YouTube Comments Get a Makeover From Google

[roseofbattle]

YouTube Comments Get a Makeover From Google

Productive conversations go to die in YouTube comments.

Beginning this week, YouTube comments will start to look a little different. Instead of being displayed chronologically, comments will appear by relevancy in a change Google is calling "conversations that matter to you." Working with Google+, YouTube comments from the video's creator, "popular personalities, engaged discussions about the video," and people in your Google+ circles will move to the top of comments. Commenters will be able to choose to post publicly or privately, and video creators will have more control over moderating comments.

Google and YouTube have wanted to tweak the comments system for a long time, but it was not possible until Google+, unifying all Google services, including YouTube, under one account. With the change, the display of YouTube comments will be personalized to each user, according to YouTube product manager Nundu Janakiram. Two people may see different comments at the top than another person would.

"At a high level, what we're trying to do is to surface meaningful conversations for a particular viewer," Janakiram told The Verge.

Last year Google began asking YouTube users to use their Google+ accounts to log in to YouTube, linking the two accounts together and reducing anonymity. Video creators who have linked their YouTube accounts to Google+ and enable discussions on their channel page will be the first to use Google's redesign. The redesign for the entire site won't be available until later in the year.

Source: The Verge [http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2013/09/youtube-new-comments.html]

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[Glaice]

Oh nice, more change to Youtube we did not ask for. The comments worked find for the most part for a lot of us.

 

[seditary]

I would rather they spent their time making sure the videos work since that has been going downhill fast.

And subscriptions. And basically almost everything except comments.

 

[Teoes]

Meaningful conversations in the YouTube comments section. Wait, think I've got something for that.

Last year Google began asking YouTube users to use their Google+ accounts to log in to YouTube, linking the two accounts together and reducing anonymity.

And they've continued to ask, repeatedly, every couple of days, despite my declining the "offer".

I would actually pay for a STOP FUCKING ASKING ME TO USE MY REAL NAME button.

 

[shrekfan246]

Oh nice, more change to Youtube we did not ask for. The comments worked find for the most part for a lot of us.

The comments work, but the content of said comments is often enough to make a lot of us not bother reading them in the first place.

This sounds like it's just going to shift around the order in which you see comments, which... could be mighty confusing, especially if it does it automatically without the user's input. I wonder if it'll make any difference to people who don't actually make use of most Youtube/Google+ features?

I would rather they spent their time making sure the videos work since that has been going downhill fast.

And subscriptions. And basically almost everything except comments.

I agree with this, though. I'm still annoyed that the Youtube video player was changed and is no longer capable of pre-buffering videos I want to watch, all because of the 144p resolution and the stupid auto-quality-change thing (which frequently switches from the default resolution to 144p or 240p, then back up to the default whenever I start videos, often causing annoying stuttering and pausing roughly twenty-five seconds into anything I'm trying to watch).

 

[sid]

They're prioritizing celebrities and personal interests? Doesn't that considerably funnel your exposure to people who aren't , you know, literally you?

 

[Weaver]

Why can't they just make comments reddit/disqus style (or what have you) where replies are expandable below any given comment, and we can sort by up/down votes, newest, oldest, and other such stuff?

I don't give a fuck about google+ or what it thinks I care about in a youtube comment.

 

[Something Amyss]

And they've continued to ask, repeatedly, every couple of days, despite my declining the "offer".

Yeah, I like the way they continue to annoy you about it.

Meaningful conversations in the YouTube comments section.

Maybe they think "shut up ****** nwo Ron Paul 20XX" IS meaningful conversation.

It's possible that the reason there's so much shit in the comments section is that Google is run by people from Xbox Live.

They're prioritizing celebrities and personal interests? Doesn't that considerably funnel your exposure to people who aren't , you know, literally you?

Considering how much of an echo chamber YouTube already is, will it make a difference?

 

[Atmos Duality]

They're prioritizing celebrities and personal interests? Doesn't that considerably funnel your exposure to people who aren't , you know, literally you?

