Programmer Restores YouTube Dislike Counts With Browser Extension (thenextweb.com) 72
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Next Web: YouTube's decision to hide dislike counts on videos has sparked anger and derision. One inventive programmer has attempted to restore the feature in a browser extension. The plugin currently uses the Google API to generate the dislike count. However, this functionality will be removed from December 13. "I'll try to scrape as much data as possible until then," the extension's creator said on Reddit. "After that -- total dislikes will be estimated using extension users as a sample."
The alpha version isn't perfect. It currently only works on videos for which the Youtube API returns a valid dislike count. The calculations could also be skewed by the userbase, which is unlikely to represent the average YouTube viewer. The developer said they're exploring ways to mitigate this, such as comparing the downvotes collected through the public of extension users to a cache of real downvotes. The results should also improve as uptake grows. The plugin could provide a useful service, but its greatest value may be as a potent symbol of protest. You can try it out here -- but proceed at your own risk. If you want to check out the code, it's been published on GitHub. Further reading: YouTube Co-Founder Predicts 'Decline' of the Platform Following Removal of Dislikes
The alpha version isn't perfect. It currently only works on videos for which the Youtube API returns a valid dislike count. The calculations could also be skewed by the userbase, which is unlikely to represent the average YouTube viewer. The developer said they're exploring ways to mitigate this, such as comparing the downvotes collected through the public of extension users to a cache of real downvotes. The results should also improve as uptake grows. The plugin could provide a useful service, but its greatest value may be as a potent symbol of protest. You can try it out here -- but proceed at your own risk. If you want to check out the code, it's been published on GitHub. Further reading: YouTube Co-Founder Predicts 'Decline' of the Platform Following Removal of Dislikes
really (Score:1, Insightful)
is it that big of a deal to see how many people dislike a video? are people that insecure that they need a support group to have an opinion on a web video?
Keep in mind folks the creators still get to see the count
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Re:really (Score:4, Funny)
Is there even a point to Like a video?
Absolutely! How many Onlyfans videos have you sat through where she spends fifteen minutes bouncing her (clothed) tits around and then you get to the end without even seeing a glimpse of nipple? It's an essential part of online video sites.
Re:really (Score:4, Funny)
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Are you really okay committing fifteen minutes to two hours to watch a video without wanting to know as much as you can about its quality beforehand? Of course if it's really bad you'll turn it off by the middle, but what if it appears to be just meh?
Re: really (Score:2)
Yes.
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Many people treasure their time more than you do I guess, plus many a times people watch videos not to "kill" time but to research/reference on an area.
If I have an assignment on Trigonometry, a explanation video with "11k likes 40 dislikes" is way more likely to be error-free than another with "15k likes 2k dislikes", which I can no longer judge if there's only a "like" and the Like amount is just largely correlated to channel subscriber size.
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If the subject matter doesn't interest me I just don't watch. Generally I can get an idea of whether or not the vid has some quality content from:
Which channel it's in
What is the subject matter
How many views/subscribers it has
Somehow I've been fortunate enough to avoid bad YouTube videos.
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OK, here's (perhaps niche) category: Movie trailers, and its ugly child, fake movie trailers.
Like/dislike ratio is a tell-tale of whether that trailer sucks and/or is fake.
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"Usually" you can, though there had been many instances the more reputed party is wrong.
I remember there was an instance where even the reputed Khan Academy produced a wrong mathematics video that was not removed quickly even then the internet discussed it widely (quite a few years ago). I think People shouldn't be made to fall back on "believe the larger establishment" (e.g. How many times has mainstream media been wrong?) or "follow internet clout " and would be better if users' right to judge each vide
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Thinking about it a bit more, this change will favor videos that are constantly engaging. Videos that cause as many dopamine hits as possible. That is a bad thing for society! Our minds are less efficient when they are in a mode of needing constant novelty or reward.
What this change will punish is videos that seem "meh" part way through, but strongly deliver by the end of the video. Without a 99% thumbs-up ratio, viewers won't know they should hang in there.
Thinking about it this way, the change seems a lot
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You don't need to commit to that much time. You can get a general impression of the quality of a video without watching the whole thing.
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That only tells you how engaging it is, which I'd argue is the worst metric if you value your attention span. You'd need to watch a lot more to gauge usefulness, ease of following the instructions, lack of obvious errors, etc.
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Yeah, I had a huge omission: you can make a decent guess about production value in the first minute. But all the other stuff is impossible, like knowing whether you'll like a book after the first few pages.
