Hi guys, as you know YouTube changed their commenting system a while back (16th Nov 2013) so I thought you might want to know how the new Google+ powered comments work.

Here are the main points:

A. LINKS IN COMMENTS
Using Google Search Engine, YouTube is currently indexing more and more websites and pages to their allowed links list. These 'safe links' have been specifically approved by YouTube and as such are the ONLY links that can be added to users comments and still be visible to others. This is being done in an effort to curb 'bad links' such as those involving spam, scams, adult and illegal content. The allowed links mainly comprise, but are not limited to, educational and informative sites such as wikipedia, harvard, cnn, amazon, bbc etc. More and more links from general sites such as xkcd, blackhatworld, soundcloud continue to be added to the allowed list, so if you have a website with good content, high traffic and good reputation it will eventually be added to the allowed links list. However, some links such as url shorteners (bitly, owly, tinyurl), links to YouTube videos (except the one being commented on), social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and adult or illegal websites are NOT permitted in the YouTube comments irrespective of their popularity.

NOTE: If a YouTube user posts a comment containing a link that is not in the allowed list, the comment is automatically ghosted, that is, it is made invisible to every YouTube user except for the commenter.

HOWEVER: The commenter ONLY, is permitted to leave a url shortener link e.g. a bit.ly link, and links to general websites that have not been added to the allowed links list by posting it in the REPLIES section of his or her OWN comment. (Adult and illegal sites do not apply)


B. TOP COMMENTS
1. Thumbs up and replies to users comments, whether genuine or artificial, SHALL NOT in any way affect a user's comment ranking. This was implemented in an effort to prevent the significant amount spamming of Top Comments by automated bots, manual spammers, scammers, self-advertisers and so on. (So DON'T waste your time trying to get your comment into Top Comments by using bots, manual replying or using thumbs up using proxies etc., etc.)

2. The ranking of YouTube top comments IS NOT affected by any of the following factors:
> How many views your YouTube channel has
> How many subscribers/subscriptions your YouTube channel has
> How many videos you have uploaded to your YouTube channel
> How many people you have or have you in Google+ circles
> How many +1s your Google+ profile/page has

3. The ranking of the Top Comments IS AFFECTED by the following factors:
> Google+ Quality Factor: The MAIN criteria used to determine which comments should go top on YouTube comments is the quality factor of
the commenter's Google+ account, which is determined by how often or how many times the user posts/ has posted on his/her Google+
profile/page, especially those posts which contain links to YouTube videos. NB: This excludes flagged Google+ accounts that have an irregular or
unusually large number of posts which indicates the account is being used for spamming activity. YouTube comments from Google+
accounts with a better quality factor are ranked higher in the Top Comments compared to others with a lower quality factor.

>YouTube Channel Age: Older YouTube channels have a better chance of being ranked as top comments compared to newly created channels. For example a comment that was made by a YouTube channel created in 2007 will obviously rank higher than one from a channel created in 2013. This is a sort of trust-system, where older YouTube channels are given more priority in ranking.

> Recency: On YouTube videos that are very popular and hence commented on frequently, the Top Comments are inevitably going to be
replaced by newer and fresher Top Comments. This usually happens after every 500 new comments. However, if a video rarely gets any
comments and the Top Comment was made by a Google+ account with a high quality factor, the top comment will remain relatively
unchanged for a long time

> Good standing: Comments from YouTube accounts that are not in a good standing for copyright infringement, community guidelines
strikes, and accounts whose comments are frequently flagged as spam automatically become ineligible for Top Comments for a period
of up to 6 months.

