Checking https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/token/given/ we can still see that tokens are being used on a daily basis by a variety of users, and in most cases the meaning is easy to interpret. I think we can resolve this task and decline the request to disable tokens.

I also think https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/token/leaders/ is pretty telling.

In T899#831393, @Legoktm wrote:

I also think https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/token/leaders/ is pretty telling.

... which can be "discovered" by editing one's personal sidebar and adding "Tokens":
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/settings/panel/home/

In T899#793615, @MZMcBride wrote:

Most of Phabricator's interface seems to be fairly subdued (lots of grey, lots of light blue, etc.). Looking at (for example) T70069 my eye is immediately drawn toward the bright green tree. If I hover over this mysterious tree, Phabricator tells me "PiRSquared17". Uhh, thanks.

I don't see much hope for tokens actually being disabled at this point... if anything, we'll probably see additional silly features (such as memes) enabled instead. Oh well.

@MZMcBride would like to take all the fun and feeling out of our work. boo!

I really wish we could award tokens to people.

I think it's like Wikilove and useful. I'd be interested if it's possible to add/upload _new_ award tokens. it would be more fun if we cold have _actual barnstars_ and things that are specific to Wikimedia.

Tokens are usually taken as a sign or appreciation or a form of a +1 but I have seen, through the use of the thumbs down token, that it can also be used as a -1 or a disproval act (as can be seen in this and the token). I'm a bit divided over this use of tokens. Its a bit counter intuitive and doesn't show the disproval very well. Its awarding a token and then it shows up on the user's page which then could show that this user has closed this many "bad" or controversial issues.

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/token/leaders/ can show a list of popular, or perhaps unpopular tasks. Only slightly amused by the fact that this task is the current leader.

I don't know why a task saying that the point of tokens on Phabricator is unclear would get so many tokens.
recursion

I think it would help if we only had a subset that had at least a loosely documented meaning at mw:Phabricator/Tokens , where I have added links and meanings for some of them.

Some of the tokens have a mostly well established meaning, such as Like and Dislike. The currency tokens also borrow from symbols that are commonly understood.

However the majority of them have no clear meaning, even in English, so if some groups are currently using them for specific meanings they are effectively having a private conversation in public, and we should be rejecting exclusionary communication methods.

And of course the situation is much worse for ESL. e.g. even with the currency tokens, the first three would be more inclusive if the hover-overs for the first three mentioned "bronze", "silver" and "gold", as those 'value' meaning are mostly universal understood. "Haypence" is especially confusing, as Heypence is plural, while the icon only has a single coin. The most common actual haypence was the three-halfpeny, a single silver coin. I've created redirects on English Wikipedia to try to guide people to the most suitable article about the bronze coin, whereas previously it was directing readers to the silver three-haypenny.

Since a few months I explain the meaning of my tokens at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/p/Ricordisamoa/

When @QuimGil awarded a token to one of my tickets on phab: T166981, I started trying to figure out what particular tokens meant. @Qgil awarded me a "Yellow Medal" and I am now in search for the meaning of medals I can't figure looking at the icon. :)

they are arbitrary, essentially just a way of showing appreciation.

As tokens are per task and not per a specific comment, I'm unsure whether a token added at a certain point in time refers to a recently added previous comment, or really to the task itself.

Given that there is no shared interpretation of what a specific token means, I consider tokens pretty often noise (or "fun", depending on your point of view).
(Furthermore, I would not interpret an added thumbs-down token as "appreciation". ;) )

Tokens *could* be useful to avoid noisy "me too"/"+1"/"meh" comments which would not add technical value - if tokens were per comment and not per task, plus had a clearer/shared meaning. IMHO, GitLab manages slightly better by having two default tokens (thumbs-up/thumbs-down), a questionable "way more random emoji tokens" dropdown button, and tokens per comment/task description but not per task:

Has the right energy but it's too verbose and lacks battle tested emojis.

🤔😅😂 🎉 🚀