9 ms·

Yep, it's frustrating. Youtube comments really are hopelessly broken. Re-shares are not good reading. They are written by users for their followers, not for th

by exodust 11y ago

Yep, it's frustrating. Youtube comments really are hopelessly broken. Re-shares are not good reading. They are written by users for their followers, not for the people on the actual video page. As you said, they have zero value. When I first noticed this way back when Google started publishing re-share comments under the videos, I would reply to those comments with remarks such as "I already knew that; yes I know what the video is; why are you repeating the video name"... and some people responded with "what are you talking about" because they didn't even know their re-share comments were being published on the video page. That's how broken the comments are.

alwaysdoit 11y ago
To be fair, it's not like YouTube comments were ever working well.
- lmm 11y ago
  They were never great but they were better before.
  - rudolf0 11y ago
    If by "before" you mean 2008, then yes, arguably. Starting around 2009 I've started using various browser extensions to hide the comments, and I've never been happier.
    - mahouse 11y ago
      I don't understand. Can't you just... not read them?
      - javajosh 11y ago
        That kind of software is easier to install, but less consistent.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
      - piyush_soni 11y ago
        No. To sift through the comments you want to read, you need to at least read a few words/sentences of even the unwanted ones - that wastes time and makes us slow.
- aswanson 11y ago
  Hilarious. I recall saying to myself YouTube won over Google video because they supported comments early on. They really understand social. Laughing at myself...
- dredmorbius 11y ago
  As I noted at the time, fixing a roiling cesspit by draining it into the freshwater supply is hardly a solution. YT comments should have been hauled out and shot. Not jackboot-forced onto other platforms as well.
  - brownbat 11y ago
    Yeah, there was a project comparing YT comments with Metafilter comments at one point: http://comments.thatsaspicymeatball.com/ http://comments.thatsaspicymeatball.com/ Looks like the latest comments are from Feb 2015, sad that it's not still live. Not a terrible quality snapshot though.
    - dredmorbius 11y ago
      Metafilter's highly underappreciated. Sometimes I think that's a good thing.
- InclinedPlane 11y ago
  There are two types of YouTube comments. There are comments from random people on very popular videos. Those are often an excuse for people to say something with a big audience, and those comments have usually been of low quality. The other type of comment is when there's a small community around some particular niche subject or particular content creator. And there the quality of the comments can actually be pretty decent, because it's not just drive-by comments from random folks. Unfortunately, YouTube's comments changes have generally targeted marginal improvements on the quality of the first kind of comments to the detriment of the second kind.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

by exodust 11y ago

alwaysdoit 11y ago

To be fair, it's not like YouTube comments were ever working well.

lmm 11y ago
They were never great but they were better before.
- rudolf0 11y ago
  If by "before" you mean 2008, then yes, arguably. Starting around 2009 I've started using various browser extensions to hide the comments, and I've never been happier.
  - mahouse 11y ago
    I don't understand. Can't you just... not read them?
    - javajosh 11y ago
      That kind of software is easier to install, but less consistent.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - piyush_soni 11y ago
      No. To sift through the comments you want to read, you need to at least read a few words/sentences of even the unwanted ones - that wastes time and makes us slow.
aswanson 11y ago
Hilarious. I recall saying to myself YouTube won over Google video because they supported comments early on. They really understand social. Laughing at myself...
dredmorbius 11y ago
As I noted at the time, fixing a roiling cesspit by draining it into the freshwater supply is hardly a solution. YT comments should have been hauled out and shot. Not jackboot-forced onto other platforms as well.
- brownbat 11y ago
  Yeah, there was a project comparing YT comments with Metafilter comments at one point: http://comments.thatsaspicymeatball.com/ http://comments.thatsaspicymeatball.com/ Looks like the latest comments are from Feb 2015, sad that it's not still live. Not a terrible quality snapshot though.
  - dredmorbius 11y ago
    Metafilter's highly underappreciated. Sometimes I think that's a good thing.
InclinedPlane 11y ago
There are two types of YouTube comments. There are comments from random people on very popular videos. Those are often an excuse for people to say something with a big audience, and those comments have usually been of low quality. The other type of comment is when there's a small community around some particular niche subject or particular content creator. And there the quality of the comments can actually be pretty decent, because it's not just drive-by comments from random folks. Unfortunately, YouTube's comments changes have generally targeted marginal improvements on the quality of the first kind of comments to the detriment of the second kind.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]