Sorry, cross posted with lou1661, who makes a good clear argument
We had huge issues with a like/ rep button in the past. It became an enormous headache for the mods and totally discouraged many others. It became sycophantic with a generally troublesome group of folks pretty much abusing it and being Liked for truly stupid things, just to boost their rep count.
So, the final decision was that the forum thrives on conversation. It only takes a moment to type a few works of agreement or approval/disapproval, or discussion, and it encourages others to post
and no Like or Rep button.
Those who had the highest rep counts (earned, not artificially boosted) just shrugged and said they were fine with it, so no problems.
M