How should Yoomoot encourage 'warmer' social interactions?

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By 'warm' social interactions I mean the kind that make people feel welcomed, appreciated and like they actually have made personal connections with other Yoomooters.

The challenge with Yoomoot is that it needs to do this in a way that doesn't compromise the advantages of Yoomoot - organized, goal-focused discussions.

Via a general "comment box" on users' profiles

Completely identical to the praise box concept, except that there would be no indication that users should restrict themselves to praises.

Via a "praise box" on users' profiles

This concept has been in the designs for a long long time; we just haven't implemented it yet.

Each user profile would have a "praise box" where other users could leave short messages saying nice things about them. These messages would be visible to all. There would be no way to reply to them directly (though users could reciprocate by leaving a message on the praiser's box).

The original idea was to restrict giving and receiving praises to uses who had accumulated a certain amount of points, as a way of rewarding active Yoomooters.