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Slashdot Asks: Should YouTube Remove the Dislike Count? (vortex.com) 141

On Wednesday, YouTube announced a controversial decision to make the "dislike" count on videos private across its platform. While the intent is to better protect its creators from harassment and reduce the threat of "dislike attacks," the decision has been met with a lot of criticism, especially among prominent tech YouTubers like MKBHD who claims the dislike count is a "useful tool to see how helpful a video will be at a glance." Surely, you've searched for a "how-to" video and immediately clicked off because you noticed the like-to-dislike ratio completely skewed. In my experience, it's been a very good indicator as to how accurate or helpful a video is.

Long-time Slashdot reader Lauren Weinstein weighs in on the decision, saying a more "nuanced approach would be preferable." They write: In particular, my view is that it is reasonable to remove the publicly viewable Dislike counts from videos by default, but that creators should be provided with an option to re-enable those counts on their specific videos (or on all of their videos) if they wish to do so. With YouTube removing the counts by default, YouTube creators who are not aware of these issues will be automatically protected. But creators who feel that showing Dislike counts is good for them could opt to display them. Win-win! What are your thoughts on YouTube's decision to remove the dislike count? Did they go too far or does their reasoning make sense?
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Slashdot Asks: Should YouTube Remove the Dislike Count?

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  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @07:52PM (#61983059)
    This change is about removing viewer's ability to disagree with the presented narrative. Otherwise they would have also removed likes.

    For example:
    A video encouraging you to take a supplement with 1000 likes and 10,000 dislikes.
    vs.
    A video encouraging you to take a supplement with 1000 likes.

    Which one are you more likely to believe?
    • by lsllll ( 830002 )

      This change is about removing viewer's ability to disagree with the presented narrative.

      No, it is not. It's about the viewer's ability to see how many others disagreed with the presented narrative. You can still disagree with it.

      • by Vegemeister ( 1259976 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @08:20PM (#61983137)
        Well, yes. but that's functionally the same goal. The purpose is to prevent dissidents from attaining common knowledge.
        • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

          It is to further aid dishonest and ignorant content for profit. The purpose of "Agree and Disagree" is not to shape your future recommendations, it is to public express whether you agree or disagree. Problem is that it is too good at displaying disagreement.

        • 100% this.

          I gain more from the bad online reviews than I do from the good ones. Because half the good ones are from the seller.

          When you read the bad ones, you can see the stupid fucks who had their head stuck up their ass and couldn't see the product, as well as the people who had legit issues. Likes/dislikes aren't this useful, but they do tell you some important info. Hiding dislikes means you can't distinguish from a slow climb due to few likes vs a slow climb due to a lot of angry dislikes.

          Also, youtube has already gone to "like this comment to dislike this video". Lol, life finds a way!

      • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        Quite a distinction. It's about hiding negative feedback. Clearly the OP understands that Youtube can't prevent him from disagreeing, but you got to be disagreeable.

    • This change is about removing viewer's ability to disagree with the presented narrative. Otherwise they would have also removed likes. For example:
      A video encouraging you to take a supplement with 1000 likes and 10,000 dislikes.
      vs.
      A video encouraging you to take a supplement with 1000 likes.

      Which one are you more likely to believe?

      Not sure how "believe" and "like/dislike" are the same thing. And aren't these really just about popularity? Even so, wouldn't it depend on if the (dis)likes are about the video itself or its message -- they're not necessarily the same thing... You can like a person's appearance, but dislike their personality.

      To offer something similarly incongruous from the TV show "The Good Place":

      Eleanor Shellstrop: I need to figure out a way both help him and not help him, at the same time.
      Chidi Anagonye: That's literally not possible.
      Eleanor Shellstrop: Oh, really? I once posed as a hot prom date for my cousin, both helping him and later - according to his therapist - not helping him.

      • by Antique Geekmeister ( 740220 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @09:18PM (#61983285)

        A lack of dissent helps reinforce erroneous and even dangerously wrong opinion. Look up the Asch Conformity Experiment, https://www.simplypsychology.o... [simplypsychology.org]

        • A lack of dissent

          I love the idea that a "dislike" button is some sort of dissent in a reasonable, rational debate.

