Making the dislike count private across YouTube • Hacker News Board

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#11

Post by timdaub » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

I can't help but think that this is just corporate bullshit.

Purely rationally speaking, I think whether or not a dislike amount is shown or not is not gonna be impactful for the things YouTube should optimize to become a better software product and company.

In order to battle fake news, misinformation and fostering a happy and global community, much more fundamental changes are appropriate. But those are inherently incompatible with the liquidity model Youtube/Google/Alphabet have chosen: Increasing shareholder value & profit.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#12

Post by ceilingcorner » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

Sounds like a great use-case for a browser extension. Too bad YouTube and the biggest browser are owned by the same company…

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#13

Post by hammock » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:38 PM UTC

0xFreebie wrote: post #5

A loose remaining proxy will be the ratio of like count to view count. Perhaps one of those will be axed next. I don't understand why complaining creators don't just turn off voting.

Or, for those videos with comments enabled, comment count to view count (called "getting ratio'd" on Twitter, which also doesn't have dislikes)

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#14

Post by larinzod » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:39 PM UTC

I feel they should do the same with the Like button. There is cognitive bias towards crowd approval/disapproval. But they aren't likely to implement that since it would cut revenue from the "we'll I'll watch this suggestion since 100K people liked it" group. Where removing the Dislike just works in their favor.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#15

Post by runevault » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:39 PM UTC

qwertox wrote: post #4

Hmm. For me the dislike button was informative. If feels like they are trying to create a world where everything can only be good, better, even more better, which just doesn't represent reality. Imagine Stack Overflow only having the option to upvote Questions and Answers. The ratio of likes vs dislikes of a TED talk does help me to decide if I should stop watching a video which just isn't getting better.

I mostly agree with you, with the caveat of brigading being a very real thing that lowers the information value. But then why show upvotes either because positive brigading is just as damaging to the information as downvote brigades.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#16

Post by klipklop » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

Odd that a certain political party got a large amount of downvotes on all their videos and YouTube removes the publics ability to see them soon after.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#17

Post by Andrew_nenakhov » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

No doubt, both Kremlin and White House would be very happy about it.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#18

Post by genewitch » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:40 PM UTC

qwertox wrote: post #4

Hmm. For me the dislike button was informative. If feels like they are trying to create a world where everything can only be good, better, even more better, which just doesn't represent reality. Imagine Stack Overflow only having the option to upvote Questions and Answers. The ratio of likes vs dislikes of a TED talk does help me to decide if I should stop watching a video which just isn't getting better.

Kinda of ironic that you can't downvote/dislike on this site here without enough upvotes yourself...

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#19

Post by kmeisthax » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

I personally think this should only apply in specific circumstances, such as smaller creators or creators likely to be targeted by harassment (e.g. women, racial minorities, openly LGBT, etc). However, I can also imagine a counterargument that hiding dislikes here would be considered some kind of indicator that a person is worth harassing for lols. I'm not sure exactly how to balance that.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#20

Post by cute_boi » Wed, Nov 10, 2021, 5:41 PM UTC

I am very ambivalent about this decision. I have saved multiple hours just by watching ratio of like and dislikes. At least show us the ratio and better hide the like count too. (but we know they wont hide like count because they want to keep user engaged to earn more advertising $$$)

Just to appease few creator taking away the functionality just seem abysmal to me.