I'm a big fan of the greatest time-waster in the great time-wasting history of the internet. I've uploaded a few handsful of videos, mostly "production"-type videos I created with my wonderful and zany friends and family.
It's exciting to watch the number of views climb, and even more exciting to get positive ratings and comments. I never would have guessed that the clip of me at age five singing "Rubber Duckie" would be viewed a thousand times, but it's on track to hit that number very soon... maybe in a week or two. Many of you who are reading this have already seen it, but I'm going to put it here anyway, so maybe I can break the four-digit mark tomorrow.
It's fun when people say nice things about my videos. But sometimes YouTubers comment less favorably, and with the anonymity provided by the web, they can speak their minds without a second thought. That's what happened a few days ago, and it caused me a moment of cyber-angst.
I was happy to receive an e-mail notification alerting me that a user whose name I have already forgotten had commented on my video The Accusation. That video is a short film thingy I made back in 2002 or so. I'm still pretty proud of it.
I clicked the link to the comment, anticipating praise from a complete stranger. But instead of a gushing commendation, it was more of an honest critique. The user complimented the acting chops of my brother, but to describe the acting of my sister and my buddy Chris, he used a four-letter word I normally try to avoid. Then he summed up: "idea ok, delivery and editing poor."
So here's the thing. I don't mind his insulting my directing and editing skills, and I could even live with the criticism of Erin and Chris's acting, but what bothered me was his use of the s-word. It's not a word I would use in a comment or even in a video, and I didn't really want it there. My first instinct was to remove the comment.
Then I thought twice: By removing the comment, I'm removing his negative review of my video, which would sort of put me in the same category as the people who remove any negative comments, and I don't want to be That Guy. I wished, briefly, that there was a way to edit his comment without deleting, but that wouldn't work. If that were possible, people would go turning negative comments into positive ones left and right, and half of the site's users would be misquoted.
I ended up removing the comment, because it's only YouTube and who cares anyway? Still, I feel like I have some sort of ethical responsibility to acknowledge the criticism. Would it weird if I tried to track the guy down so I could send him a message saying, "Would you please dis me again, only this time keep it clean?"
Oh, and here's the video in question. Judge for yourself... or watch it for the eighth time.
Comments on this post are closed.
Comment by Matthew Posted on October 30, 2006 at 11:25 PM EST/EDT
Just remove it and don't worry about it. I'm pretty sure that when somebody writes a negative comment they rarely return to see how people have reacted. If they do return, then they are most likely trolling, which is all the more reason to remove their comment.
It'd be nice if YouTube would let you edit a comment (heck, Muujware does), but there's a danger in opening up a system to such edits. Still, they *could* allow edits as long as the comment was marked with something like "PrawnRR edited this comment on Oct. 30, 2006."
Luckily, most of the negative comments I've received on any of my videos were of pretty low quality. Then again, they're not as bad as some of the positive comments. I find it all very amusing, but then again they haven't crossed the line yet.
Comment by Erin Posted on October 31, 2006 at 1:05 AM EST/EDT
What did they say about my acting?! TELL ME THEIR USER NAME AND I WILL HUNT THEM DOWN AND HURT THEM UNTIL THEY WISH THEY WERE NEVER BORN! See...I'm a great actress!! But really...what did they say? I'm kind of hurt now.....my entire world has been shattered...all of my endless dreams about moving out to Hollywood done. How can I ever go on?! This is the end of the road...as I sit and taste my tears, salty like the ocean, I see my dreams fade like a sunset on the misty horizon. See...I just don't know where they're coming from....
Comment by Ryan Posted on October 31, 2006 at 9:18 AM EST/EDT
Matt: In my observation, most of the negative comments on YouTube are never more constructive or articulate than "That sux" or "FAKE!"
Erin: Considering that your dialogue in the video consists of two lines and some ad-libs to Chris amounting to "Shut up! Shut up!" I don't think the guy has seen enough of you to judge.
Comment by Matthew Posted on October 31, 2006 at 10:58 AM EST/EDT
Matt youre commit suxs u speling + punchuation is waye 2 gud u dont now how to right and dont go crie to momy, i now u just like theirtein. ALL COMPLETE SENTENCES 22222222222222!!!!!!!!! u piss me of so mutch i do this for real you just a amater give me u adress i com beet u up AND WAS WIT ALL THE PARRAGRAFS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???!!!???!. righting all on won lien si so mutch beter 4 all trust me
Comment by Ryan Posted on November 1, 2006 at 1:14 AM EST/EDT
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