# About Youtube



## Drakai (Nov 7, 2013)

As you may already know, Google has made some recent changes to Youtube's comment section. I find most of the changes unnecessary but one really really bothers me. The need to link your Youtube account with your Google+ account. For a while know Google has been trying to connect large sites together and make it's users use a single account on all of these sites. In the short run, this may sound useful but I believe in the long run, this will deprive internet from it's essence : freedom and anonimity. Perhaps I'm overthinking or being paranoid but this looks like the start of a more controlled and less free internet and I don't want that. Internet, for better or for worse, is the only place people can really free (of social norms, social pressure, and moral norms) and it should stay this way.

I'm not sure if it will help but there is a petition on change.org to revert it back to it's former system. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post links, but you can easily find it through a simple google search.


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## J-Sun (Nov 8, 2013)

Drakai said:


> ...this looks like the start of a more controlled and less free internet and I don't want that...



Start? 



Spoiler



Speaking of freedom, this "The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 7 characters." thing is annoying as hell.


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## hopewrites (Nov 8, 2013)

you can opt to retain your YouTube user name (it get's its own G+ page for comments to be posted on, but you can disable social sharing) 
I do have to select which name I want to watch YT under when I sign in, but other than that, I dont see much of a change.

I disagree with the premise that the internet is the only place that people can be free. Certainly we are not free from big brother here (NSA has shown that), and with new laws being written to combat cyberbullying the internet has been showen to NOT be some kind of no-mans-land where laws do not apply.

I'm all for freedom of expression. I'm all for enjoying the communities the internet provieds me access to, I absolutely love the way the communities can form here that span all sorts of borders. I personally feel that People connecting with People is what makes the world a better place to live in. 
So, dont get me wrong. I love the internet. I live here!

But I also understand the risks and responsibilities of living here.


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## Alex The G and T (Nov 8, 2013)

One can enjoy youtube content without actually signing up for an account.

It's quite painless, _assuming_ that one isn't interested in uploading anything... or contributing to any of the, mostly vacuous, comment threads.

@ J-sun.  Free speech is embodied in white text on a white background.   Solidarity, bro! Don't let The Man get away with putting a crippling limit on terseness!  Demand the right to be succinct!


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 8, 2013)

Drakai said:


> I believe in the long run, this will deprive internet from it's essence : freedom and anonimity.



There is very little that is anonymous about using any Google property. Google are obsessed with collecting as much data as they can on its users.

And there's nothing to stop someone signing up with multiple Google accounts if they want to separate their comments - ie, one account only for YouTube, etc.


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## Drakai (Nov 8, 2013)

I am aware that the internet is not a completely free environment however it's the place where people can be themselves the most without fear of being exposed, at least for me. And being traceless on the internet is much much easier than it is in the real world.

Yes NSA and all that things are a problem but there are a lot of ways to counteract them and some of those methods work wonders. However the important thing here is not making our accounts sepertate or anything. The important thing is that we let them know we care about the internet and the anonimity it provides us. It's called cyberworld for a reason, we can show them how feel about what they do with protests and such just like we could in the real world.


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## Glitch (Nov 8, 2013)

I would suspect Google's reason for doing this would be to artificially increase the size of it's social network (Google+). If they can make advertisers believe their network is larger than Facebook, then they would be looking for a bigger chunk of the advertising revenue.


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## Jo Zebedee (Nov 8, 2013)

Glitch said:


> I would suspect Google's reason for doing this would be to artificially increase the size of it's social network (Google+). If they can make advertisers believe their network is larger than Facebook, then they would be looking for a bigger chunk of the advertising revenue.



Pity I find it the most un-user friendly platform known to mankind, then. Or is that just me?


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## Abernovo (Nov 8, 2013)

I don't find it too bad in terms of usability, but it is a sterile platform. I like how you can get more info across than Twitter, but I still prefer Tweeting.


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## AMB (Nov 8, 2013)

I don't want a Google+ account. I want to choose which Google services I use, and be able to freely ignore the ones I don't. The more they connect things I don't want to the ones I do without an option to say "no, thank you", the less likely I am to use the rest. Since Google owns most of the internet, I think I'm going to have a problem in the near future.


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## Drakai (Nov 9, 2013)

@AMB
That's partly what I'm talking about. Internet should be kept free from corporate and political interests as much as possible or else it won't be any different than TV in the future.


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## Karn Maeshalanadae (Nov 9, 2013)

Drakai, let me tell you something here:


Google has been crapping over Youtube for years, and there is no force on Heaven, Hell, Earth, or Purgatory that will get them to change their policy. From removing relatively minor things like customization of one's channel site to the horrible, completely unnecessary Verify My Identity which requires free access to a phone-which I actually don't have-to create your own channel as it is, Youtube will never be what it was five, ten years ago.


The only reason I ever use Youtube anymore is to watch my favorite Let's Players, and the only reason they use Youtube, I suspect, is because of Google's Partnership program, which allows uploaders monetary gain by allowing advertisements before their videos begin.


Google is one of the largest corporations on Earth, and I believe, the largest Internet corporation. No petition or any other fancy little act will get them to revert their horrid, horrid changes on Youtube.


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## Glitch (Nov 9, 2013)

I stopped using google services quite a while ago. I found Bing was returning more relevant results and never went back.


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