Youtube Boycott

[Pirogeth]

There is some irony in the video being put on youtube to complain about youtube but the message is what is important. Youtube has long since been a growing site that has continously gone farther and farther up its own ass. Now to make the final nail the coffin of YouTube I give you the new video layout summary.

So what are your thoughts? Would you boycott youtube if you no longer mattered on there? Where else is there to go? And the biggest question, if you stayed and it did become extremely hard to put the you in youtube, how would you get around their destructive habit of getting rid of the smaller guys?

This of course wasn't the first time youtube screwed us over, but it more than likely will be the last time. Here are a few things I noticed being a rising channel.

-I can't look at my subscribers anymore in the new layout. Thus if you subscribe to me I don't know who you are because they assume I don't give a damn.
-"Invisible" comment section, or rather really freaking hard to find.

Those two facts alone make myself rage. Let me know what you think.

 

[Ochalla]

It's all about money. There's no music in MTV for the exact same reason. It's alright, whatever our corporate overlords tell us to do we will like good litte minions. The complainers will be the minority, obvious freaks, who you don't want to be associated with.

 

[Vay]

Its been going that way ever since youtube was acquired by google. ANd everyone who has been following the issue knows google has changed their tune about net neutrality once they realized it gave the little guys as much chance as themselves. They are unfortunately a corporation and the new layout to me (i haven't seen the video yet I'll watch it at home) is built for those with thousands of subscribers and those who log in frequently or keep a constant eye on their front page.

As someone who only checks in every second or third day i find it irritating to fave to check on videos that didn't make the front page rather than than have the vidoes somewhat grouped horizontally by uploader, so its better? for those who spend their lives on it but worse for those who don't. ALso with google plus, you youtube/google accounts/google mail merger... it seems google want to get their claws into their users and keep tabs on them throughout their online experiences. A little off topic but my opinion.

 

[ViralFiend]

*Opinions and speculation in YouTube's defense.

YouTube is a completely different animal than it was only a few short years ago. The site currently has 800 million unique users, 48 hours of content uploaded every minute,
and 3 billion videos viewed per day. YouTube is huge. When faced with as much traffic, ANY company will attempt to streamline and simplify the user experience. That's not to say any changes made will always be perfect. That's why they solicit user feedback. Whether you believe it or not, these companies do analyze user feedback. Any outstanding pattern in the feedback, negative or otherwise, will be addressed. I prefer to think of these kinds of sites in a state of constant open beta.

Personally, I find the new layout refreshing and mature. I feel like they've taken out all the unnecessary social features and focused more on the content.

Subscription has been redefined. It is no longer a social tool; it is a statistic. It doesn't matter WHO follows you. What matters, is that they DO follow you. Don't get me wrong, I'm not dismissing the importance of audience interaction, I just prefer the new model.

Think of it this way:
The video page is a forum topic and the video is the subject posed by the OP. What's important is to inspire engaging conversation in the comments below. This is where audience interaction takes place in the new model. If you want to know who follows you, engage your commentators.

Also, I'm glad they took the comment section off the Channel pages. They were soap boxes for trolls and spammers. Channels now look and feel more professional, rather than letting people draw dicks and "lol ur gay" all over your face.

I'm not done, but I need to leave for a bit. I'll check back later and perhaps add more.


~Until then, I'm the Devil's advocate. Welcome to Hell.

 

[Diana]

I happen to agree 100% with Viral. o_____o

From an administrator perspective, and just knowing how sites and online business works behind the scenes, the site HAS to change and evolve over time. Sometimes it's going to suck ass when the higher-ups take a risk and it backfires. But a good company is going to keep their feedback open and sift out the true constructive complaints from the frivolous change hating complaints. And sadly, MOST comments are nothing more than people who just hate change. They don't take the time to try it and actually see from -testing- it on whether or not it works.

I'm not saying I like all the changes, (the fact they've gone anal about copyrights and pretty much sold out to big companies annoys me), but I always take more than a few days to see if something works.


From a -personal- perspective, I hate HATE HATE HATE HATE the "social experience" on youtube. I cannot even -glance- at the comments without getting pissed off. There's nothing but trolling, uneducated, stupid, asinine, total disregard for common sense all over the place. And if that means hiding comments and forcing users/uploaders to monitor commenting better, I am all FOR that. x___X But that might just end up being my personal problem cause I hate people. ;__;

 

[Zen]

I agree with both Diana and Viral actually.

Youtube is a huge business venture and I do think the reason behind the new layout is because so many people make their living off of Youtube. It does look very professional to me and it doesn't like it's all tossed together like it did the last time. As far as them being bought out by big companies... *shrugs* It was bound to happen, I knew it was gonna happen once they started playing advertisements before a video is played. It's a business and thus has to keep making profit. The social experience is horrible, but Youtube wasn't really meant to be a social experience unless you've become a Youtuber yourself. If you are, there are so many business oppurtunies for you.

 

[Pirogeth]

Now how do I defend this without saying these 13 year old dumbasses are cool....

Simply put they aren't, yes "comments" as a whole have mostly been dominated by the purpubescent ramblings of what you can only call complete twaterry. In fact, that's what I am actually inclined to agree with is that this aspect can be done away with. Some of my favorite remixes and songs on there have turned into a debate as to whether or not Rick Astley should sing it.

Yet, I am not without compassion. Of course I understand that most of these things will eventually evolve, change, and eventually become better. It is as Iwaku is and as all else does. But what really bugs me is the "facebookification" of what "followers" are. As it is right now you can actually admire some of the people that have followed you. In fact you two can probably get into contact with one another and create/generate more content if you are an online Let's Play channel like myself. However, taking that away from me is a step backwards. In other words they are turning those opportunities I could have of meeting new people whether they be 13 or 23 and shoving them into that commodity zone. Thus it becomes the youtube equivelant to a digital business blood bath to see who can rack up the most followers in a chance to have a few hours of internet fame.

Now for some aspects I actually do enjoy behind this. I do like the new look, it is fairly professional and you can even see the whole summary from the channel page. In addition you can look at what the person you are following is up to. There is a great design behind the options you have of still personlizing your page and that is something I'm glad to still have. Sure the format may be a bit wonky for a bit but I can get used to it. The moderate changes that they could do to fix this experience for myself is to at the very least make the subscribers a hyperlink but not to display the first 16 or so. In other words if you really wanted to you could still look at the people who are subscribed to you but not have it full on display.

As for the comments, video comments and channel comments should probably merge into just channel comments. I really feel that it takes that extra effort to go to the channel that would drive away most flag trolls and really get you the feedback you want from your followers. But as it is currently such things have vanished. As any Let's Play channel host would tell you the comments are exactly what help drive a few different choices. For instance, not knowing something that you can do in game that they tell you how to do, let you know what sort of other games they may be interested in watching, and even providing the constructive criticism on your commentary that everyone enjoys.

Youtube has some things right some things wrong and no way to contact them. Here's hoping they do some sort of poll or survey.