C. SPAM FIGHTING MEASURES
The former YouTube comments were a hotbed for spam and idiocy, something Google was painfully aware of. The new comment system will hopefully clean up the comments thanks to the stringent commenting rules YouTube has put in place:
1. Users can post a maximum of 10-20 comments on videos per day depending on the quality factor of the commenter's Google+ account. Any exceeding comments will be hidden from public view and cause the associated YouTube/Google+ account to be flagged.
2. Once an account is flagged by YouTube it is banned from commenting for up to 24 hours, during which any comments posted will be hidden from view (i.e. ghosted). The quality factor of an account is diminished significantly every time it gets flagged.
3. Once detected, any unoriginal or repetitive comments made by a YouTube/Google+ account will be hidden from public view and cause that account to be banned from posting visible comments for up to 24 hours. (This is why thousands of Bob comments disappeared from YouTube overnight)
4. Comments containing unapproved links will be hidden from public view (i.e. ghosted)


IMPORTANT
Before the new commenting system was rolled out on 16th November 2013, an analysis of all Google+ accounts was carried out to determine their quality factor. The next analysis will be carried out in phases between 3-6 months from now. This means that if you have a Google+ account, there is little you can do now to improve your quality factor until the next analysis is done. Worse still, if you created a new Google+ account after the change, your account automatically receives a quality factor of 0, meaning that its comments cannot be placed in the top comments section. However, you can try to improve your Google+ account’s quality factor by gradually commenting (relevant comments not spam) on videos (maximum 9-10 comments per day) and hopefully when the new the Google+ accounts are reassessed you ranking will be much better.

The one thing that I’ve observed to IMMEDIATELY boost your comment ranking is VERYFYING your YouTube account. This will help make your comments surface among the Top Comments more regularly. To do this, you need to log on to Your YouTube channel, click ‘YouTube settings ’ and then click on ‘View additional features ’ where you will see a Verify option that prompts you to enter your phone number so that your channel can be verified.

Hmmm... very interesting. So this is why 99% of spammers have disappeared from YouTube comments ay? Thanks YouTube! :)
I was sick and tired of reading those spammy top comments, "I earn $1,000 a day blablabla..."

@Natalie Simpson, do BlackHarWorld.com and Tommy Lawrence know that you stole his post from their forum and pasted it here?

PS - The disaster happened on 6 Nov, 2013, not 16 Nov...

Actually the post is accurate. Between 6th and 13th November, likes and replies affected the ranking of comments and ALL links were allowed, so spammers were more energetic.
Then the Top comments system was down between 14th and 16th. After 16th November this new and more intricate algorithm was implemented.

On Monday, December 16, 2013 2:52:08 PM UTC-5, Natalie Simpson wrote:

> C. SPAM FIGHTING MEASURES

Natalie
Could you please pass the next verbatim to the authors of this stupid shit:

YOU ARE ASSHOLES, TWATS, IDIOTS AND LAZY BITCHES

and sorry, if you, Natalie, one of them - amicus Plato, sed magis amica veritas

Price isn't worth it, the way they removed spammers was to reduce the quality of commenting to the point where you might as well remove it.   The only comments that will appear are agreement, innocuous, and pointless, and inoffensive.  Basically debate is gone, theres no point trying.  Comments have become window dressing, just for appearances, zero substance.  Sometimes you can't have the good without the bad, now its just an echo chamber for agreement. Its sad youtubes resorted to this.  I'd rather they'd be more honest about the situation and just remove comments all together if these are the measures they'll resort to.

Yep when they make ghosting a thing, it basically is a disincentive to spend any effort posting.  If theres a chance your time will be wasted, positive or negative posts just aren't worth the effort.  Its like writing an email that has a 50% chance of disappearing into the abyss, you'd just not bother anymore, and the people that would just aren't worth reading.

This move was a huge mistake by google, I know they think they hire the smartest people, but over and over it seems like they hire people who can't see past their own noses.

After reading all the comments regarding "ghosting" I have to add that somehow the entire practice is definitively unethical. It may not prevent speech, but it does limit and control it, and last I checked this is illegal? The most unethical part is that they are not required by law to notify the user they have been marked as spam, and essentially....silenced. It really is just like a communist approach to commenting. I can't take anything I read on YouTube seriously anymore now that I know how the system works. It's like the media saying that most of America supports gay marriage, when a "live" voting poll I took online last month said that only 19% of America did. You will get false impressions by reading YouTube comments. Seemingly, especially the "top comments".
YouTube used to be an outstanding place for adult conversation, debate and learning. Now it's another media outlet to control public opinion. Even if it means promoting a "top comment" LIE! We are losing our beautiful America to the politically correct Marxist mob. Does anyone else recall "sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you?" Today, they just don't let you speak if you repeat, or are not the popular kid.

