Why Doesn't YouTube Regulate Its Comment Section?

[Vorpal]

"vaccines don't work" is pointlessly vague, and if taken literally, it's also untrue. I think what you are getting at is "there should be a set of agreed-upon facts" -- objectivity means: unchanging truths about the universe, something true because of the properties inherent to the object, and anybody who observes the object arrives with the same conclusion... the sun is mostly hydrogen, turtles are born in eggs, doom2 is fourteen megabytes.

 

subjectivity is when something is observed, and conclusions depend on what the viewer decides... pumpkin pie is gross, air jordans are a good investment, that comedian isn't funny...

 

 

[Good-Old]

All they care about is money, so I doubt they will walk the extra mile to purify the comments, it won't be worth it, for them. 

[Biodegradable]

People write stupid shit online everywhere, this isn't unique to YouTube comments. It does allow creators to moderate their comments section with specific tools though. I imagine most don't bother because they're too busy trying to stay afloat making videos to worry about something as nebulous as the comments section. Comments sections are the internet equivalent of scribbling bullshit on the walls of a public bathroom. I don't see the point in getting bent out of shape over 'em.

 

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by Biodegradable

[Major Arlene]

36 minutes ago, AlexMax said:

If a community is too large to reasonably moderate, maybe the solution is to not have a community that large in the first place?

 

But YouTube will likely always have a comments section because YouTube comments are not about fostering a good community and instead are about driving engagement, aka ad revenue, by having people return to the video over and over again.

that's nearly impossible to control. engagement will drive popularity growth, period. that's like asking someone like Markiplier to stop making videos because he has too many fans. 

[Eurisko]

Don't read them.

[Arbys550]

I'm confused, what videos are you watching? When I look in Youtube's comments I never really see anything bad at all.

[DSC]

Just now, Arbys550 said:

I'm confused, what videos are you watching? When I look in Youtube's comments I never really see anything bad at all.

I said it before, no videos in special, its something in common with the entire site. Have you never seen comments like people repeating the same stupid joke 50 times?

[leodoom85]

On 3/18/2021 at 1:39 PM, DSC said:

I'm genuinely getting really tired from this. Every time I go into any popular YT video there is a very, very good chance in the comments I just find some kind of idiocy and stupidity going around. I ain't even looking for it, it just seems to find a way. People being able to hide behind theirs screens can lead to alot of crap without proper moderation like here. Hell, even DW, with its stellar work by our awesome mods ^{don't worry I didn't say this under threat of my organs being removed or anything} still gets some BS thrown around every now and then. Thats why I'm asking, YT aren't short on money, so what's stopping them? Greed? Lazyness? Is the amount of videos uploaded just too large? Why don't they do anything?

 

And no don't worry, I'll make it very clear: I'm not advocating for censorship of content I don't agree with, deleting or demonetizing videos and locking down comment sections. I just want a slightly more peaceful place.

 

I'm wondering something. Why do you see the comments when you can just ignore them and watch ONLY the content?

I mean, we all know that ALL social/sharing media is full of crap in terms of comments but...man, just ignore that. I also get random comments from my videos that can even contain links to porn sites which I can easily report them and continue living my life as if nothing happen...

 

You can watch your content that you like but....damn...don't get stressed for comments that you don't like or watch. It's not worth it. 

[Major Arlene]

Can echo the above comments. Put video on fullscreen, don't look at comments. e.z. honestly unless the creator has put more information in a comment somewhere, I don't look at them. 

[GarrettChan]

1 hour ago, Arbys550 said:

I'm confused, what videos are you watching? When I look in Youtube's comments I never really see anything bad at all.

Come on dude, because you're too good and nobody would ever say bad things in your comment section  :P

 

(A few people are salty about your Scythe 2 D2all UV Max though)

[seed]

Probably because on big channels it would be impossible to really moderate it anymore due to the sheer number of people. Plus YT's comments section is not and never was about building a community or a nice place, it's driven by other things.

 

I only ever read through it on some channels I like, which I know aren't full of retards commenting, but most of the time I watch the video, maybe leave a comment to show my support to the creator, and move on.

