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We hear you: Better commenting coming to YouTube
- pdknsk 13y agoBetter commenting, maybe. Better comments, almost certainly not.
- xemoka 13y agoWait, Google heard its users? I guess persistence and yelling help... better late than never huh? Now if only they could hear the real bug reports too...
- slig 13y agoAnd yet they have been deaf about merging Google+ accounts with YT accounts.
- artursapek 13y agoThat has to be the most annoying and aggressive product push I've seen in a long time. The way they hide the opt-out button is really obnoxious.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- minimaxir 13y agoComment sorting-by-best only works if the best comments are actually good comments and there's no bandwagoning. Considering the fanbases of famous YouTubers such as RayWilliamJohnson and PewDiePie, this could actually make things worse. But atleast the new comments will be functional, which alone is an improvement.
- leokun 13y agoI've been pretty reluctant to comment ever since I created a Google+ account and it switched to my real name. I've never had too terrible comments, but I just don't want my real name anywhere near YouTube comments. I've never seen the value in comments there. Early on in YouTube's history it was a real community building tool, now it's just terrible.
- pjbrunet 13y agoI agree. Seems their strategy is to offer some teaser feature/product/whatever and the only way to access it is to create a new Google Plus account. So now I have THREE separate Google Plus accounts. Personal, Business and now YouTube. I would just delete YouTube but I have thousands of views and my Adsense account is linked to that. I'd like to make more content for YouTube but they make it difficult to manage multiple accounts for multiple channels. For example, I don't want my abstract painting videos associated with my primary business, that would be bad for my business. If I make another channel, I think that means I need a separate email address, separate password and a separate Google Plus profile and then logout, login, logout, login, there's got to be a better way. I'd put my art videos on Vimeo but YouTube has all the traffic and I'm a YouTube partner! That's just the tip of the iceberg.
- tene 13y agoYou do not need a separate account for a new channel; just go here and click 'Create a new channel': http://www.youtube.com/channel_switcher http://www.youtube.com/channel_switcher
- m_mueller 13y agoWell, until they decide Good news everyone, we just made even easier to engage with your viewers by linking all other videos of your account in 'what else to watch by..'. There's a good reason for parent to use separate accounts.
- Shooti 13y agoUnder the hood Youtube channels based on Google+ Pages actually belong to a separate Google account so its unlikely. Even if in the universe where they lost there heads and did do it, G+ pages are designed to support multiple owners so you're not locked in since you could just chuck it over to another account.
- pjbrunet 13y agoThanks! That's a cool new feature.
- angersock 13y agoI appreciate that we're long past this point, but I'll say it anyways: I don't want comments or social--I just want to watch my damned video and be left alone. EDIT: Has anyone ever really said, "Man, my whole day was made better by that comment on YouTube! I'm really glad I could be part of that!"?
- FredFredrickson 13y agoIt would be interesting to see what would happen to YouTube if the comments were removed from video / channel pages for a week or a month. I don't see how that would keep people from visiting the site or watching videos (and of course, ads).
- mdwrigh2 13y agoTry using the Feather experiment, it gets rid of a lot of things including comments, iirc: http://www.youtube.com/feather_beta http://www.youtube.com/feather_beta
- oatmealsnap 13y agoIt wouldn't keep people from the site, but they would spend less time on it. Not sure if that would decrease their ad views, or increase views because users aren't wasting time reading comments.
- chockablock 13y agoI have some technical videos with a few hundred views, and I am pleased when someone comments to say that the content was useful to them, or to ask a clarifying question. Hypothesis: comments are more civil and useful in the long tail...
- shamano 13y agoDepending on the video there are very good discussions in the comments. Youtube is not made of cats.
- illyism 13y agoOh wow, your edit really corresponds to an illustration by Matthew Inman: https://plus.google.com/+VicGundotra/posts/CNcAzVKo2RH https://plus.google.com/+VicGundotra/posts/CNcAzVKo2RH
- yliu 13y agoNot sure if "better commenting", or just another attempt to integrate G+ into every Google-owned property. The part about floating "engaged discussions" to the top is interesting. One hopes the algorithm distinguishes between "ongoing informative discussion" and "blazingly active flamewar".
- lymie 13y agoWe hear you, barely, inside our filter bubble of pushing Google's corporate social media agenda. You, just like us, want your own filter bubble where you don't have to hear anything you don't want to hear.
- Geee 13y agoNo, Google does not hear it's users, they just want to lock everyone in their ecosystem. No, please, I don't want to see comments from my 'friends'. No one asked for this. All I'm hearing is how everyone hates the Google+ integration. Eagerly waiting for a new video host that doesn't push 'social' down your throat.
- hobs 13y agoMy thought exactly, if they "heard from us" they would hear that we absolutely loathe the new interface and would like them to try to fix it or make something else (I wont say revert, they never will)
- mratzloff 13y agoBetter commenting? They've already done it: "safety mode", which hides all YouTube comments.
- jeroen94704 13y agoThe best commenting experience on YouTube is already available through the CommentSnob browser plugin. No action by YouTube necessary.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- parennoob 13y agoWe hear you: You said you wanted Google+ hamfistedly shoved down your throat for youtube comments, and we gave you what you wanted. Yay! Pretty sad that funny top comments like "15 people fell into the well cause this is Sparta" on Youtube videos are going to be replaced by my grandmother commenting "Wow, this film is really violent." [wow, probably downvoted by the one person on HN who likes Google+ :)]
- untilHellbanned 13y agoyou're fortunate its only one downvote. I'm no G+ fan but you do realize your comment is exactly how people mock Facebook and get downvoted to oblivion.
