YouTube started implementing a new comments system that links user accounts to their Google+ on November 6, but it has done little to prevent spammers. Rather, it has irked tens of thousands of YouTube users, who are now being forced to log in via their Google+ account to post a comment on YouTube, and a campaign to revert back to the old system has garnered more than 215,000 signatures.
The changes to the commenting system aimed to get rid of spam and favor comments from the user's friends and well-known personalities. Comments that produce meaningful discussions are also pushed up the comments thread.
"Since we launched the new comments experience on YouTube two weeks ago, we've received a lot of feedback from creators on the increase in comment spam. While the new system dealt with many spam issues that had plagued YouTube comments in the past, it also introduced new opportunities for abuse and shortly after the launch, we saw some users taking advantage of them," the YouTube Comments Team posted on the official YouTube Creators blog.
The team disclosed that it made certain updates to the system to help it recognize impersonation attempts, ASCII art, and address lengthy comments.
"We know the spam issues made it hard to use the new system at first, and we're excited to see more of you getting involved as we've fixed issues. New features like threaded conversations and formatted comments are coming to life, thanks to you and your fans," the article stated.
YouTube also plans to release tools to handle bulk moderation on the comments section of channels. It is also addressing the ranking system of comments.
The sentiments of YouTube users can be clearly seen on the official video "Meet the new YouTube comments," which now has more than 860,000 views, almost 30,000 comments, and over 54,000 thumbs down, compared to around 2,600 thumbs up.
A number of popular users of YouTube disabled their comments section when the new rule was implemented. Different brands have also voiced their concerns at not being able to properly moderate the comments that may hamper engagement with their followers.
While the new announcement of YouTube can be considered almost as an admission that the Google+ integration was a failure, the controversial change still stands.
