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Youtube overhauls comments/forces you to use Google+


Vekked

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http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/6/5073654/youtube-overhauls-comments-and-links-them-to-your-google-account

 

Not sure how I feel about this. Just logged into my account and it was confusing as hell because the "top comments" are mixing with the rest and look like the most recent comments, and the other ones aren't in order at all. I don't really use Google+ so it's kinda annoying to sign up for another social network as well. I'm sure it's really good for people using Google+ since you can tag people and it sorts comments based on people in your network and stuff, but seems like sort of a pain for people who don't use it.

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Another annoying thing is when someone replies to a previous comment it doesn't put the reply under it, and if you click the "replied to" part to see who they replied to, it opens another window of the video you're watching and starts to play it.

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I don't like the way they've changed the way comments work, but at least with the Google+ thing I was able to change my YouTube username, which I'd been trying to do for years.

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I don't like the way they've changed the way comments work, but at least with the Google+ thing I was able to change my YouTube username, which I'd been trying to do for years.

You could do that way before they changed the comment system, I think they started allowing the name changes early last year.

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^yep. I see what they're trying to do cuz they want to deter people from being totally anonymous and saying racist/sexist/etc stuff, but I'm not sure how much it'll help cuz you'll still be anonymous just associated with a specific Google+ account. You could already removoe comments as an uploader and report comments, so I'm not sure how much this will change. I think it'll just lead to less comments overall rather than less terrible comments.

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I don't like the way they've changed the way comments work, but at least with the Google+ thing I was able to change my YouTube username, which I'd been trying to do for years.

You could do that way before they changed the comment system, I think they started allowing the name changes early last year.

 

I think until recently it would only let me change to a two-word name.

 

The changes to the comments were to make a YouTube a more 'positive experience' or something along those lines.

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I hate that sort of business behaviour. I don't need twitter, facecunt etc. Hilarious how some people think, they know what I want or not (contest trying forcing you becoming a facebook user are the worst)...

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I've been fucking about with this. I guess going forward it might not be so bad.

 

I've linked this channel.....

 

http://youtube.com/user/TheRealDJSigma

 

.....to this G+ account, which I just created: -

 

https://plus.google.com/u/1/107422247827126529755/posts

 

This time, all of my content didn't disappear from YouTube, so it looks like they worked that shit out and I'm not forced to use my real name.

 

Then I have another account under my real name, although I doubt I'll use that much.

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You get instant notifications when someone comments on your stuff, via that bell-shaped icon at the top-right. Personally I prefer that to the old inbox method, but only because people rarely comment on anything I've posted up, haha. If you're posting stuff that's getting a load of comments it would be fucking annoying, although there's probably a way to switch it off.

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My Google+ and Youtube existence is one big clusterfuck of second and third aliases because of this change,

I had that originally too. When I went to "switch account" I had a bunch of extra accounts there and sometimes on YouTube it would pop up "use YouTube as" and there would be my real name there twice. WTF? I ended up unlinking my 2 YouTube accounts from G+ and deleting my G+ pages so it went back to normal, although I know not everyone has that option - I had no content on my G+ pages anyway, so it made no difference to me.

 

Now I've got it working properly though. I have a Google account under my real name which is linked to a G+ page of the same name. Then I have a Google account under "TheRealDJSigma" which is linked to a G+ page that has that name. Now when I go to "switch accounts", there's only 2 accounts there, the same as before I fucked with any of this G+ shit, and everything is working as it should.

 

This is clearly just a ploy to get more people using G+ though. All the "it's to stop trolls!" stuff is nonsense, because there is nothing stopping you from creating accounts under made up names and posting comments on YouTube with them. The "top comments" shit is annoying too. You can still change it to "newest first", but only on a per-video basis it seems.

 

Google's recent changes to YouTube have been wank. Loads of embedded music videos no longer play because of deals they have in place with large media companies - there was always the option to block embeds, but one day a few weeks ago it was like they flipped a switch and tons of embedded videos that previously worked fine stopped working. Then there's the change to the controls, such as making you do extra steps just to change the player size.