          • Why would you claim that it is not and cannot be?

            • Why would you claim that it is not and cannot be?

              For real?

              How on earth can it be? You have 3 states: like, dislike and neither. That's a grand total of 1.585 bits of information. That's not enough for a "rational debate".

              It can be for a variety of reasons:
              1. The video is badly made so I dislike it.
              2. I disagree with the premise/evidence/conclusion of the argument
              3. The thing you're doing is fake (cough 5 minute crafts)
              4. The thing you're doing is dangerous (cough cough 5 minute crafts)
              5. The thing you're do

      • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        "Not sure how "believe" and "like/dislike" are the same thing."

        Swing at that windmill!

        "And aren't these really just about popularity?"

        That's certainly what Youtube wants, but no.

        "Even so, wouldn't it depend on if the (dis)likes are about the video itself or its message -- they're not necessarily the same thing... You can like a person's appearance, but dislike their personality."

        No one cares about dislikes on vanity videos. Apparently you think that's all there is. You must think that a viewer who believe

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Exactly and it also removes accountability for all involved. Youtube's shadowbanning won't be as obvious either (making them more useful for corporate puppets, mainstream media etc. - certainly easier to gaslight viewers with social proofing). When you have political channels arguing against prevalent narratives and the like count is something like 99.9%, it's obviously suppressed by the algorithm and given only to subscribers. That can be further confirmed with SocialBlade. YouTube also benefits because pe

    • by Kisai ( 213879 )

      No my dude, it's about giving control back to the video poster and not be bullied by hate-brigading trolls from 4chan

      And yes, they probably should have removed the like buttons entirely. The ability to report scams still exist.

      • by hjf ( 703092 )

        giving control back to the video poster and not be bullied by hate-brigading trolls from 4chan

        lol.
        ok, boomer. first of all, 4chan doesn't do that kind of bullshit for no reason. you're thinking of "ARMY" mostly. Look them up, you'll be surprised who they are.

        And also, hiding like/dislike was already possible. You WERE in control.

        This is all about "schrodinger's video": you don't know what you're going to find until you watch it (and ads were pushed down your throat). With the dislike count you could easily

      • by dfghjk ( 711126 )

        Bullshit. Trolls don't use the dislike button, and you are the troll.

        If you post a public video, you are not entitled to be "given back control" of public opinion regarding it.

        "And yes, they probably should have removed the like buttons entirely."

        The fact that they didn't tells you the intent precisely. It also shows that you are wrong.

      • by sinij ( 911942 )

        No my dude, it's about giving control back to the video poster and not be bullied by hate-brigading trolls from 4chan

        While this does happen, what would be your guess of percentage of dislikes that generate by 4chan vs. regular users?

      • by JBeretta ( 7487512 ) on Saturday November 13, 2021 @12:52AM (#61983573)

        No my dude, it's about giving control back to the video poster and not be bullied by hate-brigading trolls from 4chan

        What a steaming pile of horseshit.

        The video poster has had that control forever. You never come across a video that has comments disabled?

        The comments section COULD be used as a vehicle for a bully to attack (via some ethnic slur or something), but the same is certainly not true of the dislike button. A dislike click isn't racist or sexist or ...ist. It's just a fucking dislike. If you can't handle that bare minimum of public feedback, you aren't an adult and you don't belong on the fucking internet. The rest of us aren't interesting in coddling you spineless jellyfish.

    • Which one are you more likely to believe?

      The one with 1,000 likes and 10,000 dislikes. The other one is clearly falsified, in a system where dislikes exist.

