Hey Marishka!

Thanks for the feedback. To answer your question, HealthCentral makes money through advertising on the sites. The new hearts feature has absolutely nothing to do with that. HealthCentral doesn't make any money from it. It is solely intended to be an alternative way for our members to offer praise and support for each other. It's also a low-effort way for new and unregistered users to get involved and participate in the community. And, yes, we introduced it across all HealthCentral communities at once.

You asked another really good question that I ask myself too -- why don't more people comment on our community posts? I think part of it has to do with the fact that while many people get a lot out of reading other member's posts and questions, not everyone is ready to participate and share stories themselves. We hoped that introducing the hearts feature would allow those people a way to slowly get more involved in the community in the way that they're comfortable with. Regardless, we know that every member is different and has different reasons for coming to the site. We just hope to be able to meet those needs and provide the safe, nurturing, supportive community experience that our members deserve.

When it comes to the site, including the hearts feature, please keep the feedback coming. There have got to be ways that we can tweak the system to make it better. Maybe taking the numbers off the hearts is the way to go. You guys tell us what you want and I'll do my best to see that it happens.

Thanks again for your help, Marishka, and have a great day!