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I don't like that it checks the "Also share on Google+" box by default when you leave a comment on YouTube now. I just posted a comment on a video to see what it would look like on Google+ and it looks like this: -

 

http://i.imgur.com/u1Sbl2q.jpg

 

So it only shows your comment and the video you commented on, which is a bit weird. I guess it might be a good way of starting conversations with your Google+ friends, but I wish the box was unchecked by default or they gave you an option to disable it.

 

The layout of G+ is really clean though, which I like: -

 

http://i.imgur.com/UYB7HFK.jpg

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Well, this has done wonders to stop trolling and dumb comments.....

 

http://i.imgur.com/UFbhatx.png

 

http://i.imgur.com/vkR1V0M.png

 

The Google+ comments system allows you to post way more characters, real links (already being jumped on by spammers/scammers) and it supports formatting that allows you to post ASCII "art". Well done Google. *golf clap*

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I just had a look on YouTube and the featured video is one of Huey from Fun Loving Criminals smashing a mug and walking off the set on a TV show. Here's the "top comments": -

 

Can anyone explain to me why Huey was such a dick?

+Angela Munro who Rizzle kicks are?? get fuckin real!! Are you related to them? we pay the BBC and they use radio playlists and this 15-year dead-as-fuck programme to put THEM talentless turds on?

I agree with Gary again, we like Huey, you're the dick!!

Fuck the presenters winding him up cocky little nobody's

Yep, this is definitely allowing the cream to rise to the top, haha.

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lol, I just realized you can't interact with any comments made prior to the change in the commenting system... cool feature :/

 

first they took away video responses, then made google+ account mandatory, and now you can't thumbs up/down/reply to old comments. They're trying their best to kill the community aspect of youtube as much as possible.

 

Also has anyone else had trouble seeing what comment people are replying too? Like I see the "+randomperson" or see "in reply to Abbababa" but I can't see how to bring up the original comment without searching for it? Kind of a pain in the ass.

 

Final gripe, it's kinda lame that someone can see you/add you on Google+ via your youtube comments. Not that it's an issue if you don't really use Google+, but it just seems like it's forcing you to disclose information that should be optional kinda.

 

Who knows tho, if Google+ picks up steam and becomes a force in social media then I guess the YT/Google+ integration will be nice because having YT/Facebook/Twitter as one unit would be wicked, it's just that Google+ doesn't seem to do anything better than FB/Twitter at this point... it's just like 1 extra social media account to throw on the pile. If I wanted more social media outlets I'd probs start using Soundcloud/Instagram/Tumblr/Vine more before G+ at this point.

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The thing I dislike most is that it puts the "top comments" at the top by default. I always want to see most recent first and it's not like "top comments" are somehow better than any others anyway - they're often still people arguing and calling each other cunts.

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The thing I dislike most is that it puts the "top comments" at the top by default. I always want to see most recent first and it's not like "top comments" are somehow better than any others anyway - they're often still people arguing and calling each other cunts.

yeah, tbh I thought the old way was ideal where you have the 2 top comments than all the rest by how recently they were posted. Now some of the most recent posts are near the bottom :/

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It seems that YouTube are now switching to DASH for playing audio and video. It separates the audio and video streams and splits the video into chunks, the idea being that if your bandwidth drops, the player will drop down to lower quality video automatically without affecting playback.

 

The big downside of that is that extensions that you can install in web browsers to be able to download YouTube videos directly from YouTube's servers will no longer work. They've already implemented this for 480p and 1080p videos. You have to use a browser that supports Media Source Extensions in order to be able to play videos at those resolutions too, and currently only Chrome, Opera and IE 11 support that, so if you're a Firefox or Safari user you're shit out of luck (for now anyway).

 

I guess this is why Google moved the video quality controls out of the way. Eventually they will probably move all video to this sytem, so you'll get the highest quality that your bandwidth can handle automatically and they'll remove the option to switch resolutions altogether.

 

It sucks for me though, because I download quite a few YouTube videos as you can never guarantee that they'll always be available on the service, so I like to have local copies. You can use alternate methods, but you end up with noticeably lower bitrate videos that look kinda shitty.

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This is such a pile of fucking shite.

 

Every time I log into YouTube now, a box pops up that says "Use YouTube as" and there's only 1 option - my real name. It's fine using my real name, but why has this fucking box started popping up? I haven't changed any settings at all.

 

Whoever designed this system is a fucking mong.

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