[cole-k]

> There is always bias in the userbase, people usually watch content on their side of the political agenda for example.

I agree, but as a user I am used to assuming a baseline of support for a video coming from the channel's subscribers. So even if the pie-in-the-sky random sampling is biased, I can usually account for that. What I would like to be able to assume is that likes and dislikes come from the "usual" traffic a video receives.

> Also are we talking about global opinion?

No. I think it can be assumed (like you said) that videos typically receive views from certain people. My point is more that brigades disrupt the helpfulness of ratings for viewers like myself. I think we should not offend the sensibilities of the homophobes in this world (lmao) by asking them to watch LGBT-friendly videos. Conversely, I think said homophobes should refrain from brigading such a video just because they dislike LGBT people.

I also will reiterate my claim that it is rude for the hypothetical homophobe to exercise targeted downvotes on LGBT videos.

As for myself, I'm not all too pleased with downvotes being straight up removed from Google (edit: YT). But acting like brigades are constructive and normal use of the platform is silly to me.

Edit: clarified some points