YouTube to try not publicly displaying the number of dislikes on a video

[pythonmegapixel]

The team at YouTube has announced that they will soon start rolling out UI tweaks which hide the number of dislikes from the user - the mockups suggest that this will simply be replaced by the word "Dislike", as on videos where the creator has manually chosen not to show the numbers publicly.

Creators will still be able to see them and the button will still work, and YouTube have assured us that the dislike button in general is not going away.

 

This is currently an experiment, targeted to a small number of users, though there is no way to opt out.

 

This decision seems to be aimed at reducing dislike-bombing. I personally don't think it will be successful in this aim - after all, the like/dislike ratio will still affect rankings in search and recommendations, and that's what matters, right? - but honestly, it doesn't bother me that this information is being hidden. Creators already have the option to turn it off anyway, and I don't personally pay attention to the dislike number particularly often, unless someone specifically draws my attention to it. Considering all of the awful changes that YouTube has made over the past few years, this is, IMO, quite a benign one.

 

Sources:

From Google's post - https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/104325801?hl=en

Quote

We’ll be experimenting, with a small group of users, a few potential designs for the like and dislike buttons that appear below YouTube videos.

 

Viewer feedback has always been, and will continue to be, an important part of YouTube. But we've heard from creators that the public dislike counts can impact their wellbeing, and may motivate a targeted campaign of dislikes on a creator’s video. So, we're testing designs that don’t include the visible like or dislike count in an effort to balance improving the creator experience, while still making sure viewer feedback is accounted for and shared with the creator. 

Youtube's tweet on the same matter:

https://twitter.com/YouTube/status/1376942486594150405

 

And a news article:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/30/youtube-tests-hiding-dislike-counts-on-videos/

 

[emosun]

I could see how clicking a video and immediately looking at the like/dislike ratio to determine if you should watch it would be the actual driving force behind this.

 

They can increase the amount of time people watch videos by decreasing the information they have going into them. Just get people to the first ad break before they know how much the video sucks. Thats probably their real goal here

[Tieox]

I can see this move going about as well as taking a dump on your mother in laws brand new designer sofa, slapping her with a wet kipper and asking for a cup of her fancy coffee.

 

 

 

[Jtalk4456]

2 minutes ago, pythonmegapixel said:

The team at YouTube has announced that they will soon start rolling out UI tweaks which hide the number of dislikes from the user - the mockups suggest that this will simply be replaced by the word "Dislike", as on videos where the creator has manually chosen not to show the numbers publicly.

Creators will still be able to see them and the button will still work, and YouTube have assured us that the dislike button in general is not going away.

 

This is currently an experiment, targeted to a small number of users, though there is no way to opt out.

 

This decision seems to be aimed at reducing dislike-bombing. I personally don't think it will be successful in this aim - after all, the like/dislike ratio will still affect rankings in search and recommendations, and that's what matters, right? - but honestly, it doesn't bother me that this information is being hidden. Creators already have the option to turn it off anyway, and I don't personally pay attention to the dislike number particularly often, unless someone specifically draws my attention to it. Considering all of the awful changes that YouTube has made over the past few years, this is, IMO, quite a benign one.

 

Sources:

From Google's post - https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/104325801?hl=en

Youtube's tweet on the same matter:

https://twitter.com/YouTube/status/1376942486594150405

 

And a news article:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/03/30/youtube-tests-hiding-dislike-counts-on-videos/

 

I feel like there's times when people see a lot of dislikes and they assume they'll hate it too and jump on the dislike train, so this might stop some of that. Not sure this is fair without doing the same to the likes though. I don't see it as harmful per say, but questionable intentions

 

[Jurrunio]

I'll probably judge creators that chooses to do this before even watching the video

[akio123008]

I have to say, I do find the dislike number useful for telling me right away that the tutorial video I'm about to watch is trash and not worth my time.

[emosun]

8 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

I feel like there's times when people see a lot of dislikes and they assume they'll hate it too and jump on the dislike train, so this might stop some of that. Not sure this is fair without doing the same to the likes though. I don't see it as harmful per say, but questionable intentions

But have you ever come across a video on youtube that was disliked bombed and didn't have a good reason for it?

