Disabling YouTube “Like” Visibility

Disabling YouTube Likes & Dislikes

I have a YouTube channel where I produce Linux-related tech content.

Last year I disabled the YouTube Like/Dislike visibility and I want to talk about why I did it, and the results of doing so.

First, a little background

I started my YouTube channel back in 2014 without any goals at all. For the first couple of years, it drifted aimlessly, slowly picked up subscribers, and eventually built an audience for itself.

The channel was initially called Ethereal Gaming but morphed into Egee; the name of the persona associated with the channel (me, basically) and the channel’s name itself.

Unlike many successful tech channels on YouTube I didn’t shy away from voicing my personal opinions on certain topics, and my opinions brought me a lot of very angry detractors from the Linux community. A lot.

In 2018, much to the chagrin of the community, I changed my profile picture and the negative feedback on my videos really ramped up.

2019, A Retrospective

2019 was interesting because I published the fewest number of videos since 2014, but a couple of them were breakout successes (in terms of views & interaction).

However, with any amount of success comes detractors, and many of my videos were bombarded with dislikes and vitriolic comments.

I delved into my analytics and noticed that many (not all) of the videos being dislike-bombed were being cross-posted in Linux community haunts such as r/linux and various Linux distro forums.

Using my Windows laptop, I used a VPN with a different YouTube account of mine to see if my content was being recommended.

The videos which had been recently dislike-bombed were not being recommended to my other YouTube account.

The videos that were already successful did not seem to be affected.

Why Should I Care About Dislikes?

Much like Reddit’s Upvotes & Downvotes, YouTube provides a way for viewers to provide feedback to content creators in the form of “Likes” and “Dislikes”.

The number of Likes/Dislikes are shown to the content creator as well as to the viewers directly under the video.

Viewers sometimes comment about the number of dislikes a video has which can cause more people to dislike it.

If you do research about YouTube likes & dislikes, you will probably find articles claiming that Dislikes are actually good because it shows user-interaction.

Perhaps it was true on YouTube years ago but as of late 2019 and into 2020, that does not appear to be true at all.

And even if it was still true, would you really want to direct your viewers & potential customers or fans to a video with more Dislikes than Likes?

What is a Dislike-Bomb?

A “Dislike-Bomb” is where a video gets a bunch of dislikes all at once for no apparent reason.

If you produce a video about a controversial topic, you can expect to see lots of organic dislikes. This is not a Dislike-Bomb.

A “Dislike-Bomb” is where a video on a seemingly benign or contextual topic receives a large number of dislikes, typically right after the video is published, for no discernible reason.

With analytics, you can usually trace-back the source of the bombs using the time, traffic sources, and the number of dislikes during the bomb.

Dislike-Bombs were a problem that my channel suffered from throughout 2019 where some videos would receive multiple dislikes on a single video within minutes of being published.

This resulted in:

• Viewers making comments about the number of dislikes (which often leads to more dislikes)
• Lower audience retention rates (viewers stop watching when they notice the dislikes)
• The video not being recommended to non-subscribers
• The video not being ranked well in search results

Disable Visible Likes & Dislikes!

Firstly, you can’t outright disable Likes or Dislikes; you can only hide the number of likes & dislikes.

But I found that viewers who enjoy my content still Like my videos, whereas the viewers that dislike the video simply move on without smashing the Dislike button.

Much like Reddit’s Upvotes & Downvotes, I believe that showing the number of dislikes is a form of positive reinforcement that encourages detractors.

If a Dislike-Bomb is a coordinated effort, its much more difficult to determine how many dislikes are being given if the number isn’t shown in the first place.

Did It Work?

The goal of disabling Likes & Dislikes was to try and reduce the number of dislikes I was receiving from people who aren’t actually engaged with my content.

Did I achieve that goal? Yes, I believe I did.

It’s important to note that YouTube’s Like/Dislike system isn’t inherently bad. Dislikes aren’t bad when they are used as constructive criticism.

Dislike-Bombs are not constructive criticism. They are malicious and designed to hurt the content creator and their channel or brand.

Should You Disable Likes & Dislikes?

Probably not. This (hopefully) isn’t a common problem that YouTube channels have.

My videos were likely brigaded by detractors who did not like me or my channel. Their dislikes & comments had nothing to do with the quality of my content.

The Linux community, in general, is unusually divisive and having a furry persona ended up being a magnet for dislikes and angry viewers.

Thankfully, YouTube gives us the tools to moderate comments and, in some cases, disable user interaction entirely.

tl;dr

I disabled Likes & Dislikes on my YouTube videos and the number of dislikes & hateful comments I received seemed to decrease and my audience retention rose noticeably.