Well said. If you go by youtube comments for many videos, you would get the impression that 90% of Americans are hardcore atheists and despise all religion, especially Christianity, are for open borders & against stopping illegal immigration, are gay or lesbian &/or support gay marriage, are for affirmative action, etc. I think that however people feel about these issues, pro or con, they would agree that in the "real world" there are alot more people against these things (I would say the majority of people are against them to one extent or another, though you wouldnt know that from watching mainstream media). I think what's called "social engineering" is going on at sites like Youtube & Yahoo Answers, which is basically intentional trolling with the intent to influence people by "consensus building." The idea is to convince people that a certain viewpoint is a majority, in order to get them to adopt it, or at least reconsider their own. Its also a form of psychological warfare, to try to get people who don't agree with the apparent consensus to feel isolated and disadvantaged. Advertisers, psychologists, and propaganda experts have used these techniques for decades. Now that the internet is the largest venue for communication, we are seeing these "persuasion" (aka brainwashing:-) techniques show up online. I think when people think about stuff like Youtube comments being manipulated, they think only in terms of spammers and people trying to sell things. But there are also political agendas & alot more to these things.

The idea that someone reconsidering an opinion is a bad thing... Wow.

Are you saying that people are entitled to their opinion, or that complete strangers have a right to change or hide your opinion? I hope not the later.

That was probably the best comment and rational explanation for the downfall and control of free speech on YouTube. Very insightful. I am going to make a blog about it I think, in an effort to raise public awareness.

...and don't start this blog on any G service - G were found to obstruct of speaking out any opinion which exposes their dishonesty and totalitarianism up to account suspension/permanent ban

You know, while you're at it, you should dabble in law, too.  Yeah, fuck the whole innocent until proven guilty thing.

my comments get on top of top comments every time I post, it has no thumb ups, and I have zero post on my google+ page.
and make newest comment on default. if someone's new comment is buried on second page of top comment ranking in default, then his comment will never get to see the light.

I agree that debate is fine, but to be fair, most YouTube commenters don't actually try to debate people, they just say "ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME IS A MORON!  I'M RIGHT AND YOU'RE WRONG!!!"  That isn't debating, that's being an asshole.  Other than that though, I do agree the new comments system is stupid.

This is terrible! This means that I have no chance to receive top comments (even if my comment is "good quality" and has been liked many times)and I will be ghosted (usually for no reason), which means that I'll lose a lot of work put into comments! At least alert us if we've been ghosted, which ruins the point of it, but doesn't totally confuse us! Also, your link whitelisting system is horrendous. It prevents us from sharing good links. You should at least use something like MyWot to rate links and determine whether they're safe. Wow. You people are RUINING YouTube!

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 3:49:41 PM UTC-7, TotallyOriginalName wrote:

I agree that debate is fine, but to be fair, most YouTube commenters don't actually try to debate people, they just say "ANYONE WHO DISAGREES WITH ME IS A MORON!  I'M RIGHT AND YOU'RE WRONG!!!"  That isn't debating, that's being an asshole.  Other than that though, I do agree the new comments system is stupid.

On Monday, December 16, 2013 1:15:49 PM UTC-8, anmoose wrote:

@Natalie Simpson, do BlackHarWorld.com and Tommy Lawrence know that you stole his post from their forum and pasted it here?

PS - The disaster happened on 6 Nov, 2013, not 16 Nov...

I'm fairly certain that Google has dealt with lawsuits in the past and those lawsuits revolved around their questionable behavior. It wouldn't shock me if someday someone stepped up and filed a lawsuit against that company for taking away peoples' rights to the freedom of speech on YouTube. If someone were to sue them and win the lawsuit then it would be the end of Google's world as they know it. I've decided to disable the "Discussion" section of my channel and to show my support for the freedom of speech through non-violent resistance. Now, if people had so many issues with trolls and spambots then they could just turn on the comment pending button and block and delete the nasty and spam-filled comments on their channels. That solution was so much simpler and better than what we have now. The solution that I'm referring to has always existed and it worked most of the time. I just hope that someday we can back to the way things used to be. There was a much simpler time when people could freely speak their minds on the internet. I miss those days. :(