YouTube Stars Panic as Site Pulls Ads over "Inappropriate Comments"

Yeah its kinda harsh and a blunt instrument of control here but just disabling comments is easy and quick.

It'll make commenters mad but most YT comments are terrible in general and most of the YT content creators seem to feel its mostly pointless to even bother trying to read most of them.

Youtube is as much about social interaction as it is about the videos. You don't build an audience by disabling all comments.

Edit: Also, comments are a form of engagement that Youtube uses to judge if videos are worthy of featuring or recommending to viewers. So channels would be punished by Youtube's shit algorithms if they disable comments.
 
Easy enough, disable comments, re route comments to Twitter, Twitter doesn't mind unsavory comments.
 
Youtube is as much about social interaction as it is about the videos. You don't build an audience by disabling all comments.
I don't think the sort of social interaction that goes on in YT comments is much of a draw anymore.

Maybe back in the early days. But now? They're almost always terrible. Not at all easy to quickly browse either.

I'm sure some people will act like its the end of the world but there channels I know of that have disabled comments at times and still do just fine.

Edit: Also, comments are a form of engagement that Youtube uses to judge if videos are worthy of featuring or recommending to viewers. So channels would be punished by Youtube's shit algorithms if they disable comments.
They can just go by views or likes/dislikes.

Its probably not as good but its not a terrible method either.

Easy enough, disable comments, re route comments to Twitter, Twitter doesn't mind unsavory comments.
Yeah but tons of people hate twitter here for similar censorship issues that YT blamed for. Or Disqus.

They're all problematic. And they can all be abused.

And overall they don't ususally add that much either. Twitter is usually as garbage for comments as YT.

People are there for the content not the comments.
 
Last edited:
Right because content creators can control the comments section.... all this will do is cause 90+% of channels to disable comments so people will just stop engaging with youtube altogether. Why does the answer to shitty behavior by a small group of people always have to be over the top knee jerk reaction that affects everyone.

Some asshole turns sudaphed into meth... Now I have to fucking get a background check to buy cough syrup. Some shitstain uses foodstamps to buy lobster while living in a dorm with a food plan and now people working their way through college can't get help. some guys are real douche bags and abuse their wives, now that crazy chick you took home from the bar can have you kicked out of your own house in handcuffs by claiming you made her fell unsafe with no actual proof. Some nutcase shoots up a school so lets ban all the guns.... some Allah Akbar piece of shit blows up a plane now I have to show up to the airport 3 hours early and endure pointless security theater every time I have to take a business trip.


Hey here is a novel idea lets just you know deal with the actual scumbags on an individual basis; you know Identify people with mental health problems early try to get them help and if that does not work take their guns away... Kill the terrorists preemptively... A couple have a shouting match in denny's? no need to arrest anyone just you know talk to them... some dude actually beats the crap out of a lady take him behind the Dennys and break some ribs before you haul him off to jail... someones defrauding food stamps and posts it on you tube dont make a new regulation throw that shithead in jail with a crap job making a 1$ an hour until he pays it all back and post his day on social media as an example. People are turning sudafed in to meth if it's just a couple poor fucks maybe try to get them help if it's an organized criminal enterprise throw them in prison but also try to address some of the root societal ills that are causing these enterprises top spring up. You know use some fucking thought and discretion instead of freaking out and making things worse for everyone...
 
Right because content creators can control the comments section....
Well strictly speaking turning comments on or off is absolutely control.

Its a harsh and blunt instrument, the "nuclear option" as it were, but its definitely control.

Its fair if you don't like it but I think its unreasonable to assume its going to kill YT or something. People, including YT content creators, have been complaining about how terrible and useless YT comments are for at least years now. They get turned off anyways all the time in various channels I watch because of trolls and those channels still do fine.
 
I thought the entire point of the disgusting amount of data collection that is going on, with smart phones, IOT, home hubs, etc. was so that advertisers could more accurately target ads at viewers? With all the data they are collecting, they can't keep ads from showing up on videos with sketchy comments directed at pedophiles? And they can't automatically find the sketchy comments themselves?
 
