The YouTube Comments Fiasco With Brock Baker, Man Of A Kajillion Voices

YouTube finally rolled out Google+ Comments to videos last week, and as we reported yesterday, the move is being torn apart by users.

Last week, I came across a video from Brock Baker titled “Google+ SUCKS!” Part comedy, part dead serious, he shares some thoughts (NSFW):

I reached out to Brock about the new YouTube Comments, and here’s what he had to say:

In Google+ SUCKS! on your second channel, the message is pretty clear. For those who haven’t watched it, what do you find to be the biggest issues with the new YouTube comments?

There are a few issues with the comment section now. One plus side is that there isn’t a character limit, but of course people abuse even THAT with spam. I can’t reply to certain comments, and I can’t SEE replies to comments. When I see a comment that says “in reply to,” I click that, and it just reloads the page. I for one enjoy seeing what people have to say.

Comments that aren’t spam are marked as spam, and I have to approve them. YouTube claims that the new comment system will help get rid of negative comments. I for one don’t like this. I have a series that relies on negative comments, plus it’s OKAY to have a negative opinion about something if you’re constructive about it.

I feel Youtube is trying to censor people, which is fine in some situations. I just think you should have an option to turn this off/on on your own videos. I LOVE negative comments, even the really mean ones, but I understand that some people can’t handle those.

On the flip side, comments seem to be better organized, and video creators have better moderation tools. How would you improve the comments?

I know it’s a new thing to YouTube, and I’m sure they’re at least LISTENING to our complaints. If they work out the things I mentioned above, maybe it won’t be so bad.

Because a Google+ account is required to comment, how much of an impact has this had on your videos? Do you have any figures/estimates?

I really don’t know yet, it’s too early to say. I am pretty mad that my comments no longer go to my Gmail inbox. I had a pretty good system going of reading every single comment I get. Now I have to manually go to each video to see what people are saying.

The “bell” alert isn’t convenient at all. I don’t want to see who shared or liked or favorited my video. I’m only concerned about comments. I don’t even know if there’s a way to filter all that. First world problem, I know, but it’s annoying.

If you could talk face-to-face with YouTube/Google executives, what would you say?

I would tell them to stop “fixing” stuff that isn’t broken. Or at least make sure it’s a not a big pile of smelly diarrhea before releasing it to the public.