      I'll be honest. I don't do much social media, but the one real experience I've got with likes/dislikes is a discussion about gaming rules. Thumbs-up is used regularly to indicate "me too". A couple people tried to use thumbs-down on things they didn't like, but were ultimately asked to stop, and to use their words to explain why they didn't like something. It lead to better discussion an

    • Ehhh, not really buying that analysis. Dislikes can pile up for any number of reasons that may be completely unrelated to the actual content of the video. People bomb content to go after the publisher/creator, for example. As a viewer, dislike count doesn't really help me evaluate the video in any way; shape; or form. So what if "a supplement" video has 10k dislikes? Unless I get some analysis as to why "a supplement" isn't going to work then I can't make any intelligent decisions about whether or not I

    • Slashdot is regurgitating the marketspeak remarkably recently. We had denuvo's "protection" (not what that is or does), and now youtube's "intent" (that's spelled excuse over in sanity land).
    • That might be the case, but it presumes that the numbers they showed before were true. What makes you think so? Why do you believe any amounts of likes, dislikes, votes, ratings, or any such numbers you see on the internet? If youtube wants you to believe something, they can simply show faked numbers instead of none.

    • Everyone should just start leaving comments with the word "dislike" in it.

    • By removing dislikes, Youtube will be misrepresenting user reactions to videos.
      Isn't this misinformation that has gotten others banned?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 12, 2021 @08:00PM (#61983075)
    Let's face it... 81 million votes just doesn't buy you the approval it used it. Inflation?
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      On the one hand, most voted president ever. On the other hand, consistently downvoted by 80-90%.

      Something's fucky.

      • by Mitreya ( 579078 )

        On the one hand, most voted president ever. On the other hand, consistently downvoted by 80-90%.

        It is perfectly (if sadly) consistent. A lot of people voted for "NOT the other guy", instead of "FOR this president".

  • Where likes only go to 5 and unlikes only to -1. Of course there is a qualitative nuance to /. ups & downs, but no money attaches.

    I'm guessing "thumbs up" on the Youtube creates monetary value and "thumbs down" devalues things. Good reason to get rid of dislikes. Too cynical?

    • Posts start at score 2 if you have good karma, and 2 is exactly in the middle of the range -1 to 5.

      Unlike here, downvotes on youtube arent a "bad" that causes your stuff to be burried - they represent engagement, and because all engagement is good, youtube promotes highly downvoted videos also.

      We know whats going on here. You arent supposed to know that 150000 other people also disliked this video, because THIS video is special, as THIS content producer is special, because SOMEthing something WOKE.
  • by jenningsthecat ( 1525947 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @08:08PM (#61983093)

    I pay no attention to likes and dislikes. In my opinion they're like "star ratings" of movies and TV shows - popularity contest results with no context and therefore no claim to validity. I'll read reviews and perhaps let them have some weight in my viewing decisions; but if some other viewers can't be bothered to do more than click on 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down', why should their opinion influence my behaviour?

    • by lsllll ( 830002 )

      I'm the exact opposite. I look at the view count, likes, and dislikes. Based on my observation, on average, a video has anywhere between a 2%-5% dislike ratio (usually on the lower side of that). If a video has

      Without the dislike count, I'd have to either read comments (which are sometimes removed) or be forced to watch the video, which is what both YouTube and the content creators want.

      • by lsllll ( 830002 )

        Damn. The angle bracket ate my comment! Anyway.

        I'm the exact opposite. I look at the view count, likes, and dislikes. Based on my observation, on average, a video has anywhere between a 2%-5% dislike ratio (usually on the lower side of that). If a video has less than 2%, I want to watch it because I want to see what's so spectacular in it. If it has between 5% and 15%, then I still want to watch it because I want to know why so many folks didn't like it. It's like checking the 3 star ratings on Amazon.

    • I use it to spot fakes when watching for full versions of "Last week tonight" on Youtube. I wish I could see the ratio before clicking on the video.

  • But creators who feel that showing Dislike counts is good for them could opt to display them. Win-win!

    No, because this would allow trolls to control who is able to display a positive like ratio, by dislike-bombing others.

    I don't get what's the use for dislikes, their button is just a fetish for outrage cultists. For promoting good videos, the like count suffices.

    • The like count doesn't suffice. The ratio of likes per unique viewer might, but fringe garbage with a following will easily get a large number of likes. If dislikes are allowed it will also accumulate an overwhelming number of dislikes. Hiding that makes it appear popular/trustworthy by removing the context of the large number of likes.
      • It doesn't work because trolls will both like videos and bomb-dislike videos, while regular people will not take part in the latter activity. This skews the mechanism in favour of the trolls. The same is true for comment sections; once they become a cesspool of hate, regular people won't bother participating in the discussion any more, which makes the comment session less useful.
    • Could say the same of /. moderation, especially where you have the opportunity to engage chaffing comments, and yet the growing trend is to moderate into oblivion.

