Google has been trying, sweetly, a little pathetically, and ultimately futilely, to clean up the inflamed boil that is YouTube commentary, by pleading with commenters to use real names when posting.
In late June Google introduced the first pleading nudge toward real name usage on YouTube, giving - not requiring, mind you - users the ability to use their Google+ profiles on their YouTube channels.
Here's a blueprint of the begging sequence, adapted from PCWorld's rendition.
(For some reason, Google didn't ask me to use my real name when I commented on an Eddie Izzard clip to test it all out):
- A YouTube user attempts to comment on a video.
- A box pops up asking that person to start using their full name.
- The person's name is taken from his/her Google+ account, since Google requires the real name of someone signing up for a Google+ account (unless you're a celebrity, that is).
- After the "start using your full name" box appears, users can refuse to start using their real names.
- If users refrain from using their full names, another pop-up asks them to justify the decision by selecting from choices that include:
- My channel is for show or character.
- My channel is for a music artist of group.
- My channel is for a product, business or organization.
- My channel is well-known for other reasons.
- My channel is for personal use, but I cannot use my real name.
- I'm not sure, I'll decide later.
According to people who find themselves on the receiving end of such a request, Google next offers to help users review their YouTube content before their full names are displayed and makes clear that they can switch back to usernames at any time.
After three weeks of this prodding, the verdict is in: YouTube comments are still a vile swamp.
Rather than replicate a string of comments that would demonstrate the persistently speaking-from-the-sphincter nature of a lot of YouTube commentary but which would also necessitate the overuse of asterisks to avoid profanity, I'll point you to a representative list compiled by Gizmodo's Leslie Horn.
The list shows that much of YouTube's commentary content, regardless of whether it's posted by people with real names or pseudonyms, remains, as Horn notes, racist, ignorant, creepy, underage, psychotic, incoherent, homophobic, and/or, to be euphemistic, sphincter-ish.
If there is one argument against real names requirements, it's that YouTube users such as the0nlyM3xicantSAG might not post entertaining commentary such as:
You seem like you have 3 brain cells; 2 of them are wrestling, and the other one's eating glue.
Of course, there's been ongoing debate about online anonymity ever since Google+ banned pseudonyms for everybody except Lady Gaga and 50 Cent.
Are real names really about promoting online civility and accountability, or is it more likely, as suggested by Next Media Animation in its YouTube clip about the Google+ nym wars, that real names are just a lot easier to sell to advertisers?
I sympathize with anybody who wants to elevate discourse above the Greater Internet F**kwad Theory, an equation that goes like this:
Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total F**wad.
But realistically, for many people, there are valid security reasons for not using real names.
A year ago, when Google first instituted its real-names policy for Google+, Kirrily "Skud" Robert collated a list of reasons why people prefer to use pseudonyms.
As of July 25, 2011, he had received over 100 reasons from people who had had their accounts suspended by Google for name-related reasons.
Here are some:
- "I do not feel safe using my real name online as I have had people track me down from my online presence and had coworkers invade my private life."
- "I’ve been stalked. I’m a rape survivor. I am a government employee that is prohibited from using my IRL."
- "I’ve been using this name for over 10 years in the 'hacking' community. There are a nontrivial amount of people who know me *only* by that name."
- "We get death threats at the blog, so while I’m not all that concerned with, you know, sane people finding me. I just don’t overly share information and use a pen name."
- "This identity was used to protect my real identity as I am gay and my family live in a small village where if it were openly known that their son was gay they would have problems."
- "I have privacy concerns for being stalked in the past. I’m not going to change my name for a Google+ page. The price I might pay isn’t worth it."
The profitability of selling real names to marketers doesn't even come close to outweighing the importance of anonymity to people like those in Skud's list.
Let's hope that Google learned a valuable lesson from the pushback it got over its real-name policy.
Let's hope it doesn't push past this current polite pleading with YouTube users.
Let's hope it never makes real names mandatory.
Let us know in the comments below whether Google's real-name plea has any sway on how you post online comments.
