I know people who’ve ended up in front of tribunals at work & nearly lost their jobs due to some little horror grassing them to their bosses via social media. That’s reason enough for me right there.
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If you’re using the same email address for both services then the accounts are inextricably linked, it’s just not as obvious. Up till now I’ve done the same thing as you but I rarely comment on Youtube any more. And generally on amateur cooking videos. People are mean.
Anyhow, I thought the new tools gave the channel owner all sorts of moderation tools, including turning off the trolley’s visibility, so that the trolley can see the posts they make but nobody else does.
They’re not necessarily two discrete sets though are they? And arguing that Youtube doesn’t have trolls, their cognition notwithstanding, is disingenuous.
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One part I didn’t get was the link to hateful comments, which was the gal who played a “Fuck you Google” song on the uke. What, you wrote a hateful, profanity-filled song, and are shocked that you’re getting feedback that isn’t respectful and supportive?
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That’s a matter of taste IMHO. I respect the effort, and I respect the technological achievement it represents; however, I don’t like it.
It’s not a pointless change, though. The point wasn’t merely to force Google+ on people, it was to try to force people to link their verbal diarrhea, hateful commentary, and rape and death threats to their real-life persona, and Google did it by making people use a Google account. And…it’s been around for less than a week. Let’s all let that sink in for a moment: all this rage, all this anger, the profanity-filled videos screaming about pointless changes and how people are going to ragequit Youtube? It’s been less than a week. There are sure to be problems during the transition. But instead of highlighting the problems, we get “Fuck You Google+” and shock and horror that people aren’t leaving respectful responses to “Fuck You Google+”.
And I mean, I know there have to be problems. How? Because I ran into problems nearly two years ago when they were acquired by Google. Turns out using the same username nearly everywhere causes problems; I had ‘regeya’ for Youtube, and found that I couldn’t log in because I used the same username on Google. I don’t have access to these two videos of my older daughter anymore. I’m not alone, and Google’s response to all of us was a big “meh”. If you guys get your problems fixed before we do…fuck you, I’ve been waiting for two years to have the right to remove those videos if I so desire. Y’all are pissed that you can’t anonymously post “SHITCOCK LOL” on random videos.
EDIT: I think this iJustine rant says it all.
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Thank you, I was afraid I was the only one finding this “scandal” completely out of proportion.
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Am I crazy, or weren’t youtube comments, the old system, the butt of every joke ? I never could find anything, it was impossible to have conversations, and to find the most interesting posts.
I’d like to know how popular channel did manage to find “good” comments.
I mostly use YouTube to watch channels that I subscribe to. I already disliked when they switched to their new “feeds” view that makes following channels very tough (sometimes videos are missing, the list only goes so long, but I want to watch something far later, also no real control over what goes into your list in the first place etc.). That made me write my own feed view.
Vi mentioning torrents made me wonder: would combining torrents with something like flattr and a reasonably good ui plus maybe a choice of where to host comments (reddit etc.) be something that I should be working on?
Since torrents eliminate the hosting overhead, there is no real extra cost that content providers would have to pay here. Probably the only question is whether people would support something like that through flattr, but it seems to me like patreon is doing pretty well already. And the model to keep content at a “release early to paying members, then to the public” makes a lot of sense in general. The only real problem I can see is that YouTube does have the benefit of being very accessible - automatically converting videos for mobile devices etc…
Yeah, and I think the positives are getting completely lost in this, such as that channels like Feminist Frequency now have the option to filter out the crap, rather than just shutting off comments.
You’re not crazy. The old system was terrible…but to tell you the truth, I go to Youtube to watch videos.
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Google and others have an incentive to try and demonize anonymity online. It’s very much in their own financial interest to get everyone to use their own names online, which is why they’re only all too eager to agree with naive bloggers and such who buy into the absolutely wrong and misguided notion that anonymity has anything to do with why people are terrible online. People aren’t jerks for reasons like that horrible cliche Penny Arcade comic, as far as I could ever tell it’s simply a matter of not being in the same room as someone else’s fist.
