Facebook 'Dislike' Button Still Not Allowed For New Apps

Here's a story that a whole lot of you just might--well--dislike.

The blog All Facebook has discovered that the new Facebook, which was supposed to let users express themselves using any verb and any noun they wanted, will not allow developers to make "dislike" apps or a "dislike" button. Facebook members can currently "Like" status updates, photos and other activity, but "dislike" is not an option.

At the f8 Facebook Developer's Conference in mid September, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg boasted that the new Facebook and its Open Graph would provide users with a whole new range of freedom to express themselves; whereas before Facebook members could only "Like" an activity, now they could combine any verb with any noun.

Apparently, there are limitations. When logging into the Facebook developer's page in order to create a new app, you are first taken to a page asking for the "action" (the verb) and the "object" (the noun) that will define what users will be able to do with their new app, how they will be able to express themselves:

Hypothetically, and according to Zuckerberg at f8, "any verb and any noun" could be entered into these boxes. However, if you try to enter "dislike" into the "action" field, here's what you get:

Outrage! If only there were some verb I could use to express my feelings for this decision to ban certain words from Facebook's new apps!

Now, "dislike" is not the only word that is blocked from the new Open Graph: All of the major curse words and slurs bring up the same dialog box of doom. And yet "dislike," which only the most puritanical English speakers would consider profane, is grouped in with George Carlin's 7 Words You Can Never Say on Television.

Though the new Facebook will not allow "dislike," it will let you show your dislike through any number of other words: "hate," "abhor," "despise," "reject," "poop on," "not like," "loathe," "vomit because of" are all fair game for Facebook app developers. "Dislike," however, has been blacklisted and will not be a part of Facebook 3.0.

Facebookers have been clamoring for a "Dislike" button for a few years now, practically ever since the social networking site introduced the Like button in February 2009. A popular Facebook group called "Facebook, give us a dislike button" sprung up days after that introduction in February 2009, and it currently boasts over 400,000 members; a "Dislike Button" Product/Service page on Facebook, with company info listed simply as "LET'S GET IT," is sitting just south of three and a half million fans. Several developers for the Chrome and Firefox browsers have written clever browser apps and add-ons for Facebook "dislike" options, but nothing that truly integrates with the website.

In a July 2010 interview, Zuckerberg said he would "definitely think about" adding a dislike button to Facebook, though after a 15 months of thinking, it appears he has ruled against our quixotic dream of disliking.

We have reached out to Facebook for comment and will update when we receive word. Below, check out all of the other new features from the f8 Conference, where this new class of verb+noun apps was first announced.

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Comments

[Donna-Mk]

10:41 AM on 10/05/2011

It takes 7 keystrokes to DISLIKE when it only takes 4 to LIKE... Liking is easier on your fingers and better.. lol. ✿◕‿◕✿ ... it makes the world a better place... Statuses that will get you Likes here.
http://statusisbaddest.com/status-updates/facebook-status-that-will-get-many-likes/

[Muno]

04:31 PM on 10/04/2011

Good call. I no longer go to Yahoo discussions, it is brutal. It does not matter what you say it can be the most apolitical issues such as "Had a good weekend" and you will get dislikes.

[p8q2b8ng]

08:51 AM on 10/04/2011

Here's what you do.
>Type comment under the post
>Write "dislike"
>Every "like" on the "dislike" is the same thing as a dislike button.
Was it that hard?

[Jose Manuel Herrera]

12:46 AM on 10/04/2011

I believe they will never add a dislike button since it will cause too much hating going back and forth. just MHO. You can make ANYONE feel good when you like their status or anything they post. But not when you dislike it. Hey by the way, get the MOST LIKED Facebook status here...
http://tips21.com/most-liked-facebook-status.html

[Glenn di Benedetto]

11:15 PM on 10/03/2011

People need to forget the whole dislike button on Facebook thing. It’s never going to happen. Liking things fosters a community of sharing and is good for the web. People who spend their hours disliking things (think YouTube) probably spend as much time in front of the computer with their pants around their ankles.

[Muno]

04:26 PM on 10/04/2011

This is the funniest thing I have read in many days!

[Steve Patrick]

04:35 PM on 10/04/2011

I want to "Like" this but there is no Like button!?!?!?!!!!!!