Follow @LisaVaasYouTube login image courtesy of Annette Shaff / Shutterstock.com
Hidden identity image, courtesy of Shutterstock
YouTube full name request image courtesy of YouTube blog
![Password security infomerical leaves Ellen DeGeneres in disbelief.. and it will you too [VIDEO]](http://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ellen-thumb.jpg?w=75&h=75&crop=1)
![Can multiple moving cursors really hide your password from spyware and peepers? [VIDEO]](http://sophosnews.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/cursors-thumb.jpg?w=75&h=75&crop=1)
I dont think making someone use their real name matters. You have their name; ok, then what? Are you going to send out the YouTube police to do what? There are thousands of websites that successfully control their user comments. Many of them physically monitor their sites, or ask other users to be moderators, to which they get some kind of reward for their time and effort.
What it boils down to is this, if YouTube is willing to put out the $$$$ to stop the horrid language, they could do it. Will they? I wouldnt hold my breath, until and unless a real competitor comes down the pike.
With a name and a picture, you can figure out someone's school, address, work place, contact information... thanks to Google Maps you can figure out where their house is and have a nice picture of it to boot. And it's EVERYONE. Everyone has access to that kind of information including a lot of really bad people on the internet.
If someone hated you and wanted to go to your house and rob everything you have or shoot you with a gun, the internet has all the information they need on a golden platter. If someone wants to harass you at work or at school, that's also available. If you're a minor attending school, some strange guy might show up one day to pick you up and say he's a friend of your parents.
If Youtube really wanted to curb bad language, they'd just make a filter. It wouldn't cost a lot of money and filters are very basic to make.
It's like everyone got a brain tumor all at once and forgot that there's plenty of reasons to not reveal all of your personal information on the internet.
Our real names are not necessary over the internet. The world isn't filled with good people, a hundred percent of the time. There have been people who have hunted down people over the internet, through even just a photo. Killed, assaulted, financially ruined, harassment.
There's another reason for pseudonyms (even if linked to real names): say your real name is John Smith. There are probably hundreds (if not thousands) of John Smiths on the 'net, but as pseudonyms generally have to be unique, you're more likely to find the John Smith you're looking for if you know he prefers to be called DragonsBreath online.
Added onto which, many people have online personas that are different from their real life selves, and may have different personas for different services, based on the profile of those they tend to interact with on the site. Just as Google+ recognises that people belong to multiple different social circles, and content that would be appropriate for one group to know may not be approrpiate for another; the concept also exists across the wider 'net: you may not necessarily want your colleagues to know where you've been on the 'net during your spare time; likewise, you may not want your social circles to what you do at work.
Pseudonyms are linked to real names. Where is the problem? You don't like it? Don't read it. Freedom of speech is good, and pseudonyms encourage the shy. By their words you will see them and by their actions you will know them. Nice system. Don't fix what ain't broke
Of course they could just make there comments work like the ones on this site. You know, how they annoyingly vanish into a magical realm and wait for moderator approval before showing up who knows when. I'm sure that will work great and encourage people to be nicer, or to just not bother commenting at all......
Given that anyone can set up an account using an email address and any first name and last name, how is Google to know what is real anyway?
Surely they should instead use their acknowledged intellect to apply profanity filters to comments, in conjunction with 'bleep' robots that regularly scour the comments for undesirable/unlawful content.
Forums and bulletin boards (remember them?) have always had some form of censorship - aka membership etiquette - so why shouldn't YouTube and other sites be the same.
It is all about selling real names to advertisers. Nothing more. A filter that rejects the whole post for just one attempted infraction would soon teach the teachable that only clean language works on that blog....duh!!! And who cares about the unteachable...do they have money to buy anything anyway?
I had to link my Google account to my YouTube account so I could get better integration on my Android tablet, but it still only displays my YouTube screename.
Why should displaying your "real name" be necessary for Google to sell your information to advertisers?
It isn't once the accounts are linked.
I suppose it is easier for Google to have a customer facing message about using your real name as opposed to just asking you to link the accounts so they can make money off of you.
People talk as if using "nyms" is new or that engaging in anonymous flame wars is new.
FidoNet (not the modern telco) which predated the public internet by at least a decade experienced the same debate and always opted for "let the community handle it" and was globally successful.
