We have all seen how comments on YouTube videos rate on the mental level of professional wrestler heckling. These keyboard warriors (we call them Trolls) type their harsh criticisms and fling shit from the safety of their quiet rooms and proudly feel superior for cutting down someone who frankly was braver than the troll because they took the chance to film themselves and post it online.
Well the masterminds behind Google (who we now find the Bible had a mistake, its not the meek, but the Google that shall inherit the earth) who now own YouTube (and your mom) have instituted a new feature they hope will curb the epidemic. You can now sample your comment as YouTUBE reads it back to you to make sure it doesn’t sound lame.
And webcomic artist and blogger XKCD.com might be the inspiration.
Wow. It seems someone at YouTUBE took this comic seriously and decided to add an “Audio Preview” feature. Now you can hear your comments read aloud to you.
As observed in the author’s blog, the feature will likely have two results. People trying the text to voice thing. And people who don’t get it and get mad that their witty verbal attack makes them sound like an idiot. There is even an addon for Firefox called Youtube Comment Snob that removes offending comments on Youtube pages so you can read the real ones and get past all the “FIRST” and other comments just intending emotional harm.
Comment trolls are a problem that many blogs and social networking sites have to deal with. The common rules of etiquette are thrown out the window. You have no accountability nor do you have to deal with repercussions. Fortunately we do not see much of this from the International Friends.
I thank you all for discussing cleanly even when we may sometimes vehemently disagree we can still be civil. Discussion is what makes the posts fun to write and engaging. You make this site better than we ever could on our own.
You truly are our International Friends.
We should do lunch.
Holy shit, i had no idea such a thing would be possible. To be realistic, i think the only thing that will happen is that Youtube becomes 20 times more addictive (certainly for me).
I’ve been using it to hear Conan quotes in a really polite voice.
“Contemplate this on the tree of woe”
@Rodney,
That’s the first thing I thought of when I read that too…What about Rodney? Well here’s a shout out to you my friend. As much a part of TMB as anyone else. Come on guys show some Rodney love.
I was making it say dirty things all day yesterday!
@Ryan… I am on the blog too yanno.
Just sayin.
But you don’t have to post the comment to hear it. You can sample and sample all day long.
Make it say penis.. a lot.
The only drawback I can see to this is that kids love giggling at computers saying nasty stuff. This might usher in a new era of audio-modified trolling where the comments are still retarded, but with a lot more f-words and boob references.
I think there are a few good reasons for why The Movie Blog has little problems with Trolls.
One of which is the people who run the site and post news stories are not morons. John manages to keep a cool tone on everything even when he will straight out call a commenter wrong, which is not always easy to do without saying “You are fucking stupid.”
Overall John and Doug are very likable people and for the most part, they fully show their personalities on the site and aren’t trying to hide behind anything.