4 ms·

The reason dislike count had to be removed is that it enables hate campaigns against things (e.g. the recent controversy around the trailer for the live action

The reason dislike count had to be removed is that it enables hate campaigns against things (e.g. the recent controversy around the trailer for the live action The Little Mermaid movie, to name one among many). Organized hate campaigns have a disproportionate representation in review sites, so they break rating systems. Also, the dislike count acts as a positive signal to hate-bombers ("we're winning", "let's make it to 50k dislikes") more than it helps anyone actually engaging with the content in a more healthy way. One could also argue that the like count also creates a pernicious culture around subscriber / watch-count ("help us reach 1M subs!") that negatively affects young content producers and adds nothing of value to the world. But that's a much more complex conversation.

docmars 4y ago
Perhaps this is just democracy at play, doing what it's meant to do. I've found that people who interpret a high number of dislikes as "hate campaigns" are usually the ones who agree, if not, applaud the content being disapproved of by a larger group who is frustrated with the subject matter and is using their voices to show their disapproval. This is just as valid the other way around, where you should equally have the opportunity to express your disapproval of a video on the basis of political issues if you so please. Review-bombing certainly exists, but I don't believe it's the norm when there's a high amount of dislikes out-ratioing the likes. And even in the case of review-bombing: to me, it's a clear indicator of societal sentiment around a topic or aspect of whatever it is. I think we should be paying more attention to it, and spend more time publicly discussing these moments, treating high dislike counts as a valid point of view. Unfortunately there is a certain political leaning who has grown quite comfortable with gaslighting those who hold and express majority opinions that aren't popular with late night TV hosts and celebrities, who further encourage hatred, violence, suppression, and ridicule towards this populace as they watch the wealthy and powerful deconstruct every bit of their culture and values, where the only replacement is woke garbage that they've clearly expressed not wanting through their votes, and yes: dislikes. Democracy is eventually unfriendly to those who twist it into a guise for fully endorsed mob rule — and it will bite back.

docmars 4y ago

Perhaps this is just democracy at play, doing what it's meant to do. I've found that people who interpret a high number of dislikes as "hate campaigns" are usually the ones who agree, if not, applaud the content being disapproved of by a larger group who is frustrated with the subject matter and is using their voices to show their disapproval. This is just as valid the other way around, where you should equally have the opportunity to express your disapproval of a video on the basis of political issues if you so please. Review-bombing certainly exists, but I don't believe it's the norm when there's a high amount of dislikes out-ratioing the likes. And even in the case of review-bombing: to me, it's a clear indicator of societal sentiment around a topic or aspect of whatever it is. I think we should be paying more attention to it, and spend more time publicly discussing these moments, treating high dislike counts as a valid point of view. Unfortunately there is a certain political leaning who has grown quite comfortable with gaslighting those who hold and express majority opinions that aren't popular with late night TV hosts and celebrities, who further encourage hatred, violence, suppression, and ridicule towards this populace as they watch the wealthy and powerful deconstruct every bit of their culture and values, where the only replacement is woke garbage that they've clearly expressed not wanting through their votes, and yes: dislikes. Democracy is eventually unfriendly to those who twist it into a guise for fully endorsed mob rule — and it will bite back.