What the f*&^ have they done to YouTube Comments?!

[Varrok]

(The title was originally supposed to be all in uppercase letters, but I'm pretty sure it's against the forum rules. Act like it's screamed out.)



From now on youtube *requires* having a google+ account to post comments or even rate them. I don't have one, nor I want one, so currently I cannot even comment how I'm pissed at the management for turning youtube comments into social circus

[Wings of Fire]

pfft

[Wil]

YouTube has been using pretty disgusting tactics to get you onto G+ for months now. They've frequently used unclear and confusing popups when you log in to trick people into linking YT and G+ accounts, many of which have led to identity theft and violations of user privacy. Add that on top of routinely deleting users' subscriptions, failing to deliver new videos notifications to subscribers, slashing ad revenue without explanation, eliminating channel customization with their disasterous 'snowflake' update, having pretty much the buggiest media player online, and frequently changing tools and features to be more difficult to use and less functional...

There are a hell of a lot of talented, hard-working people earning a living through YouTube. An increasing number of them have become ever-angrier at the platform for making their lives a lot harder over the last couple of years, and yet it's still stagnating as the only major player in the field. When a serious contender pops up, and it's only a matter of time, there is going to be a massive exodus of bitter partners.

I'm fortunate to have a full-time job and only do YouTube as a hobby, because I know a lot of people who are finding themselves in a terrible place, many of whom have families to support.

The change to comments is actually quite funny after all of that, in a head-banging kind of way. It's like they've seen all the criticism and ridicule and tried to top it.

[OANST]

Badup bup badaaaa


I'm lovin' it.

[Varrok]

YouTube has been using pretty disgusting tactics to get you onto G+ for months now. They've frequently used unclear and confusing popups when you log in to trick people into linking YT and G+ accounts

I have to regularly close a pop-up which says: "What name do you want to use in Youtube?" at both of my accounts because selecting any option available results in making a G+ page for current account. And when I close the popup by an "X" in the upper right corner the message appears: "Ok, we'll ask you later." I've been doing this for months now. That's beyond horrible.

disastrous 'snowflake' update

Could you explain what was so disastrous about it?

[STM]

I can't wait to tell me kids about the days when the internet wasn't a homogenised, turdish blob.

[Slog Bait]

One time I forgot the password to my gmail account I made specifically so I could watch videos with age restrictions on it and the password recovery process literally made it so anyone could have retrieved my password and taken the account no big deal

Seriously it didn't even try to verify that I was the owner of the account it was just kind of like HERE'S YOUR ACCOUNT, MAKE A NEW PASSWORD AND HAVE FUN OKAY

[Dynamithix]

This is an awful system, how is it even possible that they just keep updating the site for the worse at this point?

[Auriel]

Well I gave up on YT ever since the larger body of google started forcing their nose into the business of the few old accounts I had there, but I'm really not surprised that it has come to this.
I guess all those people complaining how degenerate and immature youtube comment sections are got a bit more than they wished for, but it was really inevitable that anything google touches would be warped into the now-standard social media format.

[Varrok]

It's easy to give up using youtube account if someone doesn't make video content, but when you do, you don't have any good alternatives: YouTube doesn't have good competitors so the management can afford acting like they do, unfortunately

[Auriel]

It's easy to give up using youtube account if someone doesn't make video content, but when you do, you don't have any good alternatives: YouTube doesn't have good competitors so the management can afford acting like they do, unfortunately

I still hold a sliver of hope for the possibility that Youtube going further and further down the drain may help a successful alternative rise up from the ashes.

[Varrok]

I hope so too. I find it surprising that it hasn't happened already. After all, YouTube started getting worse a long long time ago

[Manco]

Vimeo seem to be surviving as a premium alternative. Of course, that’s aimed more at creative professionals than the average Youtube market of LPs, “funny” shorts and vlogs.

[Varrok]

Vimeo is a Mac of video hosting websites. I mean it's quite known and popular, but it's hard to be taken seriously comparing to 'that other competitor'

[Auriel]

To be fair it's hard to imagine any video hosting website being taken seriously by the general internet population when opposed by a google-backed competitor no matter how low said competitor manages to sink.
Oh well, I'll still retain that sliver of hope

[MeechMunchie]

I think it's more likely that Vimeo will shift to accommodate vloggers than YouTube will clean up its act.

On the other hand, anyone who's prepared to invest a little time in making a small-scale, non-shit version of YouTube, with the intention of scaling it up in the coming years, could find themselves rather rich.

[Manco]

Vimeo is a Mac of video hosting websites. I mean it's quite known and popular, but it's hard to be taken seriously comparing to 'that other competitor'

I wish you could see how hard I’m rolling my eyes right now.

On the other hand, anyone who's prepared to invest a little time in making a small-scale, non-shit version of YouTube, with the intention of scaling it up in the coming years, could find themselves rather rich.

Nah. Taking on Youtube simply isn’t possible by starting small, it would mean a competitor couldn’t offer what Youtube can – large audiences, big ad paychecks, and lots of bandwidth.