      Outrage cultist you say? Does this apply when someone is discussing reservations about vaccination mandates, etc.?

    • Agreed, downvotes/dislikes just encourage harassment and bombing.

  • a dumb question.

    Ask Slashdot was somehow less lame.

    It isn't like Youtube posted an Ask Slashdot and cares what we think.

    Is Slashdot moderation more effective than Reddit moderation? (LOL don't answer that!!)

  • NO. That's the answer.

    And then rationalize on whatever topic you want.

  • by JoeyRox ( 2711699 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @08:33PM (#61983169)
    I rely heavily on the likes-to-dislikes ratio to avoid wasting my time on crap or marginally-crap videos. Remove that and YT becomes a veritable landmine of shit videos. So they need to replace it with something that provides the same utility.

    My idea: A stat that shows how much of the video the average viewer watched through, represented as a percentage. A very low percentage would make it easy to screen out the obvious crap. Other percentages could be used as a relative gauge of how good the video is, the same as how different people have different thresholds for a like-to-dislike ratio. Also, since this would become an important stat it would encourage content-creators to take out the fat and tighten up their videos a bit to raise their watch-through percentage.
    • by Tom ( 822 )

      I rely heavily on the likes-to-dislikes ratio to avoid wasting my time on crap or marginally-crap videos. Remove that and YT becomes a veritable landmine of shit videos.

      Let me offer a hypothesis: The MASSIVE difference in quality between YouTube and Facebook videos is, at least in part, because you can't dislike videos on Facebook.

      I think FB already proves your statement to be true. It already is full of shit videos.

    • If you need like/dislike counts for that then you're doing it wrong.

    • There are some great long form lectures that are truly inspirational but... long. For instance, The Last Lecture ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] ). I'd hate for that to get buried because most people will not watch it in a single sitting.

  • "Ask Slashdot" used to be about interesting bits of technology. Is this or that new technology going to give us more freedom, or is it going to be abused? Is that technology going to usher in a new era or is it going to be the beginning of the end?

    Now we're discussing the relevance of approval votes on videos. Seriously? I couldn't give less of a fuck.

    But then again, it's par for the course. Where we used to discuss about technological development, we now have our political bickering with astroturfers on bo

  • by Z80a ( 971949 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @08:41PM (#61983197)

    That asked to remove the dislikes?
    Because they're probably quite annoyed when people get displeased with their very scummy stuff and use the downvote button to demonstrate that.

  • Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JustNiz ( 692889 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @08:50PM (#61983223)

    I'm genuinely scared that we are descending into a world where if anyone even legitimately ever criticises anything they are branded as anti-social or worse.

    • by drwho ( 4190 )

      Indeed! If there was a like button here, I'd have used it for your comment.

  • I can't remember a time I ever looked at the likes or dislikes of any video. I'm sure I did, but they never registered with me. Didn't care.

    Apparently people are more interested in fake internet points than what they're looking for.

  • by RitchCraft ( 6454710 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @09:02PM (#61983247)
    about their ads being shown on videos that are disliked. We now like them all. Yeah for everyone.
    • Funny but not really true.

      Except in cases where people compulsively hit the "like" button on everything they view (YouTube creators encourage this behavior), views-to-likes is probably your best metric for determining whether or not the video connects with the public.

      Dislikes let people bomb content. If Nintendo harasses someone over, I don't know, a fan-made Pokemon game only for a Reddit brigade to dislike one of Nintendo's videos in retaliation, it doesn't really tell you much about how the public feels

  • by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @09:17PM (#61983283) Homepage Journal

    How are people to clearly send the message to Nintendo that their announcement of the Nintendo Online Plus sucks. Even more so when you are paying in Canadian Dollars. Do they think the Canadian Dollar is worth more than the US one?

    • Nintendo doesn't care. All the Nintendo Online videos have gotten disliked into oblivion since forever ago, and commenters have been asking for The Download's song to be eShop's theme for so long it's not even a funny meme any more.

