Restoring YouTube's Dislike Button - Helpful or Hurtful?
I wasn't sure if this blog should count as a post or training - so I went with a post!
YouTube Dislikes
Some of you are aware that YouTube removed the "Dislike" button on their YouTube videos, claiming they want to protect the little guy and prevent targeted dislike attacks. I found this reasoning rather amusing. Since when, in their long history, has YouTube ever been concerned about THAT?
Now, personally - I hate trolls, and understand how this would affect a newbie posting a video for the first time. But on the other hand, I understand that this is the internet and not everyone is going to agree with or like your video. This is just life.
But the important thing for me is that without the knowing the number of "Dislikes" on a video, I can't gauge the metrics on it. Now if I purposely search for a video on "Photography skills" on YouTube, and I watch one in particular that I find helpful, I'm going to give it "Like", regardless of whether there are a few dislikes. The important thing is that I took something helpful away from it, and gave it a "Like"
I feel that YouTube has hidden the Dislike button for other reasons, because there some videos out there that "Ratio'd" - when a video far more "Dislikes" than "Likes". I feel that hiding is a way of protecting particular videos from being bombarded with dislikes - which doesn't give me a proper understanding of public feedback on the video.
My Discovery
But this week, while commenting on a video, I discovered a browser plugin for Edge called "Restore YouTube Dislike" - which will allow you to see the actual number of "Dislikes" on a YouTube video. The Chrome version is called "Return YouTube Dislikes" and can be found in the Chrome Store.
Now that I've restored this feature, I'm able to accurately gauge which particular videos are worth my time and which ones aren't.
And personally? I don't like it when someone pulls the wool over my eyes and hoodwinks me.
One example? I'm a huge Star Wars fan who grew up on the original trilogy - AKA the REAL Star Wars and not anything Disney related! (Just my opinion. If you liked the latest trilogy from Disney, then I respect that)
But I'm a true Star Wars disciple who had the toys, comic books, t-shirts, fan-cub, posters and can quote those first three movies - chapter and verse! And give a thumbs down on the latest trilogy.
So when I see the trailer for "The Force Awakens" with about 781K likes and NO DISLIKES? That's very deceptive! So did EVERYONE like this trailer?
However, after restoring the "Dislikes" with the browser plugins, I can clearly see there were fans who didn't like this trailer - with 781K likes and 27K dislikes! That's more accurate!
I just wanted to share this plugin with the rest of the community for anyone interested in restoring the YouTube "Dislike" count in their browsers.
But I'm curious on what everyone's thoughts are on the "Dislike" counts on YouTube. Do you feel it helps to see this metric? Or hurts?
Thanks everyone!
Isaiah 😊
Recent Comments
9
A good share, Isaiah! I am also more parital to the George Lucas Star Wars movies, myself!
I also believe the dislikes were removed for political reasons because the party is power was getting clobbered and it didn't fit in with their narrative that they are trying to foist on the American people! Just my 2 cents!
Jeff
I’m in the same boat as Brenda below.
If I click the dislike button, it flashes a message that states that the owner will get notified. Better than nothing, I suppose.
Yes, there most certainly are trolls but when I would see hundreds, if not thousands, of likes vs. a paltry handful of dislikes, I could view knowing that it’s probably a video that lives up to its description. What killed me, is if there is a description like “cat wiggles butt before attacking” (oh yes! I’ve seen this exact example!) and that is precisely what I saw, I would give it a like. It always seemed odd to me that a clip like that would get dislikes. What were they expecting? Dancing elephants? SMH
Anyways, to me, it all boils down to censorship. Just like an election, we should be able to see the votes each way. I don’t think the dislike button was misused to the extent that it would cripple the little guy.
What happened to our freedom of speech to voice our opinion on these with a simple like or dislike? On the cat video above, there were tons of likes and less than 200 dislikes. I think that showing the dislikes make the proponents of the video come out in droves, liking the video to counteract the trolls.
Don’t let trolls rob us of our freedom of speech, create censorship and destroy a ranking system that worked well in just one click!
But that’s just the opinion of one little Canadian who usually likes to pretend we are Switzerland.
Darlene
Interesting, I still see the dislike button on YouTube, its there but if you click it, it doesn't work? The same could be said about WA. WA doesn't have a dislike button either and could be very well the same reason why YouTube disabled that feature. I use Safari, Apple devices and Apple MacBook Pro. Wouldnt be able to use that restore part as I dont use Edge.
I have Chrome. I can still see the dislike button in YouTube looks like some videos have it and some don't.
See more comments
Good info on the plugin. Always appreciate learning these things through our community.
Thanks,
Bill
Glad that you found it helpful, Bill!