But even before electronic communications, there was and continues to be postal hate mail, anonymous threats and anonymous junk. Several times over the past years I've received completely unattributed post cards inveighing me to embrace Christ.
Banning user names is simply an invitation to mildly more complicated trickery to create fake electronic identities. It won't work and it does not good even if they somehow make it work.
The tone and tenor of a community reflects the norms of that community. If people wanted to stop the twats, they would gang up on them in concert and eventually the twats would go away. But if you have a community made up of bunch of twats, leave them doing what twats do and join or create your own community.
This from Google; a company that allows anyone to set up a gin-mill style webmail (it ain't Email), account using any name still available?!
[...]
If people are forced to use "real names" just how will that be enforced? Will the user (I'm not one) need to provide government issued documents, a photograph and a lawyer notarizing it?
Why not just get to it, embed those chips they have for babies and animals to effect recovery if lost, and they can just swipe their heads by a computer at any convenient 'head swiping outlet'.
It's getting crazy-stupid.
[...]
I prefer using a "handle" a term used originally when computer communications opened up. That was before the Internet and yes - there was life before the Internet. A handle, pseudonym, aka, screen name, or what ever it is being called this week, offers protection from stalkers, Trolls, cons, shysters, and snake oil salesmen... oh, and the neighbour, wife, parent, child, in-laws, out-laws and so on.
[Posted edited for length]
I see the worst comments on YouTube of ANYWHERE on the internet, as far as arbitrary malice, hatefulness and obscenity. I have a YouTube account. I set the comment option to "approve before displaying". Not a problem as I have received < 10 comments in two years. It is a concern for business "channels" though. They could screen comments. Or prune and delete objectionable ones periodically.
Why doesn't Google implement a basic NLP filter? Doesn't even need to be ReCAPTCHA. YouTube's user interface has never seemed all that robust to me. Google has been fussing with it a lot, recently. They need to figure out something that works, soon. Businesses, government, charity, schools, others, won't want to spend money to maintain a channel that has the feel of 4chan. Sometimes worse.
Yeah, not seeing any non-evil motive here.
Remember when Google used to say their motto was "don't be evil"? They appear to have sort of evolved past that.
What is the drama? If I don't want to give them my real name I will tell them it is John Smith. Are they going to ask for a passport or driver's licence to prove it?
I like my privacy and if they wan't my real name I will go elsewhere rather than get inundated by spam from advertisers.
Who cares anyway? Those who don't care and those that do will do what they want anyway. I have always figured what I say is written in stone and anyone who really wants to can find me, can, so I restrict what I say. If they think otherwise, they are very ignorant and/or foolish. What if I pick a name like Joe Dokes? Will Google know it's created? Where will you draw the line. And yes I believe that there are many that fit into the formula of "Average person + anon..." will still be around. Don't sweat the small stuff. IMHO.
This is against the brands who have youtube channels on youtube. They already have ny video production that are active and the NBA will not change to David Stern according to what Google things.
More accountability for less freedom of speech. I think I like it just the way it is. If I want people to know my real name I'll go out to the bar.
YouTube used to discourage the use of real names for users' protection. It's still good sense!
Anonymity is the only guarantee of the freedom of circulation of ideas. By forcing users to adopt a 'unifying' identity, it makes it easier for despots to identify and eliminate those that challenge them.
Two Thumbs Down to Youtube for pushing its Big Brother Scheme onto users.
Our society has been slipping towards fascism for the past 15 years. This is yet another proof we will soon have no freedoms left.
It's high time those in government started to represent us, The People and started to reign in the Mega Corporations who are intent on taking over the world.
YouTube asked me and I felt like I almost had no choice as my name on YouTube, Xane Corp. Productions, had to be changed apparently to my name, as out of their reasons they had on screen, none fit me and now I worry if it was a good idea since I still prefer calling myself Xane Corp. Productions;
THAT's another problem: Google should realize that people who felt forced to change were probably used to calling themselves their old username and/or their old videos said their username but then they changed it and then there's confusion in their fanbase/subscribers.
Also, I typically call myself "Xane M." at blogs and stuff, not the name you see at YouTube now.
