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Abstract

tors</h1><p id="40de">After spending hours, or even days, working on your video, you upload and pray people like your work. Then, out of nowhere, the first dislike appears. What happened? Why did they not like your video? No comment or anything. Just a thumbs down.</p><p id="e20a">For a creator, this can feel like a punch in the gut. YouTube is honest about this. It sure felt like a huge blow when they received 19 million dislikes on their rewind video.</p><p id="a831">If we look past the mental load this has on us, we need to look at how this metric works for the creator. A dislike alone is rather useless because it only tells you someone disliked your efforts, not why. The <b>why</b> is essential.</p><p id="168c">Most of the creators in the Clubhouse room agreed that what we really want is feedback. Honest, constructive criticism. This way, we know what to work on and where we need to deliver. I have flipped negative comments to positive outcomes several times.</p><figure id="160e"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*erpl5eHMtrprcxdE80Gw4A.png"><figcaption>Every comment, negative or positive, I take as feedback. Screenshot by author</figcaption></figure><p id="97fe">If Forted Exe had left a thumbs down and left the building, I would never have known that he disliked the sound. A dislike alone has little value to the creator. The video has 0 dislikes at the moment, but that comment could easily have been a simple dislike.</p><p id="665a">As a bonus, Forted Exe is now a subscriber.</p><figure id="bcda"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*5Q8RzC70mSzdjDQwDLEQig.png"><figcaption>subscriber screenshot by author</figcaption></figure><p id="6a4c">My conversations with my audience is in line with what we discussed at Clubhouse. We don’t mind the dislikes. We just want feedback.</p><h1 id="b780">Dislike attacks and bots</h1><p id="3ab0">So, now we know that creators can use the dislike metric to see if the content made an impact on the audience. Art is supposed to make your audience feel something — good or bad. The problem is that there are accounts without feelings out there. Bots.</p><figure id="8e1f"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*LGg1ILLPhNLYl0Oiiz0JfQ.jpeg"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://www.pexels.com/@pavel-danilyuk?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Pavel Danilyuk</a> from <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-shot-of-white-robot-toy-8294606/?utm_content=attributionCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pexels">Pexels</a></figcaption></figure><p id="fdc0">Creators have been victims of dislike attacks due to disagreement. For example, suppose you disagree with someone politically. In that case, you might dislike the video because of the content in that video, or you might automatically dislike the video because you want to drag the other person down. The latter is simply bad behavior.</p><p id="442a">Back to the bots. Some creators I ha

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ve spoken to have told me that they experienced suspicious dislikes. Only seconds after an upload, they might have ten dislikes. The creators suspect, bots are programmed to dislike the videos from certain creators automatically. This is pure sabotage.</p><h1 id="c907">Moving forward</h1><p id="331d">The dislike button is not gone. You can still dislike videos, and the creator will see them in their control panel. As a viewer, you will not see them under the videos. This means you have to do an extra step before watching videos to check what the audience is talking about. While the commercials are rolling, you can peak into the comment section. It’s a bit more hassle than having access to the quick look of likes/dislikes.</p><h2 id="797e">Metrics</h2><p id="aa83">There are several metrics creators can use to see how the content resonates with their viewers. One of the main ones is retention. For how long are the viewers watching your videos? When do they leave, and where are your peaks? This is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf7MqZSfVAg&t=588s">my most viewed video</a>, and the retention is obviously slowly decreasing. However, I can see where there are dips and where people exit the video.</p><figure id="8280"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*A2KLsDTlbH9zEbA1WiPHCA.png"><figcaption>audience retention, screenshot by author</figcaption></figure><p id="a111">When YouTube rolls out the update to all creators, we will access the dislikes via the audience tabs in our videos. This way, the creator can see the dislikes, but the viewers can not.</p><h2 id="85e0">Are bots dead then?</h2><p id="22fe">Hiding the dislike will make sure the bots and the negativity attacks are rendered invalid. The effect is removed, and dislike campaigns will only reach the creator’s control panel.</p><p id="93ec">The bots are now likely to go to the comments section. They are here already, but will the removal of dislikes send more bot activity to the comments sections? There are already word filters that can help clean up the comments, but if a wave is coming, we might need to clean up some more.</p><h2 id="349b">Can we get some feedback, please?</h2><p id="a65d">I believe that a system where you can like or dislike with a forced dropdown menu if you dislike will benefit the creators. However, it needs to be easy for the viewer to do it.</p><p id="01cc">Say you dislike a video. Here is what I imagine would benefit the creator:</p><ol><li>dislike</li><li>why did you dislike the video: presented options + other</li><li>Would you also like to comment?</li></ol><p id="82c8">This way, the creator will know why the viewer clicked dislike in the first place. For this to work, we have to rely on viewers bothering, though.</p><h1 id="5f7e">Final thoughts</h1><p id="93b3">I haven’t decided what I feel is better in this case. Have you? What do you think about the recent change, and how will it affect you? It would be interesting to see how people respond to this change.</p></article></body>

Goodbye YouTube Dislike Button — Will You Be Missed?

