YouTube's comment section is a mess

Th3VGN34D

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Like 80% of people around the comment sections in popular videos are overrun with trolls (along with elitists and SJWs, among other) that cause constant problems among many, and the best part? They were NEVER punished at ALL. Reporting them does absolutely nothing, even blocking them only encourages them to create another channel just to go around that block and continue with their problems with no punishment given. The lack of actual moderators monitoring YouTube shows that it's just total anarchy especially due to repeated incompetence from YouTube itself by allowing them to cause trouble as much as they want. Yes, copyrighted videos uploaded without consent is taken down, but not trolls, or even clickbait videos.

Eventually YouTube is gonna be facing serious consequences unless they take their job seriously by weeding out troll users completely. But it seems that nothing has ever been done for who knows how many years because they're often swept under the rug. And the report function is useless because even with clear-cut proof, they can't be bothered to ban them whatsoever. It's only a matter of time before the many people discover the dark side of YouTube and migrate to other video media sites such as DailyMotion (while it's not perfect, at least it doesn't contain comment section), all because YouTube has allowed the toxicity to continue on like wildfire. And the current state of YouTube isn't looking too great either.

You can object to me however you want, but the moment you see comments section overrun by trolls, SJWs, elitists, etc. on every video, you'll realize that nothing has been done due to obvious carelessness. They need to either step up, or step down.
 
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odabaco

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I both agree and disagree. I think any platform that allows abuse of comments is asking for trouble. It seems that YouTube places a lot of the onus on the channel owners to moderate. This is okay, but often can lead to pretty disastrous situations. However: If I'm a channel owner and I want comments, both good and bad, I'd be pretty angry if YouTube remove comments that I was okay to leave in place. Anecdotally, I thought they do this already (to a small degree), such as to stop gaming the system with comment-spamming etc. Where i disagree is that I think there are bigger problems that need addressing, such as the blatant disregard for a fair process for banning videos, demonetising, and closing down channels, with no discussion, very little warning etc. There have been some pretty high-profile examples of this happening erroneously! The comments issue pales into insignificance compared to this. My reason for bringing this up is that I believe THAT is the greatest existential threat to YouTube, not the comments problem (which is still a problem, don't get me wrong)
 

Hulio

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The comments have been the way they are for a long time now, so I don't think YouTube is in any difficulty because of it.

Secondly, there are quite a few good comments mixed in there with the bad. And they generally get voted up more than the troll comments.

And my last reply has to do with your mention of lack of moderators. But every channel is its own moderator! Occasionally, I have to delete a purely troll-worthy comment and I've never had any of those people come back to repost the comment. They leave their negativity, hope it gets a reaction, and move on. If the comment is deleted, they don't even remember where all they made negative comments.
 

markkaz

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YouTube gives creators the tools to help moderate the comments. It's YOUR channel, your responsibility, not YouTube's. If you are going to create content that attracts those kinds of people, it comes with the territory. You can always turn off the comment section to eliminate the problem.
 
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Farley Productions

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In my opinion Youtube has done more to help moderate comments then meets the eye. Back in 2006 there wasn't anything like it. Now you can decide which words can and can not be allowed within your comments section. Plus you can delete certain comments manually and even block the individuals leaving them.

Now I do agree with you that it's not perfect and Youtube should do more in terms of moderation. But we as creators have a lot more at our disposal now then we did back then.
 
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The NotARubicon!

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We dont allow any comments to appear without being moderated and we have a "no A-holes" policy.. I wish more channels would do the same.. we should start a movement - #noaholecomments
 
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Madiisuun

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I read somewhere that the thumbs down button doesn't do anything because it's not an upvote/downvote system, and instead it only exists because if you thumbs something down you feel like you've accomplished something and won't feel the need to flame them in response to the original comment (I'm really not sure if it's 100% the case but it makes sense?)

I think YouTube comments would benefit from a genuine upvote/downvote system because I don't find that Reddit as a platform has these problems in the same way that YouTube does.
 

UhoohExtra

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I think youtube does a great job with comments. I get more than 50% comments that are disingenuous.. people trying to promote their own agenda, video or product. But the filters, blocked words, mods, blocked links, reporting, banning etc are pretty powerful tools. For comparison pull up any.. and i mean any video on WSHH and see the difference.
Also you can completely turn off comments on your Youtube videos if you want to. Interesting thread though @Th3VGN34D :up:
 

GameVestment

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YouTube moderating comments is just awesome, it's the owner of the channel who has the responsibility to keep the comment section CLEAN while he/she can do it
I think youtube moderation is still beta but it works extremely well. Every new video filters out comment by Held for Review = links, hashtags, toxic comments, and more & Likely Spam = without the need to share a link, youtube knows when a person just wants to spam and want people to check their channel... sometimes is kinda scary how accurate they can tell the difference.

I receive between 600-1000 comments per video and YouTube really helps me clean most of the trash. Since I read every comment I end up cleaning the rest which is not a lot to be honest because people understands than being toxic in my channel is not tolerated and it's pretty much useless.

Even if I do a mistake, people are still really nice and comprehensive! Your channel is like your house and it's up to you to decide how people should talk to you inside your own house.

I read somewhere that the thumbs down button doesn't do anything because it's not an upvote/downvote system, and instead it only exists because if you thumbs something down you feel like you've accomplished something and won't feel the need to flame them in response to the original comment (I'm really not sure if it's 100% the case but it makes sense?)

I think YouTube comments would benefit from a genuine upvote/downvote system because I don't find that Reddit as a platform has these problems in the same way that YouTube does.
And yeah, dislike button is pretty useless to the point that even YT has thought about removing it. They are still thinking what to do about it. But to be fair, is almost the same for the like button... YES... it helps a bit to get your video out there but it will not make that much of an impact, is one of the last things the algorithm will take into account (comments is another example) to recommend your channel