Do you guys think Youtube has gone to crap?

**FreedomFighter777** · September 10th, 2014 08:31 PM

I'm not sure if this should go in the Debate forum or just here; I would just like a discussion [not a debate].

Does anyone else hold the same opinion about the Youtube gaming category? I mean does anyone else think its bullshit that some channels with little actual value to offer--get popular and make it to the front page of Youtube?

The crap that ends up on the front page is popular, there's no arguing with that but I think most of it is analogous to Spongebob. It can be entertaining, but when the show is over what have you gained? Knowledge about something? A more informed opinion about a given political group or issue? An enriched mind as the result of someone's witty and intelligent commentary?

I'm not jealous of any of it. I would rather make something witty, smart, and worth someone's time instead of this crap. The only time I recall anyone making the front page with Gaming commentaries was about two years ago; and that was Woody'sGamertag.

Another great commentator is thePwnStar4Hire. He called out LevelCap for throwing Pwnstar under the bus when they worked together; then LevelCap crapped all over his own fans and proceeded to become more successful than ThePwnStar. LevelCap's content SUCKS anyhow; he "teaches people how to play Battlefield better" which sounds like a pseudo-oxymoron to me. Most of the crap he uploads is about the stats of a particular weapon or item, and the guy has done ZERO analysis of the actual stat values. He does things scientifically within game; for example setting up a "dummy player" and firing X bullet in to various parts of his hitbox, recording Y of hits til' death.

ThePwnStar4Hire actually said most big Youtubers are total pricks; and I believe him. I have no reason not too. He's been very open about everything.

Devs can't and don't make weapon stats even out; afaik and that makes sense to me too. To balance a game with only integer damage, and health values would be a strange and difficult thing to do imho.

Going back to the pseudo-oxymoron thing; even if you knew the stats they are not going to help your skills in a tense gunfight in any game (unless its a turn based game).

I'm just miffed at the idea that Youtube has gone to crap. Great site, great idea, the money attracted assholes and they ruined it for me.

What do you guys think? Is the most popular stuff on Youtube crap?

**Donut** · September 10th, 2014 08:53 PM

This strikes me as a great topic with wasted potential on Modacity.

Youtube's biggest problem is an utter absence of moderation. Youtube comments are a fucking cesspool of spam, insults, hate speech, trolling, and other unsubstantiated bullshit that drown out any legitimate meaningful conversation that could take place. Nobody is held accountable for anything they say or do on Youtube, short of posting copyrighted material. The comment rating system was straight up broken for a long time, and I'm thoroughly convinced the reporting system still is. Yet legitimate comments disappear left and right while hateful, bile-filled shit posts never seem to go anywhere. On top of that, comments are organized by activity, so people who intentially make controversial posts naturally rise to the top of the page from all the negative attention, which attracts even more negative attention. With no consequence to the original poster whatsoever.

Youtube needs some human moderators. Part of becoming a popular Youtube channel should be the ability to appoint a few subscribers as moderators for your channel. Currently the responsibility for keeping comments clean rests solely on the person making the content, and they wouldn't have the time in the day to do that if they cut out sleep entirely. On top of that, thumbs up should mean something, and thumbs down should be publicly shown. Karma on Reddit (or hell, rep on this site) is a great example of people assigning their own extrinsic value to otherwise meaningless points. The second people become accountable for their posts, we'll see a sharp decline in shit-posting. You mention Youtubers acting shitty toward their fans. Every single video I watch on youtube with more than like, 10 comments has some kind of shit post on it. Now multiply that by 300 and deal with it on a daily basis for years on end. Tell me you're not ready to kill some of those pricks.

So either add some moderation, or remove comments entirely. I love me a good youtube shit-storm as much as the next guy, but it's been a non-stop shitstorm since fucking 2006. I've about had my fill.

E: I realize what I said has next to nothing to do with what you said. I'm completely aware of that. I just don't see what we're going to accomplish by bashing LevelCap for doing a style of videos you don't like. Focusing on the comment system (which is almost universally despised) seems like a much more productive thing to do to reduce youtube's shittiness.

**FreedomFighter777** · September 10th, 2014 09:03 PM

Yeah, I agree. I would have talked about other topics but I didn't feel like typing that much. As for the LevelCap thing, that was half an example and half a rant :P

**Dwood** · September 10th, 2014 09:06 PM

Hmmmm. Well, I'll talk about ff's point. I agree the popular youtubers in general have lost my interest. I used to watch markiplier back in the day, but lately he's churned out a bunch of obnoxious crap. Pewdiepie is a significantly better and more genuine caster.

**Donut** · September 10th, 2014 09:28 PM

I feel like losing interest in Youtubers just happens over time. I used to watch every single one of Xfactor's and GameGrumps' videos. Now I watch like, maybe one in every 10. I also just recently started watching TotalBisquit's channel too. Over time I've just found so many channels I enjoy that I can't keep up with them all.

If there's one thing Youtube is doing well, it's keeping relevant stuff on my home page. It can take a while for it to start showing you stuff you actually like, but for the past year and a half or so I find myself losing several hours daily just watching shit Youtube recommends me.