YouTube set to change commenting, acknowledging ‘recent does not necessarily mean relevant’
YouTube has announced that it will change its comment system so that posts by the video’s creator, popular personalities and those in Google+ circles will be given more weight, rather than the most recent moments.
The change will also introduce new tools to help moderators to review comments before they’re posted, block certain words or save time by auto-approving comments from certain fans.
Explaining the change in a blog, Nundu Janakiram, product manager, and Yonatan Zunger, principal engineer at YouTube, said: “Let’s say you’re watching a video from Justin Timberlake. What type of video comment would be awesome to see: one from JT himself, one from people you care about who love the video... or one from just the last random person to stop by?
“When it comes to the conversations happening on YouTube, recent does not necessarily mean relevant. So, comments will soon become conversations that matter to you. In the coming months, comments from people you care about will rise up where you can see them, while new tools will help video creaters moderate conversations for welcome and unwelcome voices.”
Users will be able to start conversations which can be seen by everyone, or a select group, with replies threaded to allow users to follow conversations.
This announcement comes a week after YouTube revealed plans to allow users to watch videos offline on their mobiles.