YouTube Removing/Occluding The Dislike Button

[IMJ]

YouTube is making it so that the "dislike" button has no context to viewers by occluding it from view. They are doing this under the guise that "everyone should have a voice", which is ironic because they are diminishing voices by negating the dislike button.

It's a sheep manipulation tactic, pretty clearly. Negating the thumb's down button is a strawman action to enable toxic positivity for manipulation of any agenda that YouTube wants to support. Furthermore, review bombing still requires individuals, which are a composite of the whole in a democratic environment of expression (which is what the like buttons are).

So basically even a review bomb to some extent is representative of the volume of "voices" because it requires individuals from the whole to enact the strategy. In short, YouTube is simple trying to silence whoever doesn't fit their agenda.

Pathetic leftist nonsense in truth. Basically this is YouTube employing "cancel culture" to cancel anyone's ability to show disdain in lieu of YouTube's desired state of toxic positivity.

[oldmanwinters]

Yeah, it's a shame. I can still "Dislike" a video, but the world won't be able to tell when people hate something en masse.

[Andrew NDB]

Awful. Ghostbusters 2016 says hi.

[oldmanwinters]

I think companies (especially movie studios) realized there was too much money to lose in risking "review bombs" (as they call it) for their major tentpole trailer releases.

[Jester]

Better disable comments then too, because I'm sure people will just take their displeasure there.

[Leo656]

Here's what I posted about this elsewhere:

My problem with any kind of Like/Dislike system is that it eliminates any nuance and constructive criticism, since MOST Likes or Dislikes are not accompanied by any sort of clarifying comment. Most people just click and move on, feeling they've made their point. But that becomes a problem on the "dislike' side.

"Likes" aren't really a problem since if a person "Likes" something, we can assume that they're mostly okay with whatever it is. A "Dislike" without context, however, is trickier. "So WHAT exactly is the problem, here? The music, the sound, the editing, the visuals, the whole thing, the fact that I'm alive, what? WHAT is it that you don't like? Because if you don't tell me, I can't improve."

Not too many people watch my channel, but ever since the first time I posted anything (one of my matches, like forever ago now) I've generally gotten one Dislike on every video I've ever posted. I've always figured it's one of the guys I wrestle with being a wise guy - especially in the very beginning, literally nobody except my co-workers would watch my videos and there's a handful who never liked me and always went out of their way to be discouraging - but what annoys me is, it's pretty much empty "feedback". Because again, "WHAT don't you like?" Give me something I can work with, at least.

Since it's a pretty worthless system, even having a Dislike option is pointless. It doesn't so much "send a message" because you're not saying anything of substance. If a person who left a Dislike were required to leave a short feedback comment, that would at least be something of value, in theory. Without it, it's just potentially causing someone anxiety for no reason at all. Which isn't the end of the world, but it's altogether pointless. By contrast, a Like without a comment does no "damage" so it's not really the same thing.

I've personally never left a Dislike on anything, with or without a clarifying comment. It just seems pointless, the person isn't going to likely read or see what I say anyway. I'm not making some grand point by clicking a little "thumbs down" icon; I'm just making myself feel like a big shot for five seconds before moving on to something else. "Wow, I sure showed them." No, I didn't, I don't matter that much.

Conversely, I actually don't leave a lot of "Likes" on YouTube either. Depends on whether or not I remember, and generally I don't care enough to bother.

Even supposedly "unpopular" things typically get way more Likes than Dislikes, anyway. Chickbusters was an outlier in that it's very, very rare for anything mainstream to get more Dislikes, which is a testament to its awfulness, sure. But it's still a very flawed system, so nothing of value is really being taken away here.

Originally Posted by Jester

Better disable comments then too, because I'm sure people will just take their displeasure there.

That's actually preferable. As I noted, at least a comment explaining what a person dislikes is Substance. A phantom thumbs-down with no context is the online equivalent of egging someone's house.

