Based on the article, they are trying to rid the YouTube community of trolls. At first, they had us create Google+ pages with our real identities, which was bad enough, to combat racism, threats, etc. . But now, the whole comment system is being rearranged. Why not just purge all the comments and start over again?
I dislike it. In fact, I hate this whole Google+ thing. Does anyone even use Google+ ? Why did they HAVE to link it with YouTube?
The only thing I like about this whole thing is…they now allow URLs in comments! (Hot-linked through Google+, of course.)
I like the idea of organizing comments into conversations rather than randomly across a long page. It’s how comments on most social sites and blogs has worked for years.
But I absolutely agree about Google+. Google knows that it can’t defeat Facebook in one fell swoop, so rather than trying to compete in the normal sense, they’re beginning to build everything around this platform so that using Google+ regularly will soon be inescapable. “One account - all of Google” is the start. Just about all attempts throughout Internet history to unify online identity have failed to achieve critical mass, but I suppose Google can do it if anyone will. On the upside, it will simplify online authentication greatly as things like biometric scanners become common in consumer devices. But with that comes a sacrifice of anonymity and privacy.
I balked at Google’s acquisition of YouTube from day one, but I think the Googlization of YouTube has made the site more worthwhile in many ways. It is now a viable means of revenue for independent content creators such as myself, and they continue to roll out more tools for video promotion and targeting that have turned YouTube into a serious business platform for the entertainment industry. I just wish they made the viewer’s experience a higher priority.
This could be the perfect opportunity for a third party to swoop in with their own website and, with the right marketing, send Youtube to the depths of MySpace before people accept/revert the changes.
Some of these changes made sense, but as Jon Paula demonstrated, the spam filter is worse than that of AOL. Random comments are being blocked. I do find it kind of funny that this came right after South Park made fun of streamlining things into one computer system, and ending in disaster (granted, that was about the Affordable Care Act, but this parallel works at least as well).
I wouldn’t even care about the integration, if it worked properly. And so far it has not.
Longer comments are nice, and so is the ability to post URLs, but all I can see (and in the case of the long comments I have seen it very frequently) is people abusing the privilege.
Personally I see the integration of Google+ and YouTube as a way to boost the number of total Google+ users so G+ doesn’t seem like a complete failure in terms of a user base.
I think that Google needs to realize that people aren’t going to start using G+ just because they’re forcing it on them. Yes, my YouTube channel has a page on G+, but that’s only because I was harassed until I created one. Also, It’s not like anybody (including myself) posts anything on it. It’s just kind of there.
I don’t have anything against the new comments system: longer posts, URLs, and everything else that is coming with it is definitely a step up. What angers me is how you’re forced into using G+ when the two services could just be kept completely separate.
A lot of people on the internet are angry about this, including one of YouTube’s co-founders, who posted his outrage over having to use G+ to comment on videos.
As for YouTube being broken in Firefox, it’s all working fine for me. Clearing your cache could help.
YouTube is crazy with Firefox. I just retested the cache, so we’ll see. On many popular videos I see people just post “Fail-Whales” and other 500+ character text artwork. I like the link feature, but that may not be the best thing for the younger users…
My biggest problem is that you can’t open reply chains as easily.
For example Wow, what a horrible person you are.
StupidTuber7894 in reply to XXXbleepXXX
When it used to be Wow, what a horrible person you are.
StupidTuber7894 in reply to XXXbleepXXX (Show Comment)
Sometimes it shows an entire reply chain, but I find it quite buggy.
YouTube and Google+ are two different species of social media sites (YouTube I consider a social media site). I would understand sharing your YouTube activity on Google+, but having to link your Google+ account just to make a comment? I just do not see any sort of advantage of using Google+ for commenting.
Even when I do link my Google+ account, I STILL cannot make/respond to comments. Furthermore, I am having issues with logging into the iOS YouTube app as a result. If they decide to continue with Google+, I really hope they fix these bugs (I’m sure they will).
Whenever I make a comment, my name is highlighted in blue. Strange, huh?
However, I think the no-reply situation is intentional. In fact, I think it’s actually a good idea! Most YouTube comment fights escalate when people respond to each other, thus instigating the situation. But if someone has a question, how can we answer it?
We have to revert to the old method of @Username, which does not notify the user of new comments/responses. Oh well. :roll:
What is worse is the YouTube channel layout on the Google+ page. I think it might be reasonable to expect YouTube to become “Google+ Videos” or something similar very soon.
All we can do is hope.
Last night I was on youtube, and I did appreciate the bell next to my name, which makes it easier to see new comments. I hate how they remove the inbox when you link, making it so you have to go to the video manager. At least that is kind of fixed.
The hashtags are also a useful addition, but they could do that without linking G+.
Wait… THEY COULD DO EVERYTHING WITHOUT G+!
The thing is, even having a Google+ account won’t stop the trolls. Many sites tried the same thing with Facebook accounts for commenting, and it hasn’t really helped. You’d be surprised the things people say even with their real name and job displayed. Also, anyone who really wants to troll will create a fake G+ account.
I think it would be silly for Google to think that they could completely stop trolls by requiring a G+ account. However, the amount of spam and trolling is reduced by a pretty good amount when real identities are used.
I’m sure there are more that I’ve kept, but I don’t really care enough to find them. All three of these came from people using their full names, within the last three weeks.
Again, I am not objected to Google+ (even though I have no personal use for it), and I understand why they are integrating. However this isn’t a very smooth integration, and it certainly will not stop people from being rude/ignorant or spamming.
Plus, while clearing the cookies fixed the layout problem, commenting in Firefox is still broken after clearing both the cookies and the cache.
But, this is just something we will have to get used to, just like all the layout changes. It’s not completely broken yet.
