YouTube Comments Get a Makeover From Google

[CriticalMiss]

Good to see that Google are now focussing their attention on the things that really matter, it's stupid how they wasted everyones time fixing their copyright claim system when it was already so watertight it gave copyright lawyers an orgasm![/sarcasm]

This kind of screams like a way to further advertise popular channels that generate ad revenue rather than anything good. If people cared what internet celebrities thought about a video their comments would be upvoted anyway. And as people have pointed out, Youtube has bigger problems than the comments system. Like the contents of comments for one.

 

[Sir Thomas Sean Connery]

God I hate Google.

They're taking THE WORST conversational place in the span of the internet and they've managed to make it less intuitive and throw in some lack of privacy for good measure.

Prismatic identities are one of the most important things the internet provides and this is just another step towards a boring, transparent pile of crap.
It's really too bad YouTube is the World of Warcraft of internet video sites. No matter how inferior it may be, it simply cannot be dethroned.

 

[JediMB]

Well, the comments system has been broken for ages now, so I'm fine with it being changed. I welcome it, in fact.

For starters, it would be nice if it was actually possible to hold decent discussions on popular videos.

EDIT: I don't use Google+, though, so I have no idea to what extent it would affect me. We'll see.

 

[Mr. Q]

YouTube, Google, you want to make things better? Here is a short list:

1) Try adding tighter restrictions on comments, especially on spammers and douche-bags.

2) How about bringing back buffer for those with less stellar online connections. Getting sick and tired of having to fiddle with the quality that won't stick to what you selected.

2) STOP TRYING TO FORCE GOOGLE+ ON US, DAMMIT! THAT SHIT FUCKS UP MY ACCOUNT BIG TIME AND I DON'T WANT TO USE MY REAL NAME FOR ANYTHING!

If I missed anything, feel free to add something. -_-

 

[Aeshi]

Because if there's one thing Youtube needs more of, it's useless crap nobody asked for.

How about fixing the bug that causes videos to freeze while their audio continues? Or the bug that sometimes causes videos to shorten and end early while you're watching them? Or something else that'd actually be useful?

 

[Skeleon]

Gaah, who cares about the comments' popularity? Idiots up- and down-voting comments is not a fair measure to decide which comments should be at the top. And I really couldn't care less about "popular personalities", either. Popular for what and in what sense? Having lots of subscribers? Having lots of views? As for Google+ contacts... I don't use it. I only have a bare skeleton-account for my Android. Man. I hate this kind of thing. I like it when they give people options to use their social media bullshit, but some of us just don't care. Why are we forced onto the bandwagon? :-(

EDIT:

How about fixing the bug that causes videos to freeze while their audio continues? Or the bug that sometimes causes videos to shorten and end early while you're watching them? Or something else that'd actually be useful.

Oh, yeah, the freezing. Had that plenty of times. Another bug that I still haven't managed to work around is the wrong display in the inbox. I know it's minor, but I really don't have 7 unread comments. I swear!

 

[Micalas]

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

But without youtube comments how could I know who's a ****** and why? This is pertinent to my existence.

 

[FPLOON]

With changes like these, I'm just waiting til YouTube becomes another forum I lurk use... only I would have to praise all of the channels that have reached passed the 1M+ mark... and not the ones that are still in the "K+" mark that I appreciate more than most of the 1M+ users... (Key word "most", mind you...)


...or maybe I should wait until you have no choice but to have Google+ in order to do anything YouTube related... (I think that option seems like the most believable in context...)

 

[Kmadden2004]

Y'know, the other day I was pretty much forced by YouTube to set up a Google+ account.

The next day the number of junk e-mails in my spam folder went up from 4 to 27 (it's currently sitting at 34).

Thanks, Google.

 

[Something Amyss]

So their official stance is "unintentionally working as intended"?

Considering the "Send feedback" link is how I initiated all this, they're just leading me in circles now.

Well, that sounds about right. They want you to use your real name and they give you an option, but they're going to hassle you over it.

GODDAMMIT YOUTUBE STOP CHANGING EVERYTHING!!!!

Or maybe start changing some things that are broken.

Like the frequency of unexpected errors and failures to load videos. Or uploading problems. Or settings not saving. Or The fact that captions keep randomly getting turned on videos. Quality issues.

Or hell, howabout a way to actually deal with abusive people? Not people who disagree with you, but who are actually abusive? Marking as spam doesn't count. Downvoting also doesn't count.

I also hate the way Gmail can't make up its mind where to put notifications about YouTube. Since they're both Google, I feel this is relevant.

But without youtube comments how could I know who's a ****** and why? This is pertinent to my existence.

Trust me, they will find a way to let you know. It's one thing Google seems to be completely okay with. Calling people faggots and rape/death threats seem to be cool with the Google team. Because yes, both lead to meaningful conversation.

 

[Something Amyss]

While I would agree with you any day, I cannot when it comes to YouTube. At least not without lying to myself.
I'm all for anonymity on the internet (thanks USA for Prism btw.), but the YouTube comment section is one of the places that actually suffer from it. There's a reason why it has its incredibly bad image and part of it comes from the fact that people can be the biggest assholes towards others without any consequences (in 99% of the cases).

I'd say lack of moderation is a bigger issue than lack of real names.

 

[Something Amyss]

Having real names is about prevention, while moderation is about dealing with the alerady existant problem. I think having proper moderation would be the first thing to do though. It hasn't privacy problems attached to it.

Real names won't prevent anything. For one, there's a lot of shit already coming out of people with real names on there. You could argue that they're fake names, but that leads to the other point. I think my real name on MSN/Windows Live/Whatever they call it is still listed as Squeegee Beckenheim, and a couple of places I have given my real name as Zachary Amaranth[footnote]Spoilers: it's not[/footnote].

Unless YouTube/Google is set to go much further than just linking you to a Google account, then nothing's going to change, nothing's going to be prevented. YouTube encourages sociopathy, and real names won't change that. Especially if they're only "real names."

Edit: I'll just point out something I pointed out a month or two ago in one of those threads about threatening people on the internet.

A while back, someone threatened to rape and kill my mother on Facebook. Guess what Facebook did about this.

If you answered nothing, congratulations.

Now, not only does this guy use his real name, but had identifying info all over his Facebook page. It didn't stop him at all.

Am I expected to think it'll be different because Google does it on YouTube?

 

[KeyMaster45]

A while back, someone threatened to rape and kill my mother on Facebook. Guess what Facebook did about this.

If you answered nothing, congratulations.

Oh, I answered "nothing"! Does that mean I win a prize?!

OT:Ah YouTube. Once upon a time Google had it's own "internet video service", or w/e the corporate bobs are calling it these days, called Google Video; it was a pretty shit "internet video service". Then, one day, Google bought YouTube for oodles of money, and since then they have dedicated every ounce of their resources to turning YouTube into Google Video. And that is how YouTube became the abomination it is today.

 

[jollybarracuda]

This actually sounds pretty damn good to me. Religious arguments and My Little Pony are of no interest to me, so if this new organization of comments system ends up with me seeing more comments about the video and less about useless drivel, then I could care less about the order in which they show up.