Yeah...I'm questioning that change a bit too.
It sounds fine in theory, but it also sounds like a great way to funnel even more traffic to Youtube's celebrities.
I wonder how that would play with advertisers.

 

[Chessrook44]

GODDAMMIT YOUTUBE STOP CHANGING EVERYTHING!!!!

 

[teqrevisited]

If only they fixed the subscription box, non-buffering videos, auto-changing quality, awful layout decisions and the copyright claiming system. Nope, focus all your efforts onto the most toxic section of the internet besides any moba 'community'.

 

[Roxas1359]

Ah YouTube, you truly are the site that uses Goole's motto well.
That motto being "if it's not broken, we'll make sure that we'll break it with the next update change that no one asked for!"

I honestly am debating on whether to just move permanently to Game Anyone for my LPs more now then ever. I mean it's not like you need to fix your copyright system because phishers are abusing it or anything, and false flaggers get off scot free as the wrong people get banned. No, I mean, when has that ever happened. B(

*see the Atlus stuff getting taken down by Russian bots this entire month*

 

[Idlemessiah]

Hmm, it'd be nice if they gave us an option in account settings for turning comments off. My internet is crap and it'll spend ages loading all the comments and avatar pictures when it's supposed to be loading the video.

Also, bring back buffering! Even in 144p my phone line struggles to fit the whole video down in one go resulting in blurry, stuttery, pause ridden shite. I don't mind going and making a coffee while the video buffers. It's what I do here on the Escapist and that all works fine with me.

 

[antigodoflife]

It's like YouTube is trying to become irrelevant. Posts appearing in relevance over chronology has always pissed me off with Facebook and force-linking with Google+ getting more prevalent is just annoying not to mention, is anyone actually using Google+ by choice these days?

I understand that privacy is a non-issue with Google and as such, I choose not to sign up with their products as often as possible but YouTube is one of the few exceptions due to how helpful to everyday life it is, whether it be by actual usefulness or by needing a laugh or just to listen to some music. Now, it seems by using YouTube, there can't be any privacy and I worry how redundant YouTube is going to be to me afterwards as I lavish in my privacy.

Since Youtube has started looking like an adobe CS5/CS6 product, it's really gone to shit and progressively getting more and more user unfriendly. While I like the idea that this clearly going to end up with YouTube feeling less caustic, I feel it's come at the cost of having an intraversable comment section. At the end of the day, if they truly wanted to have a less caustic comment section, instead maybe they should have made it easier to block or flag individual users, as opposed to making it a god damn chore, as it is now. It just feels fishy to me.

I can't say I like where this is going.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Why is Google now trying to make all its products shittier all of a sudden?

First it was Chrome attempting to emulate Internet Explorer via bloatware and crap, then Gmail with its retarded 'pop-up but worse' new email system, and now Youtube comments.

I can kinda see the need to clean up that particular cesspit, but as another poster said just do it Reddit style.

 

[BrotherRool]

" people in your Google+ circles"

Oh bless, google things we actually use Google + outside of mandatory account signing in. I'm going to really enjoy having all those comments promoted according to the whopping 0 people I've ever bothered to add into my Google+ circles

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Did they just say that Youtube had meaningful conversations?
AAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

Also, I'm not going to like anything Youtube does until it fixes it's recommended videos and... well the videos in general. Half the time I have to refresh the bloody page because it freezes all the god damn time.

 

[bluegate]

Hmm, it'd be nice if they gave us an option in account settings for turning comments off. My internet is crap and it'll spend ages loading all the comments and avatar pictures when it's supposed to be loading the video.

Also, bring back buffering! Even in 144p my phone line struggles to fit the whole video down in one go resulting in blurry, stuttery, pause ridden shite. I don't mind going and making a coffee while the video buffers. It's what I do here on the Escapist and that all works fine with me.

Here you go;
http://www.youtube.com/feather_beta

This should help with the unnecessary loading of data.