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Oprah Admits YouTube Comments Are a Problem

Posted Nov 20, 2007 by Rich Menga  

Okay, I know what you’re saying. What am I doing talking about Oprah on a tech site?

Good question. I have a good answer.

Now in case you were living under a rock, Oprah now has a YouTube channel. What the YouTube community instantly discovered is that all comments on all videos were moderated - meaning in order for them even to appear, they must be approved first.

Granted, anyone can do this with their own YouTube channel, but what happened on Oprah’s YT channel is, shall we say.. interesting.

1. All comments were "negative’d" to death.

When videos were first posted to that channel, ALL comments had at least a -60 rating. I’m not kidding. Some went as high as -200 or more.

Those comments, while positive, had the negative numbers attached to them. And guess what - they’re gone.

2. The "channel manager" indirectly (but politely) admits the comments are a problem.

image

Here’s the above "note" translated:

"We hate comments and e-mails. If we had the ability, we’d squash every single one of you internet nerds out of existence. But we can’t because then we couldn’t say that we relate to the internet community. Send a comment or e-mail if you want, but If you so much as HINT that Oprah isn’t a god, it won’t be posted. So there. Now WHERE’S MY AFTERNOON MARTINI?!"

. . .

In all seriousness, you absolutely cannot apply broadcast television logic to internet video. I read "notes" like the above and laugh because the staff is more or less admitting that they hate internet commentary.

Can you imagine the kind of "hater" comments that go thru the Oprah channel inbox on a daily basis?

It boggles the mind.

To Oprah and staff: Welcome to the internet. Sucks to be you. And oh yeah, cut the corporate b.s. because we can all see right thru it.

Categories: PCMech Wire

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About the Author

Rich Menga is PCMech's video guy, an author and part-time host of PCMech LIVE.
Rich's Website

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