Google is testing the hiding of YouTube's dislike button entirely from all forms of videos
from Auster@thebrainbin.org to degoogle@lemmy.ml on 22 Oct 02:19
https://thebrainbin.org/m/degoogle@lemmy.ml/t/1996620

Crossposted from https://thebrainbin.org/m/enshittification@lemmy.world/t/1996619

Crossposted from https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1480679/google-is-testing-the-hiding-of-youtube-s-dislike-button-entirely-from-all-forms-of-vide

<img alt="" src="https://i.ibb.co/FLz21fDc/67899.jpg">

Source: User reports, reported on by couple of news outlets:

#degoogle #enshittification #youtube

threaded - newest

voxel@feddit.org on 22 Oct 03:36 next collapse

Either remove it entirely or keep it as before, not this alogical confusing system. /srs

Auster@thebrainbin.org on 22 Oct 03:38 collapse

I think they're going for the former in slow steps, so the impact is not as quickly noticed.

Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 14:59 collapse

That’s how enshittification works.

Ephera@lemmy.ml on 22 Oct 08:06 next collapse

I’m not keeping up with YouTube, but didn’t they already remove it a few years ago?

Squizzy@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 08:45 collapse

Removed the tally of totals

umbrella@lemmy.ml on 22 Oct 08:43 next collapse

logical next step. sounds like they just wanted to wait until the controversy blew over.

architect@thelemmy.club on 22 Oct 15:28 next collapse

We should quit watching YouTube. YouTubers are more proof of overconsumption. People should not be willingly shilling for corps for ad revenue. Just turn it off.

Auster@thebrainbin.org on 22 Oct 19:22 next collapse

I'd say Youtube is a case of lack of competition making an oligopoly. And sadly for quite a few matters, it's still the "least worse" option.

Still, I'd urge to people, though I know it's an uphill battle, to at least keep alternatives at hand.

iByteABit@lemmy.ml on 22 Oct 23:28 collapse

Yeah, and it’s unfortunately a very hard monopoly to break due to the nature of videos being extremely expensive to host at scale, even in a decentralized way with Peertube

starlinguk@lemmy.world on 24 Oct 14:07 collapse

So where else do I watch Vlogbrothers, Time Ghost or Tasting History?

iturnedintoanewt@lemmy.world on 22 Oct 19:11 next collapse

I mean, not like people would go anywhere.

XLE@piefed.social on 22 Oct 21:30 collapse

This is probably bad for the YouTubers actually making content, despite it all. They can see whether people disliked their video.

“Return YouTube dislikes” exists right now to approximate dislikes, and it will continue to exist, and review bombers are more likely to use it and therefore disproportionately influence approximate statistics. But at least for now, YouTubers can dispute those guesses. They won’t be able to do that if they lose the metric.

It’s kind of conceding to the mob.

Auster@thebrainbin.org on 22 Oct 21:41 collapse

Agreed.

Some also argue dislikes are used for censoring, but I'd conter-argue that dissidence is a form of opinion. If people are using the tool illegitimately, it doesn't make the tool itself illegitimate. Rather, investigating suspicious behaviour, of which there are tools one can use on Youtube, should be the way.

And I'd further say the removal hurts not just the content creators, but their followers too. If the creator uses likes ratio as a quality assurance metric, or to know what they should or shouldn't focus on, the lack of the metric will make the service he/she provides worsen, and by extension the experience of their followers.