I've seen this on small maybe sub 100 subscriber channels , but never on 1000+ channels.

[Murasaki]

whats next hiding the viewcount?

[Kisai]

3 minutes ago, Murasaki said:

whats next hiding the viewcount?

Ideally yes.

 

The statistics shown often get conflated with popularity and the like:dislike ratio with how bad the content is. Neither are true since viewbots and dog piling are a thing that happens.

 

Showing the dislikes, or even having it all, is a stressful engagement metric. So it’s better to only show those metrics for the technical requirements to the user rather than as marketing tuning.

[Commodus]

In some ways I think it'd be smarter to get rid of dislikes entirely, but I can get behind this.

 

An example: there are some, shall we say, "scientifically challenged" people who pile dislikes on news videos talking about the pandemic and vaccines. They're convinced they're striking a mighty blow and often point to the like/dislike ratio as their supposed proof. With this, they'd have no way of knowing how many people actually disliked the video and less incentive to dislike in the first place.

Edited March 30, 2021 by Commodus
Grammar

[Arrogath]

Honestly, hiding the dislike ratio is kind of like turning off comments because you know that your whole point is bullshit and someone with half a braincell can destroy it with the most basic of points

[Commodus]

5 minutes ago, Arrogath said:

Honestly, hiding the dislike ratio is kind of like turning off comments because you know that your whole point is bullshit and someone with half a braincell can destroy it with the most basic of points

See what I wrote above — that's just not true. Sometimes the dislikes come from people who mistake strong belief for truth.

[Arrogath]

1 minute ago, Commodus said:

See what I wrote above — that's just not true. Sometimes the dislikes come from people who mistake strong belief for truth.

hiding commentary and like/dislike feedback comes off as rather disingenuous, so even if this move is motivated by reducing dislikes I wouldn't be surprised if it actually increases them with a certain demographic

[Commodus]

Just now, Arrogath said:

hiding commentary and like/dislike feedback comes off as rather disingenuous, so even if this move is motivated by reducing dislikes I wouldn't be surprised if it actually increases them with a certain demographic

Can't rule that out, for sure. I just know there are some factions that try to use dislikes as a weapon against the truth, and this might thwart their plans.

[TetraSky]

Youtube already took away the power of the dislike button on comments years ago. It's literally useless, does nothing, displays nothing either.

I fully expect this to do the same. They only want "positivity" in the cesspool that is the internet. Youtube was pretty much one of the last few places where you could even still dislike something and have it shown. I'm just surprised it took this long for them to take that away from the hands of the viewers. It's all rainbows and sunshine on Youtube, now!

[Arrogath]

4 minutes ago, Commodus said:

and this might thwart their plans.

I strongly doubt that. Unfortunately trying to control people like the group referred to tends to just aggravate the mob and feed the trolls. Other solutions, like moving the like/dislike buttons or changing the size of one to be larger than the other would probably have more effect. They could also hide the like/dislike until after you make your own selection. Youtube feeds off of interaction, reducing feedback tools could be quite detrimental

edit: you'll have to forgive me for going a little ivory tower on this... as per usual with internet discussions these are just my own personal observations of this lovely dumpster fire we all warm ourselves at

[NumLock21]

YouTube don't want to hurt the feelings on youtubers. What's next? Give everyone participation play buttons?!

[MultiGamerClub]

54 minutes ago, emosun said:

They can increase the amount of time people watch videos by decreasing the information they have going into them. Just get people to the first ad break before they know how much the video sucks. Thats probably their real goal here

Makes sense, why make people see something negative instead of letting them wait through 2 ads and still see it..

[Brooksie359]

57 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

I feel like there's times when people see a lot of dislikes and they assume they'll hate it too and jump on the dislike train, so this might stop some of that. Not sure this is fair without doing the same to the likes though. I don't see it as harmful per say, but questionable intentions

 

Yeah if you disable seeing the dislikes it should automatically disable the likes as well. People might use it to trick people to think that they have basically 0 dislikes. Obviously most intelligent people would understand that isn't very possible but for people who are simply taking a glance at things this could definitely skew things. 

