4 ms·

This is a damned shame. I use dislikes to gauge if a video is relevant to the topic at hand. For example, I like fixing stuff and use Youtube for unfamiliar it

This is a damned shame. I use dislikes to gauge if a video is relevant to the topic at hand. For example, I like fixing stuff and use Youtube for unfamiliar items. Often videos with a high number of dislikes are Spam (usually a bot reading text from some website), Videos where the person handwaves through the steps, videos where the fix is improper, or videos where the creator spends more time monetizing than working through the problem.

CorruptedArc 5y ago
Same thoughts I had, the more niche the topic the more important this feature was for finding a workable solution. A year back I was fixing a microphone and 9 of the 10 videos I looked at on it were convoluted expensive or ineffective work-arounds while one actually showed how to fix the issue relatively easily. I'm really gonna miss this feature.
- lelandfe 5y ago
  Another example of this: pronunciation videos. Downvotes are a massive indicator if a chosen video is inaccurate.
  - sseagull 5y ago
    Which is kind of funny when you think about it. Who would watch a pronunciation video if they already know how it’s pronounced? Not discounting what you said. Just found it amusing :)
    - SomewhatLikely 5y ago
      I suppose it could be people checking multiple sources and coming back to downvote after assessing which is the right one. At least that's the world I want to live in. A guy can dream.
      - hda2 5y ago
        > people checking multiple sources and coming back to downvote after assessing which is the right one I do this on stackoverflow. I wouldn't be surprised if this is what happened here as well.
    - eozoon 5y ago
      Often time when I look up a pronunciation video, it's for a language I'm learning and I have a vague idea of how the word is supposed to sound, but not sure on things like tonality and stress. So, if I were to look up how to say "ramen", I might not know if it's supposed to be ra-MEN or RA-men, but I'd know it's wrong if they say it like "r-amen".
- echelon 5y ago
  Some heavily downvoted videos are great. Here's a classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmv8quf_xM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmv8quf_xM Currently rated 3.7k likes, 15k dislikes. It's so good.
  - Ichijoe 5y ago
    I say we vote bomb Brandons WH Vids, and the next YTRewind, let Mama Susan have her "win" while it's clear to everyone else that the joke is on them.
sdenton4 5y ago
Seems like a combination of top-rated comment and likes divided by viewcount will yield similar information, though...
- ipaddr 5y ago
  Big assumption, have you run the data? I doubt it would be a good proxy. Make a video on a taboo topic. During the first wave you end up with tribal zealot commenting and liking with low/medium viewership. This pushes the video in the mainstream which causes more views but smaller likes counts. The top comments increase with flamewars in the comments. Without the dislike the popularity could be negative.
- asciimov 5y ago
  With this move I expect non-positive comments days to be numbered. Any feature that doesn't align with brand positivity is fair game to be removed.
simonsarris 5y ago
In the past I have used dislikes to tell if chain sawing tutorials are good or if the operator is insane. It works well for things like that.
gremloni 5y ago
For recommended videos I see only two paradigms - videos with >95% likes - mostly political videos that have obviously been brigaded imo this is a reasonable change
- ryanisnan 5y ago
  Really? At least when you search for a video topic, you are likely to get a wide range in quality. Regularly surfaced content has a variable amount of dislikes, and almost always the dislike count is signal and not noise.
- educaysean 5y ago
  I rarely engage with YT recommended videos so I can't verify the accuracy of your claims. Either way, however, it sounds like reworking their recommendations algorithm would be a more reasonable way to deal with this issue than simply hiding the like/dislike ratio. How is this change going to meaningfully affect which videos show up as recommended?
milofeynman 5y ago
That's exactly when dislikes are so useful. This screams of a bad/easy product decision by someone who doesn't use YouTube this way. Facebook, ebay, etc went to this so I guess that's the future. No negative reviews to maximize time-on-site.

CorruptedArc 5y ago

Same thoughts I had, the more niche the topic the more important this feature was for finding a workable solution. A year back I was fixing a microphone and 9 of the 10 videos I looked at on it were convoluted expensive or ineffective work-arounds while one actually showed how to fix the issue relatively easily. I'm really gonna miss this feature.

lelandfe 5y ago
Another example of this: pronunciation videos. Downvotes are a massive indicator if a chosen video is inaccurate.
- sseagull 5y ago
  Which is kind of funny when you think about it. Who would watch a pronunciation video if they already know how it’s pronounced? Not discounting what you said. Just found it amusing :)
  - SomewhatLikely 5y ago
    I suppose it could be people checking multiple sources and coming back to downvote after assessing which is the right one. At least that's the world I want to live in. A guy can dream.
    - hda2 5y ago
      > people checking multiple sources and coming back to downvote after assessing which is the right one I do this on stackoverflow. I wouldn't be surprised if this is what happened here as well.
  - eozoon 5y ago
    Often time when I look up a pronunciation video, it's for a language I'm learning and I have a vague idea of how the word is supposed to sound, but not sure on things like tonality and stress. So, if I were to look up how to say "ramen", I might not know if it's supposed to be ra-MEN or RA-men, but I'd know it's wrong if they say it like "r-amen".
echelon 5y ago
Some heavily downvoted videos are great. Here's a classic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmv8quf_xM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXmv8quf_xM Currently rated 3.7k likes, 15k dislikes. It's so good.
- Ichijoe 5y ago
  I say we vote bomb Brandons WH Vids, and the next YTRewind, let Mama Susan have her "win" while it's clear to everyone else that the joke is on them.

sdenton4 5y ago

Seems like a combination of top-rated comment and likes divided by viewcount will yield similar information, though...

ipaddr 5y ago
Big assumption, have you run the data? I doubt it would be a good proxy. Make a video on a taboo topic. During the first wave you end up with tribal zealot commenting and liking with low/medium viewership. This pushes the video in the mainstream which causes more views but smaller likes counts. The top comments increase with flamewars in the comments. Without the dislike the popularity could be negative.
asciimov 5y ago
With this move I expect non-positive comments days to be numbered. Any feature that doesn't align with brand positivity is fair game to be removed.

simonsarris 5y ago

In the past I have used dislikes to tell if chain sawing tutorials are good or if the operator is insane. It works well for things like that.

gremloni 5y ago

For recommended videos I see only two paradigms - videos with >95% likes - mostly political videos that have obviously been brigaded imo this is a reasonable change

ryanisnan 5y ago
Really? At least when you search for a video topic, you are likely to get a wide range in quality. Regularly surfaced content has a variable amount of dislikes, and almost always the dislike count is signal and not noise.
educaysean 5y ago
I rarely engage with YT recommended videos so I can't verify the accuracy of your claims. Either way, however, it sounds like reworking their recommendations algorithm would be a more reasonable way to deal with this issue than simply hiding the like/dislike ratio. How is this change going to meaningfully affect which videos show up as recommended?

milofeynman 5y ago

That's exactly when dislikes are so useful. This screams of a bad/easy product decision by someone who doesn't use YouTube this way. Facebook, ebay, etc went to this so I guess that's the future. No negative reviews to maximize time-on-site.