[WebPub] YouTube comment policy? - Stephanie's take

[Peter Pinch]

At the moment, my challenge is mostly around the "crass, defamatory, bullying" comments -- defining what crosses the line and developing a workflow to address them.

On the workflow side, YouTube offers some help, but not a lot. There's no way for users to flag offensive comments (just spam). And there's no way to delegate comment management. Only the main account holder can delete comments or ban users.

On the definition of offensive… well, we're having a meeting about that.

Perhaps I'll have something to share with the group in a few weeks.

- Peter, trying to find my Yammer account info

Peter Pinch |  Production Manager, OpenCourseWare
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
One Broadway, 8th Floor  |  Cambridge MA 02142
T  617.253.6256  |  C  617.652.0183




From: Stephanie Hatch <hatch_s at mit.edu<mailto:hatch_s at mit.edu>>
Date: Wednesday, October 3, 2012 12:37 PM
To: Peter Pinch <pdpinch at mit.edu<mailto:pdpinch at mit.edu>>
Cc: "social-media at mit.edu<mailto:social-media at mit.edu>" <social-media at mit.edu<mailto:social-media at mit.edu>>, webpub <webpub at mit.edu<mailto:webpub at mit.edu>>
Subject: Re: YouTube comment policy? - Stephanie's take

Peter (and anyone who manages a YouTube account),

I think this is a question that deservedly remains in reply-all mode, while other questions are posed to the groups but receive private answers. Many of you manage department YouTube accounts, however, so it makes sense. Feel free to also pose questions like this to the Yammer<http://yammer.com> group "MIT Social Media" (which has 184 members from the MIT community).

Leaving comments "on" for your YouTube page makes it more social. I recommend allowing others to start and continue discussions, which are provoked by the content within the video. This means ideas are flowing, opinions are being formed, and your content is causing people to feel safe expressing an idea, thought, or opinion, even if it's negative.

Then there are the crass, defamatory, bullying comments. I do think you should be moderating to some degree. Take enough time to click on "report" or "spam" next comments in these categories.

Apart from those sorts of comments, negative comments are usually a good thing, believe it or not. You want to spark discussion. You want it to be real. If you've got mixed feelings, read my blog post: http://mitsha.re/dndrule (and give a comment, negative or positive!).

- Stephanie

Stephanie Hatch
Social Media and Email Marketing Specialist
Office: E38-254  Phone: 617.258.9353 <http://web.mit.edu/cps/>
Instagram<http://statigr.am/mitpics> Twitter<http://twitter.com/hatchsteph>  Blog<http://mitsocialmedia.wordpress.com/>  Google+<http://gplus.to/stephaniehatch>  Email<mailto:hatch_s at mit.edu>

Communication Production Services<http://web.mit.edu/cps/>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<http://web.mit.edu>
Communications advising and strategy:
Web, print, branding, social media and email marketing



On Oct 3, 2012, at 12:17 PM, Kris Brewer wrote:

Hello,

Our default is comments on.  I can't give you an exact number but they can turn comments off on a per video basis.  Of our 9,651 public videos, 1,064 have comments turned off.

We're allowing comments on YouTube but as I mentioned before, not moderating.

Kris
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kris Brewer, JD
MIT TechTV Webmaster & Community Liaison
MIT Libraries: Specialized Content & Services
Academic Media Production Services
Distance Education & Streaming Operations
MIT Video Productions
http://techtv.mit.edu<http://techtv.mit.edu/>
brew at mit.edu<mailto:brew at mit.edu>
617-452-3157
http://connect.mit.edu/techtv




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).


----------------
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
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Kris Brewer, JD
MIT TechTV Webmaster & Community Liaison
MIT Libraries: Specialized Content & Services
Academic Media Production Services
Distance Education & Streaming Operations
MIT Video Productions
http://techtv.mit.edu<http://techtv.mit.edu/>
brew at mit.edu<mailto:brew at mit.edu>
617-452-3157
http://connect.mit.edu/techtv




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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