  • I don't watch shitty videos that attract mob dislikes. I do find it useful to gage likes to subscribers. Usually a 10% ratio is good.
  • With just a like count we know nothing.
    What does 1000 likes tell you about a video?
    Do you need to know views, subscribers, something else?
    We need a baseline for likes to tell us anything.

    What would be good is at least having the dislike make viewing not count towards the algorithm.
    That way I can watch a video I know is wrong just to laugh at it but not make YT think that all watches are likes.
    Political videos are like that.
    A D could watch a right-leaning video or an R. a left wing one without "helping" the

  • I don't know what any of this talk is about. I watch youtube stuff every day. The "removal" was announced on the 10th, it is now the 12th and I still see the thumbs up and down counts. Has this change just not been implemented yet?

    I do think hiding it would be a mistake. It is just a metric. Use it how you like. Ignore it, or heed it, or contribute to it. Whatever. As the user, more information is better than less.

    • They're just boiling the frog slowly. Or applying divide and conquer. Specifically to get these "I don't care" posts to hopefully outweigh those who do.
  • by Tom ( 822 ) on Friday November 12, 2021 @10:35PM (#61983423) Homepage Journal

    People can't even handle if someone disagrees anymore. Fucking snowflakes.

    I'm developing an Indie game right now. The negative feedback is highly valuable to me - it tells me that something is wrong and what is wrong. Sure it hurts a bit. Sure I enjoy the "great game" comments. Sure I'd like more of them - but to get them, I need to read the bad comments and allow them, think about them and decide if maybe that guy is right and I need to change something.

    The dislike option is the best feedback feature YouTube has. I use it rarely, but I want it is there, and I want it is public. And I definitely want that for my own videos.

    • I don't know if it is specifically (or even majority) Millennials, but the zeitgeist is definitely towards "for your own good" and corps are ready to exploit that for their own ends.

      I would have liked to think civilization was moving away from that, but here we are again. Tutting (more) over comics and pinball can't be far behind.

    • You seem to have it wrong.

      The "fucking snowflakes" are notorious for brigading to take down content they don't like. Take away their tool of destruction (dislikes/downvotes) and they are powerless.

      • by Tom ( 822 )

        Dislikes don't take down anything.

        Maybe it'll drop in the ranking or something - that's something YouTube can counter. Review bombings are pretty obvious things.

        And if you think that taking away a button makes them powerless then bless your heart, you've never had to deal with actual trolls. I wish you that lucky streak continues forever.

        • If they have no dislike button and the comments are disabled, they'll just take their troll parade somewhere else. Which is really the point.

          On a tech forum I frequent, the media company that bought out the forums (bleh) implemented a like/dislike system for individual posts. Users would acquire like/dislike counts that would follow them to other threads. Abusive users quickly learned to use the system to attack posters they disliked, bombing them into oblivion. Even if you put a user on ignore, they co

          • by Tom ( 822 )

            If they have no dislike button and the comments are disabled, they'll just take their troll parade somewhere else. Which is really the point.

            Ah you want both the dislike button AND the comments gone.

            I wonder why I would publish something and not allow feedback, but maybe that's just me.

            On a tech forum I frequent,

            Honestly, I think that issue is solved. /. has a good system that is very successful in moving good comments to the top and burying trolls. Anyone trying to re-invent the wheel shouldn't be surprised if his triangular one has performance issues.

            • It's up to the individual posting the vid to disable comments. But if they get abusive then they can all be disabled on a per-video basis. Some publishers of content disable comments by default. You may notice some of the music group Vevo channels doing so. Obviously publishers have had the option to disable likes/dislikes after the fact (I guess?) but this way it never becomes an issue.

    • This only works when individuals give feedback with honest intent. Unfortunately this is not always the case.

      Some sub-groups (on both the left and the right) seems to get unreasonably worked up about certain topics or people. When they go on a campaign to bury something the rating systems quickly stops being effective for measuring the quality of it.

      Also, how much good feedback do you really get from the dislike button? The people explaining their opinion in the comment section seems like it would be much m

      • by Tom ( 822 )

        This only works when individuals give feedback with honest intent. Unfortunately this is not always the case.

