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> Why is everyone pretending that the maximal amount of ad revenue comes doesn’t come from showing you what you want to see? There's a very philosophical debat

> Why is everyone pretending that the maximal amount of ad revenue comes doesn’t come from showing you what you want to see? There's a very philosophical debate hidden between the words in that sentence. But since Youtube sees dislike as a signal to boost a video, it spreads content-views to things that people don't like, but feel compelled to interact with in (what I assume is) the "Not now, I'm busy - someone is being wrong on the internet" kind of way. You can say, that is what people _actually_ want, since that is what they end up spending time on. You can point to popular subreddits like r/idiotsincars or r/makesmybloodboil and say "see! people love being enraged", and I think it is a valid view on defining "want", though not one I subscribe to. I think this is not what people want, and promoting this kind of behaviour will in the mid to long term scare off users. My understanding of Tik-Tok is that they promote a style of feel-good content, rather than rage-inducing content and they are beating both Facebook and Youtube, who've been promoting dislikes.

fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
According to the study we are commenting on, the dislike is a negative signal for the recommendation system, just not a very strong one.
vineyardmike 4y ago
> But since Youtube sees dislike as a signal to boost a video, it spreads content-views to things that people don't like, but feel compelled to interact with in (what I assume is) the "Not now, I'm busy - someone is being wrong on the internet" kind of way. I just don’t see YT having the same feedback loops as other places. You can stay on without being directly typing in comments like on fb or twitter. I personally never see rage-inducing content on YouTube (nor other sites), nor do i see it on my partners, friends, parents accounts. I’m sure it’s there, but I think that people who get it are training their recommendations to show it, not being forced it. I get way more rageful content on TikTok ironically, which has a way weaker “dislike” signal and a stronger propensity to show you new things. To the point, I understand the incentive someone like fb has to show content people don’t like but still engage with, but I’m not sure that the incentive exists in YouTube. Furthermore I think we discredit companies (who are made up of sentient and capable people) to recognize short term vs long term value and the importance of reputation. I reject the notion that there’s someone in San Bruno pitching that they use the dislike button to show more of that video instead of a negative quality signal. No one I know in Silicon Valley who works in tech would make such a suggestion, and they’re no different than the YouTube team on a fundamental level.

fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago

According to the study we are commenting on, the dislike is a negative signal for the recommendation system, just not a very strong one.

vineyardmike 4y ago

> But since Youtube sees dislike as a signal to boost a video, it spreads content-views to things that people don't like, but feel compelled to interact with in (what I assume is) the "Not now, I'm busy - someone is being wrong on the internet" kind of way. I just don’t see YT having the same feedback loops as other places. You can stay on without being directly typing in comments like on fb or twitter. I personally never see rage-inducing content on YouTube (nor other sites), nor do i see it on my partners, friends, parents accounts. I’m sure it’s there, but I think that people who get it are training their recommendations to show it, not being forced it. I get way more rageful content on TikTok ironically, which has a way weaker “dislike” signal and a stronger propensity to show you new things. To the point, I understand the incentive someone like fb has to show content people don’t like but still engage with, but I’m not sure that the incentive exists in YouTube. Furthermore I think we discredit companies (who are made up of sentient and capable people) to recognize short term vs long term value and the importance of reputation. I reject the notion that there’s someone in San Bruno pitching that they use the dislike button to show more of that video instead of a negative quality signal. No one I know in Silicon Valley who works in tech would make such a suggestion, and they’re no different than the YouTube team on a fundamental level.