YouTube Gaming Star PewDiePie Turns Off Comments For Good

[JarinArenos]

Kudos on nobody here so far complaining about "censorship" like half the other news articles I saw on this. So very many people out there who have no idea what that word means...

 

[RJ Dalton]

*not at all enthusiastically* Oh, no, don't turn them off. Youtube comments are a paragon of intelligent discussion.

 

[llubtoille]

Matt Lees made an interesting video explaining why he turned off comments, I'd guess this is for much the same reasons.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

I came here knowing that I'd see "Why is he popular? I don't like him!" posts, and I wasn't disappointed.

Also, I don't blame him in the least. Once you reach a certain level of popularity on YouTube, some people decide that instead of commenting about a video, they'd rather use it as a soapbox for whatever opinion strikes their fancy, regardless of how connected it is to the video itself. I don't really like the guy's videos, but I solve that problem by not watching them, instead of going there and spewing noise in the vain, egotistical hope that I'll somehow "bring down" the guy.

 

[DerangedHobo]

I can't really muster the energy to hate him because he isn't really doing anything wrong or harmful he just makes some dumb but popular videos on the internet for what are essentially kids.

Moviebob said something in his TMNT review that really stuck with me (the following is horrific paraphrasing): "'It's for kids' shouldn't be used as a defense of a bad movie, the kids deserved better, they look towards media for morals and guiedance and you failed them" This is basically my view of the vast majority of popular content when it comes to Youtube, it's all low rent swill for the masses to eat up. Not that I am above this by any stretch but it's still depressing nether the less.

$4 million a year.

Four million dollars a year.

A. Year.

Driver, let me off at the next stop please.

He entertains people, he gets paid. It may be garbage entertainment but (once again paraphrasing movie bob) "It's down to the audience, they just supply the masses with what they want". I should also throw out there that making any large amount of money off of YouTube is fucking insanity when a large portion of the workforce (firefighters, police officers, EMTs, doctors, the list goes on) get paid pennies in comparison despite their undoubtably more valuable contribution.

I'm going to go ahead and get on my soapbox but it also irks me that people tote YouTubers like TotalBiscuit as far superior when all he does is spouts an opinion in a mundane and unentertaining manner (seriously, the entirety of this forum could spout the same opinion in the same "professional manner") while his audience mentally masturbates to how "classy" he is. Same dumb entertainment just delivered differently.

 

[Rad Party God]

he makes 4 million a year? 0__0

I don't care if you hate or love him, that amount of dough is not easy to make in a lifetime let alone a year. If all the other posts are anything to go by is that Pewd's is a GENIUS because despite how horribly god awful he is (according to the posters above.below me) he can still accumulate enough views to make 4 MILLION a year! I will go subscribe right now and learn what I must do to make that amount of money, but unlike him I won't do it for love of video games, screw that, it's all for that sweet, sweet MONEY!

He's not terrible, he's just... a harmless fool. A millionaire harmless fool.

While I'm not a fan of his videos, I have a lot of respect for the man for donating tons of money to charity, also, out of character, he seems like a cool dude overall.

Also this video (though shown a million times around these parts) shows partly how he succeded.

 

[Racecarlock]

the fact that he has fans is baffling to me.

Hey, uh, internet? Please stop acting shocked when it turns out people have different tastes. You've grown up with humanity, you've seen it in action, please stop acting like this is some kind of insane new discovery.

oh shit sorry. i thought forums like this were for expressing your opinion. my mistake.

Just because it's an opinion doesn't mean it can't be challenged. That's how freedom of speech works. I can use my freedom of speech to challenge your speech which you had the freedom to make.

That is absolutely not how Freedom of Speech works. You really should read into Freedom of Speech, and learn how it only applies to the U.S. government, and how it cannot dictate what its citizens can and cannot say (within reason - for instance, death threats and hate speech are illegal to a large degree).

So I can't in any way challenge his opinion?

 

[neonsword13-ops]

TotalBiscuit started doing the same thing a while back. The comments section is a very volatile place for interaction, and I respect his decision to turn them off. I think it's for the better, personally. And knowing how toxic the pewdiepie fanbase can be with all of the rape-joking 12-year-olds, it starts to get out of hand.

Good on him.

 

[Machine Man 1992]

I can't really complain about this; one of my favorite YouTubers, Nerd Cubed, turned off comments because of link spam and how the Google+ integration fucked with the pages.

Axing the comments for practical reasons is also a possibility.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

TotalBiscuit started doing the same thing a while back. The comments section is a very volatile place for interaction, and I respect his decision to turn them off. I think it's for the better, personally. And knowing how toxic the pewdiepie fanbase can be with all of the rape-joking 12-year-olds, it starts to get out of hand.

Good on him.

I think it's the best thing any Youtube person/celeb could ever do, TB turning his off was a blessing even though he's still able to freely throw the whole PC vs console sharade and not get called out for it (especially since video replies can no be denied by the person you send them to).

