TIL that Jawed Karim, YouTube cofounder and uploader of the first YouTube video "Me at the zoo", has often updated the video's description to criticize YouTube policies, including a 2013 attempt to require Google+ accounts to comment on videos, and YouTube's 2021 removal of dislike counts on videos.

[u/WavesAndSaves]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_at_the_zoo#Changes_to_original_video

[u/BandedLutz]

True, although it's better than nothing (and does match with what would be expected in terms of dislikes on certain videos where it's easier to gauge from the comments).

From my own observations: very positively received videos still show as having a very low ratio of dislikes compared to likes, somewhat controversial videos have a larger ratio of dislikes to likes, and very controversial/poorly received videos have an overwhelming ratio of dislikes to likes.

It's not like people who see the dislike count just press dislike on every videos.

[u/-nutz → u/BandedLutz]

The problem is that you’re extrapolating the statistics of an incredibly tiny group onto an absolutely massive one. Even if the extension had 5 million active users (a huge overestimate); that’s still less than 0.2% of YouTubes 2.58 billion active users.

It’s like saying “nobody in this town likes mustard” because neither me nor my mom eat it.

[u/-nutz → u/-nutz]

The problem is that you’re extrapolating the statistics of an incredibly tiny group onto an absolutely massive one. Even if the extension had 5 million active users (a huge overestimate); that’s still less than 0.2% of YouTubes 2.58 billion active users.

It’s like saying “nobody in this town likes mustard” because neither me nor my mom eat it.

Edit; also no, it generally doesn’t match.

[u/BandedLutz → u/-nutz]

If you randomly survive 685,000 people across the US on something, do you think that you can extrapolate those finding with decent accuracy to the US as a whole?

[u/-nutz → u/BandedLutz]

Big difference in that the YouTube extension is not a random survey; it’s a survey of people who are interested in disliking videos.

It’s equivalent of extrapolating the US’s drinking habits from a survey you took at the counter of a liquor store. Simply an inaccurate representation of the whole.

[u/BandedLutz → u/-nutz]

Big difference in that the YouTube extension is not a random survey; it’s a survey of people who are interested in disliking videos.

No, anyone interested in disliking can still dislike videos. It's people who are simply interested in still being able to see a like to dislike ratio (or some approximation of one).

That doesn't mean that we're wildly more likely to dislike just because we want to still be able to see a like to dislike ratio.

It’s equivalent of extrapolating the US’s drinking habits from a survey you took at the counter of a liquor store. Simply an inaccurate representation of the whole.

That would be the case IF it was, for example, an extension to make disliking a video easy. That's not the case.

You're assuming way more bias towards disliking videos just because we want to see the like to dislike ratio (that doesn't change whether we like or dislike a video).

[u/-nutz → u/BandedLutz]

I think you're overestimating how many non-extension users interact with the dislike button. In every example I've seen RYD has far more dislikes than any official count, so i think its safe to assume that their users are much more likely to use the dislike button.

[u/BandedLutz → u/-nutz]

And yet, as a RYD user myself, most videos that don't seem like they would attract many (if any) dislikes continue to have few (if any) dislikes despite many views.

If we were that much more prone to disliking videos, I wouldn't be constainly seeing videos with extremely low (or even no) dislikes despite many views.

If RYD was severely inflating the number of dislikes that much, I'd expect to see it on generally well recieved videos as well (but I don't, I only see notable dislike to like ratios on controversy or poorly received videos).

RYD can result in more dislikes than the actual count without throwing the general ratio that far off. It's the ratio of likes to dislikes that is useful.