> It wasn't the best thing in the world but you could actually setup reply videos which made conversations possible.
I had completely forgotten about that system. I really enjoyed video replies. Not only did they foster discussion, it was a great way to learn, discover music, and the replies allowed a great collaborative humor to develop as well. I seem to remember that they were starting to become very spammy about the time they disappeared though.
>That was the best part of YT at least for vloggers even if they didn't like each other
I remember reading a scientific paper a while back that suggested social networks grew much better when they had [likes/eprops/upvotes/etc] than they did without, but allowing negative feedback (beyond comments) stifled growth. We naturally try to surround ourselves with like-minded individuals as well. Our natural tendencies coupled with incentive social networks have to censor information that we disagree with means we all live in bubbles where our ideas are rarely challenged.
The YouTube reply system made viewing content from the "other side" really easy. I'm pretty sure I watched more vlogs from people I disagree in a single month before that feature was taken away than I have in the entire time since, especially with the new changes to the "recommended videos". Which is a shame. It makes it much easier to demonize the other side.
As a side note, someone on Reddit made a snide joke about the Demosthenes/Locke story arc in Ender's Game and how unrealistic it was; the point being nobody gives a shit about two bloggers having a fight. That story arc might actually make sense on YouTube, given how much better we empathize with people in a video than we do with people who are hidden behind the written word.
Even without downvotes it's unsettling how much of an echo chamber my Facebook list has become. The only points on which I disagree with any significant number of my friends on are those aligned with the hard left (draw from that what inference you will) but talking to new people I meet out in the real world, I get a totally different picture of the what other people think.
Edit: The whole point about Demosthenes and Locke was that any sufficiently persuasive person could be widely influential in an anonymous online system. Putting it on YouTube with videos destroys a portion of the anonymity. Who would take Demosthenes seriously, knowing that he was a girl in her early teens?
I wasn't thinking of a video of an actual person, more of a visual representation of one. I remember a few of those older videos had people who always talked with masks on or something similar. Video is more compelling and easier to digest than mediums that only work via one sense at a time.
I had completely forgotten about that system. I really enjoyed video replies. Not only did they foster discussion, it was a great way to learn, discover music, and the replies allowed a great collaborative humor to develop as well. I seem to remember that they were starting to become very spammy about the time they disappeared though.
>That was the best part of YT at least for vloggers even if they didn't like each other
I remember reading a scientific paper a while back that suggested social networks grew much better when they had [likes/eprops/upvotes/etc] than they did without, but allowing negative feedback (beyond comments) stifled growth. We naturally try to surround ourselves with like-minded individuals as well. Our natural tendencies coupled with incentive social networks have to censor information that we disagree with means we all live in bubbles where our ideas are rarely challenged.
The YouTube reply system made viewing content from the "other side" really easy. I'm pretty sure I watched more vlogs from people I disagree in a single month before that feature was taken away than I have in the entire time since, especially with the new changes to the "recommended videos". Which is a shame. It makes it much easier to demonize the other side.
As a side note, someone on Reddit made a snide joke about the Demosthenes/Locke story arc in Ender's Game and how unrealistic it was; the point being nobody gives a shit about two bloggers having a fight. That story arc might actually make sense on YouTube, given how much better we empathize with people in a video than we do with people who are hidden behind the written word.