CBS Hides Unconstructive YouTube Ruffians In The Closet
from the sanitize-the-planet dept
In their continuing effort to make copyright holders happy, YouTube has moved all comments for any CBS-owned video entry to their own page. The article gives the rather thin excuse that the move is being done in order to make it easier for the network to control “profane, unconstructive criticism” and “off-topic political vitriol.” However there’s no real technical specifics given to support this excuse, making it appear that CBS is simply looking to tuck the opinions of the unwashed masses out of sight. It appears to be an example of yet another traditional media company missing the point of the interactive web – namely the interactive part. Also how constructive or vitriolic a comment is can be subjective, and it will be interesting to see if pointing out how badly a CBS video sucks would fall under the former. This is just part of a larger effort to sanitize YouTube and eliminate any mention of huffing, lock picking, or other “troubling” content that made the predominantly vitriolic and unconstructive public head to YouTube in the first place.
Comments on “CBS Hides Unconstructive YouTube Ruffians In The Closet”
Without review by the public..
If you ignore your public, eventually your public will ignore you.
If CBS does not want the opinions of its viewers then its viewers will diminish. What does CBS air today anyway?
Oh yeah, I’m first.
Re: Without review by the public..
that’s a good point
http://www.house.gov
http://www.senate.gov
Life as a spectator
I can honestly say it’s fun watching google completely bungle this youtube thing.
Only because they never should have bought it… The First Mistake ™ of google was buying youtube.
Once you accept that as fact, the event is rather enjoyable to watch.
Re: Life as a spectator
Interesting perspective oh enlightened one.
Google is a powerhouse on the internet and you’re the genius consultant they’ve hired to help them build their strategy right?
Oh, wait…
In your not-so-humble opinion I would love to hear what makes you think you’ve got Google pegged as not having a clue or what they’ve done to bungle anything.
YouTube is still in it’s infancy and all this shit was happening BEFORE Google purchased it. Just because they haven’t been able to prevent the inevitable from occurring you piss on it like all the other enlightened-internet jackasses. And, just like the rest of em, apparently you fell asleep in your critical thinking class cause your insight is a few notches short of retarded.
Re: Re: Life as a spectator
Critical thinking eh?
Nice that you have to resort to personal insults when you disagree with someone’s opinion…. If that’s yoru idea of critical, HELL YEAH, I skipped that class.
Doesn't seem that bad
It’s bad because CBS is moderating the comments on their videos? Lots of websites & bloggers use comment moderation. And lots of sites are set up so that comments are viewed on a separate page than the main item. For example, you have to click through to the story on TechDirt to view comments.
Really, it’s almost like you’re looking for excuses to point out how CBS “doesn’t get it,” and they are falling short. If YouTube were to offer all publishers the option of moderating comments & putting them on a separate page, would that be so awful?
That isn't it
By moving the comments off of the main YouTube page they are hoping that negative comments won’t be seen by most people. Only those who care enough to comment will click over.
So yeah, they don’t ‘Get It’.
Hiding Opinions Doesn't Change Them
If I think your work sucks, just booting my opions onto another page doesn’t change them. I’ll still think it sucks, and so will many many others. Dissent is necessary in any discourse, but then again the push media folks really don’t see marketing as discourse at all, unless it’s a discourse between content providers and advertisers.
Why not have user comments attached to the top of TechDirt? Just keep the 5 most recent posts (on any topic) posted, so that way you’re not “hiding” the comments? I sure would enjoy this site a lot more if I saw several comments like “TechDirt is teh roxr” or “This site sucks!”
Honestly, there are millions of websites out there that consign comments to a second page, for many different reasons. To someone hold this up as an example of how Old Media doesn’t get it is just silly. CBS didn’t just post their videos on YouTube, they negotiated with YouTube for terms acceptable to them, and you’d be wise to do the same.
Did you know that when an ordinary user uploads anything (which they control the copyright for, naturally) that YouTube receives a non-exclusive license to re-sell that content in any form? Robert X. Cringely stated that’s why he’d be a fool to upload his video programs. Does he “not get it” because he doesn’t want to grant these rights to YouTube? I wonder if the kid who took video of the UCLA kid getting tasered would like to sell that video? He still can, of course, or any broadcast network or video producer could choose to pay YouTube instead of him for the rights. He may not care about the money, but if you have content that people are willing to pay for, I think it’s smart to ensure that you’re the one getting paid.
I’m way off the point here. Let me bring it back. YouTube has developed a model for presenting videos that is very popular, but they make accommodations to some publishers upon request. This includes higher quality, fewer copyright claims by YouTube, and page layout. Taking advantage of these accommodations doesn’t demonstrate that a company “doesn’t get it,” rather it shows that they want to enjoy some of the benefits of YouTube while retaining as much control over their work as possible. At the end of it, I doubt that CBS will lose one viewer because they’ve relegated comments to another page, so it’s hard for me to see how this hurts CBS.
You're nutz
Completely out of your freakin’ tree.
The article gives the rather thin excuse that the move is being done in order to make it easier for the network to control “profane, unconstructive criticism” and “off-topic political vitriol.” However there’s no real technical specifics given to support this excuse, making it appear that CBS is simply looking to tuck the opinions of the unwashed masses out of sight.
No specifics to support this excuse? Anecdotal, to be sure, but just browse through many of the Techdirt articles from days past and see how many of them turned into little flame wars between Republicows and Demorats, somehow turning discussions on wifi-spectrum into opportunties to discuss abortion or butterfly ballots with pregnant chads.
Sometimes the comments on the stories are useful, but there’s an awful lot of garbage on there too. Maybe this comment is garbage to a lot of people, too. LMAO.