Live data from Hacker News

Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

youtube.com

171–180 of 269 posts

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#172

I find it funny when people complain about shit they get for free.

I don't understand the "free" argument people keep making. Haven't you read the arguments debunking that point of view? It's only "free" in terms of there not being a transfer of money from you to Google. Google is trying to entice you into using their services so they can sell advertising. You are being pimped out by Google and they are paying you with their services. If Google wants to keep pimping me out to these advertisers, they better make the working conditions palatable and their services useful.

Google runs a business which users are a part of and if you think they are providing their services as a charity and have no right to complain about the business because you don't give them money, you really haven't thought about this very deeply. Since there is no charity here, the idea that we should be grateful is absurd.

Additionally, Google's huge control makes is difficult to participate in parts of the Internet (e.g. watching videos) without using their services. I think between their business model exploiting their users and their market stranglehold people absolutely have a right to complain when they make unwanted service changes.

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#173

What happened to "don't be evil"? The criticism is a bit thick, but the prompts to join G+ are increasingly manipulative and gimmicky, designed almost entirely to _trick_ the user to into signing up + spamming their gmail contacts. A requirement to have G+ account to make youtube comments is just one part of a greater trend that includes: 1. Requiring a G+ account to review Android apps in the Play store 2. Cunningly…

> You know G+ is an abysmal failure when the Page & Co has to force it on users of google's other services. C'mon bro, what gives? They literally have been explaining this for nearly a year. There's no such thing as a G+ account and a 'Google Account'. They are the same things. I think if anything what this has proven is that you cannot rely on your customers to read the slightest thing from you, but if you change ho…

> even if the service is totally free

In my experience they get especially angry if the service is free. :)

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#174
post #165
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconded. I was wondering if it was possible to be accountless on Youtube while logged in in Gmail, in the same browser, or if one needed to use two browsers. It turns out, blocking all cookies for youtube.com and www.youtube.com does the trick!! And it also solves the very annoying name change prompt that blocks every other video when logged in.

This is what I use porn mode (aka incognito mode) for.

Yes, but incognito mode doesn't set itself up automatically when clicking on a link in an email, for example, whereas with the cookie-blocking solution, it's always on.

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#175

The longer I use youtube while signed in, the more useless it becomes to me. I have a wide range of interests. If I'm watching the Dead Skeletons - Dead Mantra music video, it's not helpful to have 5 Starcraft 2 VODs in the recommended video list (i.e. I enjoy watching professional Starcraft 2). I'd much prefer recommendations similar to the Dead Skeletons. I've found no way to turn off this recommendation bubble and…

I Agree. I miss the time when I could control what I search and find anything in any part of the world in any language.

Now they believe that because I live in Spain I have to speak Spanish, or be interested first in Spanish stupid things, or be only interested on the topics I searched in the past.

Now while using gmail I search with Bing, so it does not mess anything.

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#176
post #128
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This same exact thing happened to me as well (same scenario, kept declining until I woke up to find that google merged my accounts without me accepting) last week. Although I magically got my lists back after a few days, it still pisses me off that google forced the transition on me.

They did not really. You can still go back by thumbnail>switch accounts.

Could be a bug that was fixed but that was the first thing I tried and it didn't work. Even now I get buggy behavior with things like preferences. I set as many things to private as possible after the merge in addition to my language (don't live in the US). Yet I occasionally get popups asking if I want a new subscription to be shared publically or made private. And I get told that my lang has been set to English for me even though I live in Japan which I'm well aware of cause I set it myself already.

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#177
post #97

What happened to "don't be evil"? The criticism is a bit thick, but the prompts to join G+ are increasingly manipulative and gimmicky, designed almost entirely to _trick_ the user to into signing up + spamming their gmail contacts. A requirement to have G+ account to make youtube comments is just one part of a greater trend that includes: 1. Requiring a G+ account to review Android apps in the Play store 2. Cunningly…

There's no post API and all sharing is done manually so spamming anyone with G+ is impossible unless you actively use it. I think what they're effectively trying to do boils down into unifying the Google account: instead of every Google product maintaining its own divorced account/sharing infrastructure they're effectively retconning all of their products so they're now all based off one source, the Google+ Profile.…

There's no post API and all sharing is done manually so spamming anyone with G+ is impossible unless you actively use it.

That's a little naive. Of course there's an "API", it's what your browser uses to post something. Just because it's not designed for automated programs it doesn't mean it can't and won't be used.

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#178

YouTube comments have long been reviled as the worst of the worst the internet has to offer. I don't know why people seem to want the status quo.

You're making a very basic logical error. Youtube comments on the whole may be horrible, but that doesn't discount the possibility (in fact, I'd say certainty) that some youtube comments could be good, even valuable. There are many channels on youtube where the comments are fairly high quality, even by HN standards. The downside is that the people who put in the effort to nurture high quality comments on their channe…

So in order to preserve a small minority who have somehow carved out a working system (which I'll assume exist despite never seeing them) in the overwhelming onslaught of vitriol and crap, we just have to deal with said vitriol and crap continue as is?

This also assumes that Google+ comments will kill off these high quality comment channels. I am sure it is true for some, but it is hardly the absolute death knell for quality conversation to require a Google+ account.

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're making a very basic logical error. Youtube comments on the whole may be horrible, but that doesn't discount the possibility (in fact, I'd say certainty) that some youtube comments could be good, even valuable. There are many channels on youtube where the comments are fairly high quality, even by HN standards. The downside is that the people who put in the effort to nurture high quality comments on their channe…

So in order to preserve a small minority who have somehow carved out a working system (which I'll assume exist despite never seeing them) in the overwhelming onslaught of vitriol and crap, we just have to deal with said vitriol and crap continue as is? This also assumes that Google+ comments will kill off these high quality comment channels. I am sure it is true for some, but it is hardly the absolute death knell for…

So in order to preserve a small minority who have somehow carved out a working system (which I'll assume exist despite never seeing them) in the overwhelming onslaught of vitriol and crap, we just have to deal with said vitriol and crap continue as is?

No, but beware of falling into the politician's syllogism.

Re: Co-Founder of Youtube makes his first comment in 8 years

#180
post #68

The Internet never ceases to amaze me. Why does everyone act like a child throwing a tantrum when something changes? Are people that incapable of adapting? It's really not that big of a deal.

Because recent changes by many tech companies are being made because they're running out of ideas.

We all had a good thing going until around 2010 or so. That's the point when companies stopped making good changes, and went on fanatical change-sprees that made things harder, less efficient, and worse.

Change for the sake of change is not always progress, you know. Windows 8 -- sucked. Windows 8.1 -- much better.

At least Microsoft had the balls to backtrack a little bit, and it paid off big time for them. Somehow I don't see Google doing that.

Post reply on HN