I was looking through my suggested videos on Youtube and came across this: Now, I'm not a woodworker (though did after school carpentry almost three decades ago...I feel old), but the subject matter interested me and I watched/flicked through it. Glad I did - very interesting to see traditional and clever manufacturing methods to mimic the overpriced Dyson equivalent. I highly recommend the video to...well, anyone, really. HOWEVER... A phenomenon (no, I didn't spell that word correctly at first - I doubt anyone does) I've noticed on the increase over the last year, two, three etc. is videos that get downvoted for no apparent reason. In this case, the video has 165k upvotes (including mine) and 4.2k downvotes. I'm very confused by this. The video itself is completely inoffensive and the guy presenting it comes across as a nice person who I'd actually like to spend some time with rediscovering woodworking. What am I missing? After some thought, I came up with some possible reasons (by no means exhaustive or correct): Some people accidentally clicked on 'dislike' Some people weren't interested in the video because it didn't appeal to them Some people have a personal vendetta against the guy Some people see a white man and automatically dislike (pretty much a sub choice of 3.) (ADDED AS AN EDIT) Potentially autistic people who find a small detail to be annoyed about Point 1 I can deal with: a bit dim as you can undo it, but hey ho. Point 2 irks me as you'd have to be a bit of an idiot to watch a video like this without knowing what it's about. Point 3, well, I can't imagine this guy having any mortal enemies. Point 4 is a whole discussion in itself and actively annoys me if there's any truth to it. EDIT: after discussing with a friend, I added number 5. In retrospect, seems the most likely IMHO. Or perhaps I'm overthinking this . Anyway, over to you for thoughts.
I recognize the thumbnail without even clicking on the video. That's Pask Makes. Absolutely amazing craftsman and his videos are bloody brilliant. No annoying dubstep music, only speaks when its necessary, and very informative. Very good content if you're into woodworking. You forgot point 6. Some people just want to watch the world burn. And point 7. Possibly other creators are jealous of his views and just want to be a dick. The pointless downvotes are also a pet peeve of mine. So unnecessary.
Does 1 click equal 1 like or are they like reddit karma / amazon star ratings and fuzzed to give a representation; 98% approval seems good?
AFAIK up and downvotes don't really matter. Either way YT sees it as an interaction and so if people are downvoting because they genuinely don't like something they are still helping the channel.
I ignore votes and decide for myself whether or not to watch a video, just as I ignore tv critics. Voting is so often abused as to be pointless.
No idea. Though that does add an 8th option: people downvote because they want to balance the overall average approval.
Honestly I think the answer is that some people, when given the facade of anonymity, are just assholes. On Reddit it's not uncommon to see someone post a comment that's highly downvoted and then some people spend the time going through that persons comment history downvoting everything because.. Well, I guess they have nothing better to do than change meaningless numbers on a website out of spite.
4,000 down votes ain't but a drop in the ocean for a video with near on 5.5 million views. And I reckon 99% of them are covered by his pinned comment, idiots getting bent out of shape over 'bladeless'
Simple upvote/downvote systems leave so many gaps there can be any number of reasons, I don't even notice them when viewing any videos. For these types of videos it could be people thinking "Aargh, naked fingers near fast moving sharp things!", or just that they disapprove of making something that will have a Dyson IP, or any number of other unreasonable things in their heads. I'm liking this particular one for the same reasons Pete J does, I enjoyed woodwork at school and wish I had the space/tools make it into a hobby.
They are not upvotes though, they are likes and dislikes. You have to accept that there are a few people that aren't going to "like" the video, especially with that terrible intro He has some amazing skills though!
The joke's on the people who click dislike. The way Youtube's Godlike algorithm works, dislikes are still counted as user engagement and count equally to a like. Despite what logic would dictate likes move a video up the search rankings, whilst dislikes also move a video up the search rankings. All praise Google and it's ineffible logic.
is there a reason you single out Autistic people as people who would click the dislike button because they find a small detail to be annoyed about ?
It makes sense... Google just wants people on the platform... arguably content they actively dislike will keep them there longer over content they're generally nonplussed about. I've done some experiments at work and found that publishing something that contains an unpopular or just downright incorrect viewpoint can be significantly more successful in terms of engagement than something well reasoned... it's more difficult to turn that engagement into something positive from a marketing standpoint, but not a problem because google isn't selling you anything (rather, it's just selling you).
The way I read it, it was not specifically autistic people. More people with a disposition to being picky or liking things a certain way.
Like for instance... someone posting an entire rant thread about something inconsequential that they're annoyed about?
