YouTube has been in hot water with its content creators and its viewership ever since Google+ integration began seeping into the site. Interaction between those who make videos and those who watch their videos became more difficult and awkward then ever before. Many YouTube creators simply turned off comments altogether as a sort of strike against the inadequate comments section that has replaced the perfectly functional system that had served the site for years. It was supposed to be just another way to persuade users to join Google+, but instead it caused a firestorm that hasn’t let up since.
As a first step toward making peace with its frustrated user base, YouTube announced on its Creators blog that it has rolled out a new Comments page for creators that had lost control of or given up on the comments section below their videos. On the Comments page, creators will have the ability to “easily remove comments, flag comments for spam or abuse, give a thumbs up, or click over to the video watch page and reply.”
YouTube plans to add even more features in the future, including replying inline and expanding all replies at once. Maybe someday YouTube comment moderation will become so advanced that it will be able to function half as effectively as the system it had already built and implemented into the site in 2005. The future fast approaches.
