Deleting comments even if it hurts the channel?

[VictoriaFlamel]

As I have a tutorial channel it's hard for me to start a controversy discussion in the comment section. My comment rate is thus much lower than for talking heads who throw issues like religion, abortion or open carry law into the ring.
The more I grow the more I get random comments like "Nice vid bro - wanna check out mine and sub?" that are not even closely related to my content. Although YouTube's ranking algorithm rewards comments I am deleting these but so far I haven't seen that my viewers really appreciate this.
Do you delete such comments or do you keep them to have a higher engagement rank?

Of course I have no knowledge of how Youtubes Algorithm works. But as someone who gets A LOT of comments, I find comments to be pretty overrated when it comes to increasing a videos rank or whatever you would call it.

So I would say go ahead and delete comments you want deleted

 

[Kijana]

Just keep spam. I keep it. I mean, youtube automatically marks the comment as spam anyway so I don't see why this is even a concern for you. But it's just a comment. It's part of the youtube community. You should feel special people even try to promote on your channel. But if you do delete the comment what does it matter? It's one comment. Keeping or deleting ONE comment on a video won't decide if you're on the 1st or 100th page of the search results.

 

[Stachu]

At some point you will get so many comments a day that you won't be able to check all of them and you'll have to leave them anyway

 

[SuckMyDax]

I delete comments that are channel spam. Just don't like the idea of someone wanting to be a part of the small community dealing with it.

 

[XXLRay]

I find comments to be pretty overrated when it comes to increasing a videos rank or whatever you would call it.

After PewDiePie disabled comments on his channels his views dropped from
98.4 million to 72.6 million weekly views within three weeks according to thevideoink. That's a 26% drop!
I am not comparing myself to PewDiePie at all. I am just saying that comments do matter.

 

[markkaz]

After PewDiePie disabled comments on his channels his views dropped from
98.4 million to 72.6 million weekly views within three weeks according to thevideoink. That's a 26% drop!
I am not comparing myself to PewDiePie at all. I am just saying that comments do matter.

http://www.thevideoink.com/news/pewdiepies-viewership-slipped-disabled-comments/#.VNxGn_nF98E

That is an interesting statistic.

But as far as the original poster is concerned, deleted unwanted spam is my chosen path as well. I want a healthy community rather than a cesspool of garbage.

 

[EmilyJM]

I delete them, quite happily I must add!

 

[WolfWraith]

Although YouTube's ranking algorithm rewards comments

Actually there was a thread on here a while back which clarified that comments, likes/dislikes don't benefit a video.

You should watch AlloySeven, he's really good at engaging his viewers.[DOUBLEPOST=1423740209,1423740045][/DOUBLEPOST]Comments are important for engaging with supporters nothing more nothing less. Comments that say "hey I like your vid check out my channel" just delete them. They had no intention of engaging with you and leaving it there will only help promote their channels if other viewers/supporters see it.

EDIT: here we go: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6046966?hl=en

 

[XXLRay]

Actually there was a thread on here a while back which clarified that comments, likes/dislikes don't benefit a video.

Did that thread also discuss an alternative reason for PewDiePies drop in views after he disabled comments? I would be really interested. It would be cool if you could find it.

You should watch AlloySeven, he's really good at engaging his viewers.

Thanks for the tip but he is doing mainly gaming videos as far as I can see and the tutorials I watched from him didn't contain any special engaging call plus he doesn't provide hands on tutorials that show people how to do things.

 

[WolfWraith]

Did that thread also discuss an alternative reason for PewDiePies drop in views after he disabled comments? I would be really interested. It would be cool if you could find it.


Thanks for the tip but he is doing mainly gaming videos as far as I can see and the tutorials I watched from him didn't contain any special engaging call plus he doesn't provide hands on tutorials that show people how to do things.

Unfortunately I don't know where the thread is (I'd search for it if I could remember the name), I was only able to find the FAQ posted by Google which I posted in my previous reply, but it didn't discuss Pewd's decline in views because it wasn't a ranking issue. PewDiePie's decline in views after disabling comments probably comes from 2 kinds of people no longer watching his channel: 1) you'd have trolls who have no reason to come to the video anymore and then 2) those people who believe that if they comment on someone's video the entire world should be able to see it so if they can't comment then they shouldn't watch. Honestly I don't understand why being able to comment on someone's video who probably won't even see it is so important, I don't even bother commenting if I see the person has too many subs anymore. Although it should be expected. The comments themselves do not help the video gain any statistical advantage of any sort, unless they're organic in some way, if someone's desperate enough to be commenting on your channel asking for subs etc... they probably don't have a big enough fan base to gain you any organic views to begins with.

As for the engaging part, I see him do it A LOT with his Gamer Life series, he always asks people for their opinions and even asks for video responses, he does it a bit with some of his other tutorials and mainly other vlog type vids. You could always ask what tutorials people will want next and even ask whether they tried out the tutorial in the video and how they went and offer to help if anyone has trouble. I've noticed a lot of people who do tutorials generally leave people who don't understand it, out in the cold. It could attract interactions from people who might think their questions are too "stupid" to ask. Any form of hit and run content can always lead to this downside but at least you have room to play with tutorials.

Deleting a spammy comment will not look bad for engagement or reduce engagement, like I said, it will only help them if you leave it up. Unless you want those same people to keep coming back and posting spam comments, then let them do it.