CBS vetting its comments on YouTube
Cory Bergman December 11th, 2006
I wondered how this would play out. Frequent YouTubers love to leave pithy, nasty comments on videos, which appear right underneath the clip. Across the board, these comments have been unmoderated (although filtered for spam). That is, until now. As part of CBS’ deal with YouTube, the comments on the network’s clips are not only moderated, but they now appear on a separate page to distance them from the clips (see this clip compared to this clip for an example). CBS Interactive chief Quincy Smith says they only remove comments that are “profane, unconstructive criticism,” and off-topic political vitriol. While I may be convinced that the vetting is OK — depending on how they define “unconstructive criticism” — the fact that they’ve moved the comments to another page only serves to limit the conversation.
25 Comments Add your own
1. Chris Brogan... | December 11th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Is it money changing the game? Is it pleasing a bigger network? Both? It’s interesting to consider. If you were a relationship manager at YouTube, you’d want CBS to be happy, because they’re paying. But if it’s done such that it makes the community feel twitchy, that might trump the “community” that CBS has bought into.
Great observation.
2. Walter Graff | December 12th, 2006 at 5:55 am
It was only a mater of time. While everyone talks of how YouTube helps these TV networks, one look at the comments and you’ll see that YouTubers consider it more a violation in having those videos on their beloved board in the first place. YouTube is about the strange, eerie, out of control, and sexually oriented in nature. Just take a look at a days biggest hits on YouTube and you’ll see the biggest videos are not network shows, but the quirky videos, videos where people get hurt, videos where celebrities make fools of themselves, and video that are everything but what conventional TV is about. While networks try to make these false claims that YouTube is helping their ratings, the reality is that YouTube is still about amateur video and always will be. That reality will eventually surface.
Walter Graff
3. Aristides | May 22nd, 2007 at 1:15 am
Nice
4. Ari | June 11th, 2007 at 12:33 am
Nice…
5. Crist | June 11th, 2007 at 12:34 am
Nice…
6. Costas | June 11th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
interesting
7. Iason | June 12th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Nice!
8. Panayiotis | June 13th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Nice
9. Georgios | June 13th, 2007 at 11:03 pm
Nice
10. Yiorgos | June 14th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Sorry
11. Alexios | June 17th, 2007 at 5:34 pm
Nice…
12. Michail | July 9th, 2007 at 6:07 am
Cool.
13. Argyros | July 9th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
Nice!
14. Moris | July 9th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Nice…
15. Zeus | July 10th, 2007 at 1:24 am
interesting
16. Sterghios | July 10th, 2007 at 10:52 am
interesting
17. Loukas | July 10th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
Nice!
18. Ivan | July 10th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Cool.
19. Stavros | July 10th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
Nice…
20. Grigoris | July 15th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
Nice!
21. Georghios | August 26th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Cool!
22. Orion | August 28th, 2007 at 10:33 am
Nice!
23. Apostolis | September 4th, 2007 at 7:38 am
Sorry
24. Alekos | September 6th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Nice!
25. Ratboy | January 19th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Wow, thanks for the excellent information!
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