[Phylum]

I clicked the wrong button in one of those popups lat eat night one time and I think I have a G+ tied to my Youtube account now.

[Auriel]

I clicked the wrong button in one of those popups lat eat night one time and I think I have a G+ tied to my Youtube account now.

At times I get the impression that youtube is purposefully making tabs load slowly for me to make my mouse slip up and accidentally tie a regular google account I happened to be using at that moment to youtube.
In all seriousness, google shoving that "give YT your real name" bullshit into my face whenever I happen to be logged in and decide to load a video has really been pissing me off for as long as google has been trying to actively force all of the tripe that comes with their facebook clone into every one of their facets.

[Nepsotic]

All the previous updates didn't bother me that much, but this one is just FUCK. You can't see comments in your inbox anymore? What the FUCK?!

[MeechMunchie]

Nah. Taking on Youtube simply isn’t possible by starting small, it would mean a competitor couldn’t offer what Youtube can – large audiences, big ad paychecks, and lots of bandwidth.

I think it really depends on how many big names you can coax over out of goodwill. As Wil said, there are plenty of creators ready to jump ship.

Speaking of which, Twitch.tv has bagged a few exclusives; maybe they could evolve into a competitor.

[Phylum]

Twitch does an awesome job of livestreams, but I've never had a nice time watching past broadcasts back. Very inconsistent loading, takes a long time and loads in such small blocks that you can't just pause it and come back later.

[Manco]

I think it really depends on how many big names you can coax over out of goodwill. As Wil said, there are plenty of creators ready to jump ship.

Speaking of which, Twitch.tv has bagged a few exclusives; maybe they could evolve into a competitor.

Well see that’s the problem – to undercut Youtube you need to quickly amass a large chunk of their audience, but bagging big names like you’re suggesting would bring huge masses of traffic that a small company wouldn’t be able to handle.

Pretty much every other Youtube competitor has major restrictions on how much data you can upload or has serious performance problems that Youtube is able to shrug off because of its size.

To beat Youtube at its own game you have to go big or go home. And sadly very few people have the means to go big.

[Phylum]

The fact that Google bought/partnered with Youtube is a testament to everything Manco just said.

[Mr. Bungle]

I don't really get the big deal. Is it a freedom of speech thing, or do people simply dislike change?

I do admit that it's a bit unnecessary, but I must be missing something 'cause I'm not nearly as concerned as a lot of people seem. Then again, I don't exactly frequent the YouTube comment box.

[Varrok]

I can't comment on youtube, because I chose to not participate in a social network I don't like and care about. I did comment stuff sometimes.

[Mr. Bungle]

Just make a throwaway account, then. One with bullshit information that's only used to comment on YouTube. That's what I did, and the Google+ Monster hasn't gotten me.




yet

[Wil]

Could you explain what was so disastrous about [snowflake]?

A couple of things. It was proclaimed as a celebration of how unique everyone's channel was, when it really just took away all but the shallowest of customization. Channels now looked a lot less distinguishable. The immediate recognizability of many channels was discarded for one (very weirdly sized) banner, and that's about it. Perhaps not the biggest problem, perhaps a favourable change to many, but it was not popular amongst creators.

It also made a lot of partner perks redundant. Before, it used to be the case that you needed certain numbers of subscribers and views to earn the ability to upload banners, create thumbnails, add links to your banner, etc. It encouraged quality, audience engagement and platform loyalty to grow your channel. With it gone, what could networks offer to entice creators? This was, if I recall, near simultaneous with YouTube allowing anybody to monetize videos, not just partners. Which is a lovely idea, but the total ad prices didn't increase. Everybody's joint earnings were spread thinner, mostly amongst smaller channels earning too little to ever actually claim it. How unfortunate for YouTube to have to be holding all of that cash for them...

The bigger problem, though, was that it stopped audiences from viewing content on a channel's home page. It added an extra page load to watching the latest content (and when you're designing user interfaces, the rule of thumb is that each page halves your audience), but even worse was that it discarded a whole metric. The amount of video views on your home page was a major calculation in your earnings, and without it everybody's earnings plummeted. There was no warning. The networks had no immediate solution. Everybody had to switch back to the old style or go broke, knowing that snowflake would be mandatory soon. I believe they fixed this at least.

I don't really get the big deal. Is it a freedom of speech thing, or do people simply dislike change?

What Varrok said, coupled with a slew of bugs. You can't reply to comments left before the change. When you delete a comment, it deletes everything classed as a reply whether you want it to or not. Sometimes none of the comments that are left will show up. It's screwing with our audience engagement and we had no choice or forewarning. But bugs can be fixed. Bad design can be fixed. There are some nice features. But you have to be on Google Plus, because Google gots to have the big data on you.

YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim left his first comment in eight years in response to the new comment system.

[STM]

I think Dailymotion could be a good competitor if they just changed their shitty interface.

It's good for soft porn already...

[Bullet Magnet]