First of all, I was locked out of my original YouTube account, so I was forced to make another one, which at first I did not like at all. Right after making the new YouTube page, oddly enough I somehow got back into my old account. So here I have 2 accounts (which I grew to love, because one was the old version (which I REALLY loved and took A LOT of time tweeking and making it just so perfect). So, here I thought cool, I have an old version & a new one. Today, they changed my old version to the new one, which ruined everything I did. I am so PISSED! And I KNOW I'm not the only one. I been googling for 2 weeks now & reading pages of complaints. I DON'T KNOW HOW THEY CAN JUST CHANGE YOUR ACCOUNT WITHOUT GETTING THE USERS OPINION OR PERMISSION. THEY MAKE THE NEW PAGES USER UNFRIENDLY... Notice how they "hide" you videos and fav. to the side, so small. I hate it! Who wants to scroll up and down all the time. ALL THAT HARD WORK FOR NOTHING! This is what I am weary of whenever I join something, they always change it and it's all bullshit! I'm pretty done w/ this crap! I may be looking for a new place to upload my videos...
"Message from Youtube came in a POP Up window tonight. How fucking lovely! : Welcome to the new version of YouTube channels; we've redesigned them to make them more interesting to watch and more fun to customize. Check out our blog post for more information. You and your viewers can watch and browse all the videos you add to your channel (via uploads, favorites, and playlists) without leaving the channel. We've copied over most of the customization options you picked from your old channel, but you might need to tweak a few settings here and there (your backgrounds, colors, etc.) to get things looking stylish in the new design. —The YouTube Team"
HERE IS A MESSAGE I FOUND LAST WEEK AND IT SUMS IT ALL UP, I COULD HAVE WROTE THIS, this guy hits it on the nail. WORTH THE READ PEEPS!
Dear Everyone at YouTube,
The first rule of handling a potential Internet revolt (whether justified or not) is to respond FAST. Whenever criticism builds, respond loudly and clearly to your users that you're listening, interested, and willing to explore changes, and revolts will be quelled immediately. In my humble opinion you've done almost everything wrong here.
After 57 thousand angry comments on the blog, 9 thousand angry comments on the announcement video, dozens of "anti-beta" YouTube channels and online petitions against the change scattered all over the Internet, your response has been deafening silence, and the help page still promises a July 15th "forced migration" date. It's completely unapparent whether or not anybody at YouTube has noticed the commotion. So what happens?
The pitchforks are out, the voices are still getting louder and angrier and the ASCII art on the blog is getting bigger and more desperate. Some users commented they had flagged the video as "promotes hatred or violence", and it wasn't a joke. YouTube, I can't overstate how badly you've handled this. For such a huge site you ought to have something resembling a clue how to listen to and interact with your users!
The single thing you didn't do wrong is that you (apparently) haven't censored any criticism. Thank goodness, or everyone would have gone ballistic. You got that right by accident though, because actually it's completely typical for responses to the YouTube blogs to be ignored. Even if you respond now, damage has already been done. Users incensed by the lack of response have probably already gone to their forums and chatrooms all over the web and posted comments along the lines of "YouTube suck. They keep making stupid changes and don't listen to their users." Because as long as you aren't listening, we'll tell anyone who will.
This doesn't reflect well on Google either.
If there is ever a major revolt against a Google change like this, it looks like you/Google will be completely incapable of handling it. How can you expect to control a billion angry web surfers? While I do sort of look forward to the potential fun and chaos of a massive Internet-wide revolt against Google, I suggest you get a clue. YouTubers have raised big objections to the design of the new channels, aggrandized by the fact that social website users will generally resist and reject major change to their pages, whether they're improvements or not. It's like getting up and finding someone switched your car for a different (newer) model overnight, while losing your toolkit and personally chosen seat covers (analogy to the channel backgrounds, etc). You'd feel indignant, right?
Finally: I *HATE* the new channels. They're a functional and asthetic regression in almost every way. A few users prefer them, but because of the complaints almost no-one thinks the change should be forced like it is. You should help the angry users because their anger won't go away. It'll be hidden for a while, but it will come flooding back at a later date the next time there's a problem.
*sigh*
I have little hope that this will be read.
Signed, 20 year-old random YouTube video watcher.
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