Dislike Button Comes to Facebook

There is no debate that there are over 2.5 million users that support the addition of a “dislike” button to the Facebook feed. Unfortunately for those users, it’s highly unlikely that Facebook will ever add such a button, however that’s not stopping developers from coming up with creative solutions. One developer has created a Firefox plugin which lets users dislike feed stories.

While the dislike actions are only visible to those users who also have the plugin installed, my guess is that there are a lot of users who would like to click on a “dislike” link. Even if nobody else sees that you disliked a feed story, it can be cathartic to just click on the link. So far the plugin has only been downloaded just over 45,000 times, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see this number jump over the coming weeks and months, as the news about the plugin spreads.

Just this morning there were at least two new pages requesting the addition of a “Dislike Button” (dislike button page and dislike button petition page) each of which have over 1 million fans. While it’s clear that a vocal minority of Facebook users would like a dislike button, the best solution for these users is to download the “Facebook Dislike” Firefox plugin.

While the news feed was adjusted after millions of users protested it’s launch, I have not seen any product changes as a result of users organizing on the site since then. That’s not stopping millions of users from joining Pages and groups which request new features though! Do you think a dislike button would be a valuable addition to Facebook or not?

You can view the developer's profile here on Geeks.

Via AllofFacebook
- daveyy.

Tags: addon, dislike, facebook, feature, firefox, plugin

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by TechJohnson on November 7, 2009 at 7:44am: I don't understand why the creators just don't recognize this and add the button. It would make so many people on the network happy!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David King on November 7, 2009 at 7:46am: I know, but at least for now you can install the addon (presuming you have Firefox) and live with that for now. I'm sure the network of people using it will grow expotentially if they know that it's available, and so if Facebook don't implement the feature, you'll just have lots of people using Firefox with the Dislike Button addon. The only problem being that if you don't have the addon installed you can't see the dislike's.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by CoolBreeze on November 7, 2009 at 10:50am: They don't add it because they do not have too. 2.5 million people for FB is not a lot, considering that the latest stats show that they are adding a half a million new accounts everyday.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Oliver on November 7, 2009 at 7:48am: One nice thing would be an "agree" or "disagree" button because there are things my friends put on their status that I neither like nor dislike but i might agree.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David King on November 7, 2009 at 8:18am: True. However, eventually you'll end up with too many options, and the point of having few options is to make it simple and effective. If you add too many it makes the whole system pointless, however, the reason a dislike button is so popular is because it is in antithesis to 'liking' a status.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Nate Anderson on November 7, 2009 at 10:31am: It seems as though Facebook never really thinks too highly of user's suggestions, but Facebook sure likes to copy anything that becomes popular that could be a Facebook add-on (Just look at Twitter).

If the Firefox add-on becomes popular, I wouldn't doubt the addition of a button.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Phillip on November 7, 2009 at 10:37am: Why does FaceBook need a dislike (or like for that matter) button on everything that goes on? Do you really need to tell someone that you dislike that they had a good day, or that they got a new goat (or whatever you get) on Farmville? Do people really need another way to bring people down? Why are we all so keen on making our feelings on people's actions so known? Get over yourself.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by David King on November 7, 2009 at 10:52am: I have no idea and you've raised an interesting point. I think it has just become so ingrained into the Facebook user experience to be able to 'like' posts, and that is why people want to be able to do the opposite in a 'dislike' option.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Chance Arthur on November 7, 2009 at 11:09am: Agreed.
I don't see the point.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Thomas Moquet on November 7, 2009 at 11:04am: Hi,

Just for information, the downloading counter is not updated in live, and not in the same time than in my personnal statistics which say about 45000 downloads.; ▶ Reply to This