Google, it's not without a reason that everyone in the world is pissed
off by your Google+ integration to YouTube comments. Good that you are aware that people are not happy, but unlike what you think is the reason of the unhappiness, spam and abuse are not the real issues. You have to realize that it is a reaction, not a cause of the problem! Your move to try to 'fix' those is just a way to curb those protests you are looking into.
The real issues are :
1) *Killing anonymity*: BAD BAD idea. Many people just don't want to let their friends and relatives know what are they commenting on. It's human. Tell me one successful commenting system which doesn't support anonymity. Know Quora? Disqus?
2) *Most Google+ comments ASK to watch the video*: by sharing the link, which we are already watching on the YouTube page itself. The comment "See this awesome video" does not make ANY sense. They shared it on their page. Leave it there. Do you understand the biggest spam now is not the abuses in protest, it's just those "Watch this video!!" comments? Come on Google! How could you miss that?
3) *Comments are now related to PEOPLE*: DRASTICALLY wrong. Comments should be related to the video, not people. Did you see the new comments at all? A celebrity shares a video link on her Google+ account publicly. Now those USELESS comments appear when I open the YouTube video to watch. All fans are commenting on how they love the celebrity, NONE of the comments are seriously written about the video, and those posts are shoved into my throat. You understand how big a flaw this is?
4) *Sorting 'top comments' is wrong again*: As in the above example, since that person is a celebrity, he gets the most top votes. Her comment is top not because it's a great comment. It's top because she is a celebrity, who did a few dumb movies, or twerked her ass recently.
The method of sorting by upvotes was good enough, if implemented correctly. Everyone knows you have been unable to sort YouTube comments correctly for all these years. Don't hide your inability to write a good algorithm for that in the veils of Google+ integration. Learn from this brilliant algorithm on how reddit sorts its comments if you want: http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html
Finally, fix the sorting, don't break YouTube comments just to make your Social website work.
The real issues are :
1) *Killing anonymity*: BAD BAD idea. Many people just don't want to let their friends and relatives know what are they commenting on. It's human. Tell me one successful commenting system which doesn't support anonymity. Know Quora? Disqus?
2) *Most Google+ comments ASK to watch the video*: by sharing the link, which we are already watching on the YouTube page itself. The comment "See this awesome video" does not make ANY sense. They shared it on their page. Leave it there. Do you understand the biggest spam now is not the abuses in protest, it's just those "Watch this video!!" comments? Come on Google! How could you miss that?
3) *Comments are now related to PEOPLE*: DRASTICALLY wrong. Comments should be related to the video, not people. Did you see the new comments at all? A celebrity shares a video link on her Google+ account publicly. Now those USELESS comments appear when I open the YouTube video to watch. All fans are commenting on how they love the celebrity, NONE of the comments are seriously written about the video, and those posts are shoved into my throat. You understand how big a flaw this is?
4) *Sorting 'top comments' is wrong again*: As in the above example, since that person is a celebrity, he gets the most top votes. Her comment is top not because it's a great comment. It's top because she is a celebrity, who did a few dumb movies, or twerked her ass recently.
The method of sorting by upvotes was good enough, if implemented correctly. Everyone knows you have been unable to sort YouTube comments correctly for all these years. Don't hide your inability to write a good algorithm for that in the veils of Google+ integration. Learn from this brilliant algorithm on how reddit sorts its comments if you want: http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html
Finally, fix the sorting, don't break YouTube comments just to make your Social website work.
