Your opinion on videos still matters though (if it’s a thumbs up or down) but YouTube is trying out a feature that tends to stop you from seeing the total dislike counts of a video.
A lot of internet users tried countless times on getting their voices heard and the negative bomb stands as a powerful tool in their arsenal. YouTube is planning to remove bit by bit this strategy in the bud by preventing uses from seeing the dislike count.
Reasons for the Latest Testing’s on Hiding the Dislike Count
This changes was made known by the entertainment giant on twitter saying
“ In response to creator feedback around well being and targeted dislike campaigns, we’re testing a few designs that don’t show the public dislike counts. If you’re part of this small experiment, you might spot one if these designs in the coming weeks”.
From the statement above, the number of people that dislikes a video will be hidden while the number of people that liked a video will be displayed. The uploaders of videos will be able to see both counts on the liked and dislikes video which means viewer can still view out their opinions but they just don’t get to see how many people disliked that video. With this, the hope of clicking the dislike button should be basically and genuinely for feedback purposes and not a part of targeted campaign.
Using Negative as a Weapon
Yes this new change is great for YouTube but users that want their voices to be heard don’t seem to happy about it. There’s a rating system for websites like YouTube, meaning creators prefer the ratings to be as positive as possible. However, users can get a creator’s attention by posting negative ratings on purpose to force those in charge to act.
A good example of this is the Valve’s digital video game store Steam. Once a developer does something contentious , users flood the store page with negative reviews to tank the user score rating. Though, Valve has been trying to work on a way out of this mess by fixing it up.
Once the uploaders upload something disagreeable or contentious, users tend to tank the ratio with negativity which stands as it’s own version of it’s tactic.
The next thing now is to see how this changes roll. Will it be a relief that the drama surrounding the like-dislike ratio is finally out or they’ll see it as a censorship of the people’s voice? Let’s see how it all turns out and how users will take this new changes. Tell us what your take is on this and flow well with it.
