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In my experience the frustrating part about YouTube is when the crowd wants content that you're not interested in making. For instance, I've made a few videos

In my experience the frustrating part about YouTube is when the crowd wants content that you're not interested in making. For instance, I've made a few videos about building clusters from Raspberry Pi's, which I did just for kicks and to have something to play around with. They get more attention than my (imo more interesting) videos about programming or various other electronics topics, to the point that it dwarfs my other views. So I have to choose between disappointing the majority of my subscribers or making content that I don't actually enjoy or stand by just for the views. PS: I also learned very quickly that the YouTube comments section is chaotic and is not a recommended place for someone looking for thoughtful critique on their material.

pmoriarty 8y ago
"I also learned very quickly that the YouTube comments section is chaotic and is not a recommended place for someone looking for thoughtful critique on their material." YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. You'd think the site as a whole could benefit tremendously from quality comments, but apparently that is not a priority.
- fl0wenol 8y ago
  YouTube comments do not scale for moderation; its such a huge platform that it's likely not profitable to pay people to put a dent in it. Instead they expect the content creators to do it if they care to shape their own image.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  The article wonders if YouTube has a deliberate trollbait policy for its comments because it "improves engagement." So it's possible that civil comments are not just not a priority, but actively contraindicated.
  - tehwebguy 8y ago
    The answer is yes. Dislikes allegedly count 100% as much for the engagement algo as likes.
- wybiral 8y ago
  The problem is that 1 in 1000 of them are actually thoughtful questions or genuinely grateful feedback that you don't want to miss. You just have to dig through 999 comments saying "you suck" or "send me something for free".
- pbhjpbhj 8y ago
  > It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. // You imply it, but it's worth noting that they have made efforts but failed/stopped. Google can't/won't fix it. I suspect as someone else mentioned they realised that fixing comment quality reduces "engagement"; like tabloid news.
  - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
    > fixing comment quality reduces "engagement" I’ll admit to occasionally scrolling through the comments looking for the batshit crazy ones, if only because they tend to be funny and interesting in the totally unexpected way they managed to get offended about something.
    - dec0dedab0de 8y ago
      It's like laughing at the badguys in pro wrestling
- creato 8y ago
  > YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. For lowest common denominator kind of content, I absolutely agree. However, as soon as you step even a little bit off the beaten path, comments become a lot more reasonable and often interesting/useful. On all the videos on all of the channels I actually subscribe to, the comments are not bad. There are random assholes here and there, but they seem to be mostly shunned by the rest.
- xbmcuser 8y ago
  They did try to fix it by linking your actual name with your comments by using Google plus but that had a huge backlash so was reversed.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. For me it's the exact opposite. YouTube's comment are the absolute freer speech I've seen on the web, warts and all. It's also some of the most touching Plus, because it starts with videos, which are much more universal than a blog post, it's a meeting point for people of all countries, races, religions, views on life, and so on.
ce4 8y ago
Randall's mockery from 2006 still applies: https://xkcd.com/202/ https://xkcd.com/202/ Also this Theoatmeal comic sums it up as well (the Mona Lisa comparison must be about Youtube's comments imho): http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things
- pdimitar 8y ago
  Matthew Innman (the author of the TheOatmeal) is nothing short of amazing. I have read all of his stuff and he is absolutely on point whatever he addresses.
mjfl 8y ago
I like writing about math and physics, but the views on my Ethereum articles are 500x higher, I measured. But that's how the world works. If you want money or attention, you have to serve people.
ryandrake 8y ago
Unless you're relying on your YouTube channel for money, who cares what subscribers want? What's the worst they can do? Unsubscribe. No big deal--you're not trying to make money. I've put up a few YouTube videos, I've got a few GitHub repos, etc. I don't even care how many likes or views or stars they get. I almost never even go back to the pages. When I publish something on the web I do it because I already finished it, and I think maybe someone else might like it or find it useful. But I'm not going to change what I like to do based on likes or stars. That sounds backwards. I've never once in my life did something as a hobby and asked myself "How can I optimize for how many people will like/use this?"
- noobermin 8y ago
  Which is the right attitude if you're not trying to make a living off of youtube. For those who are, they have to care about what the subscribers want.
  - 0xBA5ED 8y ago
    True, but at this point it becomes your job and not something you're /just/ doing for fun. If you can't find a way to tolerate making content that pays the bills, then perhaps the entertainment business isn't right for you.
- wybiral 8y ago
  Yes, and if you want to make pizza for yourself then you don't need to worry about what toppings you put on it. But if you want to sell your pizzas (even if just for a bit of extra cash and as an experiment to see if the pizza business is right for you) then you need to ask what kind of pizza the people want.