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Though very high ratings might help me overlook what some would consider errant nonsense, such as measuring flour by volume.
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Ya, I don't really get it either, but perhaps YouTube could provide some general feedback like different colors for numeric ranges of "dislikes" (and for "likes") or a sliding scale instead of raw numbers or nothing.
Re:really (Score:5, Insightful)
are people that insecure that they need a support group to have an opinion on a web video?
Apparently they are insecure enough to bash people without actually putting in any of the effort to see why they are speaking out.
Visible dislikes serves as a signal to avoid cliclbait, scam content, and in the world of online tutorials, videos that are crappily done. It allows people to avoid them without engaging the video at all (especially good when it comes to blatant scam content too).
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Visible dislikes serves as a signal to avoid cliclbait, scam content
Unfortunately, they also serve to detect unpopular videos coming from the big players.
It's almost like the viewers are not the customers of Youtube.
Then gate dislike count behind Premium (Score:2)
It's almost like the viewers are not the customers of Youtube.
So why wasn't the announcement made that dislike counts would be visible only to YouTube Premium subscribers?
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It actually works the opposite way on YouTube though. Dislikes count as engagement, the same as likes. Videos with lots of dislikes get promoted the same was as videos with lots of dislikes.
If the video is genuinely crap the best way to punish it is to simply stop watching. It's tempting to leave a comment explaining to other visitors why it sucks, but even that counts as engagement and helps it get ranked up. The thing that really hurts videos is people only watching a small fraction of them.
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is it that big of a deal to see how many people dislike a video?
Would you like it if Amazon hide how many 1-star review a product has, and only show the count of 5-star reviews?
It has nothing to do with being insecure or not. The number of dislike is a useful metric for many people, hence they are unhappy that it is hidden. It makes YT less useful.
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It's less a matter of insecurity, it's more a matter of clickbaiting. Anything that's remotely interesting will of course get its own set of clickbait videos. Videos that have nothing to do with the matter at hand, but will try to get people to click it who hope to see what they're looking for.
I dare say a lot of more ... let's say questionable videos will try to capitalize on the fact that you can't simply call out their bullshit anymore.
Fuck Youtube (Score:4, Interesting)
Fuck Youtube, and fuck their manipulation of ranking metrics in pursuit of the Almighty Dollar.
Removing dislikes makes that harder (Score:2)
That
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YouTube gave their reasons for removing dislikes. Their reasons were nothing like you describe. They are liars just like you are. Everyone knows why YouTube removed dislikes. The left hates dissent or diversity of thought or opinion. They just want people to consume.
Hiding a thumbs down counter == hates dissent, diversity of thought or opinion?
LOL The videos themselves are what, immaterial?
You can't dislike brigade youtube videos, so go make some youtube videos about it dumbass, post your thoughts and opinions there. Nobody wants to watch your shitty reaction videos though, so get over yourself.
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I mean I see plenty of people raging about this on the internet.
However when I try to fact check this 'cancel culture outrage' (and yes, those who are outraged are in fact the ones that want to cancel youtube here) against what is reality, from my perspective the counter is still displayed with Chrome, Firefox, and Edge without having installed any browser extension.
It works on Android devices as well, again without anything extra.
I've only seen
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It appears that the counter is only gone if you're not logged into youtube with your gmail account. This was evident when using the "incognito" modes of the various browsers and watching a video on YT. But once you log in with your account, the counter is visible again.
Now this raises some questions.
How does this work to deter 'dislike attacks'? Your can only dislike a video IF you're logged into youtube, which then again displays the count.
People on their Android phones are automa
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It appears that the counter is only gone if you're not logged into youtube with your gmail account. This was evident when using the "incognito" modes of the various browsers and watching a video on YT. But once you log in with your account, the counter is visible again.
I believe they've rolled it out in stages. Everything disappeared for me yesterday, even though I'm logged in. Tried it in both FF and Chrome to make sure they weren't giving preferential treatment to their own browser.
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"Guys like Jimmy Dore we're really just trolls after views and Ad revenue."
Remember kids, if you're on the left and you refuse to sufficiently parrot whatever talking points and narratives the mockingbird media demands of you, the worst intentions will be assigned and you will be smeared by David Brock trolls and other disingenuous intellectual prostitutes.
It's such a mystery as to why the dislike button is getting removed, as Susan Wojicki herself gets ratio'd as she gives herself a free speech award, and
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Expect the API to change to something like: That field will only return a non-zero for videos on your account.