[BuckGup]

40 minutes ago, Commodus said:

In some ways I think it'd be smarter to get rid of dislikes entirely, but I can get behind this.

 

An example: there are some, shall we say, "scientifically challenged" people who pile dislikes on news videos talking about the pandemic and vaccines. They're convinced they're striking a mighty blow and often point to the like/dislike ratio as their supposed proof. With this, they'd have no way of knowing how many people actually disliked the video and less incentive to dislike in the first place.

Out of site out of mind mentality. The scientifically challenged people aren't going anywhere because the dislike button disappeared so to remove it for this reason seems even more harmful than the scientifically challenged people mass disliking the video. Then again it's so much easier and cheaper to silence a problem than it is to fix it. Not to get too political now tho

[emosun]

1 hour ago, Commodus said:

people who pile dislikes on news videos talking about the pandemic and vaccines

I forgot about this unique sub genre. 

[Arika]

I can understand their reasons but I still think it's a dumb idea. If I'm looking up a tutorial or review, I use the like and dislike numbers to gauge its trust worthyness. There are many videos out there, but end up being nothing but a waste of time 

[Jtalk4456]

25 minutes ago, comander said:

What is this science you speak of? This sounds like a conspiracy theory to silence ordinary folk who struggled with intro to logic during first year undergra... wait they never went to college. 

lets be real here, there is no intro to logic class... I wish there was

45 minutes ago, emosun said:

But have you ever come across a video on youtube that was disliked bombed and didn't have a good reason for it?

I've seen this on small maybe sub 100 subscriber channels , but never on 1000+ channels.

I have actually on some larger videos. But regardless of size, it shouldn't happen. Playing devils advocate though, it could be argued that if you're gonna supress seeing dislikes you're hiding the reality, even if reality stems from stupid people not watching the video. Size of the channel shouldn't matter though. the intent here, I assume is to help prevent newer small channels from getting so tanked by one of these that the channel can't recover and dies.

 

50 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Ideally yes.

 

The statistics shown often get conflated with popularity and the like:dislike ratio with how bad the content is. Neither are true since viewbots and dog piling are a thing that happens.

 

Showing the dislikes, or even having it all, is a stressful engagement metric. So it’s better to only show those metrics for the technical requirements to the user rather than as marketing tuning.

I can see where you're heading with that, but is there a statistic worth showing by that reasoning? Should sub counts be shown? Not saying I disagree, but I feel like some info can be shown without having to be a stressful thing. 

53 minutes ago, Arrogath said:

Honestly, hiding the dislike ratio is kind of like turning off comments because you know that your whole point is bullshit and someone with half a braincell can destroy it with the most basic of points

or you got a kid in a youtube channel and don't need the hateful comments that frequent youtube to be harmful to the child. Not everything is political argument blocking comments. many other reasons to block comments

56 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

It's all rainbows and sunshine on Youtube, now!

as long as you don't look at the comments lol

51 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

YouTube don't want to hurt the feelings on youtubers. What's next? Give everyone participation play buttons?!

One could argue the play button is pretty much a participation aware already

[thechinchinsong]

Seeing as this is an option that available to the creators of the video, I guess i'll just stop watching every creator that hides the dislike like ratio. I hate to be the one that says "what do you have to hide", but in this case, I think it actually applies.

[Kisai]

22 minutes ago, thechinchinsong said:

Seeing as this is an option that available to the creators of the video, I guess i'll just stop watching every creator that hides the dislike like ratio. I hate to be the one that says "what do you have to hide", but in this case, I think it actually applies.

I always turned it off because I don’t care about the numbers. 
 

Again, the numbers can be stressful when you don’t know where the likes/dislikes come from, and can’t readily go, “oh this video was trolling for assclowns, I can ignore the numbers” vs “this legitimately was an attempt to show something informative, but because my competitors don’t like it, they try to discredit me”

 

like look how often the DMCA gets invoked to try and censor people. You don’t need to look very far to see why dislikes are a bad metric.