The Great Debate

[Erttheking]

I don't know, when it comes to things like Tropes vs Women well...it just seems like it's the kind of thing that should be debated about. If you can't then...what's the point?

Yeah but you can. Literally anywhere else.
I don't blame her at all after what she put up with before.
If you piss all over the floor you can't be annoyed when you get put back in nappies so you don't do it again.

I suppose I'm a little bitter at being pushed into line with every last douche bag that told her to go get raped.

 

[Phasmal]

I suppose I'm a little bitter at being pushed into line with every last douche bag that told her to go get raped.

I can see that, but surely you don't think her seeing your one specific civil opinion is so important that she must put up with death threats?
I don't blame her, people are free to, but at the end of the day that's what she's going to do.

 

[burningdragoon]

Some people are saying that the good comments will be voted on and find their way to the top. That's cute.

 

[Erttheking]

I suppose I'm a little bitter at being pushed into line with every last douche bag that told her to go get raped.

I can see that, but surely you don't think her seeing your one specific civil opinion is so important that she must put up with death threats?
I don't blame her, people are free to, but at the end of the day that's what she's going to do.

I don't know, as someone who posts content onto the internet myself, part of the process is having to deal with jackasses. I have had to deal with jackasses in the past, to the point where I've ended up banning a couple from commenting on my work, not as many to be honest, but I'm just saying that putting up a video series with no way for her to get feedback seems a wee bit pointless. Not to mention she took it an extra step and disabled ratings. Not to mention other people have gone through this stuff in the past, TotalBiscuit actually got stress related illness from his youtube comments but he didn't disable them, he just doesn't read him and he has his wife and friends comb through them looking for comments that they think he'll actually want to see.

 

[Catface Meowmers]

All I can say is, if you think disabled YouTube comments are "stifling free speech" or "hurting the discourse", then you need to spend less time on the internet. It's like Major Kusanagi said, overspecialization breeds weakness. Get over it, or go find one of the fifty-fucking-billion other places on the internet where you can discuss things.

 

[Phasmal]

I don't know, as someone who posts content onto the internet myself, part of the process is having to deal with jackasses. I have had to deal with jackasses in the past, to the point where I've ended up banning a couple from commenting on my work, not as many to be honest, but I'm just saying that putting up a video series with no way for her to get feedback seems a wee bit pointless. Not to mention she took it an extra step and disabled ratings. Not to mention other people have gone through this stuff in the past, TotalBiscuit actually got stress related illness from his youtube comments but he didn't disable them, he just doesn't read him and he has his wife and friends comb through them looking for comments that they think he'll actually want to see.

Yes, you have had to deal with jackasses, but you have not had a massive hate campaign against you. It's not just `what comes with the internet` and it's not okay.
Like I said, feel free to disagree with her decision, but after all that- fuck, I would have done the same thing.

 

[itsthesheppy]

Freedom of speech means being able to say (most) anything you want without having to fear physical retaliation, either through attack or detention.

It does not mean the right to always be heard. I may think t's my right that the president be personally appraised of every opinion I have, but that is false. You can say whatever you like through any channel available to you. That doesn't mean people need to provide you one, or listen to a word that comes out of your stupid face.

 

[McMarbles]

*clap clap clap clap clap*

The YouTube comment section is where reason goes to commit suicide.

 

[McMullen]

Why is Ashley trying to feed liquor to a toy dinosaur?

Because that's what the English do.

We feed booze to models of extinct species.

Also robots.

Wait, do you feed booze or model dinosaurs to robots? Or are they models of robots? Or do you feed the robots to model dinosaurs? Or is it all three?

OT: Is it censorship? Maybe, but then again the same tired "debates" are readily available for thousands of other videos, I'm not sure there's any need for more, and they just distract from the topic of the video. I'd probably disable comments if it got out of hand. Can you do that retroactively?

 

[I.Muir]

Who is getting silenced when you block the comments.
Or worse yet individually approve comments so that all opposing opinion that cannot be used is removed turning the thread into an echo box.
That's more Anita's thing though.

 

[McMarbles]

It really doesn't matter how inane and idiotic the comments end up being.

Disabling them completely shows weakness. It's just that simple.

Besides, there is no legitimate reason to do such a thing unless you specifically don't want people insulting you.

Turning off ratings is even worse.

My god, why would people want to NOT be insulted? What madness is this!

 

[JoaoJatoba]

I do not get it. If one posts a youtube video with the comment section disable, it doesn't mean that one killed the debate. You have the WHOLE internet to share your ideas on the topic: you can upload a video to not only youtube, but vimeo and other media sharing sites, you can discuss it here on the Escapist Forum, you can blog about it and so on...