[Boomdav]

a bit of an unpopular opinion but i like the comment system on youtube.Yes while on more popular videos most comments repeat the same joke 50 times.on smaller channels you can find mostly good jokes and converstion.An example of  a good popular channel with nice coments is taia777.It is only retro video game music but the comments are something else

[Caffeine Freak]

To echo what others have stated, Youtube is far too vast at this point to have any sort of meaningful human moderation involved with their comment sections. That's hundreds, thousands or sometimes tens of thousands of comments on every single video. And anybody who's paid attention over the years has already seen what a piss-poor, totally inconsistent, insanely biased and sometimes criminally negligent job the human moderators have done with the videos Youtube allows, or doesn't allow. 

 

I would say it really depends on where you spend time on the site. Different types of videos and channels will attract different types of crowds of highly variable maturity and intelligence. Trendy videos and hugely popular channels will tend to have comments where every joke is a meme you've seen a million times and there's isn't much depth or substance. That may sound like I'm disparaging said channels, but I'm honestly not---it's just a pattern I've observed over time. Videos that engage the audience in a deeper intellectual or artistic way, will tend to have a higher ratio of intelligent, depthful conversation and analysis in them, and sometimes it's just a matter of parsing through the bullshit first---if you can be bothered to do so. Like the rest of the internet, it often requires a thick skin and a degree of patience to get there first. It's sometimes a worthwhile endeavor, in my opinion.

[Arbys550]

2 hours ago, GarrettChan said:

Come on dude, because you're too good and nobody would ever say bad things in your comment section  :P

 

(A few people are salty about your Scythe 2 D2all UV Max though)

 

Haha thanks, but I wasn't strictly talking about my comment section, I mean every youtube video I watch I don't see much.

 

3 hours ago, DSC said:

I said it before, no videos in special, its something in common with the entire site. Have you never seen comments like people repeating the same stupid joke 50 times?

 

Oh, yeah I thought you were talking about people being mean or offensive. Yeah of course there's the same stupid jokes but I guess they don't really bother me as much as they do you.

[magicsofa]

It depends heavily on the channel and topic. For example, when I watch snowboarding tutorial videos, the comment section is usually very positive.

It would be kind of an insurmountable task for YT to regulate all of the comments. There's just too many, plus some comments might be appropriate for one video while not appropriate for another (for example, you could say "damn that's hot" about a spicy food eating contest, and that would be fine, but on a children's fashion show... not so fine).

 

The downvoting mechanism does help a little bit to self-regulate though.

[Hawk of The Crystals]

17 minutes ago, magicsofa said:

The downvoting mechanism does help a little bit to self-regulate though.

Kinda sucks how a lot of people have to rely on a terrible system like upvoting and downvoting just for a non-cringe inducing comment section, but oh well, not my problem.

[xX_Lol6_Xx]

Well, who knows...

[Hawk of The Crystals]

Although there's nothing wrong with a like&dislike system, i feel like upvoting&downvoting systems are unintentional comment eugenics, if a post on reddit isn't what some people like, they can just spam downvotes to make it less likely anyone can see it due to it being lower on the list.

Thankfully i don't use reddit, but it's something i think would apply in some ways.

 

[seed]

1 hour ago, CrystalHawk_Doom said:

Although there's nothing wrong with a like&dislike system, i feel like upvoting&downvoting systems are unintentional comment eugenics, if a post on reddit isn't what some people like, they can just spam downvotes to make it less likely anyone can see it due to it being lower on the list.

Thankfully i don't use reddit, but it's something i think would apply in some ways.

 

Yeah exactly, which is why I hate Reddit despite frequenting some subs (some of which do suffer from this issue).

 

Reputation systems in the form of up/downvote are cancer, they encourage forming echo chambers and silence opposing or contradictory views and opinions, and in other cases outright pettiness.

 

I find like-only systems like that of DW right here infinitely superior in comparison. Don't like, don't read, and move on, nothing was lost.

[Hawk of The Crystals]

18 minutes ago, seed said:

 

Yeah exactly, which is why I hate Reddit despite frequenting some subs (some of which do suffer from this issue).