Yet more evil marketing from that company that claims not to be. Google / YouTube really are bottom feeders.
PS: the "because I don't give my real name to spamming cretins" was mysteriously missing from the list of reasons I was presented with for choosing not to hand my personal details to Google / YouTube. An oversight, surely?
You already have control over comments. If you don't like them on your videos, shut them off. If you don't like just one, then delete it. Now as for videos that don't belong to you, those are easy to turn off as well. What you do is stop looking at those videos, then you won't have to keep bitching about what others have to say. Now I know, this only controls YOUR life, so all of you control freaks hell-bent on telling others what they can and can't look at, will probably not be satisfied with this, but hey, start your own video sharing website and you can control everything you want. Statists gonna state.
i absolutely wholeheartedly second that!!
I wholeheartedly support pseudonyms on the internet forever.
I wish Google would "get it." I wish they would allow them in Google+ and forget this nonsense in YouTube about real names as well.
I don't think that people behave any better using a real name versus a pseudonym, although I do think that YouTube attracts a lot of young viewers.
I think it has more to do with the demographics of a site and its commenters versus whether someone is anonymous or not.
As for me, I killed my Google Plus account and if Google keeps inflicting its invasive policies, I will kill my Google account altogether.
i'm reading this article (and others on the internet) and am just AMAZED at how so many people are willing to give up both their Securities & Liberties not for each other!
BUT FOR CONVENIENCE!
I'm sure Ben Franklin never saw this comming!
YOU ALL DESERVE WHATS COMMING TO YOU!
Now I beg anyone reading this watch Brazil (1985) before it's too late!
If your intelligent enough!
i detest the idea so much and am so infuriated by the invasive popup that i'm not even telling them what i want or don't want or why. i just kill the popup as many times as needed in order to view/comment/whatever.
bastards. my identity and my motivations are none of their goddamned business
It's NOTHING to do with cleaning up the comments - it's all about tracking you and selling the information they gather to marketers.
About the only thing google doesn't know about you already is your name and your exact address (thanks to your wifi SSID, if your street is in google street map, they know where you live to within a hundred yards or so). They track your ip address across any site that uses googlesyndication (which is a shed-load). Tie that in to your real name and it's a marketer's wet dream.
I close the window when the popup appears. Are they worried about having trouble finding or identifying me? My screen name is my initials and surname and searching on Google (yes!) by the screen name finds material on multiple sites related to... me and only me, so they can't say I'm hiding or aiming to deceive when in fact my screen name tracks me better than my "real" name. Idiots!
Now it seems Google has gone beyond being nice and you are no longer able to post comments on youtube. It automatically removes you from the video page and locks you onto the change your name page and you are stuck there until you kill the page and have to look for the video again...
i am using my real name on utube but google ask me to change it constantly and i cannot even post comment any more unless i change to a fake name i guess my last name is stranger but it is my real name however google do not accept it unfortunately it is not possible to contact google. my whole family was excluded from facebook for same reason
I've given up on YouTube over this stalkerish BS. Telling (not asking) someone to give you private information about themselves, then demanding a reason when they decline, then asking again and again and again for the exact same information that has been previously declined is stalking, plain and simple. Try asking any girl or guy that you work with for their home address and phone number. Then when they decline try doing it again every single time you interact with them. See how long you keep your job.
It's hard to believe that even the greedy cretinous morons that infect Google's marketing department believe this to be anything other than a fantastic way to alienate users. Great job with that whole "not being evil" thing, Google. YouTube is yet another great product you've ruined with your greed.
They had the best search engine. They should have just stayed with that.
I am always civil to people online. I regulate my own behavior. It's just a matter of feeling good about myself, for doing the right thing. And I don't welcome the quite rude and heavy-handed pressure from YouTube. I don't need the Google Thought Police telling me how to behave and making me wear a name tag!
Let's face facts: Google is in the business of gathering information ...on you and me and everybody else. I would even go so far as to say they are dangerous.
I will stop using youtube before I let them bully me into changing my username. I cannot believe the way they are being so freakin pushy about it. I just don't sign in now and all though my comments are only thank you for posting I just won't participate in the comments anymore