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Making the dislike count private across YouTube

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Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#661

This will make the site useless for finding new content and content creators. And what's the point of a Like count without a Dislike count? I'll just assume every video has as many, if not more, dislikes and will turn to other sources for finding quality content (if at all). And they might as well get rid of the comments section too cause that's where people will voice their opinions.. but maybe that's part of the pl…

Completely - What does 13,478 likes mean if 1,000,000,000 people have viewed the video, and 20,104,189 people disliked it. Batshit stupid.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#662
post #67

Bummer. I often use like vs dislike ratios as a gauge on whether a video is worth watching. If I see a 3,000 up / 48 down video on a topic I'm interested in there's a really good chance the video is great. I'm a small time creator (~13.5k subs) and don't care at all about upvotes or downvotes being public. There's only been a handful of videos out of hundreds that received more downvotes than expected because the vid…

The problem is people also use it as a propaganda tool to bury videos they don’t politically agree with. Normies have much lowered like/dislike button engagement so it’s a disservice to the vast majority.

The alternative is that you're only allowed to like things and increased consumption must be fostered at every turn.

Can't have anyone being critical bc the very nature of that is contrary to consumption or promotion

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#663
Could someone make an external index and review site for yt videos?

yt doing this is essentially yt putting their thumb on the scale, telling you that their product is good, and hiding anyone saying it's not.

Generally, you must always have an outside party to review and judge a thing, not the thing itself.

Probably yt would try every trademark and copyright legal attack in the book to take down any such site, but it seems obvious that in common sense terms, the only possible way to have reviews of yt videos is for them to be provided by anyone other than any Alphabet property.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#665

It's funny how differently people react to things. I look at this and think "there is nothing about Youtube that I find more useless than the dislike count, and I think this probably - on balance - a Good Thing." Everybody else seems to think it's an attack on the fundamental essence of all that is Right, Good, and Just in our universe. Weird... I never would have expected so much consternation about a dislike count.

Here is an easy example to understand the utility of the dislike count: Imagine you are looking for a How-To video on something very common but specific, such as changing a car part or Windows setting, and that when you search for this you are given dozens of options. All of these options are 20 to 30 minutes long and 90% of them are either inaccurate, out-dated, or automated click-bait. This lower 90% will have a di…

I don't have any problem understanding that some people find it useful. I'm just surprised that so many people seem so worked up over this, given the comparison to my own subjective experience, which is that the dislike count has almost zero utility. I suppose it comes down to the nature of how one uses YT. Relative to the things I watch, I can't remember a single time I ever used the dislike count to influence whether or not to watch a given video. shrug

Not saying those other people are wrong mind you. Your lived experience is your lived experience and no one really has any standing to contradict that. Just expressing surprise at the degree of just how differently different people are reacting to this.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#667

So now I can't quickly see if a video how-to is a complete waste of my time or not. Great.

The comment section still works

It might become an outlet for all the people who want to tell others whether they think a video is worth watching or not, making it harder to find comments with substance.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#668
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.

Likes and dislikes don't ultimately matter to Google, engagement does. Viewing is enough: likes, dislikes, comments; those are just multipliers. Hiding dislikes is something Brands want.

> engagement

That's the word. It isn't really "likes" in the sense that we normally think of it. It's ticks on the relationship of "engagement" to "dollars".

IIRC, Facebook was pretty upfront about this being why they didn't implement a "dislike" button; the information wasn't valuable to them.

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#669
post #67

Bummer. I often use like vs dislike ratios as a gauge on whether a video is worth watching. If I see a 3,000 up / 48 down video on a topic I'm interested in there's a really good chance the video is great. I'm a small time creator (~13.5k subs) and don't care at all about upvotes or downvotes being public. There's only been a handful of videos out of hundreds that received more downvotes than expected because the vid…

> I often use like vs dislike ratios as a gauge on whether a video is worth watching You summarized why Youtube is doing it. Sure harassment is one aspect of it, but this drives up the clicks for Youtube and therefore the ad revenue. I'd be curious to see if people get overly annoyed by how many unworthy videos they watch and thereby reducing overall engagement.

Then why not keep counts and ratios optional?

Re: Making the dislike count private across YouTube

#670
YT's aim, with this move, is to make a friendlier environment for propagandists, advertisers and anybody else who's pushing an ideology. They are the #1 source of cash after all.

For comparison, Reddit posts advertising that looks exactly like a user post. With voting and discussion turned off.

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