YouTube has from poco eliminated the "dislike“, Or the key with the famous thumb down. This was a service that gave users the possibility to vote, in all respects, a video content. The choice of the social network has been heavily criticized, not only by ordinary users but also by many famous YouTubers. However, the company said the choice was very thoughtful. But is it possible to get the thumbs down back? Yes, we will explain how to do it.
How to get the thumbs down of YouTube back - the button to say we don't like something? Here is a method for everyone
First we see how to get the button back dislike, we want to tackle the problem because it is so important to us. There are good content creators on our team too, like our reviewer Emanuele that you will all have seen. Let's start from the beginning:
Why did YouTube choose to take the thumbs down?
The reasoning behind this decision is that the company wants protect its creators from harassment and reduce "dislike attacks". A reasoning that in fact there is, however the parties directly concerned have not been heard. Or rather, not all of them. A small group of "beta testers" if we want to call them, were taken as a study sample. However, we do not know who tested this function but above all we do not have the results of this test. On this link you can read the press release that affirms the successful test phase.
What factors affect the visibility of a video on YouTube?
This question may seem irrelevant to the case, but instead it takes a lot to understand. Like many other platforms, YouTube doesn't discuss its algorithm in too much detail. However, it does exist documentation which suggests that the following factors play a vital role in a video suggestion from a user:
- what they watch
- what they don't look at
- how much time do they spend watching a video
- likes and dislikes (thumbs down and up)
- feedback "I don't care"
These elements, however, are not "in the public domain". We mean that not all users (probably most) know how it works except by intuition. Consequently we must abide by YouTube's decisions and its algorithms. But without any evidence, how can we believe that change is good for content creators? A side effect in fact could be what one provides increased negative comments (far worse than a psychological dislike for a videomaker). And then we will discover that this news is not so good.
Let's see how to get the dislike button back from YouTube
Having said that, which is more or less shared by you readers, let's go and see how to reset the thumb down button on Youtube.
- first we have to download an extension for our browser, the one we most often use to watch videos. To do this, let's go to the Github repository and download the .zip package. Let's take it out and leave it where it is
- now let's go to the page dedicated to browser extensions by linking chrome: // extensions if we use Chrome or edge: // extensions if we use Microsoft Edge
- now we have to go to the top right corner and enable "Developer mode"
- then we go to the left and select "Upload unpackaged extension"
- at this point we will have to choose the package that we unpacked earlier, that is YT Dislikes viewer, and give the ok
- now we have to go up Google Developers Console and select a new project by going to the top left
- now the screen you see below will appear: we will have to give a name to the project we are creating: I called it "Button I don't like YT"
- now let's go back to the dashboard and select "API and services”As we see in the screenshot below
- now we will have to search precisely for the API called "YouTube DataAPI v3“: We can do it via the search bar or by selecting the YouTube service on the left column and looking for it there. Once found, select it and enable it
- now we will have to create some credentials and to do so we go to the top right on the dedicated button
- now let's tell the system which API we are using and choose YouTube DataAPI v3 from the drop-down menu; we press "NEXT"And select"Public data“; now back on "NEXT"
- we will find a very long alphanumeric code: let's take it and mark it somewhere since we will need it every time we have to see a video on YouTube and we will open the card
- we have come to the end: we open YouTube, open the extension and insert the key code we have memorized, then we save
We have finished the guide. Keep in mind that now, every time you want to use the thumb down button you will have to open the extension, enter the code and reload the page to then watch the video. An unpleasant procedure, but if you really want to go back to the old days it is the only way.
