6 ms·

Do people actually look at the votes before watching a video? I don't think I've ever done that on YouTube. The outrage over this just seems so manufactured to

Do people actually look at the votes before watching a video? I don't think I've ever done that on YouTube. The outrage over this just seems so manufactured to me.

pier25 5y ago
Some times I do look at the votes while already watching the video, but that's it. Same with with the number of views. I have a feeling Youtubers are probably the segment most annoyed by the change, which happen to be the ones with the megaphone.
Toutouxc 5y ago
Yes, I used to do that every single time, and I would Cmd+W out of it immediately if the like/dislike ratio looked suspicious. Plenty of other videos in the sea.
jasode 5y ago
>Do people actually look at the votes before watching a video? Yes, lots of people do that to avoid wasting time on bad videos. Especially for product review videos or tutorials, the first thing I look at is the dislike count compared to the like count. If dislikes are high, it's because the reviewer didn't provide useful information. E.g. a "top 5 dash cams" where the video is simply a slide show of dashcams will have more dislikes than likes. Dislike counts may be unreliable for politics videos but it was an accurate indicator for other topics like DIY how-tos. With the dislikes gone, I now scroll through comments first before hitting play. (But some channels disable comments so that doesn't always work.) I hope Youtube brings the dislikes counter back as their policy change is very user hostile.
- mitchdoogle 5y ago
  Is there actual data on this somewhere that shows how the number of likes and dislikes affect users likelihood to watch? You don't even see the number of likes or dislikes in the video listing page, right? My experience with how to videos is that I'll search on Google, it'll pull up a good video and take me directly to the point in the video that discusses what I want to know. Sometimes I use number of views or number of subs to judge whether a video is worth watching. I've only ever used the like button a handful of times when I want to quickly save a video. I've never used the dislike. I always thought of them more as a metric YouTube uses in their algorithm and not something people pay much attention to , which can still be the case when the numbers are hidden. Maybe I'm wrong though.
  - jasode 5y ago
    >Is there actual data on this somewhere that shows how the number of likes and dislikes affect users likelihood to watch? I'm unaware of such statistics. >You don't even see the number of likes or dislikes in the video listing page, right? Correct, the dislikes count was only visible if you clicked into the video. So users that depend on the dislikes count to avoid a bad video would have to click into each video and take a quick glance at the dislikes/likes ratio. If the dislikes are too high, immediately exit out and click the next video. >I've only ever used the like button a handful of times when I want to quickly save a video. I've never used the dislike. I also never use the Like & Dislike _buttons_ but that's not relevant to how I found the dislikes _counts_ useful. (Because enough of other viewers expressed their vote by pressing the dislike button.) > I always thought of them more as a metric YouTube uses in their algorithm and not something people pay much attention to Lots of viewers pay attention them especially when searching for new videos from unknown creators who are not in their feed. A short video from MKBHD explains the usefulness of dislikes counts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaaJyRvvaq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaaJyRvvaq8 E.g. a tech conference might have generated 50 videos each an hour in length. The ones with too many dislikes, I just skip. The dislikes stats helped prioritize what to watch in this age of information overload. >which can still be the case when the numbers are hidden. Maybe I'm wrong though. Yes, Youtube says the algorithm will still consider dislikes even though they are hidden for recommendations. But people still want to see numerical stats to quickly curate videos that Youtube did not recommend.
commandlinefan 5y ago
I don't really watch YouTube much (I don't get sitting through somebody talking about something rather than just reading it myself) but I've seen a lot of people who do use YouTube to find educational videos using the like/dislike ratio as an indicator of the quality of a video. I guess if you're about to invest a half hour in listening to somebody talk about math or computer programming, you want some indication that it's going to be a half hour well spent. I guess I do the same when I'm thinking about buying a book about a technical topic, after all - I read the amazon reviews to see if it's going to be a waste of my time.
- Drew_ 5y ago
  You can get better feedback on whether a video is bad by skimming comments. You should also acknowledge that you may like content that is unpopular (highly disliked videos are never universally disliked).
  - jasode 5y ago