pmoriarty 8y ago

"I also learned very quickly that the YouTube comments section is chaotic and is not a recommended place for someone looking for thoughtful critique on their material." YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. You'd think the site as a whole could benefit tremendously from quality comments, but apparently that is not a priority.

fl0wenol 8y ago
YouTube comments do not scale for moderation; its such a huge platform that it's likely not profitable to pay people to put a dent in it. Instead they expect the content creators to do it if they care to shape their own image.
TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
The article wonders if YouTube has a deliberate trollbait policy for its comments because it "improves engagement." So it's possible that civil comments are not just not a priority, but actively contraindicated.
- tehwebguy 8y ago
  The answer is yes. Dislikes allegedly count 100% as much for the engagement algo as likes.
wybiral 8y ago
The problem is that 1 in 1000 of them are actually thoughtful questions or genuinely grateful feedback that you don't want to miss. You just have to dig through 999 comments saying "you suck" or "send me something for free".
pbhjpbhj 8y ago
> It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. // You imply it, but it's worth noting that they have made efforts but failed/stopped. Google can't/won't fix it. I suspect as someone else mentioned they realised that fixing comment quality reduces "engagement"; like tabloid news.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > fixing comment quality reduces "engagement" I’ll admit to occasionally scrolling through the comments looking for the batshit crazy ones, if only because they tend to be funny and interesting in the totally unexpected way they managed to get offended about something.
  - dec0dedab0de 8y ago
    It's like laughing at the badguys in pro wrestling
creato 8y ago
> YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. For lowest common denominator kind of content, I absolutely agree. However, as soon as you step even a little bit off the beaten path, comments become a lot more reasonable and often interesting/useful. On all the videos on all of the channels I actually subscribe to, the comments are not bad. There are random assholes here and there, but they seem to be mostly shunned by the rest.
xbmcuser 8y ago
They did try to fix it by linking your actual name with your comments by using Google plus but that had a huge backlash so was reversed.
coldtea 8y ago
>YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. For me it's the exact opposite. YouTube's comment are the absolute freer speech I've seen on the web, warts and all. It's also some of the most touching Plus, because it starts with videos, which are much more universal than a blog post, it's a meeting point for people of all countries, races, religions, views on life, and so on.

ce4 8y ago

Randall's mockery from 2006 still applies: https://xkcd.com/202/ https://xkcd.com/202/ Also this Theoatmeal comic sums it up as well (the Mona Lisa comparison must be about Youtube's comments imho): http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things http://theoatmeal.com/comics/making_things

pdimitar 8y ago
Matthew Innman (the author of the TheOatmeal) is nothing short of amazing. I have read all of his stuff and he is absolutely on point whatever he addresses.

mjfl 8y ago

I like writing about math and physics, but the views on my Ethereum articles are 500x higher, I measured. But that's how the world works. If you want money or attention, you have to serve people.

ryandrake 8y ago

Unless you're relying on your YouTube channel for money, who cares what subscribers want? What's the worst they can do? Unsubscribe. No big deal--you're not trying to make money. I've put up a few YouTube videos, I've got a few GitHub repos, etc. I don't even care how many likes or views or stars they get. I almost never even go back to the pages. When I publish something on the web I do it because I already finished it, and I think maybe someone else might like it or find it useful. But I'm not going to change what I like to do based on likes or stars. That sounds backwards. I've never once in my life did something as a hobby and asked myself "How can I optimize for how many people will like/use this?"

noobermin 8y ago
Which is the right attitude if you're not trying to make a living off of youtube. For those who are, they have to care about what the subscribers want.
- 0xBA5ED 8y ago
  True, but at this point it becomes your job and not something you're /just/ doing for fun. If you can't find a way to tolerate making content that pays the bills, then perhaps the entertainment business isn't right for you.
wybiral 8y ago
Yes, and if you want to make pizza for yourself then you don't need to worry about what toppings you put on it. But if you want to sell your pizzas (even if just for a bit of extra cash and as an experiment to see if the pizza business is right for you) then you need to ask what kind of pizza the people want.