In case you hadn’t heard, more than a few YouTube users are stating that “it isn’t like it used to be” (more or less) and that the site is nothing but a big ball of boring. In addition to that, users of that site are abso-frickin’-lutely sick of the negativity that goes thru that place like a never-ending tidal wave; this means video-makers either “play it safe” with video content or just don’t post anymore.
I pondered this and came out with a well-thought-out pie chart showing what the content of YouTube is like.
As you can see, YouTube is overwhelmed with crap.
But maybe it’s the community that makes YouTube great? I don’t think so.
Here’s a screen shot I took of a random video comment section on YouTube. I blurred out the names (because I’m not about to make them “famous”, thank you very much.)
Bear in mind that other than the blur-outs, this is UNEDITED.
Want more proof? Check out Metafilter vs. YouTube and see for yourself.
YouTube is teeming with morons and people are abandoning it left and right (for good reason.)
It’s official: YouTube sucks.
But you probably already knew that.
Rich Menga is PCMech's video guy, an author and part-time host of PCMech LIVE.
Ded Ryzing said:
5/12/2008 10:32 am
Actually, you have accurately summed up not just YouTube, but almost EVERY popular social/new media/web 2.0/ site out there. User generated content is all well and good but the sad fact is most people aren’t that interesting and have nothing original to say.
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hitchface said:
5/12/2008 1:07 pm
Beyond having nothing original, I am almost (ALMOST) surprised at how negative people are. Can’t we all just get along?
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Z-lot said:
5/12/2008 3:28 pm
YouTube has always been like that, perhaps less so in the early days but now the moron stats and quits are kinda steady. I must give them a lot of credit.. they’ ve managed to run the show this long despite the fact that a vlogger revolt was constantly in the air. The biggest crack in the ceiling so far was probably LiveVideo’s arrival.
If nothing else, after you get bored of videos, switch to reading comments… their entertainment value can be substantial :>
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John said:
5/12/2008 11:56 pm
Why bother looking at the comments?
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Craig said:
5/13/2008 12:35 am
One fairly negative article relating all the bad aspects of YouTube
+
Three (thus far) replies to said article also with marginally negative slants/opinions on how horrid YouTube is becoming or already has become.
=
YouTube sans videos??
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Rich Menga reply on May 13, 2008 12:44 am:
Not quite. PCMech readers know how to write complete coherent sentences in the comment area.
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Craig reply on May 13, 2008 11:59 pm:
Point taken. That’s what separates the men from the boys - I’ll remember that.
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hitchface said:
5/13/2008 1:24 am
That and we aren’t all yelling at each other and having a massive flame-fest. Except on the DIY Mac article, where I got called stupid, when the comment could have been avoided. By the way, I was wrong in my opinions there. I hope that guy sees this. Consider my outmoded Macology rectified.
See? You don’t get apologies on Youtube.
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Ant said:
5/13/2008 10:43 am
One word: VideoSift.com
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Joe said:
5/13/2008 10:32 pm
Youtube is bad in every given way. It became so bad that I cancelled my Youtube account despite having about 50 favorites on it. Ratings would not save, comments (even single-word comments) would never post, and comments get deleted for no reason. It took me at least 18 months to get a comment to score a whopping +1, which occurred on a comment to a Super Bowl XLII video. That was a landmark achievement considering that the average score was about -4. (BTW, the current single-score record is +3.) Also, many videos would not stream properly and you would have to download them in order to watch them. I am now using Google Video to watch and upload videos.
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