[WebPub] YouTube comment policy?

[Chris Peterson @ MIT]

FWIW -

In admissions I think we always left comments opened.  But our viewership is relatively small on YouTube.

YouTube comments are notoriously the dregs of the universe. I myself have a special Safari extension which scrambles them all into nonsense so it hurts my brain less to see them.

I think either way is probably fine. If you disable comments then most people won't care (unless you post something stupid, in which case it may be read as self-protection; but then you did it to yourself by posting a stupid video). If you don't disable comments and something bad is posted, they are liable to chalk it up to horrifically stupid YouTube users, not you.

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On Oct 2, 2012, at 6:37 PM, "Peter Pinch" <pdpinch at MIT.EDU<mailto:pdpinch at MIT.EDU>> wrote:

Thanks Kris. Very helpful info.

Which is your default -- comments or no comments? Do you know how many users opt out?

I'd also be curious to know if you're allowing comments on your YouTube videos (I guess I could just look).


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I am mobile.

On Oct 2, 2012, at 4:55 PM, "Kris Brewer" <brew at mit.edu<mailto:brew at mit.edu>> wrote:

Hi Peter,

On TechTV, video uploaders have the choice to leave commenting on or turn it off.  They can also go in and moderate their comments themselves.

That being said, as the TechTV admin, I monitor all site comments daily to remove obvious spam comments and any obscenities to keep the site clean, but I don't sensor (that is left up to the owner of the video if they so choose).

Not sure if that helps for YouTube.  We do have a subset of our vids posted there but I haven't been diligent of monitoring the comments there.

Kris
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Kris Brewer, JD
MIT TechTV Webmaster & Community Liaison
MIT Libraries: Specialized Content & Services
Academic Media Production Services
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On Oct 2, 2012, at 4:46 PM, Peter Pinch <pdpinch at MIT.EDU<mailto:pdpinch at MIT.EDU>>
 wrote:

This may sound a little naïve, but OCW has been reminded recently (and
frequently) that posting videos on YouTube can generate a lot of offensive
and obnoxious comments.

As we've been struggling with how to balance audience engagement with
respect for MIT faculty and students (who are the targets of the
nastiness), I thought we should reach out to you all to see if there are
any policies and practices we can learn from.

Does anyone have a formal policy on comments (for YouTube or elsewhere?).
Is anyone dealing with a large volume of comments and have a good workflow
for dealing? Or do you just turn them off?

Thanks for you thoughts,
Peter Pinch
Production Manager, MIT OpenCourseWare


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