    >You can get better feedback on whether a video is bad by skimming comments. But many videos disabled comments while the dislikes count was still visible to help decide. >You should also acknowledge that you may like content that is unpopular (highly disliked videos For non-politics or non-music videos such as how-to tutorials or product reviews, I've never experienced this. The crowdsourced dislikes was a very accurate indicator of a bad video and I've never disagreed with it.
    - Drew_ 5y ago
      Disabled comments is a very strong signal in its own right. Ratings can also be disabled and usually are as well. Either way, it is still very easy to discern whether the video you are about to watch is controversial.
      - jasode 5y ago
        >Disabled comments is a very strong signal in its own right. It might be but often it's not. A common reason comments are disabled is that a female is in it which invites rude sexist remarks. For example, there was some advanced math university lectures taught by female professors and every one of them was spammed with "men of culture, we meet here again". Understandably, the channel later disabled the comments out of respect for those women but at least the dislike numbers were still visible. >, it is still very easy to discern whether the video you are about to watch is controversial. No, it's actually cumbersome and wastes extra time to determine if many how-to videos are bad quality without a dislike count. That's why so many are irritated that Youtube removed it.
passivate 5y ago
The argument for "Nobody looks at it" logically leads to removing most features/buttons except play, but UI isn't designed that way for a single workflow/use case. I sometimes look to see if people overwhelmingly disliked the video.
rbinv 5y ago
Yes, first thing. Anything with >=10% dislikes is usually not worth the watch imo.
jcun4128 5y ago
It's helpful to spot fake stuff like fake trailers or some kind of scam.
- rvnx 5y ago
  From the perspective of YouTube, the goal is to increase engagement, so you end up watching more video content = you win. Though it's a pretty sad tactic and deceptive in the long-term.
  - jcun4128 5y ago
    Yeah it's already employed where you can't tell how good a search result video is since the ratings aren't displayed there.
    - charcircuit 5y ago
      The order of the results shows you how good it is
dilap 5y ago
Honestly, I was surprised to find that I miss the downvotes. I did quickly use it as a sort of gauge of "is this chopped or not".
- stjohnswarts 5y ago
  what does "is this chopped" mean? Is this a new Gen Z term that I've yet to hear?
  - dilap 5y ago
    No idea.
fletchowns 5y ago
It can be helpful on the DIY help videos (home improvement stuff, etc) where the author of the video may have something wrong or dangerous in the instructions. It's not the only indicator since we have comments as well, but it's certainly a useful indicator.
Kaze404 5y ago
Watching any type of Minecraft tutorial on YouTube is impossible without dislikes. There's an insane amount of clickbait, including for contraptions that literally do not exist. It's crazy.
stjohnswarts 5y ago
Yeah it's definitely a vocal minority. I bet there is next to no drop in traffic on youtube or in ad revenue. For youtube it's probably a public opinion win.
2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago
Agreed. Following the drama has been so stupid. I challenge everybody who has a problem with this to boycott YouTube.
xdennis 5y ago
I don't think it's manufactured. I think there are two kinds of people: * a smaller group of people who care about it (like me); * and a majority of people who don't care either way about votes. YouTube can satisfy both by keeping downvotes, but Google is notorious about not giving a fuck about users and only caring about results. The small number of people who care about downvotes aren't going to stop watching because they're gone, so when viewed through the lens of Google's metrics these people simply don't exist at all.
mitchdoogle 5y ago
I'm with you. This feels a lot like when people grumble about some big company changing their logo. Mostly inconsequential but a vocal minority takes to the blogosphere to complain and it all dies down after a few months. People rarely even use the like button, let alone the dislike. I'd wager the majority of casual users don't even know anything has changed.
- sabellito 5y ago
  Not sure what your definition of "rarely" is. Normal well-liked videos have a 10 views to 1 like ratio; that does not fit my definition of rarely. When the dislike count was available, videos in the same category I mentioned above would get 100 likes to 1 dislike, perhaps that I'd call somewhat rare. But either way, I also don't care about the removal of the dislike count at all, one can still access the ratio via views to like count. It does sound actually crazy that people are up in arms about this.
brynjolf 5y ago
Your comment seem to be manufactured

Do people actually look at the votes before watching a video? I don't think I've ever done that on YouTube. The outrage over this just seems so manufactured to me.

pier25 5y ago

Some times I do look at the votes while already watching the video, but that's it. Same with with the number of views. I have a feeling Youtubers are probably the segment most annoyed by the change, which happen to be the ones with the megaphone.

