Sad news Youtubers.....what little individuality there was will die soon.

[FelixDeCat]

What I have found appealing about Youtube since 2007 was the ability to present your personality. You could have a nice title, a fancy background. You could make videos. You could show people your favorites. You could show off all your subscribers (which was a great way to discover even more channels).

You could tell people about yourself and your philosophy. You even had comments from random people that might be left on your channel offering praise or scorn.

In early 2011 a lot of the customization features were ditched in favor of a uniform approach to channels that hid comments, removed custom frame colors, hid subscribers, etc, etc. The featured video tab was no longer enabled by default. Not everything was on one page anymore, you had to navigate to see anything.

Now there will be NONE of the above. Basically, what you see on the front page WILL BE your channel page! Thats right - when people click on your channel name they will be taken to their own front page with an area that will feature your videos (if you have any). If you are a full partner they will see your partner banner. Otherwise customization is dead for good. No more personality. No nothing. At all.

WHY? In the backwards and asinine belief that all desktops will disappear by late 2013 in favor of phones and tablets, the less that your mobile device has to render..the better.

Such garbage.

RIP Youtube. :thumbsdown:

 

[lxskllr]

Host your own videos. Put a teaser video on your Youtube page, and link to your own server where you have all the personality you want.

 

[xanis]

Host your own videos. Put a teaser video on your Youtube page, and link to your own server where you have all the personality you want.

Yep, this.

Also, less customization is better. I don't want to go to a channel page and feel like I've gone back to 2000 and stumbled on a MySpace page, which is often what happens when people can change backgrounds, colors, fonts, etc. You should be focusing on the content, not someone's half-assed page design. Good interfaces have consistency and familiarity, which is what YouTube seems to be shooting for.

 

[Anubis]

its your fault
you flagged to many videos for no reason

 

[Jeffg010]

Yep, this.

Also, less customization is better. I don't want to go to a channel page and feel like I've gone back to 2000 and stumbled on a MySpace page, which is often what happens when people can change backgrounds, colors, fonts, etc. You should be focusing on the content, not someone's half-assed page design. Good interfaces have consistency and familiarity, which is what YouTube seems to be shooting for.

This X 1000. This is why Myspace died because every time I'd click on a page it look like someone barfed on the page. There are a lot of idiots out there who have no clue how to make a nice looking web page. To much clutter is :thumbsdown:

 

[PottedMeat]

all i want are fast (reasonably) videos, no ads, a nice simple list of related videos on the right and comments on the bottom. and with firefox + adblocker that's what i get.

 

[Pulsar]

Yep, this.

Also, less customization is better. I don't want to go to a channel page and feel like I've gone back to 2000 and stumbled on a MySpace page, which is often what happens when people can change backgrounds, colors, fonts, etc. You should be focusing on the content, not someone's half-assed page design. Good interfaces have consistency and familiarity, which is what YouTube seems to be shooting for.

Always.

One of the reasons Google did so well (and now most have copied their layout) was because they did search. That's it. You go to google and you get an insanely low bandwidth page with a single text box and two buttons.

It's similar to Apple's "just works" ethos.

Having a completely uniform front end where every single youtube video looks the same makes usability from a non-youtube freak MUCH easier. Even now, it's a mess for people who use it occasionally. So many links, when all you really want to see is a single video.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Yep, this.

Also, less customization is better. I don't want to go to a channel page and feel like I've gone back to 2000 and stumbled on a MySpace page, which is often what happens when people can change backgrounds, colors, fonts, etc. You should be focusing on the content, not someone's half-assed page design. Good interfaces have consistency and familiarity, which is what YouTube seems to be shooting for.

Yeah, no.

When people watch videos they usually do so within the player page itself which is neutral no matter who uploaded the video. It is controlled by Youtube itself and cannot be modified, except for a tiny space used as an icon by the uploader. Whoop-de-do!

If you are subscribed to a channel, then you usually browse videos in your subscription manager which aggregates all new content from all subscribed channels for you and plays them in the standard neutral player page like it always has.

The only time you could see the fully customized settings was by visiting a persons page. Why do most people visit a person's page? To find out more about the uploader. To interact with the uploader (leave a channel comment or send a private message, etc).

Your myspace comparison is way off the mark and denotes someone who doesnt have a clue.

 

[Newbian]

Wait.... people go to a video hosting site to treat it like a social network?

I think you are doing something wrong.

 

[FelixDeCat]

Always.

One of the reasons Google did so well (and now most have copied their layout) was because they did search. That's it. You go to google and you get an insanely low bandwidth page with a single text box and two buttons.

It's similar to Apple's "just works" ethos.

Having a completely uniform front end where every single youtube video looks the same makes usability from a non-youtube freak MUCH easier. Even now, it's a mess for people who use it occasionally. So many links, when all you really want to see is a single video.

