YouTube is not only just the biggest video streaming platform but also a community with billions of active users who share their creations as well as honest opinions. Their value is what keeps the creators going for more content. In November of this year, the platform announced that the dislike count would not be visible anymore. The news has spread rapidly and the changes have been done but the users or viewers are still not aware of what this change is going to bring.
Is YouTube removing the dislike button?
No. While most others have already assumed that the dislike button is going away or going to be disabled, YouTube has already cleared that the dislike button is going nowhere. The button will stay and it will be active but the dislike count would not be visible to the public. Viewers can still share their recommendations privately with the creators but they would not be able to see how many other people have disliked them. The feedback will be visible to the creators through YouTube Studio.
Why is YouTube doing so?
The idea of removing the dislike count has been hovering for a quite time now. YouTube started experimenting around a year ago to make its implementation. Starting with a selected number of users, the platform observed some positive changes and in November, the idea is implemented. While many are showing mixed reactions, the platform has claimed that it will be for the betterment of creators. YouTube is aiming to create a respectful and inclusive environment for all where viewers are not driven by others’ reactions. Here are some of the crucial reasons behind the decision,
• The creators should feel safe to express themselves without worrying about dislike counts.
• Just like viewers count metrics help to measure popularity, the dislike count puts an effect on the viewers negatively and makes them not watch the video. But the purpose was to make everyone watch the content and share their honest feedback without getting driven by others.
• Like and dislike count metrics are included to make viewers share their recommendations of which kind of videos they like and which they don’t. but in reality, there are a lot of users showing negativity through disliking casually which can hamper the creator’s mental health and creations as well. As it is a competitive market, it can frequently happen due to the fans and rivalries but there is no point in creating an obstacle between a creator and his creations.
What are the difficulties of this decision?
Removing the dislike count is not a drastic decision as it has been taken after proper research and experiment. However, every time a new update comes; it often meets with disdain as it includes the mass audience. Some of the users showed different reactions saying,
• It will be painful for the tutorial watchers as they could determine whether the video is worth watching or not from the dislike counts.
• Not just tutorials, but dislikes helped to determine which video could be worth watching among thousands of similar results. If the dislike count is not visible, there should be some other feature that tells the audience whether it could be more useful or not.
Conclusion
While YouTube thrives to create a better place for the creators, the platform is entirely based on the audience base, the community, and loyal viewers. It is definitely a great decision to create a better environment for all. However, YouTube must think about the viewers and their preferences as well since 720,000 hours of videos are daily uploaded on YouTube and it gets really daunting to comb through.
According to the experts at the Music Promotion Club, cutting off the dislike count from any video has created a lot of confusion amongst the audiences. It may affect the choice of the video watchers as they can’t find whether a video is worth watching. And that’s why this site shares some YouTube music promotion packages to overcome the obstacles and reach to potential audiences.
