Dislike

Where have I been?  You don't wanna know where I've been.  Okay, so I got a mini blog on GDC, that's why it's been something like six days.  Well, that and I've actually had issues thinking of good topics that I actually want to write about.  But today several sound good.

Today I'd like to talk about yet another internet phenomena.  The Like Button's lesser known but cult favorite little brother, Luigi The Dislike Button.  The war for a dislike button has been going on on Facebook for a while now.  It kind of makes sense really, since liking someone's status that says something like "I hate being sick" doesn't convey the sympathy that you're trying to give, but don't need to put into words.  So honestly, I get why people would want a dislike button.

What people never seem to mention is that there's at least one other big site out there that already uses a dislike button, and that's YouTube.  Now, admittedly, YouTube is a much, much different beast than Facebook.  For one, Facebook is for your friends, not the whole world.  Youtube is quite a bit more business oriented, since it's a place to get noticed and, potentially, make a living off of.  You're far more prone to trolls there, too, since again, unless you make a video private or unlisted, it's out there for everyone.  It's interesting because it's these differences are what start to give the dislike button a bad name.  It wasn't until I started thinking about the uses of the dislike button on youtube that I started to realize there's no real point to it.

The only thing a dislike button really does is inject negativity in the comment and provide fodder for [witty] comments.  Oh, and in some cases, it gives people reason to believe they're actually hurting someone...this is usually in the case of some corporation or someone that was trolling anyway.  But really, if you already have a button that's used to increase exposure and attention, why do you need one to decrease it?  I mean, let's take me as an example.  Fire Emblem Episode 28 had like 40some views when it got a dislike, it's only rating at the time.  It's already clear there's not a whole lot of people viewing this video, so what more can you really take away from it?  At that point the dislike is just kinda hurtful.  It basically gives viewers the ability to beat on a dead horse while it's down.

"But Sarge, why don't you just shrug it off?"  Well firstly because I don't have anyone to do so, and secondly because I'm using it as an example.  Yeah, you shouldn't take dislikes to heart, but you shouldn't like them either.  That's kind of the whole point.  You can't really make anything positive of it without making yourself look like a doormat.  In this case, what does the dislike button do?  Nothing particularly bad, but nothing good either.  Can we at least agree that we need more positivity in this world? 

Of course, if we wanted to eliminate negativity, we'd have to get rid of comments too, which honestly are often worse that the dislike button.  In that case, however, the comment itself is neutral, and gives the video attention.  When you see the number of comments on a statistics page, there's not a connotation to the number.  It can't be interpreted.  Dislikes, even as a number next to a connotative symbol, always carry that same negative meaning.  Even if a comment is bad, an accompanying dislike is basically just rubbing salt in the wound. 

That being said, I can still see where dislikes are apart of expression.  That totally makes sense to me.  What doesn't is trying to use it to trash a person, especially if they're just trying to get off the ground.  YouTube used to use a 0-5 star rating system instead of a like/dislike system, and while that's more complicated and can still be used negatively, it gives the more rational people a chance to be more rational and not slap a person with this label just because of a minor or legitimate issue in the video.  Plus, the ratings were ultimately shown as an average unless someone was really interested in the actual statistics of the video, which is a little bit better than the bar they use now.  One dislike on a video and the whole thing is red, something that can only be eliminated with a great deal more likes.  It's really a bit of a scarlet letter.

On top of all this, the entire system is subjective.  "Like" and "Dislike" ultimately don't mean anything like they do on Facebook.  When someone does either, all it means is that one person thought something about that video.  In reality, there are no bad YouTube videos just like there are no bad songs or movies or anything like that, since opinions are ultimately subjective.  On Youtube, views and comments speak for themselves, and  the way the site is organized so that more popular things are more likely to get noticed is a direct route to explaining why that happens anyway.  Likes and Dislikes just tend to complicate things like that.

What are dislikes generally used for, anyway?  In most cases when you see a like/dislike bar full of red, it's usually because it's really cool to hate on that particular video, even when its a case of "so bad it's good."  Kinda like Rebecca Black.  There are a crazy amount of dislikes on that video, probably given by people who laughed at the video.  Playstation's The Tester only has dislikes because its not "The Egoraptor Show" and therefore all of Egoraptor's Youtube-based fans hate it.  I'll never defend The Tester's integrity in any way, but disliking the video doesn't really do anything.  First off because Playstation isn't a person, so you can't hurt its feelings or make it think about whether it's liked or disliked.  Second off, even if there is a person behind the Youtube channel, the only number they're likely to care about is the views, which have to be given in order to dislike something.  Third off, The Tester is a production, and disliking it a bunch of times isn't going to bring Egoraptor back onto the show or make Sony think twice about running the next episode.  So if you dislike a video that's small and unpopular, you can hurt people, and if you dislike a popular video, it doesn't really mean shit.

Personally, I don't think I've ever used the dislike button on Youtube.  I've never felt so strongly against something I've clicked on that I want to put a mark of negativity on something.  I think this is largely because I don't watch things I'm not interested in.  No one's shoving anything down my throat on Youtube, and that's great.  If I do happen to run across a video that isn't what I expect or doesn't strike my fancy, I just click away from it.  Even if there were a video of someone doing something that was purposefully and legitimately offensive, there are more effective and appropriate ways of dealing with it.  All that said, I've just never felt any reason to give out dislikes.  I've liked a shit ton of videos, largely in order to remember them...but I can't really un-remember something by disliking it.  That's my personal rationale.

While I still believe the dislike button is a much different beast in the arena of Facebook, I find myself wondering if it's really even necessary.  I've always said an "agree" button would convery most of the things people would want to communicate with a "dislike" button.  Besides, even though Facebook is for friends, people don't stay that way, and when they don't that button is rife for abuse on all of your accomplishments and spasms of joy.  There's plenty out there to dislike on Facebook (which reminds me...imagine "disliking" a page....if liking it gives you updates on your feed, what woud disliking it serve to do?) but it's much better for not letting people spew it all over the place.  We already know that people have bigger balls on the internet, and I really don't want any of that all over my already drama-filled news feed.