The Dislike Counts on Youtube Needs To Comeback
There’s a reason why we need it, and I found a way to bring it back.
The removal of the dislike button has been really tough. As I watch news and tutorials online, it’s hard to find which one is clickbaity or something that it’s really controversial like throwing puppies in a lake which I disliked to oblivion.
I’m sure you’ve noticed the missing dislike meter. This was done in an attempt to decrease the amount of bullying on their site, which I understand. There are dislike counts that I don’t like such as videos of people doing good like 4Oceans where they clean oceans and lakes from mountains of garbages, and there are dislikes of it. Why would you even dislike those kinds of videos?
Why do you want the dislike meter back as a content creator?
If you are a content creator, perhaps you may want to consider voicing out to bring back the dislike counts back because it’s a huge help when you are going to create something.
At first, I thought that it’s a great way to keep viewers away from seeing whether certain contents are bad. It also protects the creators from being judged by the scales.
But after experiencing the removal of that scale, it’s actually getting even more frustrating for me.
Now, I can’t tell whether a news source online is credible or not or a video of something incredibly stupid and terrible that I can’t help but must dislike. It’s my passive-aggressive way of criticism and giving them my ratings. If Amazon removes the rating scales on products, I’d go find another website where they’d keep them, and I’m certain other sites would do that too.
The dislike button is there for a reason, and it’s to tell the content creator that there is something wrong with that content and that it needs to improve for the next creations to come. It’s an engagement between creators and audiences for better content.
Comparing to Medium
In the case of Medium, they never implemented this system from the very beginning because theirs are basically claps, not likings. And unlike Youtube, Medium promotes the exchange of thoughts, opinions, and discussions where you have to think through it carefully when you articulate your words.
Whereas Youtube, it’s mostly for entertainment. They do have data explanations, but it doesn’t have the time for an academic style format where you need to read/listen to them carefully. With Youtube shorts, those types of information are very limited. Plus, they implemented the dislike system from the very beginning, so we are all in need of those so that it won’t waste our time.
And now that the dislike scales are gone, Youtube is like forcing us to watch every single content, even the unreliable ones. Thus, it’s like indicating to the creator that it’s fine to make these types of videos as people are going to click to watch them. It doesn’t matter if you can still dislike it so long as people can still click it. But it’d be a waste of time if I have to see something that I know that I’m not going to like. It’d be more frustrating especially if the videos involved political remarks that would be forced down our throats.
I think removing the dislikes is a huge mistake. The dislike count served as a deterrent for users who were considering leaving terrible comments on your video, and now they can do so with impunity.
Before it served to be an alternative approach to criticism. Now, it’s just amplifying more bullyings on Youtube (lest comment sections are turned off).
Youtube said that content creators can still see the dislike counts, so what’s the point of hiding the scales then? If anything, they are just encouraging more online bullying. It kind of defeats the purpose of even showing what good products or services are, it’s as if Amazon removed the ratings of products online, and customers won’t be able to know which products are reliable.
To this day, I’m still mad about this. It’s hard watching the news now without knowing whether it’s a reliable source of information or videos that aren’t even something that I would even want to watch.
My watching experience was so bugged.
Reviving the Dislike counts
Then I stumbled across news where it says that there is a way to bring back the dislike counts.
Simply by installing an extension into your browser.
So I tried it, you can use the link here. And when I gave it a test. It works!
Note: I’m not showing this promote you guys to dislike this video, it’s just proof that I can still see the dislike counts despite the video being uploaded after the announcement. In fact, this video has more ‘likes’ than ‘dislikes’ so it tells me that this video is worth my time.
This only works when you are on your computer. I don’t think there is one for your phone…..yet.
Nether the less, I’m so happy to whoever made this extension. It’s easier for me to see if the video is something I’d spare my time to even watch. I know that I’m not supposed to judge a video based on the scales, but I don’t want to waste my time watching things that I may not like.
So I hope that helps. So far, it’s said that there are more than 50,000 users installed this extension. If you install it too, perhaps it will give a message to Youtube about what we feel about their decision.
Happy watching!!
And if you are an employee of Youtube, I hope you’d consider bringing the dislike counts back.
