Rick,

Yes I understand your point.  The problem I see with this is that some voters might hold off until the like count goes past 10 in order to conceal their identity.  Similarly, some comment likes may never climb due to identity concealment.

Personally, I don't see much point in having a like list and mourn the loss of a dislike option as with the current forum format.  The only way to dislike a comment now is to post a reply to it and state your case, but then why should liking a comment be any different than disliking it?  G&M feedback told me they were considering reinstating something like a "dislike" button which brings us back to the thumbs up/down situation we have now.  So....what's the point of this new format?