Re: Fuck Youtube (Score:2)
Creators will still get the count when logged in but viewers won't be able to get the same info which logically means they're not hiding the dislike count to protect creators, but I think we all know that. YouTube is probably doing this make more and revenue,l. Many Right wingers think it's a conspiracy to silence them but that doesn't add up.
Re: Fuck Youtube (Score:2)
This is still primarily a website that lets users post and watch cat videos for free. But shame on them, for dollars and stuff! The sense of entitlement on display here, over a thumbs down counter, just wow.
I smell lawsuit (Score:2)
Now this will be funny (Score:1, Flamebait)
The dislike count will be even more sensitive to the people most inclined to review bomb.
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There's an easy fix for that: Don't disable dislikes.
Just use alternatives to YouTube (Score:2, Informative)
https://odysee.com/ [odysee.com]
https://rumble.com/ [rumble.com]
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Lol, right at the top of Odysee's page is this: "welcome to odysee: we have dislikes"
Re: Just use alternatives to YouTube (Score:2)
It seems when a company gets big enough they get invaded by suits and become way too politicized and rancid.
They grow too big and crusty, and need to be shed like a snake's skin to keep the whole organism (the market) from getting too sick and dying off.
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Dislike button (Score:2)
I'm having trouble understanding why some people say they care one way or the other what happens.
Doesn't the like count to views ratio tell you what you want to know ?
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No, because there are at least three groups (assuming folks are responding honestly): appreciative, apathetic, disapproving.
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>No, because there are at least three groups (assuming folks are responding honestly): appreciative, apathetic, disapproving.
Yeah, as much as its not gamed it can give more info, the apathetic to the disapproving. But why care, it's not like a store or merchandise give you this information before you enter or purchase. Couldn't there be a site that rates Youtube videos for those that really care about that.
I still don't see why anybody would care very much, well as much as they seem to care on some web s
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>YouTube is removing the dislike button is that Joe Biden's administration is embarrassed about how heavily disliked his videos are on YouTube
I looked at about 8 videos, so my numbers are that. In the months after the elections the dislikes where around .5 % of views and likes 5 %, pretty inconsequential. The 4 recent videos I looked at dislikes where around 2 % and likes .5 %, still pretty inconsequential, though maybe a sign of a more concerted effort by a few to dislike JB's videos but far from an emb
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It doesn't really matter to most people. Facebook has never had a 'dislike' button, and it is a more pleasant place as a result. (Note to haters: I didn't say Facebook is a pleasant place, I said it is a more pleasant place. Learn the difference).
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Including the "cry" and "angry" face, both of which can be used with multiple intents and misleading. Some people choose the angry emoji because they don't want whatever it is in their feed. Some choose the angry emoji because the message of the post makes them boil. Or it could be an angry emoji choice because they sympathize with the message of the post, denouncing whatever it is. There's no way to know the real reason behind those 2 emojis.
There is no way to know the real reason behind those 2 emojis *without reading that post*. Indeed, they can't be determined out of context. But unlike youtube video, skimming through a text post doesn't take much time. It is usually obvious whether people boil for the subject in the post, or boil towards the author.
One can also say it is where facebook being smart. Because the emoji choices all have alternative meaning that may agree with the author (for example the laugh emoji could be laughing at the a
if you don't like it (Score:3)
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if you don't like it you are always welcome to start your own video sharing platform. Am I saying it right?
"Hey have you watched this [dailymotion] [vimeo] [metacafe] video" said no one ever.
Thats why. If a video is not on youtube it may as well not exist.
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if you don't like it you are always welcome to start your own video sharing platform. Am I saying it right?
Not at all. Let's assume a society where one company controls the sale of 95% of goods. What you're saying is akin to "if you don't like it, you are always welcome to go create your own market with vendors and customers." Nobody in their right mind would join your market, unless they were banned from the first market or the stuff they wanted to sell wasn't allowed to be sold on the first market.
Dislikes drive views (Score:2)
Videos with a lot of dislikes are more likely to appear in feeds than those with few interactions from users. Almost nobody that I know avoids videos solely due to dislike count. Who is stupid enough to think that dislikes matter in the way that people imagine?
Shouldn't' you be respecting the creative vision? (Score:2)
Google owns Youtube. It's their product. If that argument is good enough for video games, tis good enough for youtube.
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My problem with all of this (Score:2)
Just another... (Score:1)
Not going to last long - API also being updated (Score:2)
YouTube sent out a notice to YouTube API users that the dislike count would be removed from the API in an upcoming release.