IPFS News Link • Media: Internet
YouTube Fights Horrible Commenters by Naming Names
• http://www.wired.com, By Ryan TateYouTube’s move toward real names was foreshadowed last month, when a YouTube product lead told developers at the Google I/O conference that the video service was planning some unspecified changes to its commenting system, widely regarded as a Hellmouth of crude abuse. As we noted at the time, making commenters use their real names and Google+ accounts was the obvious first step toward bringing civility to YouTube, which Google is eager to polish into a venue more attractive to business owners, advertisers, and creative filmmakers.
A YouTube spokesperson declined to comment today on whether more changes are in store, but it’s easy to imagine that offering Google+ YouTube accounts is just a first step toward hiding, and eventually eliminating, comments from anonymous accounts. Such simple steps would do more to improve the perceived quality of YouTube content than any upgrade to surround sound or high-definition video.