 

Reputation systems in the form of up/downvote are cancer, they encourage forming echo chambers and silence opposing or contradictory views and opinions, and in other cases outright pettiness.

 

I find like-only systems like that of DW right here infinitely superior in comparison. Don't like, don't read, and move on, nothing was lost.

Pretty much, one thing wrong about the internet is how it can sometimes cause individual opinions' death, many prefer to just retreat into echo chambers created out of pettyness and completely ignore the factor of debate so they can have some bit of control over other people's lives in this virtual landscape, but that's just my opinion.

[dei_eldren]

The problem with YT comments is not that it's unregulated.  Too many fucking things are regulated.  Bots are the real problem.

 

Unregulated comments are just PEOPLE.  Yes, they can be stupid and they can be whatever they are, but at least they are people, and as such, should have a right to express their opinion unregulated by some authority what's acceptable to say and what not.  It's not your task in this world to decide who gets to say what they think and who doesn't.

 

That comments on YT are unregulated is about the only good thing about YT.  EXCEPT of course, that they aren't completely unregulated.  And i'm sick of it.  i'm also sick of YT censorship.  Etcetc.

[wallabra]

On 3/18/2021 at 5:57 PM, DSC said:

Well, its just like I said earlier then: can't change human nature. What a shame...

 

Good for them, then. Worry about your nature, not other people's. Ugh.

 

[scalliano]

It's easier (and better) to avoid the arsehole than try to force it not to be an arsehole. That way lies madness, or even worse, Scotland's hate speech laws.

[LexiMax]

22 hours ago, dei_eldren said:

The problem with YT comments is not that it's unregulated.  Too many fucking things are regulated.  Bots are the real problem.

 

Ensuring that bots aren't a part of the conversation is very much a moderation problem, and is yet another moderation problem that is exacerbated by the sheer size of the network.

 

Big social networks do not care about eliminating bots from the conversation because bots can still drive engagement.  They just don't want want bots to be the entire conversation because if that happens, eventually will catch on that they're talking to nobody and leave en-mass.

Edited March 20, 2021 by AlexMax

[DSC]

Yeah I totally forgot about the bots too, I don't encounter them very often, but they are very annoying still.

[wallabra]

On 3/19/2021 at 7:21 PM, seed said:

Reputation systems in the form of up/downvote are cancer, they encourage forming echo chambers and silence opposing or contradictory views and opinions, and in other cases outright pettiness.

 

I find like-only systems like that of DW right here infinitely superior in comparison. Don't like, don't read, and move on, nothing was lost.

 

I think the issue is that Reddit doesn't count them separately. Negative feedback is also good feedback, if it can be constructive.

 

YouTube's star rating was still better than what we have today, because it defined actual upper and lower bounds for the rating average.

[seed]

6 minutes ago, Gustavo6046 said:

I think the issue is that Reddit doesn't count them separately. Negative feedback is also good feedback, if it can be constructive.

 

Yipp, and that is exactly what it doesn't do in most places, when a negative opinion shows up, unless it's essentially also shiftpost-tier, it gets downvoted immediately, silencing it because "I really do not like what you're saying there, so I'm gonna aid others in burying you".

[wallabra]

Well, that's the internet for you. I'd still rather them be counted separately. At least that would prevent people from downvoting a post just for being already below zero (the circlejerk effect), assuming those kinds of people can't be arsed to subtract the ups from the downs of every single post they encounter.

[amackert]

This has probably been addressed already (not reading through two pages worth of replies), but the responsibility of comment moderation is on the channel owner, not YouTube. YouTube does have spam protections in place, but everything else is fair game. If you see ridiculous comments on videos, it's because the channel owner (or in the case of big channels, its team) isn't bothering to remove them. Some channels don't even look at their comments, which has the obvious effect of all the garbage slipping through.

[snapshot]

I like to read those comments in a funny accent to make myself believe those people were unfortunate enough not to finish high school, saves the hassle of feeding the trolls

 

"WaSnT a FaN of iTs atMosPhEre"