YouTube to Remove the Video Responses Feature

Hey guys, if you like to make video responses on YouTube then it will not be a happy day for you. Thanks to MrRepzion, I found out about this terrible news. I got this quote from this page which gives out more info:

Video responses are going away. On September 12th we’ll be sunsetting the video response feature, and video responses will no longer be shown below the video player. Video responses are rarely played (the click-through rate on video responses is 0.0004%), so we're investing in new, more effective engagement features instead.

So yeah, we're losing the video response feature on YouTube now. Will YouTube ever listen to the complaints they will get? Hopefully someone at their headquarters steps up and solve all of out problems with the website. That link in the quote also has more info too.

Good. 99% of video responses I've seen are shitty ads, or some grassroots idiot spamming his new "single" (i.e. he could only afford enough pro studio time to do one song) on band pages that he thinks he sounds like (and he doesn't).

Linked article said:

4 out of every 1 million users

4 out of every 10000 surely? Anyway.

There was me thinking I should use video responses to try and boost view counts.
Honestly, if the usage of video responses is that low, I don't really see the point in keeping them.
Adding links to comments is a bit..redundant, since people are already able to write /watch?v=4hdue9fy8et and such comments are often hidden by the flag as spam feature. Maybe there's more to it than that.

I'm not sure responses will be missed if the numbers are that low. No doubt, YouTube will have something up its sleeve to give users the tools to have their videos get more of a chance to wind up in the related videos at the end or on the side. I wouldn't fret just yet if I were you.

What was the harm in keeping it? Any replacement of it is destinied to be a fucking disaster as usual.

I most people who posted video responses were just exploting other popular vidoes to advertise their own anyways.

While they're at it, they should ditch YouTube comments. I've yet to see anyone leave a comment under a video which is in any way meaningful or amusing. I know there's this plugin which turns them all into "herp derp", but that's like taking a rather ineffective painkiller.

Hey guys, I found a petition that people can sign to try to save the video response feature. People say petitions don't do much, but it's worth a try. Here's where the petition is:
http://www.change.org/petitions/youtube-keep-video-responses

the click-through rate on video responses is 0.0004%

I think this tells everything about the chance of success of the petition. It's clear that only a vanishingly small minority wants this feature so why waste energy and resources on it?

I could honestly say that the number of times I've clicked on a response video could probably be counted on the digits of one hand, so I can't say this matters to me much.

j4rio said:

What was the harm in keeping it? Any replacement of it is destinied to be a fucking disaster as usual.

The harm is in maintaining it. Unused features add work for little return. If it's used mostly for unwanted spam, as most people here contend, then it's also work (even if it's only CPU time and bandwidth) to deal with complaints, spam flags, etc.

I suppose that could be why most of 'features' were gradually disappearing since, like, 2009 or so.

Doesn't matter to me, to be honest. I don't do video responses, nor am I interested in watching them.

Eris Falling said:

4 out of every 10000 surely?

No, that would be 0.0004, not 0.0004%.

Well I never had the chance to use it but did have the urge to try, it doesn't look like I'll ever use it now though.

Good. Now all those reply girls or whatever they are called won't make videos. At least I hope they won't.

With Google's increasing share of storing user data and "preferences", especially for ads, I doubt they'd be exaggerating; maybe even proud to eviscerate the forgotten feature.

edited for mathematical fallacy

BloodyAcid said:

The 2 numbers you've listed are the same, or maybe I just missed the point.

A percentage of something is divided by 100.

i.e. 4% and .04 are the same.

Oops, I'm mathematically blind.

This:

hardcore_gamer said:

I most people who posted video responses were just exploting other popular vidoes to advertise their own anyways.

And this:

Canofbacon said:

Good. Now all those reply girls or whatever they are called won't make videos. At least I hope they won't.

. Good riddance, video response, you will not be missed.

Bucket said:

Good. 99% of video responses I've seen are shitty ads, or some grassroots idiot spamming his new "single" (i.e. he could only afford enough pro studio time to do one song) on band pages that he thinks he sounds like (and he doesn't).

Brace yourself, then. Spammy video responses will be replaced by spammy comments with links, in greater numbers.

(hope i got it correctly)

printz said:

Brace yourself, then. Spammy video responses will be replaced by spammy comments with links, in greater numbers.

(hope i got it correctly)

Erm, didn't they implement a system to prevent comments with links from being posted?

It was a broken/limited feature anyway, since you could use any single video only once, I think, and then again only stuff you uploaded.

Very rarely used in most cases from what I've seen.

This sucks! First by keep changing layout to shitty version, especially the 2013 layout which is ugly as hell. Recently it forces players to change their name to full name, and now remove video responses features!

Fuck Youtube! I always like to look at other user's responses of the playthough!

Daiyu_Xiaoxiang said:

Recently it forces players to change their name to full name

I haven't been forced to use my real name yet. Every now and then I get a pop up that'll ask me if I'd like to use my real name, but I always choose not now, or I'll decide later.

This will open floodgates for people spamming unrelated videos in other videos. Rarely did I get stupid responses for some of my vids, one time just some 5 second with stock images with the title "Nice video!". I want real replies, not canned crap like that.

Mr. Chris said:

I want real replies

Then go somewhere else than Youtube. Youtube comments, or replies, have never been good.

The response tits girls pretty much ruined the video response feature.

Seeker_of_Truth said:

I haven't been forced to use my real name yet. Every now and then I get a pop up that'll ask me if I'd like to use my real name, but I always choose not now, or I'll decide later.

Yeah... where's the "No, and don't bother me again" option?