Toutouxc 5y ago

Yes, I used to do that every single time, and I would Cmd+W out of it immediately if the like/dislike ratio looked suspicious. Plenty of other videos in the sea.

jasode 5y ago

>Do people actually look at the votes before watching a video? Yes, lots of people do that to avoid wasting time on bad videos. Especially for product review videos or tutorials, the first thing I look at is the dislike count compared to the like count. If dislikes are high, it's because the reviewer didn't provide useful information. E.g. a "top 5 dash cams" where the video is simply a slide show of dashcams will have more dislikes than likes. Dislike counts may be unreliable for politics videos but it was an accurate indicator for other topics like DIY how-tos. With the dislikes gone, I now scroll through comments first before hitting play. (But some channels disable comments so that doesn't always work.) I hope Youtube brings the dislikes counter back as their policy change is very user hostile.

mitchdoogle 5y ago
Is there actual data on this somewhere that shows how the number of likes and dislikes affect users likelihood to watch? You don't even see the number of likes or dislikes in the video listing page, right? My experience with how to videos is that I'll search on Google, it'll pull up a good video and take me directly to the point in the video that discusses what I want to know. Sometimes I use number of views or number of subs to judge whether a video is worth watching. I've only ever used the like button a handful of times when I want to quickly save a video. I've never used the dislike. I always thought of them more as a metric YouTube uses in their algorithm and not something people pay much attention to , which can still be the case when the numbers are hidden. Maybe I'm wrong though.
- jasode 5y ago
  >Is there actual data on this somewhere that shows how the number of likes and dislikes affect users likelihood to watch? I'm unaware of such statistics. >You don't even see the number of likes or dislikes in the video listing page, right? Correct, the dislikes count was only visible if you clicked into the video. So users that depend on the dislikes count to avoid a bad video would have to click into each video and take a quick glance at the dislikes/likes ratio. If the dislikes are too high, immediately exit out and click the next video. >I've only ever used the like button a handful of times when I want to quickly save a video. I've never used the dislike. I also never use the Like & Dislike _buttons_ but that's not relevant to how I found the dislikes _counts_ useful. (Because enough of other viewers expressed their vote by pressing the dislike button.) > I always thought of them more as a metric YouTube uses in their algorithm and not something people pay much attention to Lots of viewers pay attention them especially when searching for new videos from unknown creators who are not in their feed. A short video from MKBHD explains the usefulness of dislikes counts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaaJyRvvaq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaaJyRvvaq8 E.g. a tech conference might have generated 50 videos each an hour in length. The ones with too many dislikes, I just skip. The dislikes stats helped prioritize what to watch in this age of information overload. >which can still be the case when the numbers are hidden. Maybe I'm wrong though. Yes, Youtube says the algorithm will still consider dislikes even though they are hidden for recommendations. But people still want to see numerical stats to quickly curate videos that Youtube did not recommend.

commandlinefan 5y ago

I don't really watch YouTube much (I don't get sitting through somebody talking about something rather than just reading it myself) but I've seen a lot of people who do use YouTube to find educational videos using the like/dislike ratio as an indicator of the quality of a video. I guess if you're about to invest a half hour in listening to somebody talk about math or computer programming, you want some indication that it's going to be a half hour well spent. I guess I do the same when I'm thinking about buying a book about a technical topic, after all - I read the amazon reviews to see if it's going to be a waste of my time.

