I was going to make a topic on this as well since I have been through the same thing and sometimes I have even doubted my own advice to others. I have always told people to just simply disable ratings and explain to the audience (while hoping they'd understand) about why you had to what you had to do, but I feel that it might not always be sound or the best action.
Anyways, so to address Frankie's post:
I'm going to say it's not a bad thing overall and it can be helpful in protecting your ratings since ratings can't be altered (you can't just "delete" a dislike.) unlike comments where they can be deleted, marked as spam, blocking the offending user, etc. I can't speak for others as they can interpret it otherwise, but I am not going to interpret it the way most people do. Personally, I'd say if you need to disable ratings to prevent the trolls from thumbing down or wrecking havoc upon your hard work and your videos, then it is understandable. I wouldn't mind explaining to the audience/viewers about why you had to do what you had to do, real and loyal fans should understand, if not, then they aren't really a real fan (at least in my book). Also, I would re-enable ratings when the troll crowd has long moved on, but if they return, then disable it again (temporarily- unless they constantly return).
As far as people accusing of botting or being suspicious, I would just delete their comment (or comment set to approval if there are a mass of comments rather than a few here and there.)
I disable my rating on all of my videos, I've had losers rate my videos down out of spite. So I disable the ratings to annoy the living hell out of them.
It's each to their own at the end of the day.
Same, I had to do that when I first started my channel. Albeit I know my videos aren't the best, I've been getting something like 2/5 star overall ratings out of about 20 or so votes, most of which are 1/5 stars, (back when they had the star rating system). If I gotten about 2/5 stars out of maybe 2-3 votes then, that is more at the norm, meaning that someone "legit" didn't like my content. That video was long gone, but that was just an example.
See that's what I'm thinking. It's instantly going to make people think a) my videos are so rubbish I had to disable ratings and b) it's letting them 'get to me' and therefore win.
I mean the thumbs down hasn't been drastic. Just a couple here and there. But I can see this growing in future. People are very jealous and petty sometimes.
I just wish there are a limit on it. Like, you have to watch at least 25% of a video in order to rate at all, or something.
Yeah I think this is a great suggestion to counter/remedy the dislike flood from trolls, by making it that they watch at least 25% of the video to even be able to rate it. For longer videos, like longer than 10 minutes, have it at maybe 20%, and 10% for very long videos (20min+), so that way it doesn't waste the user's time to have to sit through many minutes before voting.
I totally disagree with this, Shane. Everything isn't about some bot. Sometimes people are working hard and they are sick and tired of being trolled. Everything isn't always black and white..then again maybe that's how it is with gaming channels. I don't know. I turned off my thumbs because I'm sick of getting trolled. I put up a video of a recipe and 15 seconds latter I got a thumbs down. Did they try the recipe that fast?
I don't want to look on my site and see that crap after I've just spent money on ingredient, moving the camera around 12 times while trying to cook, editing for two hours, researching and testing recipes that are not only easy but tasty, going over to the blog and typing out the recipe, taking a bunch of photos of the food after I've prepared it,voicing over the thing until it sounds decent. While also working a real job in a hot kitchen.
All for 15 seconds after I upload someone to thumbs down me without even a seconds thought. If they don't like my videos, then move along nothing to see here. But as long as I have the option to turn them off no one is going to thumbs down me for my hard work. You don't like my food leave me a comment, my lighting sucks, leave me a comment, my volume is too high, leave me a comment. Tell me why with a comment or get the heck out of here. And that my friend, doesn't have anything to do with a bot.
I turned them off last week and have never felt better.
I feel ya, sometimes people can be either jealous, hateful, or just plain griefers, sadly, most of the people out there especially the younger generation are total assholes... It's a shame that people who work very hard and invest a lot of time, money, energy, and effort don't get the recognition/respect that they deserve!
I don't really judge others by whether they disable ratings or not, it's mostly based on the content. Anyways, you are a very good chef!
I really liked your cooking videos, especially the fried chicken and Naan bread!
If i see things like rating/comments disabled i usuall think 1 of 2 things
1. the uploader must have gotten a lot of flaming in the video so in order to not make themselves look bad they just disabled stuff.
or
2. the uploader is afraid of negative feedback.
but i never put much thought in it, i suppose if i got a bunch of negative feedback for no reason i would probably disable stuff to.
I'd go with choice 1. pretty much most of the time. Sometimes I may choose 2.
Considering that the amount of haters and trolls hasn't diminished (but perhaps gotten worse) over the years, I'd stick with 1. mostly.
I would think that as long as you dont disable comments you should be fine, but if you do decide to disable rating just think, you wont have those 100's of likes and everyone of those likes is apearing on that persons feed for all of their friends and subscribers to see, so in my opinion it would be more beneficial to leave ratings on and just ignore the dislikes, plus how do you know that those dislikes arn't genuine? as in they honestly just didnt like them. Anyway thats my two sense
Yeah, I agree since comments are at least "fixable" since the video owner can delete, mark as spam, and possibly block the user if the user is really really bad. Furthermore, set to approval if there are many comments coming in at a fast rate. Ratings, however, can't be deleted..
I'm not saying that those people who thumb down or assume because of your gender don't exist. It just seems unrealistic to disable ratings in response to them (mostly since you have 40 of 300). You don't have to prove yourself to anyone. Take in the criticism if there's actually any of it there, but otherwise handle it like a mature person.
The internet is full of immature people (as is the world honestly). That's why I say keep ratings up because you're better than that whole mess. When women who are gamers begin to blame it on their gender themselves, you're just making the problem worse with segregation versus helping it. You don't have to prove how true of a geek, nerd, or gamer you are to anyone. Just game.
Great post! Indeed, the Internet is full of immature people (can't permanently ban them all
)..
imo i personally would not watch a video with a disable bar but a video with plenty of thumbs down, i wouldnt watch it either... you can block the person if you know who they are and they'll be unsub
I beg to differ. I tend to go by content rather than disabled ratings/dislike bar since I know many legitimate, hard working YouTubers that don't get enough respect and recognition. Sometimes, I don't agree with the masses either
@Everyone else (if someone can answer this I'd appreciate it)
Even nowadays, I'm still wondering, is there really a permanent solution to it? I feel like when I tell most others to just disable ratings, it seems like a temporary solution to a permanent/continuing problem; perhaps even avoiding the problem rather than "fixing" it. If there is another remedy aside from just permanently/temporarily disabling the ratings, then I would like to know.
