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Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

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Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#101

Post by pmjordan »

rb2e wrote: post #83
alexeisadeski3 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on all points, but I'd just like to add: Never saw the issue with YouTube comments. Always was much ado about nothing. So people were immature - it's funny. So people were insulting - grow up, they're having fun. This whole movement to control YouTube comments reeks more of management's personal embarrassment that their customers weren't as serious and high class as they. Again, grow up. Not everyone is like y…

On a point I agree but not everyone has a thick skin to deal with the constant abuse some YouTubers face and they shouldn't have to. But ultimately I believe the whole policy of linking Google Plus account to YouTube was to clean it up so it looks good for advertisers. They do not want their brand associated with some of the homophobic, sexist and racist comments some were posting.

The thing is, Facebook already proved that hateful people will happily spout bigotry and threats next to their real name and a photo of themselves. I can't believe Google isn't aware of this.

Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#102

Post by snogglethorpe »

laureny wrote: post #88
BEEdwards wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that anonymity leading to great conversation is disproved by reality. This move, though short sighted and ill advised, is precisely to combat the cluster fuck that is YouTube comments powered by anonymity. I'm not sure what the solution is, but one look at the quality of anonymous unmodderated comments calls for one.

> The problem is that anonymity leading to great conversation is disproved by reality. How ironic that you are posting this on Hacker News. Or pick reddit for another flagrant counter example to your claim. Uncivilized discussions don't happen because of anonymity but because of uncivilized people. Create forums where mature people are inclined to participate and you will get great discussions, whether these posts ar…

> Create forums where mature people are inclined to participate and you will get great discussions, whether these posts are authored by anonymous people or not

No doubt that works well in some cases, but the average YouTube video is not such a forum.

Google has a problem ("The comment section on many YouTube videos is an insane cesspool"), and they need to address that problem. They don't really have the option of just moving the goalposts.

Moderation is another option that can work, but it may not be practical with something as enormous as YouTube.

They certainly could have done a better job of this, because the reaction is fairly predictable (people go insane over far more minor changes... OMG-CHANGE!1!), but it doesn't seem an unreasonable move in the abstract.

Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#103

Post by bhartzer »

One of the great features of the internet is the fact that you can remain anonymous under a username if you want to. I, personally, have never chosen to use a username that is not identifiable with me--but I realize there are people out there that want to (or need to) remain anonymous, especially if they post content (comments or even other content).

That's one of the great features of the internet itself, and honestly it's a shame that certain companies like Google wants to force using our real names on everyone.

It does make sense, though, that if a company such as Google owns multiple services or sites, they would want users to use the same accounts across multiple platforms. However, I don't see why you can't use different usernames or personas across multiple services: just log in using one account, but use several different public usernames (if you want to do that) across different sites.

Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#104

Post by emmelaich »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #69
shittyanalogy wrote: post #27

Also, people are different in different situations. People are different on youtube than they are on tumblr than they are on pinterest than they are on twitter than they are with their family than they are at the DMV than they are at a night club than they are .... People aren't a personality attached to a name they're who they want to be at any given time and personalities change. This kind of forced identity is not…

This is rather insightful. Now I'm actively considering changes in my personality based on different social interactions. I wonder if enjoyment of various activities is contingent upon the personality one puts on while engaging in them. Which raises the question, what if any parts of our personality are consistent throughout all activities.

See also the movie "Zelig" by Woody Allen.

Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#106

Post by leephillips »

jalfresi wrote: post #43
BEEdwards wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that anonymity leading to great conversation is disproved by reality. This move, though short sighted and ill advised, is precisely to combat the cluster fuck that is YouTube comments powered by anonymity. I'm not sure what the solution is, but one look at the quality of anonymous unmodderated comments calls for one.

Personally I think the problem is the concept of comments in the first place. You see, way back in the day, if you wanted to respond to a post or whatever on the web you went to your own website and posted a response and linked to the source you were responding to. Comments sections on websites are data islands; comments and conversations held captive in walled gardens. Youtube is the biggest irony of all as it has t…

"way back in the day, if you wanted to respond to a post or whatever on the web you went to your own website and posted a response and linked to the source you were responding to."

Amen. I still do it this way most of the time. Too bad the Web has not standardized on a form of pingback - that would allow these distributed conversations to actually work. Right now we're stuck with looking at our referrer logs, and that is very clumsy.

Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#107

Post by isomorphic »

Am I the only one who finds it ironic that she's posting her criticisms from Google+? I'm not trying to be snarky or funny. Does she genuinely value her Google+ blog or associations or whatever more than the privacy she's so concerned about?

She can, in fact, delete Google+ and keep Gmail. Try it. I have!

Since Google supposedly runs on data, the only way Google is going to figure out their problems is if people delete Google+ or stop using it. Otherwise there's no such thing as bad publicity, especially if you're an advertising company.

Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#108

Post by rcthompson »

BEEdwards wrote: post #40
fat0wl wrote: post #23

I think anonymity on the internet is a great thing. It's a place where you can socialize and share ideas with strangers without having to give them your name/address/home phone #. You can even start honest, more controversial discussions and do some high-level reasoning that you couldn't necessarily achieve with close friends. If Google won't allow that on their services anymore, I pray everyone leaves them & moves t…

The problem is that anonymity leading to great conversation is disproved by reality. This move, though short sighted and ill advised, is precisely to combat the cluster fuck that is YouTube comments powered by anonymity. I'm not sure what the solution is, but one look at the quality of anonymous unmodderated comments calls for one.

Here's one prominent Youtuber's thoughts on how the G+/YouTube merge has affected comment quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDTspUNj-4w

If you don't want to watch the video, the gist is that the G+ integration is actually highlighting the worst comments and putting them at the top, since they are the ones that get the most replies/likes/dislikes (feeding the trolls, etc.).

Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#109

Post by rcthompson »

rryan wrote: post #68

Instead of merging with your G+ account you can link it to a G+ page (and use your YT username or other pseudonym as its name). This is part of the "link your account" flow. I think this would fix her problem.

Except that's not the flow they gave her. The flow she got was "surprise, you're linked!"

Re: Dear Googles: G+/YouTube Anschluss – you've done outed me

#110

Post by codezero »

I feel like some people who claim they want privacy really don't value their privacy, but instead value something else (I hypothesize that it's just control) that seems like privacy.

You can find this poster's name by using Google Image search to link to her Flickr then from there she has her domain registered with her full name and address. (this pattern is pretty common, by that, I mean, given some identifying information, you can find a lot more. Anonymity is only effective if you practice consistent inconsistency.) A pseudonym here, a handle there, these are all things that establish permanence and link together to make an identifiable entity.

Putting your real name into YouTube isn't the problem here. This doesn't mean there isn't a problem, but it's not quite the problem being stated here.

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