Drew_ 5y ago
You can get better feedback on whether a video is bad by skimming comments. You should also acknowledge that you may like content that is unpopular (highly disliked videos are never universally disliked).
- jasode 5y ago
  >You can get better feedback on whether a video is bad by skimming comments. But many videos disabled comments while the dislikes count was still visible to help decide. >You should also acknowledge that you may like content that is unpopular (highly disliked videos For non-politics or non-music videos such as how-to tutorials or product reviews, I've never experienced this. The crowdsourced dislikes was a very accurate indicator of a bad video and I've never disagreed with it.
  - Drew_ 5y ago
    Disabled comments is a very strong signal in its own right. Ratings can also be disabled and usually are as well. Either way, it is still very easy to discern whether the video you are about to watch is controversial.
    - jasode 5y ago
      >Disabled comments is a very strong signal in its own right. It might be but often it's not. A common reason comments are disabled is that a female is in it which invites rude sexist remarks. For example, there was some advanced math university lectures taught by female professors and every one of them was spammed with "men of culture, we meet here again". Understandably, the channel later disabled the comments out of respect for those women but at least the dislike numbers were still visible. >, it is still very easy to discern whether the video you are about to watch is controversial. No, it's actually cumbersome and wastes extra time to determine if many how-to videos are bad quality without a dislike count. That's why so many are irritated that Youtube removed it.

passivate 5y ago

The argument for "Nobody looks at it" logically leads to removing most features/buttons except play, but UI isn't designed that way for a single workflow/use case. I sometimes look to see if people overwhelmingly disliked the video.

rbinv 5y ago

Yes, first thing. Anything with >=10% dislikes is usually not worth the watch imo.

jcun4128 5y ago

It's helpful to spot fake stuff like fake trailers or some kind of scam.

rvnx 5y ago
From the perspective of YouTube, the goal is to increase engagement, so you end up watching more video content = you win. Though it's a pretty sad tactic and deceptive in the long-term.
- jcun4128 5y ago
  Yeah it's already employed where you can't tell how good a search result video is since the ratings aren't displayed there.
  - charcircuit 5y ago
    The order of the results shows you how good it is

dilap 5y ago

Honestly, I was surprised to find that I miss the downvotes. I did quickly use it as a sort of gauge of "is this chopped or not".

stjohnswarts 5y ago
what does "is this chopped" mean? Is this a new Gen Z term that I've yet to hear?
- dilap 5y ago
  No idea.

fletchowns 5y ago

It can be helpful on the DIY help videos (home improvement stuff, etc) where the author of the video may have something wrong or dangerous in the instructions. It's not the only indicator since we have comments as well, but it's certainly a useful indicator.

Kaze404 5y ago

Watching any type of Minecraft tutorial on YouTube is impossible without dislikes. There's an insane amount of clickbait, including for contraptions that literally do not exist. It's crazy.

stjohnswarts 5y ago

Yeah it's definitely a vocal minority. I bet there is next to no drop in traffic on youtube or in ad revenue. For youtube it's probably a public opinion win.

2OEH8eoCRo0 5y ago

Agreed. Following the drama has been so stupid. I challenge everybody who has a problem with this to boycott YouTube.

xdennis 5y ago

I don't think it's manufactured. I think there are two kinds of people: * a smaller group of people who care about it (like me); * and a majority of people who don't care either way about votes. YouTube can satisfy both by keeping downvotes, but Google is notorious about not giving a fuck about users and only caring about results. The small number of people who care about downvotes aren't going to stop watching because they're gone, so when viewed through the lens of Google's metrics these people simply don't exist at all.

mitchdoogle 5y ago

I'm with you. This feels a lot like when people grumble about some big company changing their logo. Mostly inconsequential but a vocal minority takes to the blogosphere to complain and it all dies down after a few months. People rarely even use the like button, let alone the dislike. I'd wager the majority of casual users don't even know anything has changed.

sabellito 5y ago
Not sure what your definition of "rarely" is. Normal well-liked videos have a 10 views to 1 like ratio; that does not fit my definition of rarely. When the dislike count was available, videos in the same category I mentioned above would get 100 likes to 1 dislike, perhaps that I'd call somewhat rare. But either way, I also don't care about the removal of the dislike count at all, one can still access the ratio via views to like count. It does sound actually crazy that people are up in arms about this.

brynjolf 5y ago

Your comment seem to be manufactured