They probably don't want to take responsibility for policing the comments. They already get blamed for censorship with the relatively mild amount of stuff they already do.

Also taking action like that by using all the data they're collecting would turn people's attention to it in a way that they probably wouldn't like.

Most of the invasions of privacy via data collection that they can do now is only made possible by how subtle it is and because it usually doesn't have much in the way of direct negative effects.

Once it starts becoming obvious and negative effects get clearly attributed to it then you're going to see people start to call for more protections through law and that is going to hurt their bottom line.
 
This is an excuse to police speech.

YouTube is a privately owned platform. They should not be required to carry any speech they find objectionable.

The first amendment applies in one case and one case only. It prevents the government from persecuting you for your speech. The rest of us are free to do as we see fit. Last I checked Google was not the government.
 
Right because content creators can control the comments section.... all this will do is cause 90+% of channels to disable comments so people will just stop engaging with youtube altogether.

That's what Youtube wants. They want advertisers to be happy and advertisers are real knee jerk and will pull support for pretty much anything that gets public outrage. So, easiest solution to advertisers having issues with comments is to disable them. Problem with that is that people will get mad about it. So Youtube's weak-ass solution is to try and force content creators to do it. They don't HAVE to do it but they just risk losing their money if they don't... which of course means they will. But then they get to look like the bad guys.
 
Except bitchute is terrible.

I gave it a try for months when some of the gun-tubers got serious about trying to decentralize off of YT and half the time it flat out doesn't work.

Even when it does the quality was often horrible and downloads were slow.

The awful truth of the matter is there really isn't a viable YT competitor out there.

And there won't be either.

The only reason YT is so ubiquitous is because Google is standing behind it and keeping it going. Profit-wise it usually does poorly at best. And its in a market where the cost of entry is high.

edit: Full30 sucks too BTW. And most of the gun-tuber content creators have largely abandoned trying to decentralize off of YT because no one was looking at anything else but YT despite all the people complaining about censorship and boycotts and lots of effort on the content creator's part to advertise other services.

Only a very few determined people are even trying at all anymore and even they admit its mostly a lost cause at this point. The only reason they're still trying is out of pure stubbornness.
 
Last edited:
I do not see the big deal about creators moderating their channel's comment sections. It's something they should have been doing anyway, just for the sake of keeping a higher standard for their channel. And yes, the comments are part of the channel's content, every bit as much as the videos themselves.

If you want ad money, then you must adhere to standards acceptable to the ad buyers. It has always been that way in all media forms. If you don't want to maintain those standards, then don't monetize your channel and find other sources of income.
 
I think passing this to the individual channels isn't a bad decision, since I think that a channel creator curating their own videos and comments on those videos make sense in a way.
 
still waiting for these youtube career-personalties to act on what they say. ( ie mirror the video elsewhere )
 
I do not see the big deal about creators moderating their channel's comment sections. It's something they should have been doing anyway, just for the sake of keeping a higher standard for their channel. And yes, the comments are part of the channel's content, every bit as much as the videos themselves.

If you want ad money, then you must adhere to standards acceptable to the ad buyers. It has always been that way in all media forms. If you don't want to maintain those standards, then don't monetize your channel and find other sources of income.

well, this makes much more sense:

then Youtube needs to moderate first, rather than passing all the costs and risks to uploaders. Since Youtube are the ones earning more from ads, and they have the economy-of-scale to do it. ( they can always charge a nominal fee to uploaders for moderation)
 
YouTube is a privately owned platform. They should not be required to carry any speech they find objectionable.

The first amendment applies in one case and one case only. It prevents the government from persecuting you for your speech. The rest of us are free to do as we see fit. Last I checked Google was not the government.

the internet is owned by a handful of corps. Literally. In vid hosting, there's only Youtube. Everyone else are small shrimps.
In social media, Facebook. Etc etc
In discussions of movies and tv, there's IMDB...oh wait, they deleted the boards. Still no alternative for 2 years and counting.

and considering the amount of money* spent by tech (Google et al) in cahooting with governments past and present, it is indistinguishable between these entities.