So many links? LOL! Do I have to make a video to show you how easy to it is to find anything on Youtube and find / play it usually on the FIRST page of results? Personal customization affects results in no way at all (unless the derp who uploaded it did it on purpose so NO ONE would find it!)

 

[FelixDeCat]

Wait.... people go to a video hosting site to treat it like a social network?

I think you are doing something wrong.

One network is like any other. Make a Youtube video of yourself and post it here. You will see a social network in action. :sneaky:

 

[Doppel]

This doesn't bug me as much as yt constantly asking me to use my real name on my yt account. I refuse this but it keeps asking and I bet soon I will be forced to at which point I will just have to setup a bogus gmail account to get around it.

 

[PottedMeat]

This doesn't bug me as much as yt constantly asking me to use my real name on my yt account. I refuse this but it keeps asking and I bet soon I will be forced to at which point I will just have to setup a bogus gmail account to get around it.

'damn facebook got all this info and more for free, maybe if we ask nice we can get it too!'

lol no.

 

[Anubis]

I will just have to setup a bogus gmail account to get around it.

i already did that

 

[lxskllr]

This doesn't bug me as much as yt constantly asking me to use my real name on my yt account. I refuse this but it keeps asking and I bet soon I will be forced to at which point I will just have to setup a bogus gmail account to get around it.

THIS! I just watched the Spiderman video, and had to login. I then had to caaaarefuuuully navigate the prompts so I didn't fuck myself, and click the wrong thing. Youtube is getting highly irritating.

 

[Doppel]

THIS! I just watched the Spiderman video, and had to login. I then had to caaaarefuuuully navigate the prompts so I didn't fuck myself, and click the wrong thing. Youtube is getting highly irritating.

Yeah a while back I created a yt account and then it integrated with my gmail and now it is like a constant stuggle for it to not use my real name. AND I appear 100% incapable of creating a new gmail account without verifying to a cell phone so I will probably need to borrow somebody else's phone lest it figure out eventually that the same phone number for two accounts is the same person.

 

[ImpulsE69]

The internet is getting highly annoying. They can't sell your info if the info is inaccurate. I rarely "browse" youtube. I go there through links for specific videos.

I wish they'd put all the fanmade trailers in their own group. So annoying.

As a self professed troller of youtube, not sure why you even care. Aren't you just there to police it?

 

[DirkGently1]

So let me get this right. YouTube channels are no longer going to look like an early teens MySpace page?

Good!

 

[Newbian]

Yeah a while back I created a yt account and then it integrated with my gmail and now it is like a constant stuggle for it to not use my real name. AND I appear 100% incapable of creating a new gmail account without verifying to a cell phone so I will probably need to borrow somebody else's phone lest it figure out eventually that the same phone number for two accounts is the same person.

That always makes me laugh them demanding it when all other free email services don't need it.

Thank god I made a account before they required it.

 

[Doppel]

That always makes me laugh them demanding it when all other free email services don't need it.

Thank god I made a account before they required it.

I just got around it. Used the voice call option instead of text and had it call a conference room phone I don't mind google havin my cell for password recovery but to watch YouTube vids and post comments I do not wan my name on there. I don't benefit from it at all. So now my new account is a 63 year old woman. F**king YouTube.

 

[PingSpike]

I like uniform pages. I don't want a different geocities face dump every time I click on a different video. I don't consider a channel or page or whatever a hang out spot, I consider it a container like a folder or maybe a garbage bin.

 

[darkewaffle]

Who cares. The only thing worth seeing on Youtube is the videos, not the frivolous garbage around it.

 

[FelixDeCat]

I like uniform pages. I don't want a different geocities face dump every time I click on a different video. I don't consider a channel or page or whatever a hang out spot, I consider it a container like a folder or maybe a garbage bin.

Its reading comments like this that make me weep for creativity on Youtube. Your only outlet now will be to make videos to express yourself. Time is limited and not everyone has time to watch your videos telling people what you think on a moment to moment basis. The same can be accomplished with a personal landing page that only needs to be accessed when you want to get a FEEL for persons mood, thoughts, opinions, personality, etc, etc, etc.

But please, do watch outdated videos from 2007. That will tell you everything you want to know about someone. :|

 

[Newbian]

I just got around it. Used the voice call option instead of text and had it call a conference room phone I don't mind google havin my cell for password recovery but to watch YouTube vids and post comments I do not wan my name on there. I don't benefit from it at all. So now my new account is a 63 year old woman. F**king YouTube.

You can change that by removing your youtube account from your gmail+ account and then you can use the youtube name again depending on what you made it originally.

But it will ask your full name again so they really do need to stop that crap.

 

[ImpulsE69]

What do I want to know about someone? I'm confused what you are going on about? My youtube browsing consists of clicking a link to a video that sounds interesting, then seeing the "similar content" videos until I finally end up on the wierd side of youtube.