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It's just flabbergasting how much YouTube has regressed. I remember when YouTube comments still had a neat and convenient little "translate" feature. Made it a

It's just flabbergasting how much YouTube has regressed. I remember when YouTube comments still had a neat and convenient little "translate" feature. Made it actually possible to practically cross the language barriers in comment discussions. That lead to many interesting insights and discussions, and then, it was suddenly just gone. Which in practice meant that a whole bunch of people that used to be able to communicate with each other, crossing language barriers (How wonderful!), now suddenly couldn't anymore.. It's like the exact opposite to what the web was supposed to do, and the trend has been steadily keeping up. Removing the downvotes is also removing a form of signaling, and thus communication. And the trend is not just reserved to YouTube, it's even more and more of a thing in places where it absolutely doesn't belong; Many modern video games do not have an "all talk" function anymore, out of fear nasty things might be written and then read by too many people, possibly leading to controversy in the bored "gaming press". At this rate I wouldn't be surprised to even see YouTube comments go away for good.

willis936 5y ago
I still miss annotations all these years later. Completely senseless removal of a wonderful feature with no technical drawbacks.
bellyfullofbac 5y ago
Speaking of translations.. the last few days I've been wondering why some YouTube videos are titled in English although the people in it are talking German, and I'm in a German-speaking country (but using YouTube with the English interface). So, apparently YouTube have started auto-translating titles. Or maybe, since the videos have English subtitles, they're using the creator-provided translated title. But there is no option to turn this automatism off... and this automatic changing of shit is totally pissing me off.
- mostlylurks 5y ago
  That particular feature has been in place for years, at least for me, just for some subset of videos (maybe those which have been provided with translations for the title?). Luckily I've been seeing it less often recently, whereas when I first started seeing it it was popping up constantly, so maybe that subset of videos has grown smaller. It is indeed infuriating to have titles translated behind your back. But even worse is the fact that the feature assumes that people only speak one language. Most of the world, myself included, speaks several languages. I don't want video titles translated, but I especially don't want them translated when they're in a language I speak fluently. You'd think that the mindset of inclusivity, which is perhaps the most valued in the places where these tech giants reside, would perhaps allow them to consider that telling people on the other side of the planet how they should use a thing as fundamental and personal as language might be a bad idea, and that their monolingual bubble is the exception, not the norm.

willis936 5y ago

I still miss annotations all these years later. Completely senseless removal of a wonderful feature with no technical drawbacks.

bellyfullofbac 5y ago

Speaking of translations.. the last few days I've been wondering why some YouTube videos are titled in English although the people in it are talking German, and I'm in a German-speaking country (but using YouTube with the English interface). So, apparently YouTube have started auto-translating titles. Or maybe, since the videos have English subtitles, they're using the creator-provided translated title. But there is no option to turn this automatism off... and this automatic changing of shit is totally pissing me off.

mostlylurks 5y ago
That particular feature has been in place for years, at least for me, just for some subset of videos (maybe those which have been provided with translations for the title?). Luckily I've been seeing it less often recently, whereas when I first started seeing it it was popping up constantly, so maybe that subset of videos has grown smaller. It is indeed infuriating to have titles translated behind your back. But even worse is the fact that the feature assumes that people only speak one language. Most of the world, myself included, speaks several languages. I don't want video titles translated, but I especially don't want them translated when they're in a language I speak fluently. You'd think that the mindset of inclusivity, which is perhaps the most valued in the places where these tech giants reside, would perhaps allow them to consider that telling people on the other side of the planet how they should use a thing as fundamental and personal as language might be a bad idea, and that their monolingual bubble is the exception, not the norm.