YouTube has always been infamous for the amount of useless comments that videos hosted on the site tend to generate (which is not unusual when it comes to user-generated services that appeal to a massive audience). But those with comment remorse now at least have the option of deleting their dumb and irrelevant responses in just a heartbeat.
YouTube users can now go back and delete any comment they have published in the past by clicking a new button that appears in the “Text Comments” section below the video. Unfortunately, you can only delete your own comments.
To all YouTube users who are reading: please schedule a couple of hours to do this. It will make the world a better place, just a little.
On a related note: Mahalo engineer Christopher Finke has created a Firefox extension called YouTube Comment Snob that filters out undesirable comments from YouTube comment threads.
Here’s to hoping the extension will soon prove obsolete.
(Cartoon from the awesome xkcd)
That’s genius. I’m bracing myself for a “I can’t believe I said that” moment.
And see also http://xkcd.com/481
What’s really funny about this cartoon is that YouTube actually implemented an “audio preview” feature based on it.
http://blag.xkc...-audio-preview/
It’s nice that can delete stupid stuff but be forewarned: Social media monitoring applications like ours are based on a massive database of conversations that we collect constantly (we have over 1.2 billion so far) including YouTube comments and Tweets that we gather in real time- so those public statements you’ve made are still in our social media warehouse even if you delete them. It’s important to keep in mind that this is public discourse!
ohhh, look at you, spamming attention whoring wretch!!
piss off!
Good point. Nothing is ever really erased. However, I think ur boss has better things to do than to see what kind of msg ur posting on random vids. Just keep it clean, ppl : )
I foresee a bunch of QFT posts :/
I personally agree with the ability to delete previously left messages, but I think people should be held accountable to an extent. You should have the ability to delete a message within, let’s say, 24, 48 or 72 hours. After that it should make the comment permanent. If you let people remove messages at the easily then they will be more likely to leave inappropriate messages.
Ahh no way, I think this is a terrible idea. Now when people get shamed publicly for being an idiot or saying something about another YouTuber they can simply delete + deny it. You should be able to delete your comments within 10minutes, or maybe a day, but otherwise they should be cast into the YouTube archives to eternity.
i an argument with the CEO of mixng.com Justin Coleman about this. I said to him that people should be allowed to change to grow. We all say stupid things when emotion gets the best of us that we regret later… he wanted to lock in user comments…I said people should be allowed to delete their idiot moments because one stupid comment should not cost someone a job..their future should it..
Now if Tech Crunch would only let you delete your comments…
I didn’t think “regret” and “anonymity” went together… Trolls with a conscience? Say it isn’t so…
Thanks YouTube-Google!
It’s kind of a moot point isn’t it? Somewhere someone has your comments in a database and they are selling access to it. That’s just the way it is whether we like it or not.
HR people routinely Google people during the hiring process. Now they will be routinely checking you out in social media.
Who the hell is going to buy somebody’s YouTube comments?
I agree I think old, regretful comments are a huge liability for people but that just means people need to be more careful.
When can I erase my stupid techcrunch comments?
For those of you who decided it would be great to make fun of my 5-year old’s soccer video, here’s your chance to clean up your act.
But what will the Onion do for material?
http://www.theo...post_comment_on
Is this article really worth your time and our time to read it?
Ha! Too late!
This will be great for promotions: Post a limited-time comment with a promo code. Tell everyone to find your video with the special comment on it for a prize. And yank the comment after 10 minutes.
-andrew
(full disclosure: I worked on the YouTube Handbook)
“Unfortunately, you can only delete your own comments. ”
Best line in the post!
I think my “trolls with a conscience” comment got deleted… lol
Ridiculous YouTube comments add an invaluable dimension to the videos. For many, its the only that makes them interesting. One of my personal favorites is this thread on a pretty mediocre Steve Prefontaine parody video:
http://www.yout...p;v=e9H6444oX9k
great stuff
Hmmm. I wonder how they handle things when you are the original poster to a hierarchical thread. If you can only delete your own, what happens to the comments that apply to yours? Do they also get deleted, or do they remain dangling and potentially nonsensical as they are no longer associated with the original post? In this case, I hope they disable the delete button. Hmm, let me see…
Uh oh! That’s unfortunate… it looks like delete is enabled for the lead in a thread. I’d like to test this and see what ultimately happens, but I don’t want to offend anyone who might’ve responded to my comments.
Anyone willing to test this and post your results back? If so, simply find one of your comments where SOMEONE ELSE responded to it and delete it. Preferably, it would be one where there are multiple respondents and multiple levels. If it only deletes yours then I guess that won’t be so bad, but it will leave the others dangling without a subject. If it deletes the entire hierarchy that would not be cool.
I’d say that “delete” enabled on any comment that has a responding comment is a no no. There’s just no way to handle it properly — delete the entire thread or leave responders dangling. Neither is a workable implementation.
Thank God!
I can finally erase my excited predictions about Doc being the fifth cylon!
they need some moderators to delete flaming comments , not only by commenters
Reading stupid comments that make me laugh is one of the reasons which make Youtube great. Who wants to only read complimentary comments all the time? I say leave all the stupid comments as they are.
cool i wanna delete all these dumb comments.
better yet, I use greasemonkey script to hide the yt comments.
This cartoon is so wonderful, so spot-on true.
I cannot overemphasize how relieved I am at the blog post too. I always thought I was the only one who feels like crying about humankind when I read the YouTube comments. Extremely dumb, and extremely nasty.
This is sad news. YouTube has some of the funniest comments on the internets.
does it delete it from the maker of the movies account so they can’t see it too???
Ha! Look at second last comment, Louis Armstrong!
xcd comics are for furries, which needs to die.
Also, why do yo need my email? I
m just going to type crap, here’s my email that I put “jskldcklj@itsthesupertoiletjam5834293580.gov”
The comments are the best bit about youtube, they are brilliant, why would you not want them?
I like very much the writings and pictures and explanations in your adress so I look forward to see your next writings.
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