If they don't adhere to the same principles, we are all doomed. So of course we are complaining and criticizing. It's for our own sake.

*as far as we know. No insider info on non-public lobby money yet
 
its this or pedophiles exploiting children take your pick.
There is no doubt that there are creepy videos out there. There is also no doubt that there are a lot of innocent videos that only become creepy when viewed by a creep.
Leave the videos alone and the comments alone. Tighten rules that allow children to do live streams and educate parents to the potential dangers. Live streams is where things can become predatory.
 
well, this makes much more sense:

then Youtube needs to moderate first, rather than passing all the costs and risks to uploaders. Since Youtube are the ones earning more from ads, and they have the economy-of-scale to do it. ( they can always charge a nominal fee to uploaders for moderation)
YouTube deserves that money, as they provide the platform and do all the work of acquiring advertisers (and let's not forget, YouTube still isn't a profitable venture, even with economies of scale). Finding and maintaining advertising partners on your own can be a fulltime job in itself. For the longest YouTube creators had the easiest money-making ride in internet history, courtesy of Google.

Now creators being asked to take on more of the workload, and nothing I see as particularly onerous. If the amount of comments a channel receives is too much for one person to handle, then that channel is probably large enough that it can find a couple of volunteers to help moderate, or is making enough money to hire moderators; [H] has mods and admins after all. It's the cost of doing business.
 
Now creators being asked to take on more of the workload, and nothing I see as particularly onerous. If the amount of comments a channel receives is too much for one person to handle, then that channel is probably large enough that it can find a couple of volunteers to help moderate, or is making enough money to hire moderators; [H] has mods and admins after all. It's the cost of doing business.
Agreed. Though I would like to see YT help people moderate their own channels easier by improving their comment system.
 
Agreed. Though I would like to see YT help people moderate their own channels easier by improving their comment system.
Yeah the whole commenting system could use a complete overhaul, and my guess is Google is going to fast track that now. I imagine that will be no small task.
 
I'm sure some people

Proof or never happened. All I know is that when I See a video that has the comments disabled, I'm out of there in an instant. Because until now that meant they have something to hide. If all videos will have comments disabled, then the garbage and the propaganda will be all but indistinguishable from things worth a watch. Ratings alone aren't enough as there are controversial ideas that aren't popular but valid nonetheless.
 
Proof or never happened.
Off hand InrangeTV's has had to disable comments on some of their highest viewed vids (relating to AK and AR15 dirt tests) due to trolls and they're still going OK. There are others if you bother to look for them. Its not that hard to find them.

All I know is that when I
There is your problem right there. You're making assumptions. Neither I nor you are going to behave like the entire market so you can't really go by your (or my) personal experience.

That was why I was pointing out how most people and content creators have been bitching for years about the crappiness of YT comments.

If most people are legit hating on comments and don't really care for them most of the time it probably won't be missed enough to matter much over all.
 
Soo... Who will be the first to create a little botnet to throw "wrong think" comments into the comment section of YouTubers they don't like, to get them demonetized?
 
The way to fix this is to start putting bannable comments on liberal/lefty channels.
 
it is sad that the world is this way.

this is a beyond easy fix for YT start fixing their algorithms
 
And the money talks... if your job is YouTube then part of the job is to moderate comments. If you can scroll down 3 lines and read a comment that you couldn’t say on the stream then it is no different than if it were on the stream itself. It’s posted right there, so either moderate comments or disable them, it’s not like 99% of the comments section is constructive to begin with.
Some of the channels with millions of viewers have tens of thousands of comments. You expect an individual content maker to police all those comments. They’d just disable them, which can hurt too, I enjoy reading and posting comments on a YouTube channel sometimes. I have a small channel (not subsidized) and one of my tech vids hit 100,000 + views. I long ago stopped trying to keep up with comments/questions.
 
Off hand InrangeTV's has had to disable comments on some of their highest viewed vids (relating to AK and AR15 dirt tests) due to trolls and they're still going OK. There are others if you bother to look for them. Its not that hard to find them.


There is your problem right there. You're making assumptions. Neither I nor you are going to behave like the entire market so you can't really go by your (or my) personal experience.

