r/technology • u/Dilpickle2113 • 10h ago

Social Media YouTube is testing hiding the dislike button entirely and users aren’t happy

https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/youtube-is-testing-hiding-the-dislike-button-entirely-and-users-arent-happy-3420822/
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u/ThePassionOfTheISK 8h ago edited 8h ago

Does YouTube understand they're not immune to a future where users walk away from their platform?

They've dropped in quality and they continue to drop in quality.

At some point the content creators leave and the consumers leave. They really should be focused on fixing their degraded algorithm. It worked better in 2010.

50% of what I get suggested appears to be new accounts who use AI video and AI narrators. I use the site mainly for long form videos. Information and education. Like news and science. And all of the legit people are being replaced by unknowns. It's TRASH.

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u/krwawie 8h ago

There is no alternative

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u/YoshiTheFluffer 8h ago

Thats the sad reallity of it.

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u/willacceptboobiepics 6h ago

It would be very hard for someone to compete as well. YouTube basically grew this content format into what it is today. And therefore had the luxury of building up the infrastructure over time as it became more popular.

Where we are at today is Google having unimaginably massive data centers in order to be able to hold the overwhelming amount of data storage required for this kind of operation in the current day.

The money required to do something like this on any level that would be even slightly close to what YouTube is doing would be so crazy expensive that the only people that can afford to do it will just end up enshitifying the platform out of greed, just like Google and we are back to the same issue.

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u/LetsGoForPlanB 5h ago

Nebula was created by YouTube creators.

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u/AntComfortable5970 7h ago

There really isn't and it sucks so much.

I wish Vimeo would get bigger 

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u/ArkUmbrae 6h ago

Vimeo doesn't want big creators. There's a channel popular in the wrestling fandom called Botchamania, and they had to delete their YT for copyright reasons. They moved to Vimeo, and after a few months, Botchamania tweeted this.

"Vimeo have informed me that Botchamania is using too much bandwidth & if I want to keep using the site I need to pay them $10,000 (annually)

I asked how I can reduce bandwidth, they said "by removing videos"

so my channel will be removed in a week"

He was only getting around 17k views per video at that time, 7 years ago. If they can't handle 1 channel with 17k regular viewers, they will never compete. Now he's back on YT with more careful editing, pulling in 150-200k per video. Would Vimeo ask him for $100k now?

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u/AntComfortable5970 6h ago

Damn, I never knew that botchamania had that happen, and that Vimeo was like this.

I mean I new that they simply can't stand up to YouTube's insane hosting abilities, but that's way low.

Makes me wonder how they're still around.

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u/Fresque 1h ago

Pornhub might be able to handle a bit more, pun intended.

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u/Mother___Night 7h ago

Vimeo had the quality edge for so long, but they seem to be barely hanging on

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u/AntComfortable5970 7h ago

Yeah, Vimeo is really solid but they've just never taken off

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u/Kougeru-Sama 4h ago

Vimeo has tiny upload limits. Not feasible. They love AI too 

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u/cheesebot555 8h ago

Netflix is trying to make one, and depending on what you go to YouTube for there's also Twitch and Kick.

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u/Tanriyung 7h ago

Twitch and Kick.

Twitch is 1/1000th the size of Youtube, I don't think it can be considered a competitor, and Kick is even smaller than Twitch.

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u/Krojack76 7h ago

Kick is where all the Twitch streamers go when they get banned from Twitch. That's all Kick is.

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u/slicer4ever 2h ago

Tbf which competitor is even in the ballpark of what yt does/serves? They all gatta start somewhere, lol.

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u/cheesebot555 7h ago

Depends. They are both more popular for streaming.

Like I said, depends on what you're there for, but to say it has no competition is inaccurate.

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u/Tanriyung 7h ago

When people talk about youtube having no competition they talk about the long form / non-vertical videos.

In terms of streaming Youtube is slightly bigger than Twitch (not for gaming streams through).

In terms of shorts, Youtube is behind Tiktok and fighting Instagram for second place.

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u/cheesebot555 7h ago

"When people talk about youtube having no competition they talk about the long form / non-vertical videos."

Nowhere in top comment was that specified, which is why I did.

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u/EpsilonActual 7h ago

Depending on the content Twitch is absolutely a competitor. Gaming for instance is massive and the Venn diagram for people who use YouTube and Twitch for gaming content is a nearly perfect circle

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u/Tanriyung 7h ago

I think you live in a echo chamber if you actually think that.

This is more like that: https://i.imgur.com/JDLq67h.png

The Venn diagram is approximately to scale for the size of gaming content on each platform (from what I can find on internet).

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u/Venator850 6h ago

Twitch is an absolute joke compared to Youtube. To say otherwise is just trolling. Twitch is not even close and many Twitch streamers post on Youtube and simulcast there anyways.

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u/davechainsaw 6h ago

Netflix will never be a competitor until they have a free option. Netflix essentially needs to remake YouTube, verbatim, to be a real competitor.

People severely underestimate how much the comment section is part of the experience. Also fuck Netflix

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u/cheesebot555 6h ago

Oh, I expect they'll fail miserably.

Netflix just kind of has that stink about them anymore.

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u/davechainsaw 5h ago

They managed to steal my favorite Podcast from YouTube, Pardon My Take. I tried Netflix with the first episode and it just doesn’t work for me. It’s that big of a deal to me.