        Sure, there's trollish comments. One guy just left a bad review after playing for 10 minutes (Steam tells you how much they played). I doubt he saw anything of the game, really. Actual gameplay time five minutes, tops. But anyway, something turned him off immediately. Even that is valuable information.

        When they go on a campaign to bury something the rating systems quickly stops being effective for measuring the quality of it.

        Yes, on hot topics, there's fuckers shouting down the other side. I get that. It doesn't mean we should shut up everyone.

        Also, how much good feedback do you really get from the dislike button? The people explaining their opinion in the comment section seems like it would be much more useful feedback. And that option will still be there.

        Most people who press the dislike button won't leave a comment. Without the dislikes, I

    • I'm developing an Indie game right now. The negative feedback is highly valuable to me - it tells me that something is wrong and what is wrong.

      Pay attention to how people play your game but do yourself a favor, burn the suggestion box. It's not good for you, your fans or the project. Haven't you ever heard of the Homer Mobile?

      • by Tom ( 822 )

        Absolutely not. The suggestion box is incredibly valuable. Of course, I discard a lot of what gets thrown in there, one because not every suggestions is a good suggestion and two because I have a clear vision for my game and discard things that distract from it. For example, players have repeatedly asked for options to fight back against the monsters, but it's not a fighting game so no. Hiding when the monsters are out is what it's about.

        And yes, watching people play on Twitch or YouTube is the #1 thing tha

  • One of the most common uses for viewers being able to see the number of Dislikes is so they can make jokes about it. "Those two downvotes are from people allergic to bees" when commenting on a cockatiel singing while wearing a bee costume, for example. Or "The downvotes come from riolu, Dream, and that guy who looks like Ron Jeremy" on a video about speedrun cheating. Can't do that in any meaningful way if we can't see them.

  • Can some browser extension or applet begin to offer the same functionality to it's subscribers? Just keep the dislikes elsewhere and display inline with the video info.

    Would it be shut down?

  • Providing more information to users is always a good thing. At least, a good thing for the user. Alphabet is of course not interested in the users, only in making money. From that perspective, it might make sense. Although even that I have doubts about.

  • For me, YouTube is a site with videos which I watch only occasionally because the quality is unpredictable, and even content I want to watch isn't always great due to the various shortcomings of amateur production.

    But its kind of surprising how strongly people feel about YouTube and its content. Thumbs up/down? I'm not sure I could have an opinion on it.

  • I've encountered speculation -- or perhaps an outright claim -- that the reason for hiding this information is that White House videos were getting a lot of dislikes.

    Seems like a reasonable explanation.

  • by drwho ( 4190 ) on Saturday November 13, 2021 @09:19PM (#61985631) Homepage Journal

    I've noticed that Joe Biden's speeches are very unpopular. I guess DNC sympathizer Google is desperate to hide this from the viewers.

    Of course it's a bad idea! Likes and dislikes clue content creators to what is popular and what is not, as well as helping viewers sort cruft from good content. There is a LOT of crap content on youtube. This is notable especially in the tutorial section, where looking for information, for instance, on a drywall screw gun will pull up synthesized voices that do nothing but read the advertising data out, which photos of same. How many of these would I have to sort through before finding something of use? This will rob the entire youtube ecosystem of value.

  • What they could do instead is simply give the number of likes described as percentage reflecting likes divided by the number of people who either liked or disliked the video, with no public indication of the actual number of people that actually hit either button.

    Owners of the videos should still see exact numbers, and perhaps approximate numbers of each could potentially still be deduced by assuming some particular (and likely small) fraction of the total number of views actually correspond to the numbe

  • The vocabulary for expressing opinions concerning online content should not be limited to emotional expressions. In many cases, the appropriate response is not to "Like" or "Dislike" content, but rather to "Agree" or "Disagree" with the content's message. To create a less emotionally harrowing online experience, replace "Like/Dislike" with "Agree/Disagree."

    Agreement/Disagreement provides useful information about one's response to content without eliciting an emotional response. If only "emotional" signals

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