Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

youtube.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 590 posts

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#31

Post by jafitc »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #10

It's stunning how often things like this get wildly upvoted. The video shows nothing at all about "YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count"; the guy shows a comment of his that has nothing to do with the dislike count getting deleted, although he asserts without evidence that this is related to a different comment he made (which was not deleted) regarding the dislike count. A lot of…

Of course. You can't be 100% certain.

You know what else you can't be 100% certain of? How many dislikes this video got.

It's one thing how the comment disappears. It's a whole other thing how you are asked to "take a screenshot of the disappeared comment to investigate".

If you feel this singles out Google, think twice. Yes, Google definitely wasn't afraid to meddle with its search results for its own gains before. But there are other companies having practices just as shady.

Like "how the Apple Podcasts app went from a 1.8-star score all the way to 4.6 stars in a month without any actual fixes"

https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/19/22791968/apple-podcasts-...

Hiding dislikes, disappearing comments, tricking users into reviewing unrelated services.

There is a broader issue unfolding recently about platforms and transparency.

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#32

Post by _ea1k »

topynate wrote: post #24

Just in case someone in a position to do something about it is reading this, there's a graceful way out for Youtube. Leave dislike counts publicly available via the API. That way people who use the ratio to evaluate videos (very useful for reviews) can install a browser extension, but dislike mobbing will be minimized, seeing as most casual users will not bother installing such extensions.

The downside is that you'd end up with facebook memes showing all of the dislikes that "YouTube doesn't want you to see".

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#33

Post by rightbyte »

dynm wrote: post #12

I find this debate a little strange. My position is that youtube is a private company, they should be allowed to do whatever they want, and people should be able to choose a video service that meets their needs. If you feel that youtube is so dominant that this is cramming a "no dislikes" policy on the whole world, isn't the problem really that you think youtube is a monopoly, not dislikes per se? Edit: I clearly did…

Isn't that a strawman? You can call out companies for doing crappy things with their products without advocating government intervention.

Is this a new thing? I see this argument all the time.

When Coca Cola made their impopular recipe change were people defending it with "oh it is a private company, haters gonna hate".

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#34

Post by SQueeeeeL »

amelius wrote: post #28
dynm wrote: post #12

I find this debate a little strange. My position is that youtube is a private company, they should be allowed to do whatever they want, and people should be able to choose a video service that meets their needs. If you feel that youtube is so dominant that this is cramming a "no dislikes" policy on the whole world, isn't the problem really that you think youtube is a monopoly, not dislikes per se? Edit: I clearly did…

The problem is that network effects determine what video service we use, mostly, as internet users. Saying that you could choose an alternative service is like the old argument that you could move to another country if you don't like it here [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergo_decedo

Is this an argument for a centralized govt provided video platform?

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#35

Post by tombert »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #15
ragnot wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it does make a difference. Its a small one, but one that hits home. After all, when you see those videos online of the Biden admin with 1000s of dislikes...don't you feel that there is a segment of people out there that don't go along with the cultural zeitgeist of the internet? That maybe left-wing opinions (although dominant on the internet) may have some push back in the real world? When you lose that abil…

I don't, and I think the strongest argument against the dislike counter is that it encourages people to. Dislike counts aren't an accurate metric of what people "out there" think because they're heavily dependent on who ends up seeing the video - it's easy for a video to have lots of dislikes even though it expresses popular views, or few dislikes even though it expresses unpopular views.

I definitely agree with this. If you go to any video right now that even mentions vaccines you can look at the comments of people talking about how evil Pfizer and Moderna are, and it dominates the entire comment section. I'm reasonably certain that a lot of these people are looking for vaccine videos just to shit on them in the comments and downvote them.

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#36

Post by Metricon »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #6

I really hope this backfires spectacularly on YouTube and the zealots who pushed for this change are held professionally accountable. I already click on fewer videos in search results and recommendations because I can no longer gauge how worthwhile they are to try and watch. The end result? I'm sticking to my current channels. I can't be alone and knowing that YouTube takes recommended content so seriously, I have to…

I've heard of a number of Youtube creators that are also placing their content on Odysee as a potential backup. I first heard of this site from Dave at EEVblog:

https://www.youtube.com/c/EevblogDave/videos

https://odysee.com/@eevblog:7

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#37

Post by 6f4f06c00484d34 »

etchalon wrote: post #22
paulpauper wrote: post #3

Dislikes still visible on incognito tab. Most fiction/speculative authors assumed tyranny would be from governments, not private companies. How wrong they were.

You just equated the removal of a software feature, by a private company, on a free platform, as "tyranny". You are not a serious person.

always glad to spot a fellow ancap in the wild. private companies should be able to do whatever the fuck they want.

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#38

Post by Nextgrid »

1_player wrote: post #18
BitwiseFool wrote: post #6

I really hope this backfires spectacularly on YouTube and the zealots who pushed for this change are held professionally accountable. I already click on fewer videos in search results and recommendations because I can no longer gauge how worthwhile they are to try and watch. The end result? I'm sticking to my current channels. I can't be alone and knowing that YouTube takes recommended content so seriously, I have to…

Youtube doesn't f*** care. Where are you going to go watch your favorite content creators? Oh, they only upload on our platform? Thought so. They can do whatever they want and they won't lose a single user. In fact, I wanted to cancel my Youtube Premium, but I know it's not gonna affect their decision in the slightest, while I will hurt my favourite content creators as they won't get that thousandth of a cent they ge…

> while I will hurt my favourite content creators as they won't get that thousandth of a cent they get from my Premium view.

Over time this should put pressure on them to be open to a better platform and make the move as soon as such platform exists.

Re: YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count

#40

Post by Brian_K_White »

SpicyLemonZest wrote: post #10

It's stunning how often things like this get wildly upvoted. The video shows nothing at all about "YouTube deleting comments who criticize their hiding of the dislike count"; the guy shows a comment of his that has nothing to do with the dislike count getting deleted, although he asserts without evidence that this is related to a different comment he made (which was not deleted) regarding the dislike count. A lot of…

Watch the first few seconds of the video again, and then it's your own comment which makes no sense.
Post reply on HN