I just find Youtube comments on most videos when it comes to games to be extremely toxic, my tablet is the only device that will still show me comments and having watched numerous Pax Prime video previous, most of the comments are filled with console war crap, take Sunset Overdrive, most of their vids are filled with "infamous clone!", "it looks shit", "only 30fps garbage!" type comments plastered all over those vids I could find for that one game as an example, turning the comments off is the best solution and so far I've been using a plugin for FireFox and Chrome which completely do away with any YT comments which means I can't see any no make my own as if we went back to the earliest days of YT and thus I'm free from toxicity, at least on the desktop which is good enough for me.

If you asked me the worst place to go for comments of either 4chan or Youtube, i'd go with Youtube any day.

 

[Baresark]

The comments are the worst part of Youtube. It's inane pointless bullshit almost always. It's a good laugh, but there is no discussion. And it's gotten way worse since you don't have a character limit anymore.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Eh I quite like the YouTube comments, they're fun if you don't take them seriously and use it as ground for purely joking around. It's absolutely a terrible place for discussion and as such shouldn't even be attempted to be used as such. I get people who don't like them, but ultimately I'd prefer them on then off.

As for PewDiePie, I used to virulently hate him but now I'm kinda apathetic. I think his video's are truly mindless and unentertaining but I don't have any hate for the guy himself. After all, if I could get paid to play video games and scream into a microphone I'd jump right on that.

 

[Panda Pandemic]

Where are the outraged cries at censorship? I'm pretty sure the heroic Internet defenders of free speech complained at another instance of YouTube comments being shut down. It's almost as if it's mostly when it's something they personally want to comment on and not about ideals at all

/sodisillusioned

 

[Lunar Templar]

Surprised it took him this long to shut them off to be honest.

 

[Janaschi]

the fact that he has fans is baffling to me.

Hey, uh, internet? Please stop acting shocked when it turns out people have different tastes. You've grown up with humanity, you've seen it in action, please stop acting like this is some kind of insane new discovery.

oh shit sorry. i thought forums like this were for expressing your opinion. my mistake.

Just because it's an opinion doesn't mean it can't be challenged. That's how freedom of speech works. I can use my freedom of speech to challenge your speech which you had the freedom to make.

That is absolutely not how Freedom of Speech works. You really should read into Freedom of Speech, and learn how it only applies to the U.S. government, and how it cannot dictate what its citizens can and cannot say (within reason - for instance, death threats and hate speech are illegal to a large degree).

So I can't in any way challenge his opinion?

That is not what I am saying - I am simply pointing out that if you are to bring up something like Freedom of Speech, to actually know what you are talking about. You are absolutely free to challenge the opinions of others - FoS just has nothing to do with your right to challenge the opinions of others.

 

[Laser Priest]

This just in, kid takes ball, leaves playground.

I understand why he's doing it, I'm just far more in favor of allowing discussion rather than stamping it out. Still his ball, technically speaking.

While I agree with you, there is less legitimate discussion on most youtube videos than there is trolling and spam.

And with the most popular channel on YouTube, PewDiePie receives even more of the horrors of YouTube comments. It sounds like he will still allow it, but he'd rather people do it via social media than turn his youtube video comment sections into hate-filled warzones.

Even if I'm not a fan of his channel, I can't really say I'm against him in this at all. YouTube comments are just poison.

 

[Laser Priest]

How is this gaming news?

What's next? "New Youtube channel starts up: MinecraftPro1997 says videos wont all be about Minecraft"?

Because like him or not, PewDiePie is primarily an LP-er and currently the most successful channel on YouTube, thus a major figure in the gaming community?

And the Escapist is an entertainment site. In case the presence of several movie-focused articles and videos wasn't a dead giveaway, gaming isn't the only form of entertainment we talk about here.

I mean, if you're going to be so ridiculously cynical, be cynical in a way that makes sense.

 

[DementedSheep]

I don't usually like him and don't get why he has so many subscribers (though I don't hate him for this) but he actually talked about ALS and is sensible about it? that's unexpected. A lot of the people seem to just do the ice bucket challenge because it's trendy and don't even know what it's for so kudos for that.

As for him turning off the comments? it's his channel. People harp on about free speech but disabling comments is not infringing on your free speech. You're free to talk about it but they don't have to provide you a space to do so. It's not like you get meaningful discussion in youtube comments with the character limit.

 

[Muspelheim]

BUT MUH DEMOCARCY

Well, probably for the best. I doubt anything of any value whatsoever will be lost. Some comment sections are well worth keeping. Others aren't.

While he makes a tidy bit of dosh (by doing something and being exceptionally lucky, the usual combo), that doesn't mean he must run some sort of online sewage repository to make up for it. Not to mention, there's not exactly a great lack of places on the internet to spew poison.

Chalmerist-fjant...

This just in, kid takes ball, leaves playground.

I understand why he's doing it, I'm just far more in favor of allowing discussion rather than stamping it out. Still his ball, technically speaking.

It's not exactly a great forum of enlightening and enriching discussion and criticism he's ruthlessly stamping the life out of. This is more akin to fixing a leaking sewage pipe.