A dislike button is just what the internet needs — as long as it doesn't work

The "like" button fulfills only half of our basic desire

Facebook dislike
(Image credit: (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez))

Back when I blogged as Valleywag, the prime ankle-biter of the startup world, Digg founder Kevin Rose told me that he was considering a secret feature. Users were over-reporting content they didn't like, misusing the "report as spam" button. So Kevin wanted to add a new option to the dropdown menu of reasons for reporting a post: "Report as lame." While "report as spam" or "report as wrong category," when hit by enough users, would automatically move or delete the post, "report as lame" wouldn't do anything. Its sole purpose was to satisfy the user.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us