly different functions might come in more handy than one button with one action (at least in my point of view).

When translated (haven't checked what they say by default), the tooltips end up with phrases like “I love it” and “I like it” which just add to the confusion.
Favorite is a term from the Internet Explorer era. Bookmark is much better term.

Also placed side-by-side doesn't help. A bookmark should be like a ribbon marker and placed somewhere on the top-right (say next to the title), as we do with book markers. Could also be at the left-side of the title if one wants it to be at a consistent place on the screen (irrespective of title size)

birbilis wrote:

When translated (haven't checked what they say by default), the tooltips end up with phrases like “I love it” and “I like it” which just add to the confusion.
Favorite is a term from the Internet Explorer era. Bookmark is much better term.

Also placed side-by-side doesn't help. A bookmark should be like a ribbon marker and placed somewhere on the top-right (say next to the title), as we do with book markers. Could also be at the left-side of the title if one wants it to be at a consistent place on the screen (irrespective of title size)

If it was at the top-right or top-left, it would be more confusing and weird. Just because a word is from the Internet Explorer era, doesn't mean it's too old and we can't use it. Bookmark might confuse some people, especially if it is meant to mean favourite. (I managed to find it on the 2nd or 3rd page of Suggestions, probably because the ST deleted a post, and it didn't affect the pages at all.)

I agree it would be useful to merge the love and fave because they are very similar, and most other websites just have 1 way to say if you like a post or a project. It is kind of confusing to choose whether to love or fave and I usually end up using it like a rating system where good projects I love, and really good projects I fave. But I don't think that was how the buttons were intended

the thing is that it's not obvious how they differ - after all this discussion back then now that I came back to it I still don't remember what their difference is (go figure - I'm a computer engineer and 30 years into computers)

as for the icons, for bookmarking maybe a clipper icon would be better, but not sure where you are supposed to find what you faved/bookmarked. At my stuff page there's no category on the sidebar that would say “My favorites” / “My bookmarks” or something like that

Za-Chary wrote:

I think it's already pretty obvious to most users.

I haven't seen any other questions asking about what the difference is.

Oh I'm just going to stop you right there…

Remember my suggestion about renaming Loves?

ResExsention wrote:

Za-Chary wrote:

I think it's already pretty obvious to most users.

I haven't seen any other questions asking about what the difference is.

Oh I'm just going to stop you right there…

Remember my suggestion about renaming Loves?

Yeah! Everyone didn't support it!

birbilis wrote:

~snip~

not sure where you are supposed to find what you faved/bookmarked. At my stuff page there's no category on the sidebar that would say “My favorites” / “My bookmarks” or something like that

There's a section on everyone's profiles that contain “favorite projects.”

No support. Love means you like it but favorite means you really like it. Merging these would mess the system up. There is a “What the community is loving” section on the front page and a favorite projects section on your profile, there is a whole system in place. These buttons are hardly the same thing. Is like and love the same word? No. They are semi-close synonyms but have different meanings. Same with these buttons. Love means you enjoy it but favorite means you enjoy it so much, you want to see it again and again and you want to advertise it on your profile. They are semi-close o the same but are still very different.

Starstriker3000 wrote:

birbilis wrote:

~snip~

not sure where you are supposed to find what you faved/bookmarked. At my stuff page there's no category on the sidebar that would say “My favorites” / “My bookmarks” or something like that

There's a section on everyone's profiles that contain “favorite projects.”

indeed, wouldn't remember it - this is useful if somebody else sees your profile, but you wouldn't expect to have to go there to find them. Was expecting to see it at my stuff, maybe as two extra special studios/galleries, or in separate top level category that would have Favorites and Bookmarks (if only they were renamed) separately there. They should appear I guess like the Studios do

Could keep them at the profile too in that other form they're shown (slideshow-like)

Although I don't want to merge the loves and favorites together, I do think you brought up a good point.

When I started scratch, I didn't know that a heart (love) and star (favorite) had 2 separate meanings. I think it would be helpful to make it more explicit on what the heart (love) and star (favorite) meant.

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27lucasl wrote:

Although I don't want to merge the loves and favorites together, I do think you brought up a good point.

When I started scratch, I didn't know that a heart (love) and star (favorite) had 2 separate meanings. I think it would be helpful to make it more explicit on what the heart (love) and star (favorite) meant.

I agree. I just thought they were playful symbols and accidentally favorited my first project. But Instead of merging them, how about when you hover over the buttons, it shows what they mean! It would be helpful for some people.

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No support. The Love and Favorite icons have different purposes. You use the Love icon if you think a project is good. You use the Favorite icon if you would like to see a project again.

Reev0102 wrote:

No support. The Love and Favorite icons have different purposes. You use the Love icon if you think a project is good. You use the Favorite icon if you would like to see a project again.
{post modified to see the yellow text}

please dont use yellow text with a white background its barely readable

Anyways, In my opinion, I'll love a project If I like it, and I'll favorite it if I REALLY love it and want other people who see my profile to also see it. I also use the favorite button if I really like a project and want to see it again.

Although, adding favorite projects to my stuff isn't a bad Idea.