Anyone who has been watching the overt racism and hate on Facebook under people’s real names could have told you this entire exercise is a sham if you think the goal is to make things ‘nicer’. Do not trust any corporation telling you they need your ‘real name’ to make things ‘nicer’, since it’s totally a lie.
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Sadly, this is what’s floating to the top on damn near everything right now:
I have a feeling I know what Google will be adding to their crap filter soon.
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Trolls have been a fact of life since the grand days of Usenet. You can’t convince people to not feed them. It just can’t be done.
I have no problem using my name for comments because I stand behind what I say. It takes a real coward to hide behind a keyboard. I don’t have an issue with using real names or a name that sounds like a real name. The issue here is that this is more about google than cleaning up the comments. You can clean it up by hiring enough moderators, having a better reporting system (which You Tube doesn’t), and when users cross the line banning them quickly. Yes, they can open another account but you can do common sense things like require a valid email address and some other kind of verification. Also sound sites post the IP address where a post is coming from. If things get out of hand, you block the IP. Is it a perfect solution, no. But if you are able to stop any of it, then you have done something good. You don’t want to end up being another Formspring or Topix and basically running everyone off except the trolls and those that come in to attack others as they sit behind their keyboards. Let me give you a case and point. Take the website, Topix, that doesn’t require its users to register. In some of its forums, they literally have 80-90 percent libelous posts, racist remarks, or something to that effect. What has happened is though their hits on the site look okay, they have destroyed their reputation and only appeal to the lowest common denominator. Those that went there to discuss real community issues and news usually don’t last long. Topix then tried starting a political site which was a little more serious, but because of Topix their political site will never achieve much because they have ran off respectful users who want to discuss real issues, not who is sleeping with who. That’s the path You Tube is headed down.
A good point. The problem with some sites is when all the libel, racism, etc is allowed to take over a site or forum, it tends to run off those that have something meaningful to contribute and only leaves the trolls to bash one another. Eventually you end up with nothing but appearing on the news every other week about the damage you are doing to communities (and it is often true)
You can still watch the videos just keep your daughters away from some of the comments.
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A valid point. Maybe the answer is to simply allow the posting of videos and not have comments at all. I have always gone there strictly for the videos as well.
I do think each site needs a strong registration system but I think it is fine to have a unique user name. You can’t control all of it but what you need is a strong moderation system, banning of those who abuse the privilege quickly, and you can do things with IP addresses. If a person crosses the line they get banned. If someone starts a new account, they get a zero tolerance policy. The first time they post something else racist or filled with hate and their IP matches up or it is the same person, they get banned. You can make it more difficult no question. For the record, though I have a user name for this account. I don’t have an issue posting my real name because I find it cowardly to attack other people behind a keyboard and try not to do so. Good post.
Sure, vulnerable people are all cowards if they don’t want to be outed, never mind that they might face consequences entirely incommensurate with the ones you are thinking about. Different people have different situations: apparently hard to keep in mind, and not relevant to large multi-user systems?
@Shane_Simmons raises a good point; I don’t think there’s reason to doubt the approach here was chosen to support Google+, but it is true that there was a serious problem they were attempting to solve with it. But this “nothing wrong, nothing to hide” idea people keep bringing up continues to be an exclusionary approach.
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I’ll give you my address, Randall, and you can come and say that to my face, how 'bout that? Bring weapons.
I’m kidding, but hopefully some fragment of my point got across. Cowardice may be both relative and subjective.
Keep in mind also that some folks value their time and privacy enough that they’d rather not make things excessively easy for stalkers. Have you ever been stalked on the Internet? It’s pretty tedious; I’ve had it happen a couple of times.
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Vi Hart always throws a good party. She’s providing the punch, so she wants to control the guest list and the agenda. The problem is that the landlord, Google, is more concerned with promoting the party space than letting the good times roll. Vi Hart started at another venue, and she’ll move to another when she’s ready.
P.S. Yes, I comment using a pseudonym. It makes me easier to track online, for better or worse. My real name has its own page in the phone book, back when there were phone books, and is much more anonymous.
