We talked about some of the problems hitting the Youtube comment system since Google forced its G+ integration on the user base, with Bob and his tank taking over most videos comment sections. However things have gotten worse since then, with swathes of ASCII art pornography being copy pasted across anything and everything. Youtube has now posted up a message addressing these issues.

“Since we launched the new comments experience on YouTube two weeks ago, we've received a lot of feedback from creators on the increase in comment spam,” reads the blog post. It goes on to say that while it believes the updated comment system fixed the old comment problems, it does nothing to address the new ones.

However, new updates to the comment sections have apparently improved the following:

• Better recognition of bad links and impersonation attempts
• Improved ASCII art detection
• Changing how long comments are displayed

Only time will tell whether the update can stop content like this, from being posted:

Much of these problems come from laxes Google actually made to previous Youtube security. Like removing the character limit (previously set at 500) and making it possible for links to be posted. As you might expect, those links now often lead to pornography or shock videos.

Moving forward, Youtube is pledging to add a bulk moderation feature, which has been heavily requested by content creators for some time. Comment ranking and moderation of old-style comments are also being worked on.

KitGuru Says: What has been your experience with the new comment system? Do you feel it helps or hinders the Youtube environment? The old one was hardly good, but is this one moving in the right direction?

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