I'd rather get an entire paragraph of someone telling me why they hate what I do, rather than someone just dropping a Dislike and moving on. I can respect the former, not the latter. For all I know the Thumbs-Down guy is just busting balls. At least Comment Section Guy is giving me something I can use.

[Jester]

True, to a point. Some people will give valid criticism and others will just post, "GAY! This video sucks! Kill yourself!" But I can understand that it is better to have a detailed reason why you dislike a video, but I'm sure YouTube is only trying to shield certain people from criticism

[Leo656]

That's most likely the goal, yeah. Still, nothing of value is truly being lost if we're being objective.

I'm probably the biggest "free speech" advocate on this entire forum, but while I truly feel like everyone deserves a voice it's also true that most people choose to use theirs in the worst possible way and aren't really doing anything but spewing hot air. That goes for both "positive" and "negative". Any steps taken to at least attempt to raise the bar for actual discourse are things I generally agree with.

I do want everyone to have a voice. But when all anyone does with theirs is make fart sounds, I'm okay with cutting their mic until they actually have something to contribute.

[Coola Yagami]

This is mostly for these big corps and such to get away with 'hey, we're loved, nobody hates us, see?'.

This also ties perfectly well with how Youtube wants to get rid of 'Let's Go Brandon' and anything negative against him and his administration.

[Leo656]

I mean, at the end of the day people try and spin whatever narrative they want in spite of what's right in front of them, anyway. So I don't see how any of it matters either way.

For example, you can go on YouTube and pull up a clip of just about anything from any Zack Snyder movie. It's always like, 750,000 or more Likes vs. like, 7,000 Dislikes, and mostly positive comments. Doesn't matter. "EVERYBODY hates his movies bruh, that sh*t's all fake." That's what you hear, despite all evidence to the contrary. The Likes can outnumber the Dislikes by a multiplier of a hundred or more; "All fake, bro! Nobody actually likes that sh*t, it's the same three people spamming on fake accounts, trust me!" And in cases like the Ghostbusters '16 trailers, people tried to argue the same in reverse, that all the NEGATIVE feedback was somehow "fake".

So it's like, if the Likes or Dislikes only "count" when they're reinforcing the narrative of whatever this or that individual wants to believe... does ANY of it really even matter? I kinda don't think so. Once you've made up your mind that the thing you're looking it as all lies, using it as any kind of metric becomes meaningless.

"It's only real when it agrees with me!" That's how it already works, for many people, and that's dumb.

[Sumac]

Done on behest of megacorporations, which hate to see their woke and other garbage to be downvoted. The same reason why IMDB had removed forums really.

Those dog *****uckers want to maintain illusion that they and their products and infallible and perfect. Remove comments, remove dislike button and here we are - in the world where no-one can say how society reacts on their ****.

And, if you think that will somehow lead to a "good discussion" - it won't: they can close comments and unlikely people will go onto the long spiel about why another corporate trash sucks.

So, prepare to live in the world where everything is perfect and no dissent exists!

[Leo656]

My first thought was that it was to protect the snowflakes, not the corporations. But in thinking about it I can see how that makes sense, too. Probably more sense.

I kinda don't think big corporations care too much about Likes or Dislikes on YouTube, though. Getting a lot of Dislikes might be a little annoying or embarrassing but it's not like it affects them financially, which is what they're generally more concerned with than anything. Like a lot of Netflix stuff gets bad reviews but they completely ignore all of that so long as they get a lot of clicks and subscriptions. Movies and shows get review-bombed to hell but Netflix just shrugs it off so long as the project is profitable. So I kinda don't think companies actually care too much about online feedback, compared to Dollars And Cents.

I think they "care" in the sense that a number of Likes or Dislikes might give them an idea about which way the winds of opinion might be blowing. Like a census. But I'm not sure it matters much beyond that. "That movie trailer got 500,000 Dislikes on YouTube! Aren't you guys upset?" "No, because that movie made $800 million, let 'em click whatever they feel like on stupid YouTube." That's how I kinda think it goes. But I could be wrong. I can say though that I've never seen any marketing company or product try and use Likes on YouTube as part of a pitch.

