YouTube Removed Dislike Count: What does that mean for us?!
Continous changes
YouTube removed dislike count: What does that mean for us?!
As always, YouTube continuously changes, if we like it or not…
A while back, YouTube announced that it was experimenting whit making dislike counts private. We were all surprised by that. Dislikes had the tendencies to show us if the content is good, or if some hake videos can help us.
The YouTube team thinks that there is a whole other use for the dislikes. Apparently, there are groups of people- trolls targeting creators, and continuously sabotaging them by disliking their videos. We hope non of you had this experience. No one can say for sure if this is true or not. And, no, apparently it’s not because their: YouTube Rewind 2018 video was most disliked on the platform. 🙂
YouTube dislikes will be gone forever. Well, not really, dislike button is staying, but dislike counts will be private. You can still dislike videos. You as a content creator can find it on the backend.
So… Why did YouTube remove the dislike count?
It’s not uncommon that big tech companies will provide clarity of their actions. And, YouTube has given an explanation about that topic.
Read what they had to say below.
“Earlier this year, we experimented with the dislike button to see whether or not changes could help better protect our creators from harassment, and reduce dislike attacks — where people work to drive up the number of dislikes on a creator’s videos.
As part of this experiment, viewers could still see and use the dislike button. But because the count was not visible to them, we found that they were less likely to target a video’s dislike button to drive up the count. In short, our experiment data showed a reduction in dislike attacking behavior1. We also heard directly from smaller creators and those just getting started that they are unfairly targeted by this behavior — and our experiment confirmed that this does occur at a higher proportion on smaller channels.”
So, YouTube says it’s for the protection of creators from trolls. But, what does this mean to you?
What does this mean to you as a content creator?
So… Can the viewers still dislike your video? Yes, yes they can. But the dislike count is not visible for other creators and viewers. It’s a bit odd because YouTube as written above says that they want to protect the mental health of creators. But, the creators still see in the background theirs dislike count… So, maybe it’s just to protect the creators from ”humiliation”?
YouTube still means business, so, the metric still exists.
What does this mean to you as a viewer?
The like and dislike ratio has always been a great tool to see if the video is worth your time or not.
Well with this being said, and the dislike count being gone, you will have a bit more trouble figuring out if for example the tutorial is helpful or not. You will have to watch the video and figure it out by yourself. You can still hit the dislike button if you are not satisfied with it, but it won’t help other viewers to know if it’s useful.
What does the YouTube community say?
As you can see, the opinions on why the dislike button was removed (better to say the count is hidden) are different. But most of them are negative. People don’t like where YouTube is going with that and don’t really trust what the YouTube creators are saying.
You have the right to your own opinion, but on YouTube, there is one way less to express that.
History of YouTube ratings
YouTube in old days had a star-based rating. There you could rate the videos from 1-5 stars.
They saw that the majority of ratings were 1 or 5 stars, so then they decide to simplify it on Like and Dislike.
The like and dislike are helping the YouTube algorithm to determine where videos rank on the site. Because of that, the dislike ratio is still important, and even if you don’t see the numbers yourself, you should express your opinion.
That’s it in a nutshell
That would be it in short.
Many people are very opposite to the decision of YouTube. Maybe there will be something new in a short period of time, although they seem pretty set on it.
We shall see.
Ultimately, YouTube dislikes will never determine whether you can be successful. They’re simply not that important.
Good luck!
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