[Carrie Lewis]

05:51 PM on 11/23/2011

I want to like it too!

[Xenite]

06:10 PM on 10/03/2011

Looking forward to the day Facebook becomes Myspace.... it's not coming fast enough.

[sociocanuck]

05:33 PM on 10/03/2011

If you allow negative feedback to be an option, it would derail pretty much every Page ever created - just look at how many accounts purporting to be just dissenting opinions - but prone to ad hominems, profanity, and general belligerence in the process of their dissent - any news Site's 'Page' gets on an hourly basis (prime example: HP's own, which I unliked because I was tired of watching it scroll past me every time I logged in). Not to mention a whole slew of other "Personalities" Pages. And to every posted story thereupon.

Each one of those people would have the power to dislike not only posts by the Page, but other users posts as well. And given that they start from the perspective of opposition for the sake of opposition one can only imagine the disarrayed mess any such thing would become.

[AKansasComment]

04:43 PM on 10/03/2011

More than one way to skin a cat...
A person can click to reply to a post and just type, "D*is*like"

[HipsterEffect]

04:36 PM on 10/03/2011

I tend to agree with Facebook here. Adding a Dislike button would provide a nexus between cyber-bullying and anonymous trolling, both of which represent a darker side of the internet. To like something is fairly innocuous. It's like calling somebody "nice" - there's just not much meaning attached to it. Disliking somebody/something, however, can turn ugly quickly. We've all seen internet mob mentality at play.

[Desolati0n]

05:31 PM on 10/03/2011

Person makes a status and puts, guys my mom just died, I will be away for awhile.
You can then like the status and respond with good...
I don't see how adding a dislike button would promote bullying.

[HipsterEffect]

06:35 PM on 10/03/2011

Good point, but I would say that using the Like button for its intended purpose is a fairly casual act. To Like something negative, as in your example, would require an outright malicious thought and would mean using the button counter to its purpose (to dislike via liking), therefore making the act require more effort. Adding a Dislike button would encourage more negativity by making the act of disliking as casual as the act of liking is now.

[JJovana]

03:23 PM on 10/03/2011

Man, I gotta get with you cool folk, and start hatin' on facebook as well. Its a cool thing to do these days.

F******n hipsters.

[Otto Olivera]

02:20 PM on 10/03/2011

So Mark Zuckerberg is dishonest? Wow! Who'd'a thunk it?

[Spartan Ideal]

07:18 PM on 10/03/2011

It's dishonest to say he'd think about it, and then later come to a definitive stance? Wowza.

[Sundialsvc4]

01:54 PM on 10/03/2011

I can actually understand why you would -not- want a "negative vote" capability.

To throw back to the familiar "Dewey Defeats Truman" gaffe, you don't know how many people do and don't have a telephone. The more things you could be measuring, the less certain you are about what you think you're measuring.

There are several factors here:
-- whether they bought, use, etc. the thing that is "liked."
-- whether they are motivated to say anything (many folks are not), enough to say something.
-- whether they like the product enough to have formed an opinion.
-- whether they dislike the product enough to have formed an opinion.

There are eight binary yes/no decisions here: 16 combinations in all.

If you allow those people who vote, to vote in only one way, then you're hearing from those who (say they) have bought, AND are motivated, AND do like. One answer, which is not cancelled-out by any other answer, and which is indistinguishable from "no answer."

[Sandworm Wrangler]

01:50 PM on 10/03/2011

Facebook is double plus ungood. Where's my bottle of Victory Gin?

[Enzo Ferrari]

12:55 PM on 10/03/2011

A once simple and easy to use site that was great for keeping in touch with friends, has now become a monster. It will consume itself

[AKansasComment]

04:48 PM on 10/03/2011

You're right. It's become to complicated and changed up that I don't know how it works anymore.... and don't care any more, either!

[Harriet Chris]

09:28 PM on 10/03/2011

Totally agree. Facebook is truly a monster, as well as a prana sucker. A sucker of the life force. A killer of productivity. A destroyer of all things good. A device for dumbing down of the user.

[Gui Montag]

11:42 AM on 10/03/2011

As funny as it would be, Facebook is already too gossipy. Better off without it.