YouTube wants your help to moderate its site

[Shawn Knight]

Moderating comments on massive social networks like Twitter and YouTube may seem like a lost cause (and maybe it is), but some see it as a necessary evil. Given the sheer size of today’s top social destinations, effectively curbing bullies, trolls and spam simply isn’t feasible given the limited manpower on the payroll.

Efforts to do so up to this point haven’t exactly panned out and rather than stick its head in the sand and ignore the issue completely, YouTube is hoping to get some assistance from the community.

YouTube Heroes is described as a global community of volunteer contributors that will help create the best possible experience for everyone else. Heroes will be tasked with flagging inappropriate content, adding captions and subtitles to videos and sharing knowledge on YouTube’s forum.

Anyone (except for brands, organizations and businesses) in good standing can sign up to become a Hero. Participants will work their way up through five levels, earning points to unlock various perks and additional responsibilities along the way. Top-tier Heroes will get to help test out unreleased features, have the ability to contact YouTube staff directly and get to apply for the Heroes Summit (whatever that is).

While I applaud YouTube for continuing to address the issue, I’m not sure if this is the answer.

YouTube Heroes are essentially moderators without any true power as their flagged comments must first be approved by an actual YouTube employee. What’s more, the rewards – at least, at this point – don't seem all that enticing.

Do you think YouTube is on to something here or will this just be another failed attempt to fix a problem that’s simply never going to be rectifiable? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/66409-youtube-wants-help-moderate-site.html

 

[LiveResistance]

YouTube Heroes will probably end up turning into YouTube SJW. Anyone that post something that they disagree with gets flagged/censored/banned.

 

[oldikes]

This ALWAYS ends in tears. its hard enough to find people who wont delete posts or ban people because they disagree with them, this will kill youtube off even faster if it becomes widely adopted..

 

[cldmstrsn]

Anytime someone asks me to do something I say " 50 bucks."

 

[Evernessince]

Great now we have "heroes" who go around YouTube administering their own version of unique "justice". When has giving random untrained and unpaid people over the internet resulted in a positive outcome? Especially given the community of YouTube is anything but unified.

 

[Coodu]

Highly skeptical of this. It could work well but as others have mentioned, far too easy to have it abused. I'll just stick with my Hide YouTube Comments extension and move on..

 

[GreenArrow]

Its a nice experiment non the less

 

[davislane1]

YouTube is done. When media platforms start policing content they hemorrhage users. They have taken it a step further by glorifying the deed. This is seppuku.

Today, you can find all kinds of content on YouTube. Tomorrow, you will have little more than PewDiePie, prank channels, and the propaganda wing of the social justice left. YouTube will become the video equivalent of Tumblr.

The answer to Twitter is Gab.ai. The answer to YouTube will be something similar.

A very big website will experience this soon, as a matter of fact. The ball is already rolling.

 

[Matt12345170]

The answer to Twitter is Gab.ai. The answer to YouTube will be something similar.

I'm kind of suprised that Twitch hasn't already started to move into video hosting especially now that they are owned by Amazon, and google has challenged them - albeit not as successfully with their own live streaming.

 

[davislane1]

I'm kind of suprised that Twitch hasn't already started to move into video hosting especially now that they are owned by Amazon, and google has challenged them - albeit not as successfully with their own live streaming.

Amazon won't be the challenger. It is headed by the same type of people, albeit much more intelligent.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

I'm a Youtubber earning well on Youtube (more than $2000 a month).

I would ONLY help moderate comments if they PAY ME MORE FOR IT.

But this new move to "sanitize" and "censor" Youtube is the beginning of the end of free speech. Youtube and Facebook are basically controlled by the government law enforcement interests. They rely on Youtube and Facebook for access to our videos and pictures - which faces are identified in and cataloged.

It's so interesting how people actually believed there was a massive supercomputer controlled by the government storing everyone's info...when it turns out to be a chain of computers - and OURSELVES actively sending the government as much info as we can using smartphones. tagging our friends, updating their pictures, giving them our voice, thoughts...

 

[mantissteam]

Disgusting

 

[Matt12345170]

Amazon won't be the challenger. It is headed by the same type of people, albeit much more intelligent.

Not saying that they would be much better - but it seems like a natural extension for them.

 

[Uncle Al]

There are a FEW policies that are understandable ..... terrorism, bomb making, child porn ..... but tell me how this won't break down to two competitors trying to suppress the other? Perhaps they should start over and leave the old site up and call it "ThemTube" or for those of us in the South "Y'allTube"

 

[p51d007]

Yep, say bye-bye to youtube as we know it. The "moderators" will see themselves as the "thought police" and sensor everything that THEY disagree with. This won't end well for youtube.
Shoot, since the USA is about hand over control of the internet, ultimately to the UN, might as well have youtube let the UN have it, so it will die quicker.

 

[Nobina]

Remember the days when internet wasn't filled with stupid SJWs and every site wasn't politicized?

 

[Uncle Al]

Remember the days when internet wasn't filled with stupid SJWs and every site wasn't politicized?

Yep, that was just before WYSISYG when people had to understand a bit of code and be satisfied with plain old text ... and it was mostly university to university with very few "outsiders" on it ..... about 1984 or 85 if memory serves we correctly ...... Good to meet another dinosaur!!!

 

[Phr3d]

"YouTube Heroes are essentially moderators without any true power as their flagged comments must first be approved by an actual YouTube employee."

Not that several commenters above will read it here, either..

@Al, I'll offer that it didn't begin, very begin, to auger in until 1993, when AOL defined 'Internet' and 'You've Got Mail' invited a wholly new and unexpected client..

(oh, and Perfect new avatar, Occasionally (I.e., when it works) Ignored person..)

 

[Raoul Duke]

Making the consumer the unpaid worker so YouTube can keep the staff down.
Reminds me of the boom of the 'self-checkout' at my local supermarket

 

[Evernessince]

"YouTube Heroes are essentially moderators without any true power as their flagged comments must first be approved by an actual YouTube employee."

Not that several commenters above will read it here, either..

@Al, I'll offer that it didn't begin, very begin, to auger in until 1993, when AOL defined 'Internet' and 'You've Got Mail' invited a wholly new and unexpected client..

(oh, and Perfect new avatar, Occasionally (I.e., when it works) Ignored person..)

If YouTube was going to spend the time to reasonably consider each and everything their "heroes" do they would have subverted the original purpose, which is to save them money and not hire people.

Also keep in mind those are TechSpot's words, not YouTube's.