>>9477
>If a view count is motivating, then surely likes would be far more motivating.

While it may be nice to get likes for your work but Just from my own behavior I suspect that it is not really working because people do not bother with giving likes to you and even if they do it is entirely random process.
On my pixiv page my pictures get more 30% bookmarks than likes

Also we should count not just thumbnail views, but how many times full picture was "downloaded" as logically if you like that picture you will click on the thumbnail to enlarge it and give it more of your attention, and it you are not interested you will ignore it.

If you want view/like ratio, it may be good idea to show separate view counts for both thumbnails and full sized pictures.
as each picture woud have stat saying something
1000/200 Views

I am not against "like" button but I doubt that it will work here without user registering or everyone will be able to click it as many times as they desire and it will be pretty hard to prevent people from pushing it 20 times in a row.
But maybe this is not so bad just more motivation ;)