That's why my initial reaction was, it was just so like actual people who make content wouldn't have to deal with the anxiety that comes from getting a lot of Dislikes, or being made fun of for same. Like it seems to me like THOSE people would be more bent out of shape about Dislikes, versus a corporation whose bottom line isn't being affected in any way by it.

But I'unno, it kinda makes sense, sorta, I guess. Just saying that wasn't the first impression I took away from it.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Done on behest of megacorporations, which hate to see their woke and other garbage to be downvoted. The same reason why IMDB had removed forums really.

Precisely the same reason. And the Rottentomatoes thing. They just want to give head pats and "let us tell you what is best for you, trust us."

[Leo656]

The RottenTomatoes thing seems more believable as a corporate/marketing thing, to me, since movies do frequently use RT scores as part of their advertising. They don't tout whether or not they got a lot of Likes on YouTube, though.

The only time YouTube feedback has ever actually come up is when Ghostbusters '16 actually used it as a plot point in the movie, which was f*cking cringey as hell (like everything else in the movie). Otherwise, I honestly can't say I've ever seen a company act like they noticed or cared about that kind of thing. Maybe they do care, but I've never seen them sell for it.

((shrug))

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I kinda don't think big corporations care too much about Likes or Dislikes on YouTube, though. Getting a lot of Dislikes might be a little annoying or embarrassing but it's not like it affects them financially, which is what they're generally more concerned with than anything. Like a lot of Netflix stuff gets bad reviews but they completely ignore all of that so long as they get a lot of clicks and subscriptions. Movies and shows get review-bombed to hell but Netflix just shrugs it off so long as the project is profitable. So I kinda don't think companies actually care too much about online feedback, compared to Dollars And Cents.

I think they "care" in the sense that a number of Likes or Dislikes might give them an idea about which way the winds of opinion might be blowing. Like a census. But I'm not sure it matters much beyond that. "That movie trailer got 500,000 Dislikes on YouTube! Aren't you guys upset?" "No, because that movie made $800 million, let 'em click whatever they feel like on stupid YouTube." That's how I kinda think it goes. But I could be wrong. I can say though that I've never seen any marketing company or product try and use Likes on YouTube as part of a pitch.

I agree with that it is not the main place where they can get unbiased opinion about their work, but they DO care, even, even if their products bring money. This is why we saw WB doing all those crazy stuff with their DC movies.

Despite control over media, they still care about reputation of the product. If one movie sucks, than audience would expect that next movie CAN suck. If its indeed sucks, than audience would have even less reason to pay for the next one and so on.

Originally Posted by Leo656

That's why my initial reaction was, it was just so like actual people who make content wouldn't have to deal with the anxiety that comes from getting a lot of Dislikes, or being made fun of for same. Like it seems to me like THOSE people would be more bent out of shape about Dislikes, versus a corporation whose bottom line isn't being affected in any way by it.

I think people who make woke content and are easily offended would find a reason to be offended either way. They will find a comment or Tweet, which they claim is something-something-phobic or someone-someone-ist. I don't think Dislikes on YouTube are big part of that, besides, they still can see them.

[Leo656]

I think the whole thing would work a lot better (or at least be more direct) if they swapped the Dislike icon for a middle finger icon. That'd send a pretty strong message AND it would be funny.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I think the whole thing would work a lot better (or at least be more direct) if they swapped the Dislike icon for a middle finger icon. That'd send a pretty strong message AND it would be funny.

No, no, no, no....... See you LEAVE the dislike and like buttons. But you add the bird button so now there are three options.

[Coola Yagami]

People have been saying just leave a comment that literally says 'dislike' and let people click like on that, lmao.

[1987]

this is all to protect biden. his inauguration video on youtube got way more dislikes than likes and youtube had to start removing dislikes, disabling comments, things like that. it’s clear the fraud was installed and the globalist agenda is there to prop him up one step at a time.

[Andrew NDB]

Disqus just removed the dislike button, too.