The pros and cons of the latest YouTube tweak

Every weekday on Clubhouse, Vyyyper hosts a room called Coffee Talk. This room is open to anyone, but there are always a bunch of content creators there. There is never a set topic, so we end up talking about southern food in the U.S. most of the time and what happened at the latest Apple event.

Yesterday, for the first time, there was a set topic. We discussed what the removal of the dislike button will mean moving forward.

This is an interesting topic because there are two ways to look at this: as a creator or a viewer. Does removing this button mean the same to these two camps, or will it affect people differently based on what they do? Content creators are also avid YouTube viewers, but not always the other way around.

If you haven’t watched YouTube’s video on the matter, you can head here:

A funny side note is that the video has 10k likes and 50k dislikes at the time of writing this. A 1/5 ratio.

The viewers

What do dislikes mean to a viewer? As MKBHD put it, the dislike button is a heads-up for the viewer. It can work as a warning sign, so you don’t waste time watching something that is clearly spam, a scam, or does not deliver on the title’s promise.

Another thing he mentions is that he heads over to the comment section to have a look because of the intriguing stats. Of course, not everyone does that, so the creator might miss out on views solely based on the thumbs down.

If you are looking for an electronics tutorial and there is no dislike metric, you might not get the heads up that you can get shocked and die if you follow the steps in this video. A bad like/dislike ratio would give you a clue that something was not right from the start.

Preventing a viewer from getting injured physically is more important than worrying about a creator's mental health, right?

The Creators

After spending hours, or even days, working on your video, you upload and pray people like your work. Then, out of nowhere, the first dislike appears. What happened? Why did they not like your video? No comment or anything. Just a thumbs down.

For a creator, this can feel like a punch in the gut. YouTube is honest about this. It sure felt like a huge blow when they received 19 million dislikes on their rewind video.

If we look past the mental load this has on us, we need to look at how this metric works for the creator. A dislike alone is rather useless because it only tells you someone disliked your efforts, not why. The why is essential.

Most of the creators in the Clubhouse room agreed that what we really want is feedback. Honest, constructive criticism. This way, we know what to work on and where we need to deliver. I have flipped negative comments to positive outcomes several times.

Every comment, negative or positive, I take as feedback. Screenshot by author

If Forted Exe had left a thumbs down and left the building, I would never have known that he disliked the sound. A dislike alone has little value to the creator. The video has 0 dislikes at the moment, but that comment could easily have been a simple dislike.

As a bonus, Forted Exe is now a subscriber.

My conversations with my audience is in line with what we discussed at Clubhouse. We don’t mind the dislikes. We just want feedback.

Dislike attacks and bots

So, now we know that creators can use the dislike metric to see if the content made an impact on the audience. Art is supposed to make your audience feel something — good or bad. The problem is that there are accounts without feelings out there. Bots.

Creators have been victims of dislike attacks due to disagreement. For example, suppose you disagree with someone politically. In that case, you might dislike the video because of the content in that video, or you might automatically dislike the video because you want to drag the other person down. The latter is simply bad behavior.

Back to the bots. Some creators I have spoken to have told me that they experienced suspicious dislikes. Only seconds after an upload, they might have ten dislikes. The creators suspect, bots are programmed to dislike the videos from certain creators automatically. This is pure sabotage.

Moving forward

The dislike button is not gone. You can still dislike videos, and the creator will see them in their control panel. As a viewer, you will not see them under the videos. This means you have to do an extra step before watching videos to check what the audience is talking about. While the commercials are rolling, you can peak into the comment section. It’s a bit more hassle than having access to the quick look of likes/dislikes.

Metrics

There are several metrics creators can use to see how the content resonates with their viewers. One of the main ones is retention. For how long are the viewers watching your videos? When do they leave, and where are your peaks? This is my most viewed video, and the retention is obviously slowly decreasing. However, I can see where there are dips and where people exit the video.

audience retention, screenshot by author

When YouTube rolls out the update to all creators, we will access the dislikes via the audience tabs in our videos. This way, the creator can see the dislikes, but the viewers can not.

Are bots dead then?

Hiding the dislike will make sure the bots and the negativity attacks are rendered invalid. The effect is removed, and dislike campaigns will only reach the creator’s control panel.

The bots are now likely to go to the comments section. They are here already, but will the removal of dislikes send more bot activity to the comments sections? There are already word filters that can help clean up the comments, but if a wave is coming, we might need to clean up some more.

Can we get some feedback, please?

I believe that a system where you can like or dislike with a forced dropdown menu if you dislike will benefit the creators. However, it needs to be easy for the viewer to do it.

Say you dislike a video. Here is what I imagine would benefit the creator:

dislike
why did you dislike the video: presented options + other
Would you also like to comment?

This way, the creator will know why the viewer clicked dislike in the first place. For this to work, we have to rely on viewers bothering, though.

Final thoughts

I haven’t decided what I feel is better in this case. Have you? What do you think about the recent change, and how will it affect you? It would be interesting to see how people respond to this change.