One of the great mysteries of the world.....

[darthsidious]

Now, we see our fair share of dumb things on ATOT. Youtube comments take it to a new level altogether. Apart from the regular "this song is great", "this song is crap" fights, we have the "chain comments" (for lack of a better term) - the same as chain email, which threaten great harm to you if you don't post the comment again x number of times, or everlasting love if you do so.

My question is, why are there so many of them on youtube? There's very few other sites with comments/posts that I see such "chain comments" at. Does anyone have any idea of their origin? Or as to why people keep propagating this shit - you have to be a total retard to believe this crap, and continue posting it, and while I have a low opinion of the average person's intelligence, it can't be this low, can it?

 

[dighn]

Youtube is so popular and accessible that it's bound to attract a lot of clueless people. What I hate more are the long discussions that go on a tangent. I don't care about Bush or how bluray sucks... take it elsewhere damn it.

 

[FoBoT]

youtube sucks

 

[TehMac]

I know what you mean. I saw a movie about CoD4 on youtube. And some people were talking about whether or not the Iraq war is doing anything etc etc.

I mean the whole point of CoD4 is to be non political.

 

[George P Burdell]

No discussion is complete until xkcd puts out a comic about it:
http://xkcd.com/202/

 

[natto fire]

Originally posted by: George P Burdell
No discussion is complete until xkcd puts out a comic about it:
http://xkcd.com/202/

Hah, I loved that comic, but he forgot to add the part about how most comment sections get turned into racial debates as well.

As for the OP I have no idea why the genetic "bottom of the barrel" seem to use the comments of Youtube videos to communicate, but I do feel myself sink a bit if I read too many of them in one week...

 

[Aluvus]

Website comments create a self-reinforcing feedback mechanism. For instance:

1. User 1 posts a stupid comment.

2. User 2, about to post a comment, sees User 1's comment and (because he hasn't seen any/many others) assumes that it is "normal" for YouTube and therefore posts something similar.

3. User 3, about to post a comment, see both of the above comments and decides that his comment is too technical for YouTube's "normal" discussions.

Repeat infinitely.

YouTube has a large, broad demographic (which includes plenty of idiots to provide seeds of stupidity); lots of separate, splintered (one for each video) "discussions" (which means 1 or 2 idiots, esp. if they start arguing, can greatly color that "discussion"); and is constantly gaining new users (who have no previous experience with the site and assume whatever they see is normal behavior). Points 1 and 3 combine to produce lots of new users who are also idiots.

This is all aided by the lack of any real moderation force. YouTube rarely pulls comments just for being stupid/spam, and most video uploaders don't bother to police the comments on their videos (often having too many for that to be doable).

Basically, YouTube is the perfect storm of stupid comments.

 

[pyonir]

People read youtube comments? Wow...i'm not sure i ever have come to think of it...

 

[darthsidious]

Originally posted by: pyonir
People read youtube comments? Wow...i'm not sure i ever have come to think of it...

Well, sometimes I'm looking to just listen to a song. With all the crappy fan-made videos, I sometimes find it more amusing to read the youtube comments while listening to the song.