YouTube Co-Founder Says Removing Dislike Counts Is a 'Stupid Idea': A YouTube co-founder is not a fan of the platform’s recent decision to hide dislike counts from videos, arguing that it destroys a crucial way to determine if a clip is worth viewing.

submitted by Orangutan from pcmag.com

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[–]Orangutan[S] 6 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Jawed Karim edits the description to his video 'Me at the zoo,' which was the first clip published on YouTube, to argue that the video site is embracing mediocrity. 'Nothing can be great if nothing is bad,' he says.

“When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube,” says Jawed Karim.

[–]JasonCarswell 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I think the ratio is critical for a big site like YouTube.

It would be critical for SaidIt too if we were bigger.

The worst thing about Reddit's votes are that they subtract the negative from the positive.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

is he just realizing now

[–]Tophat123 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

That is exactly why they removed it. Where has he been?

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

he's gonna get aaron swartz'ed if he's not careful

[–]Zapped 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

So are people going to upvote the first comment that posts "Dislike here"?

[–]Tiwaking 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

https://venturebeat.com/2013/11/08/youtube-cofounders-first-public-comment-in-8-years-why-the-f-do-i-need-a-google-account-to-comment-on-a-video/

YouTube cofounder’s first public comment in 8 years: ‘why the f*** do i need a google+ account to comment on a video?

[–]mahavishnunj 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

i just tried it. i do not have google+ and everything worked like normal. aside from youtube being blown up 3 times the size on the screen now. that shit just started last week for me, its annoying as hell.

[–]raven9 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Answer: Because you are the one who sold out to google.

[–]p_millz 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

If YouTube moves forward with this decision, it will be the beginning of the end for them.

[–]Trajan 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

A terrible decision. While votes can be prone to mob mentality they mostly serve a useful purpose. Click bait titles and thumbnails are rife, with votes giving some impression of whether the video delivers on its title. Ratio of upvotes to views isn't helpful due to how videos publicised via adverts or gone viral via an embedded link have weird metrics.

What this change allows is for videos to be published with comments disabled, but likes still visible, with nothing but a positive number showing. I'd guess that either a corporate publisher/advertiser complained. That or they want to avoid the embarrassing situation of a darling of the left, or the most popular president in history, needing to disable likes and comments to avoid receiving well deserved downvotes.

Commit to the bit, YouTube. Why not simply have a like automatically granted when the video of a party-approved content producer is viewed. You could even skip that formality, automatically granting likes at 3am.