Friday, November 8, 2013

Some more thoughts on the YouTube comment fiasco

I think we've all heard the rumors about people getting suspended from YouTube for linking to a petition to change the whole thing back to the way it was. I'm not about to figure it out for myself for fear of getting 1200+ videos wiped out, especially after I promised everyone I'd keep them online, but if true, this is an example of corporate douchebagginess even the likes of Monsanto would be envious of. I mean, I have no words for this. Even Microsoft, after the uproar over the initial "features" of the Xbox One, knew better than to stand their ground. Of course, as I said recently, just the fact that they thought this was a good idea makes the changes pointless in swaying the mind of any responsible consumer, but at least they acknowledged that they fucked up big time (kind of). Google is taking the opposite approach: they are so confident that they own us, and there's nothing we can do about it, that we're not even allowed to have a different opinion from the corporate suits that run the thing despite making graying politicians look like a credible authority on the internet. We ARE going to line their pockets by inflating the amount of Google- users, whether we like it or not.

In a way, this reminds me of EA requiring Origin to play some games, most notably SimCity 5, but also others. This isn't just restrictive DRM, this is also a way for them to artificially inflate the amount of people with Origin accounts, just so they can boldly claim "with all these users, we are a real alternative to Steam". In fact, didn't they say that very thing in a press release while desperately trying to argue in favor of SimCity 5's online-only aspect? Either way, these are both cases of companies strong-arming consumers into using products they don't want to use just so they can play games/comment on videos/whatever, just so they can look good compared to their vastly superior counterparts (in Google-'s case, Facebook). In sheer numbers, at least, because if they think this is going to make people use Google-, then they have another thing coming. After all, their previous scheme to do so failed miserably. You know how YouTube would ask you, every few days, if you wanted to use your real name, and every "no" would be met with "OK, we'll ask you again later"? You know how you were often given a choice of whether you wanted to be known by your YouTube name or your Google name, and clicking either would end up with you having a Google- account merged with your YouTube account, and you had to go on Google- and close the whole thing down (unless you clicked on the X in the corner, which you would never think the first time around)? Well, clearly YouTube noticed that EVERYONE was doing that, because here we are today.

Oh, and you gotta hear some of the crazy stuff I've seen in defense of this stuff. The worst offender: "you're given something for free, why complain?" Two things: 1. Unless I'm mistaken, Google- was always free from the get-go, so you effectively DON'T get something extra for free, and 2. Not only that, but something's being TAKEN from you, namely YouTube's ease of use (or what was left of it after the ceaseless channel overhauls). There are also people who (accurately) point out that YouTube comment sections are a worse cesspool of stupidity than the GameFAQs forums, so it's no loss to them. Maybe, but it's possible to make YouTube comment sections work - as all of you should be aware *wink*. So to take that away from the people who made the effort to do just that? No thanks.

Speaking of which, quite frankly, would I still be using YouTube if I decided to continue LPing? To be honest, probably not. This horrendous overhaul combined with the petition situation would've ensured that I would've taken my business elsewhere. Of course, this wouldn't have meant anything to Google because they didn't make money off of me, and I didn't make money off of them. Still, of course I wasn't going to stand by and let my viewers get trampled by money-hungry suits. Now I know I'm playing the coulda-shoulda-woulda game, but me staying on board with this crap would've been unlikelyé

Bottom line, YouTube is for watching videos. IT'S NOT A GODDAMN SOCIAL NETWORK. So if Google is so desperate to enlarge its tiny shriveled carrot dick to try and compete with Facebook's magnum dong, give people a legitimate reason to use Google- BY MAKING A BETTER PRODUCT THAN FACEBOOK. Not through this crap. It's like they've given up on making Google- compete through any means not called brute-forcing everyone into doing so. The people who were so enthusiastic years ago about Google potentially being a Microsoft killer must be crying themselves to sleep.

Edit: Take a look at this, if you will. This, believe it or not, is the co-creator of YouTube, and maker of YouTube's very first video. There's something inherently hilarious about the whole situation.

14 comments:

  1. Yeah I'm with you Slow. I'm done with my youtube account after this change too. I only had about 20 videos and 1000 channel views so no real loss in the scheme of things but with all the changes to youtube layouts and sub boxes and especially the integration with Google plus, I'm just sick of it.

    You were the only LPer in my subscriptions who i was looking forward their videos. So I don't even need to keep the account. I might as well just delete the whole thing. I'll keep it for now to make it simpler to rewatch your old stuff. Its really cool to see how our thoughts on the meta game have changed over the years.

    Luckily you still have this blog, hopefully google doesn't try to ruin this since they already fully bastardized youtube. At least google has much better competetion among blog sites than they do with video hosting.

    Also these blogs are a great ways to get the same information you often spread in your videos. Albeit more bite sized and condensed (thats a good thing) I do have to say I was looking forward to your take on banjo kazooie but I am totally 100% behind your decision to stop youtube after this fiasco. Sorry for the rant

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    1. Aside from the search engine, YouTube is Google's other big cash cow, so I don't think Blogger will be hit too hard.

      Anyway, since you posted your comment before I edited the post, you should take a look at the paragraph I added. If you thought this saga wasn't crazy enough yet...

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    2. If the co-creator didn't even want google+, then you know that google done goofed. Unfortunately they have to much of a stranglehold on internet video for us to do anything about it. This whole fiasco has really turned me to twitch.tv recently. The best part is that most people there don't have partnerships AFAIK and aren't complete sellouts.

      Would you ever be interesting in doing occasional streams akin to maybe the speed gamers? I would really enjoy the live dialog with subs and there wouldn't really be any pressure to make it a complete series. Up to you of course but Open Broadcaster really makes it simple to stream footage from emulators

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  2. It's little wonder I have seen people rename Google + as Google "nazi symbol"

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  3. What would you do if Google would shut down your YouTube account? I think make your own site and re upload them there but that's just me.

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    1. I don't have the videos on my hard drive anymore, though.

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  4. ...Leave it to the fans...I wanna say...

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  5. Hey slowflake I got a question, I know your not a lawyer or anything, but IF we get enough signatures in the petition then youtube is forced to change the comments back, right?

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    1. Of course not. Petitions have no legal value whatsoever, they only exist to make a statement along the lines of, "look at how many people want this".

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  6. Apparently now comment notifications will be delivered by Google +

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    1. I meant that if you went to your youtube inbox you could no longer see what someone said when they replied to your comment. it just has their "youtube" name. if you wanted to see what they said you are forced to go to google + or search the video yourself. had to double post cause i forgot to hit reply. whoops.

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    2. Oh, sorry. My apologies. Yeah, this "full integration" sucks so much.

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  7. Isn't Nosepass banned from trading because of the "ass" in the name? I thought I heard about that being so...

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