It's because of what happens when the White House forgets to disable comments and dislikes.
https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/359823/former...
Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
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Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#12Seems to be a visibility-only change to a small cohort of users.
Tangentially, I've often wanted a third button, call it "disinterested".
This would just tell YouTube not to recommend more of the same for me, without adjusting the ratio of votes up or down.
There are many videos I don't actively dislike (I might not have any strong feelings) I just don't want YouTube to recommend more cats with laugh tracks after I click a some link in our #random Slack channel.
Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#13It doesn't look like they're removing dislikes at all, but rather hiding the count of dislikes from viewers of the video (in a test).
While technically true, showing the Like/Dislike count provided valuable information for viewers. Determining whether or not a video is worth my time will become a lot more difficult.
I'd argue that HN got better after they hid the karma (net of 1 + up - down) on a per-comment basis (even though I was initially opposed to the change at the time).
They can still use like/dislike metrics to decide which videos to offer you and in what sort order, so there's still some signal available.
Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#14It's because of what happens when the White House forgets to disable comments and dislikes. https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/359823/former...
It's because of Ghostbusters (2016). It just took this long for everyone else to catch up and realize that, "it can happen to you".
We were all supposed to love that movie because it has four women in it! Turns out a shit movie is a shit movie no matter how many SNL alums you throw at it.
Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#15It's quickly getting to the point where being exposed to youtube at all just opens you up to a ton of intentional manipulation from an organization who's entire product is manipulating people for pay. It's probably best to completely avoid all of it.
There's entirely too much good stuff on YouTube to ignore. I learn so much there, all for free.
Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#16They kinda already did though. You don’t see likes/dislikes when you search for a video so you only use it’s popularity in order to decide to click on it.
Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#17Seems to be a visibility-only change to a small cohort of users. Tangentially, I've often wanted a third button, call it "disinterested". This would just tell YouTube not to recommend more of the same for me, without adjusting the ratio of votes up or down. There are many videos I don't actively dislike (I might not have any strong feelings) I just don't want YouTube to recommend more cats with laugh tracks after I c…
It's weird, because they actually have a "Not interested" option in the dropdown menu when you're browsing, but there's no way to click it for a video you're actually watching.
Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
While technically true, showing the Like/Dislike count provided valuable information for viewers. Determining whether or not a video is worth my time will become a lot more difficult.
I'd argue that HN got better after they hid the karma (net of 1 + up - down) on a per-comment basis (even though I was initially opposed to the change at the time). They can still use like/dislike metrics to decide which videos to offer you and in what sort order, so there's still some signal available.
That's the opposite change. HN hid likes, while keeping the dislikes visible.
Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#19It seems to me the platforms that have the most trouble maintaining a grasp on reality are the ones that don’t allow down votes. Down votes are the cognitive immune system at work. Not that down votes are necessarily correct, but rather they provide increased resistance to propagation. Also you can hardly fix a problem by blinding yourself to it.
Re: Testing a few new designs that don't show the public dislike count
#20This seems rather user-hostile. The downvote count is useful for identifying videos that aren't what they claim to be. And how about DIY videos that give terrible advice? A big downvote ratio will get most people's attention in a way that critical comments may not.
I agree that removing public dislikes is a pretty bad idea, but it's not that important of a tool in fighting misleading videos. I mean, there was once a HUGE glut of videos with misleading thumbnails/titles, and what stopped the glut was not dislikes, but rather Youtube's use of watch time as an important metric.