YouTube Spam Policy

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Hamz

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#1  Edited By Hamz

Hello ladies & gentlemen.

The other moderators and myself have noticed a bit of a worrying increase in the number of spam topics that are being posted on our fine and fair forum each day. And judging by the sheer number of you flagging and reporting these topics we're not alone.

So we politely ask that those of you posting spam topics please cease and desist at once! :D

I'm going to elaborate a little more on this below but for clarity sake I'll say it right now, youtube is not outlawed here on Giant Bomb. The only reason it is being singled out in this sticky is because of just how popular an online service it is and how many of these 'lets post a random video I found' topics use videos from youtube.

So what exactly is the issue, who is to blame?

  • The biggest culprit for these spam topics we've noticed are what we have affectionately dubbed 'youtube spammers' who find a random youtube video, embed it into a topic and expect discussion to come from it. When they haven't even bothered to provide adequate original commentary to inspire productive discussion value to their topic.
  • Generally we consider a topic 'youtube spam' when it consists of an embedded video accompanied by a short comment along the lines of "LOL look what I found guyz, isn't this funny? HAHAHA!" or something similar.

Why is this a problem?

  • It clogs up the forum with unnecessary spam topics and creates an extra work load for the moderators when we have to continually lock or delete them. No productive discussion value comes from such topics if people don't put effort into trying to inspire a positive and good natured debate. And thus it simply becomes spam.
  • Simply put if you cannot be bothered to or are unable to put the effort into making your topic worthwhile discussing, why should you expect others to do it for you?

How do I know if the youtube video I want to make a topic about will be considered spam or not?

  • It really depends on two things - the content of the video, and the quality of the written commentary you intend to post with it.
  • Any and all content you post, upload or create on the site must always be within our rules and guidelines. These can be found within the forum rules topic.
  • Usually one or two well written and decent sized paragraphs to go along with the video should be enough for it to not be considered spam. If you feel you cannot write that reasonable and adequate amount of original commentary on the video to inspire discussion value in your topic, then chances are you shouldn't make the topic.
  • If you are an existing member of our community and put together a video about a game and attach it to the correct forum, this is probably fine to share as long as it doesn't get out of hand.

As usual feel free to continue flagging and reporting such content as and where you see it but please do not reply to these sort of topics as that only bumps them up the list and detracts from the more important topics in the list. Also please contact all the moderators by using the link provided below. Otherwise continue to be awesome Giant Bomb community, just please put a stop to the random and inane youtube video topics :)

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Scooper

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#2  Edited By Scooper

I've got a question relating to this. Say some of us in the GiantBomb SFIV community has a match with other people or prehaps goes to a tornyment and wants to show the community, is that ok? I feel it's a little different then other parts of the forum because there's usualy alot of good discussion in those threads and it's quite interesting. I can understand we don't need threads like "OMG look at this Daigo match whooping this Guile" because they really are boring and silly but watching fights and playlists between members of our community makes the Street Fighter IV forum special and alive. Some threads that have been made in that forum only have a couple lines explaining what the video is but still the thread becomes alive with good discussion.
 
I guess the answer is you've just got to have some commen sence and think about what's good and what's bad.

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eroticfishcake

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#3  Edited By eroticfishcake

Sounds reasonable enough. Glad to see this has been brought to attention. Although I don't have any problem with videos off YouTube or anything, most of the responses to these type of videos tend to be short and lacking in much conversational value.

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Fallen189

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#4  Edited By Fallen189

What do you expect when all anyone ever says is "Oh this is a troll thread, but I'm still going to tell people I think it is".

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citizenkane

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#5  Edited By citizenkane
@Scooper: Just make sure to describe your experience in the tournament/match with a friend and things like that.
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02sfraser

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#6  Edited By 02sfraser

Good shout. Youtube has a comment section if you want to discuss a video and plenty of forums backing it. Totally understandable

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sgjackson

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#7  Edited By sgjackson

Why not have a thread dedicated to posting youtube videos? I understand the rationale for not allowing each video its own thread, but if they're all in one place, they don't clog up the forums too much.

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citizenkane

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#8  Edited By citizenkane
@sgjackson: Having a thread dedicated to just YouTube videos doesn't negate the fact that users are still just spamming +1ing their post count posting those videos.  It would be the same as if we created a thread where you can just spam  chat room-esque messages to each other.
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Mushir

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#9  Edited By Mushir

Totally agree with this decision. The topics don't bring any kind of discussion to the forum. People just hate on the topic creator and eventually the topic gets locked.