It seem that people get personally offended by that woman's action of not listening (which is not totally true, cause you can still try to PM her or send her an email), and totally dismiss REAL debate: objectification of women on mass media.

Even if she was just dismissing opposing arguments to her point of view, it shouldn't matter that the one that 'started' this instance of the debate listen to what you have to say, but rather that the debate itself goes on...

I don't need to talk to Richard Dawkins to discuss his ideas on secular societies or talk to William Craig to disagree with his view on the origins of the universe and god, but it is important to think about those issues and address them in some way.

Saying one has killed the debate by only disabling comments in a video is, IMO, ridiculous.

 

[snekadid]

Unfortunately, such is the price of freedom. You have to take the bad with the good, 'cause the other option is, sadly, censorship.

Its not censorship, they are completely free to make a forum thread somewhere where they can say how horrible or great your video is. If i build a house, people can complain all they want, but they are not allowed to spray paint cocks on it.

Its only actually censorship if you delete comments you don't like/agree with while keeping the praise. Of course, the parasites on youtube complain if you delete comments that are just strings of profanity with no purpose, people don't understand that if you want freedom of speech, then you are responsible for the crap that comes out of your mouth. Blocking comments is actually doing them a favor, this way they aren't burdened with their complete incompetence being displayed for eternity.

 

[Something Amyss]

The nature of freedom is that some people will use it do things you don't like.

And the minute Youtube becomes free you will have a point.


Until then, you're not talking about a forum for free speech in the first place, so lolfreespeechandcensorshipclaims, I guess.

It's nice that you want some sort of platform for intelligent discussion, but trying to force it on Youtube is like trying to get a panda to mate with a BMW. Fruitless, and probably frustrating for the panda as well.

But fine, we'll play it your way. Part of freedom is freedom of determination. If we are talking a truly free forum (though we are not), then people should absolutely have the right, nay the obligation to determine the channels by which they are interacted with. Why do you oppose others' freedom, rembrandtqeinstein?

You have CLEARLY never wandered onto a Creationist channel have you?

I honestly can't blame them for not wanting to be laughed at openly.

 

[Something Amyss]

I don't know, as someone who posts content onto the internet myself, part of the process is having to deal with jackasses.

Except it's more than just jackasses in some people's cases, and it's pretty disgusting to see that downplayed because you've dealt with a couple trolls or whatever.

I don't know, when it comes to things like Tropes vs Women well...it just seems like it's the kind of thing that should be debated about. If you can't then...what's the point?

Hmmm...The Amazing Atheist's histrionic response and Thunderf00t's response keep showing up in my recs. Apparently, a few people have figured out how to talk about this (I shudder at the thought that either of these count as "debate"). What sorcery is this?????

 

[Tohuvabohu]

You know.

I don't really love Anita. I'll listen to her, but she... frustrates me sometimes.

And yet, even I think the notion of disabling comments = 'silencing debate and discourse' is a load of crap.

Why?

Because... that notion is stated, usually, within threads discussing her and her videos. Which whenever a thread about Anita is brought up, (especially on the escapist) drag on for over a dozen pages. Every time.

So yeah. 'Censorship/Silencing discourse" my ass.

 

[Irridium]

This is why I laugh when people say disabling youtube comments stifles discussion. They're youtube comments. That already pretty much guarantees there will be no meaningful discussion. It can happen, but it's very rare. If the video is about gender-related stuff or video games (or, god forbid, both), then yeah. No hope, abandon all hope ye who enter, ect.

 

[sethisjimmy]

Not censorship and not killing the debate. Also not a sign of weakness (?). Youtube comments are pretty undeniably terrible. Doubly so when trying to debate a complicated, delicate issue in under 500 characters.

 

[Skeleon]

All the YouTube hate around here seems somewhat overblown. I'm quite active on there actually, so... yeah, there's a lot of idiocy in the comments, but... I dunno, maybe it's the videos I watch or something, but those types of commenters I encounter rather rarely.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

It really doesn't matter how inane and idiotic the comments end up being.

Disabling them completely shows weakness. It's just that simple.

Besides, there is no legitimate reason to do such a thing unless you specifically don't want people insulting you.

Turning off ratings is even worse.

My god, why would people want to NOT be insulted? What madness is this!

Because they're thin skinned.

Even if there is a SINGLE constructive comment among 10 million insults, cutting off the comments is still silencing that opinion because you can't deal with people typing mean things.