Facebook has a ‘dislike’ button, but no one’s getting it

So… about that ‘dislike’ button everyone’s been clamouring for on Facebook. Turns out it exists, but you can’t have it, or even experience it. Ever.

Well unless you decide to become a developer at Facebook. Even then, it probably won’t be the dislike button you imagine. It’s called Push Karma and the only person with access to the button is Chuck Rossi, a release engineer at the social network.

Speaking to Businessweek, Rossi explains how he uses the system to see what code a person has submitted and downvote them if he isn’t happy with their performance:

“Every developer is born with four stars to their name,” he says, pointing to a ranking system on the profile page. “If we have an issue when we take someone’s code—and it blows us out of the water—then it takes them down half a star and I write what happened,” Rossi says. The system has a thumbs-down indicator, a feature many Facebook users have long sought. “I am the only guy who has a ‘dislike’ button on Facebook,” he says. “A lot of people want [one], but this is the only place you will see it.”

Rossi has previously done the same job at VMWare and Google. He says that people at Facebook tend to get “pretty freaked-out about losing their stars, but not in a bad way. It’s all done in good fun.”