YouTube recently removed the dislike counter from its videos, citing a desire to reduce "dislike attacks" and protect creators from harassment. However, a group of developers has created a browser extension called "Return YouTube Dislikes" that restores the dislike counter. The extension uses a combination of historical data and crowd-sourced information to estimate the number of dislikes on a video.
The creator of the extension, Dimitri, has been working with a digital heritage preservation group to integrate metadata from 4.56 billion videos, which will improve the accuracy of the dislike counter. The extension is available for download, and users can contribute to its accuracy by using it and sharing their own likes and dislikes.
However, the extension raises some concerns, including potential privacy issues and the fact that it may not be sustainable in the long term. Additionally, the extension's creator is working with some questionable groups, including online content piracy groups.
The removal of the dislike counter has been met with criticism from creators, who argue that it makes it harder for them to gauge the quality of their content. Some have also pointed out that the removal of the dislike counter may not actually reduce harassment, but rather make it easier for malicious actors to manipulate the platform.
Overall, the debate around the dislike counter and its removal is complex, with different perspectives on its impact on creators and the platform as a whole.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. YouTube announced the removal of the dislike counter on November 10th.
2. The stated purpose of this change was to reduce "dislike attacks" that disproportionately affect smaller channels.
3. A project called "Return YouTube Dislike" aims to restore the dislike counter via a browser extension.
4. The extension uses data from the YouTube API to display the dislike counter.
5. The YouTube API was updated to hide dislike counts on December 13th.
6. The project's lead developer, Dimitri, collected data on 250 million videos before the API update.
7. The extension uses this data to display historical dislike counts for videos uploaded before the API update.
8. For new videos, the extension uses a probabilistic approach to estimate dislike counts based on user interactions.
9. The extension is available for Chrome and can be installed from the Chrome web store.
10. The project's code is mostly publicly available and open-source.
11. The extension collects minimal data from users, only what is required to log dislikes and prevent spam.
12. The project may become more accurate in the short to mid-term with the help of more users and data.
13. YouTube recommends using comments to gauge video quality or validity, but this method has its own limitations.
14. The removal of the dislike counter may have unintended consequences, such as making it harder to identify misleading content.
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