That’s when I realized how much the comment section adds to the experience. Also, annoying when only one of your regular podcasts is on an entirely separate app. I pay for Premium and use it all through the day.

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u/Venator850 6h ago

Twitch and Kick are streaming platforms. Not equivalent to Youtube and also a joke in comparison.

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u/Kougeru-Sama 4h ago

They don't do recorded content and YouTube surpassed them in streaming hours watched 3 years ago. Twitch is losing viewers (share) every year. Kick is for bigots 

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u/cheesebot555 4h ago

Isn't Kick kind of like where you go if you've been bounced from everywhere else?

Like, if you're streaming there you've probably got a lot of viewers who also think Elon is a great dude?

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u/ThePassionOfTheISK 7h ago

Imagine every major youtuber backing up all of their uploads, deleting them from YouTube, and then migrating to any new site which happens to pop up and be trendy. That's the future.

So I agree, there is no alternative. But that doesn't mean there won't be an alternative, even in the near future. Could come any day someone sees a way to make money.

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u/SmokeyJoe2 7h ago

a new site that happens to “pop up and be trendy” isn’t gonna be able to handle a petabyte of video uploads per day. Not financially. Not technically.

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u/ThePassionOfTheISK 7h ago

Agreed. It would be a slow migration and the reason other people would follow is because of big names migrating. Would snowball.

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u/Asoxus 7h ago

It’s near impossible. There is no hardware that can support that much data and that many users. The only option would be if another big data provider like Amazon or Microsoft decided to go against google.

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u/zoeypayne 1h ago

Pornhub has the money and technology to make a vanilla version of their site. I kind of have the feeling that YouTube is paying them not to get into the game.

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u/CucharitaDePalo 7h ago edited 6h ago

Imagine every major youtuber backing up all of their uploads, deleting them from YouTube

Why would anyone do such thing? It is literally losing money with no added benefit.

Edit: jskadja deleted the whole chain of messages

Edit2: OP even blocked me, lmao.

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u/ThePassionOfTheISK 7h ago

Because big guys are becoming small guys. They have huge back catalogues but anything they upload now loses views to people using AI. So any Anti-AI environment might look more appealing. Especially if demonetization isn't strict in the new platform.

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u/CucharitaDePalo 7h ago

It seems you didn't understand my point, why would they delete their source of income instead of simply having two sources?

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u/ThePassionOfTheISK 7h ago

Spite and control.

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u/CucharitaDePalo 7h ago

sure, keep imagining people sacrificing their livelyhood out of spite.

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u/ThePassionOfTheISK 7h ago

I'm not talking about two bit people with 100k followers. I'm talking about the people with big bucks already who can afford to walk away.

And the two bit people with 100k followers are already getting crowded out by AI people with 25-50k followers. Those AI channels blow up fast. Like viral within 4 videos. The small time content creators certainly don't like that.

The people using AI to make slop are also totally OK with using algorithm manipulation and view botting, etc.

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u/CucharitaDePalo 6h ago

you are dense. Again, if someone is making big bucks out of a youtube channel, then why would they delete it? it makes your imaginated world even more nonsensical.

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u/ThePassionOfTheISK 6h ago

You're a materialist. You wouldn't get it. Later.

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u/Automatic_Art_4469 7h ago

Most YouTubers capable of this have no infective to leave because they are the ones profiting from the current state of the app. 

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u/Alextaoluu 7h ago

I know a lot of youtubers that already migrated to twitch to become streamers instead throughout the past 10-15 years

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u/Motor-Rip7655 6h ago

There are over a dozen alternatives.

Here's one I like: www.kamtape.com

The issue is, none of the alternatives have taken off yet. Because YT is a juggernaut.

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u/PyroGooose 6h ago

For now, if they keep pushing things in this direction im sure that some people will get pissed enough to code their own site (i assume that's what happened with Bluesky)

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u/AccordionWhisperer 6h ago

Having an alternative isn't a prerequisite to walking away from a platform which no longer provides sufficient value for the time you put into it.

At this point I only watch the occasional YouTube video at this point because I got so tired of the ad interruptions.

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u/PossibilityUsual6262 4h ago

Bili bilinxomes for YouTube and from what I heard its already better platform.

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u/trysten-9001 7h ago

Nebula, Netflix, Patreon, School, Spotify, Haven

There’s no alternative yet. The field has plenty of growing options

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u/InternetUser1807 8h ago

-Skype, 2015

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u/VegetaFan1337 7h ago

No one used Skype to the extent people use Youtube.

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u/Eggsegret 7h ago

Skype wasn’t nearly as popular as YouTube is. YouTube handles petabytes of data being uploaded each day with a ton of popular YouTubers that generate millions of views per video. The infrastructure a new site would need to be a real competitor is something else.

Not saying a new company can’t come ahead and take over but it’s not going to be easy.

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u/mosquem 7h ago

Skype got cannibalized by Teams.

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u/ExF-Altrue 7h ago

Surely they realize that other social networks are actively used as youtube alternatives by billions of people every day?

Music? Obviously covered.

Shorts? Obviously covered.

Long-duration shorts? Also covered.

They can't survive only on very long form content if people start to leave.