YouTube Is Trying to Prevent Angry Mobs from Abusing "Dislike" Button

Megalith

Megalith

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YouTube could be getting rid of the “Like” button, or, at least, minimizing its visibility to some degree to combat “dislike mobs,” viewers who “slam the dislike button on a video before watching the whole thing, or even watching the video at all.” The undertaking was likely prompted by the company’s 2018 Rewind video, which was supposed to be a fun, proud moment for YouTube. Instead, it was downvoted to oblivion by 15M viewers. Critics say that creators should just upload content that doesn’t suck, while others suggest it’s a genuine, complicated issue.

One of the new options YouTube has talked about is making those ratings invisible by default, so you wouldn't be able to see the number of likes or dislikes a video has. Other options include asking users to provide more information about why they disliked a video (possibly in the form of a checklist), removing the dislike count across the board, and removing the dislike button entirely. Leung acknowledges that all of these options have pros and cons, and YouTube may not implement any of them after testing.
 
im always with the mob.
to be honest it's stupid, the same as bomb reviews, they give you a feature to say if you are happy or not with the product, then come and tell you, you can't be unhappy for that reason...
they know better, they have the money.
 
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I hadn't watched that Rewind until now.
I wish I hadnt' but at least I could expediently express that feeling.
 
Can you request such mob, the 1-2 haters i have picked up on my youtbe channel, well they got me thinking and really i think i would like the most hated Danish youtube channel :)
 
So take it out or make it optional for creators, there's is no need for drama.

If they make it optional it should be attached to removing the like button along with it, though.
 
Ah yes, they wouldn't want you to dislike something because you and a whole bunch of others are unhappy. /s

I see this as an effort to appeal to corporate interests, I don't think their efforts to not promote conspiracy vlogs has anything to do with it.
 
I wonder if this has something to do with gillettes ad on toxic masculinity which got destroyed within a few hours, then heaps of dislikes began to 'mysteriously' vanish. Whats the point of likes/dislikes when google can put whatever numbers they want in there. They should just get rid of any negative comments while they're at it. We all knew google would kowtow to corporations eventually, time for lougle and loutube!
 
How much of this was the hate for their rewind video (which I haven't watched yet... the algorithm knows I wont like it lol), and how much of this is CBS paying them to make it harder for us to abuse them when they inflict bad STDs on our viewing platform of choice?
 
People think this is in response to the rewind video, it isn't. That is old news. This is in direct response to the Gillette dislike bombing. P&G is a huge company with very deep pockets. There is a massive amount of negativity surrounding their "woke" ad and that impacts Youtube ad revenue. If major advertisers aren't happy, YT is going to cave. We are long past youtube being a platform for free creativity. It is getting steadily more censored and controlled by the major corporations and will continue to do so as long as it remains the highest traffic service.
 
Well, I just did my part and added a dislike to both the rewind and the gillette video (maybe I'll actually watch them one of these days).
 
When you don't get the result you need, change the parameters until you do.

Yes, that fixes the problem...
 
For starters, they could make it so that you have to watch X% of the video for it to count. If you didn't, it looks (to you) like it counted, but it doesn't actually go into the global total (like a shadowvote). Don't advertise this fact.
 
Derangel said:
So Youtube is just pissy that their shitty rewind video got downvoted into obliviion?
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It's a useful distraction from people weaponizing DMCA takedowns to steal revenue from mid-sized channels. Besides the downvote thing will please the SJW crowd who insist that it must be organized campaigns of people downvoting some crappy video, e.g. the Ghostbusters reboot, they like.
 
risc said:
When you don't get the result you need, change the parameters until you do.

Yes, that fixes the problem...
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George Carlin nailed this decades ago...

That's what they do in a lot of these schools now, they lower the passing grades so more kids can pass. More kids pass, the school looks good, everybody's happy; the IQ of the country slips another two or three points and pretty soon, all you'll need to get into college is a fucking pencil! 'Got a pencil? Get the fuck in there, it's physics!'​
 
wow, hitting the dislike button without even watching the vid ... who would have thought people would sink so low :LOL:
 
I don't see that huge a problem with "review bombs". They coincide with an actual event and make genuine statements - ones that I have, on multiple occasions, agreed with.

A review bomb, if issued by real people, is real feedback. And so, I see the censoring or prevention of the possibility for them sort of as corporate propaganda and manipulation.
 
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PeaKr said:
I wonder if this has something to do with gillettes ad on toxic masculinity which got destroyed within a few hours, then heaps of dislikes began to 'mysteriously' vanish. Whats the point of likes/dislikes when google can put whatever numbers they want in there. They should just get rid of any negative comments while they're at it. We all knew google would kowtow to corporations eventually, time for lougle and loutube!
Click to expand...

They can't handle the truth, happens to many companies all the way until they go out of business.
 
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YouTube shouldn't change anything, they just need to visit Reddit and find out what real mob mentality is. Then they'll feel better about their situation.
 
There are many times where I wish the dislike button are disabled. I think there are too many aholes out there that do nothing but being negative on social media. The best thing would be to completely get rid of it. If a content sucks, there won't that many likes anyways and it will fade into oblivion. Better off that way.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
So take it out or make it optional for creators, there's is no need for drama.

If they make it optional it should be attached to removing the like button along with it, though.
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But they already have that, the like / dislike ratio can be hidden from videos. But everyone knows why someone would do that, it's an admission of defeat.

This is not about adding an useful feature, this is about "Stop disliking the message we want to spread!"
 
M76 said:
But they already have that, the like / dislike ratio can be hidden from videos. But everyone knows why someone would do that, it's an admission of defeat.

This is not about adding an useful feature, this is about "Stop disliking the message we want to spread!"
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Pretty much. If they remove it altogether, then no one has to hide it since we all know hiding it means you don't want to admit the video sucks.

This is definitely different from the "review bombs" though. No one is paying money to watch youtube videos, and sure the dislike crowd can be incited by a mob mentality on the internet(after a million dislikes, people definitely start clicking on the video just to add to it), but it's still crappy content that started the ridiculous dislike ratio in the first place. The people that complain about review bombs on steam... fuck those people. That's consumers that have paid money and changed their opinion of a product after a developer has done something stupid to piss them off, which is why something like steam needs a review system in the first place.
 
ZodaEX said:
Stop ignoring the question.
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I think they identified exactly why Google is interested in stopping downvotes. Like mobs draw more views and encourage more engagement and purchases where applicable. It's about what makes videos more popular, product promotions more successful, and YouTubers more money, all of which make Google more money.
 
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