Youtube and ratings

Random thought.

Imagine angry shouting emanating from the bottom
of this image

Youtube has been quietly endeavoring over the past couple years to improve the quality of its comment sections by reorganizing how replies are seen by viewers. Uploader responded comments first, followed by highest rated, followed by the riff-raff beginning with the most recent.

Definitely an improvement from the wild west it used to be, but I think they can do two better.

Number 1 (since conversation strings have never worked properly anyway, so who cares about order really), give individual members the option to view comments sections from highest to lowest rated in the riff-raff section, rather than only by date+response. Don't make it default of course or a popularity contest will ensue, but having that option will decrease the number of viewers who are seeing knee-jerk replies in favor of thoughtful ones.

Number 2, and this will require some actual *gasp* honest-to-god programming so I won't hold my breath - weight the video uploader's vote higher than everyone else's. Significantly. As in, don't make it double or triple, make it a percentage. Count them as +20% or +30% of the total (don't listen to my numbers, I don't know how statistics work). This is THEIR video, and they should have the option to guide conversations and topics, and kill strings that get in the way. You could singlehandedly eradicate Random Religion Arguments under videos about pandas if you did this. It's a conveniently pre-limited power too, since it only works when an uploader is voting a comment under their own video, which makes it impossible to game the system in a significant way. Just make sure - and Youtube, I know you hate this shit but you have to do it - that you TELL PEOPLE YOU DID THIS if you do it. It can mean the difference between a championed change in policy and an obnoxious mutiny. But either way, it would ultimately be for the best if it was enacted.

All and all, it's number 2 I like the most. 1 is mostly superficial, and would change nothing for the majority of members. Both would help, though.