That was why I was pointing out how most people and content creators have been bitching for years about the crappiness of YT comments.

If most people are legit hating on comments and don't really care for them most of the time it probably won't be missed enough to matter much over all.

I'm making an assumption based on my own behavior. You're making one based on thin air. People want the ability to provide feedback. They want to be heard. Even the so called review bombings are about that. People wanting to be heard. Look at the like / dislike ratio of any video with the comments disabled it will be bad.
 
I'm making an assumption based on my own behavior. You're making one based on thin air. People want the ability to provide feedback. They want to be heard. Even the so called review bombings are about that. People wanting to be heard. Look at the like / dislike ratio of any video with the comments disabled it will be bad.

As a channel owner I whole heartedly agree. This is bad solution to whichever issue they are trying to adress. And yes disabling commenting will always result in dislike bombing on YT and will turn you into a stuckup channel owner which cannot take any criticism. Besides comments act like a communication between the audience and the artist or company or product in lots of cases, rather than what the channel owner is doing.

With every new policy YT introduces the lower they sink these days. I'd love to see a new site growing in popularity and leave the sinking ship but it's suicide to your followerbase doing it so on your own right now unfortunately. Hard to get any truly mass movements happening either, hopefully some new policy (be it copyright restrictions or what not) they introduce soon will be so bad there won't be any other choice for a lot of channels out there.
 
Last edited:
Honestly, I'm not sure what people are complaining about anymore. You got the bed you wanted to sleep in. It's here. Enjoy the comfort.
 
Since you need an account to post comments, I don't understand why they wouldn't punish the poster of the comment, not the channel receiving it.

It seems bass ackwards.
 
The way to fix this is to start putting bannable comments on liberal/lefty channels.
They will get a pass. Just like that guy who did and experiment on twitter where he posted unsavory things about Jews and it sat for two weeks. He then said the same thing word for word about Muslims and it was taken down in minutes.
 
I think they should cut Revenue for Streamers in half Mr. Beast would like that all he does is give him money away.
 
ETA on 4chan getting their hands on this and just abolishing any channel they want?

The 2020 election comment was something I didn't think of, but honestly it does make sense.

I have been looking for an alternative to YT. I guess DailyMotion is one?
 
Why does everything need comments? A forum I understand, but where I am watching a video and then there are just tons of comments of people arguing politics or religion when or how they quit their job and work from home making $250,000 a month using this method (CLICK HERE)....I was just trying to see how to program a microcontroller, cant comments just die off? Something about a scene from old jay and silent bob about how the internet gives everyone a voice.
 
Which is why we need to start calling for youtube to be given common carrier status, and remove the ability for them to pick and choose, jsut like we did to ATT.

The longer we wait, the more voices will be silenced in favor of corporations.
You have the wrong issue.

Actually as with other Silicon Valley Giant social media, YouTube is acting like publisher when it suits them and a Platform when it suits them. The Phone System is a Platform. A newpaper or TV network is a publisher. I platform passes on accountability for content to the users in return for no legal culpability. A platform passes responsiblity for content onto the user. If it's a crime, its the user who is responsible like with phones. AT&T doesn't get charged with conspiracy to commit a drug deal or murder. A publisher is accountable for the content they publish and as such they can meddle in the content being displayed. They can also be sued for things like libel.

You can't be both.

SV social media firms have been indulging in both worlds without it being called out. They need to pick one. But once they do, they can't selectively ban people whose politics they don't like while letting harrassers with the correct politics slide. They both need to be shutdown or nothing.
 
I'm making an assumption based on my own behavior. You're making one based on thin air. People want the ability to provide feedback. They want to be heard. Even the so called review bombings are about that. People wanting to be heard. Look at the like / dislike ratio of any video with the comments disabled it will be bad.


I can see this.

I don't view YouTube content very often (I will never watch a product review, written article or GTFO), but I have stopped reading sites that don't have comments sections or forums. I find it very frustrating to read something and not be able to share my two cents.

I may be attracted for the original content, but I come back and stay for the comments sections and forums.
 
  • Like
Reactions: M76
like this
Back
Top