Honestly, it seems like there's no easy win here. I think people for and against this both have good arguments. For example, getting rid of dislikes could mitigate the effects of synthetic brigading campaigns. On the other hand, keeping them could in certain cases give a better view of the organic reaction to a video. I don't spend every day trying to solve these problems so I don't have a strong opinion about what the right answer is.
> Or do people's opinions count less if they are organized?
Of course not, but the metric ceases to have meaning, so something important is lost.
Voting results being meaningful depends on a random sample of people who come across content, so that voters are approximately a random subset of viewers.
If voters organize, then they are no longer a random or representative subset, so the metric ceases to be representative of viewers as a whole, and becomes biased.
Not sure if that was hyperbole, but since you ask, yeah I think it could actually bring about the downfall of humanity. For example, what if climate science videos were being significantly brigaded by bots controlled by oil companies? Might not be that far-fetched. If we fail to communicate effectively about issues like that, we could very well see the downfall of humanity. Even "organic" brigading by the anti-vaxx crowd on related videos seems like an existential threat.
>>>For example, what if climate science videos were being significantly brigaded by bots controlled by oil companies?
I think we need to separate the bot problem from the organic humans. BOTS should be the issue that is countered, regardless of whether they are upvoting or downvoting content. Humans expressing themselves is just grass-roots organizing.