- parennoob 13y agoWell your comment says it better "The most interesting part of THESE comments is how many people were nodding in agreement until they saw the word "Google+". reply" Guilty as charged. I don't want to be pushed towards using some ghost town social network to comment on a video for laughs. Facebook is different, people actually use it by choice.
- artursapek 13y agoA couple years ago I Adblocked the comments section on YouTube and never looked back. I recommend it!
- bpodgursky 13y agoInternet yesterday: "YouTube comments are the cesspool of the internet, and you will lose brain cells by reading them" Internet today: "Anonymous and uncensored YouTube comments are the only thing standing between us and a dystopian surveillance state overseen by Google+" I understand there are there are tradeoffs, but so much of the hate seems to be arbitrary anti-Google ranting.
- 6d0debc071 13y agoThere are other options. Maybe you didn't meant to come off this way but that seems a bit like a strawman.
- dasil003 13y agoOr there's always the possibility that those are two sets of people you're conflating.
- pohl 13y agoInternet every day: "Here's a comment from Bob, and another from Alice. I'm going to ignore that they're not the same person and pretend that if you smash them together like play-doh you get a single hypocrite."
- parennoob 13y ago* anti-Google+ ranting is what you meant I think :) It is a bit amusing how Google+ can do no right. From my point of view, everyone I know uses Facebook and no one uses Google+, so that's the only reason this feature doesn't serve me at all.
- moron4hire 13y agoYouTube is a content hosting site, it is not a social networking site (or at least it doesn't do it well). Google+ is a social networking site, not a content hosting site (or at least it doesn't do it well). See the pattern? I never want to interact with any content where it is hosted, I always want to interact with it where I found it. That means G+ or Facebook or Tumblr. To my purposes, the separation is a severe annoyance. I want to be able to engage everyone on all facets and see how they are engaging back. I may not necessarily want the three crowds to interact with each other, as I have curated my followership differently on each. Incidentally, Google+ does an amazing job of letting me control how my followers interact with each other and how I interact with them via Circles. But G+ users don't interact as often with my content as Tumblr users do. I have 5 times the followers on G+ than I have on Tumblr, but I get 10 times the shares and likes on Tumblr as G+ (so that seems to mean that engagement is 50 times higher).
- bendean 13y agoI'm co-founder of CueNotes. We all agree YouTube comments are broken - we've been working on making YouTube comments social, higher quality - and a better overall experience. Like being able to view and add comments while you're watching, and timed comments that "pop up" at the right time. Give it a try, we'd love your feedback: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cuenotes/kgnmfppmhpnoogejhkadapflcbegjacf https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cuenotes/kgnmfppmh...
- jefarmstrong 13y agoHey everyone, I'm also a co-founder of CueNotes. Try installing the chrome extension we built and then watch this Limp Bizkit video with comments by Fred Durst: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx9n-1ginEc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx9n-1ginEc
- 6d0debc071 13y agoWhat do I want to see at the top of comments? Something well thought out. Personal isn't the same as important.
- untilHellbanned 13y agoThe most interesting part of THESE comments is how many people were nodding in agreement until they saw the word "Google+".
- dasil003 13y agoWhy not embrace the fact that YouTube has the best worst comments on the Internet? I'm sure moot has shed a silent tear when witnessing a YouTube troll that surpasses even the best of /b/. There's certainly some kind of postmodern digital street cred to be garnered there so run with it Google! It'll never happen on Google+ that's for sure.
- nfoz 13y agoAnyone know of good competitors to youtube?
- shizzy0 13y agoIf you build it, they will EFF U UP!
- coldtea 13y agoI never found YouTube comments problematic. On the contrary: they are the closer to a universal, democratic, ununcensoredsensored dialogue we have ever achieved as a planet. There's racism, sexism, nationalism etc? That's exactly because those also exist in the world. That's what makes YouTube comment threads democratic and uncensored. It gives people living in their microcosm and social bubble a chance to find out what other people believe and think. It's also the visual nature of the medium: unlike a blog post or some web essay, a video can attrack visitors from more walks of life, more ages, more countries, more educational levels, and more perspectives. Even the language the video is in is not an absolute barrier (people can still enjoy what's shown without it).
- psbp 13y agoI've written some terrible crap on youtube that I don't feel are authentic representations of what I think/ who I am.
- coldtea 13y agoWell, you might not think they are, but if you wrote them then that's how you felt at the time, so they do provide an authentic look of part of you (which you might have outgrown, but that's beside the point).
- psbp 13y agoI think people are compelled to act certain ways in certain environments. I wouldn't say the same things to my family as I would to my friends and vice-versa. If you're in a cesspool, you're not afraid to throw shit because everyone's already subsumed in it.
- bane 13y agoI deal with this by using the Chrome extension "YouTube Options" [1]. It takes a bit to setup, but it works pretty well by filtering out various fluff crap like comments, increasing the video size etc. 1 - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-options/bdokagampppgbnjfdlkfpphniapiiifn?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/youtube-options/bd...
- zengr 13y agoI have decided to quit youtube since google is forcing me to create a G+ account. Is there an alternative of Youtube to upload private or unlisted videos? How is vimeo?