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Pie

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#10  Edited By Pie

Pffffttttt, old video game trailers for the world!

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MeierTheRed

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#11  Edited By MeierTheRed

Good stuff

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sgjackson

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#12  Edited By sgjackson
@CitizenKane said:
" @sgjackson: Having a thread dedicated to just YouTube videos doesn't negate the fact that users are still just spamming +1ing their post count posting those videos.  It would be the same as if we created a thread where you can just spam  chat room-esque messages to each other. "
This makes me wonder why we have an immediately visible post count for users in the first place - all it does is facilitate the mindless dick waving you're talking about.
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DanielJW

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#13  Edited By DanielJW
@sgjackson said:
" @CitizenKane said:
" @sgjackson: Having a thread dedicated to just YouTube videos doesn't negate the fact that users are still just spamming +1ing their post count posting those videos.  It would be the same as if we created a thread where you can just spam  chat room-esque messages to each other. "
This makes me wonder why we have an immediately visible post count for users in the first place - all it does is facilitate the mindless dick waving you're talking about. "
I wave my dick with a great deal of thought, thank you very much. 
 
Nice to have a post up about this. I think this'll cut back on the Youtube spam, especially since newer members tend to skip over the Rules and FAQ. 
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Hamz

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#14  Edited By Hamz

I suppose it is worth mentioning this is not a new stance or policy we are enforcing here in this sticky. Simply things have gotten to a point we felt a more public reminder about this sort of thing was needed so the masses are educated on it :)
 
@sgjackson said:

" Why not have a thread dedicated to posting youtube videos? I understand the rationale for not allowing each video its own thread, but if they're all in one place, they don't clog up the forums too much. "
Just to add onto what CK mentioned. While I appreciate what you're trying to say with this idea and can confirm it is something we did discuss at one point. The main reason we've not done it or endorsed the idea is simply that a topic serving that purpose simply functions as a repository for youtube videos, something Youtube.com itself already does :P
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JJWeatherman

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#15  Edited By JJWeatherman

.... U-Toob.

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natetodamax

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#16  Edited By natetodamax

"U-Toob"? Really? I assume there wasn't enough room in the box to write out Youtube

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MetalGearSunny

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#17  Edited By MetalGearSunny

Thank you!! This needs to be stopped!

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Hamz

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#18  Edited By Hamz
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flaminghobo

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#19  Edited By flaminghobo

I fully support this decision.

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Evilsbane

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#20  Edited By Evilsbane
@Hamz: I think another point you should make is to NOT respond to these threads as this causes them to be brought to the top and take away more important threads.
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Rhaknar

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#21  Edited By Rhaknar

i wasn't aware of this problem, are these non-video game related youtube videos or something? or is it any video...say a new trailer comes out or something, people can't post it, is that it?

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Hamz

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#22  Edited By Hamz
@Evilsbane: I'll make a note and add that in there somewhere in a second, thanks for reminding me! :)
 
@Rhaknar: This is in relation to any material whether it is related to video games or not, although primarily most of the 'youtube spam' comes from non-video game related material as far as we've observed. Concessions may be made when it comes to trailers, especially if they are video game related, but we would still love to see people do more than the "DUDES! new trailer for game X which is highly anticipated!" type of comments. Perhaps go into a little detail as to what you feel the trailer did well at showing about the game / movie, your opinions etc in general over the game / movie after viewing the trailer. That sort of thing.
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bed

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#23  Edited By bed

good job putting this out there, as this has been a bit of a problem recently. 

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sparky_buzzsaw

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#24  Edited By sparky_buzzsaw

Nice.  Thank you for this.  It should make finding topics of note much less of a pain.
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VisariLoyalist

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#25  Edited By VisariLoyalist

meh, what should I care what people post.

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JJOR64

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#26  Edited By JJOR64

It's great that this was posted but, people will still do it I bet.  Either way, glad to see that something is being done about this issue.

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natetodamax

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#27  Edited By natetodamax

People are still doing it.
 
Jesus.

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damnboyadvance

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#28  Edited By damnboyadvance

Well it's a good thing that our community can be more serious and flag useless crap like this, as well as moderators that do their job. Hopefully, this will give us a better idea of what "youtube spam" is and will help cut down that spam quicker. Just too bad it's not going to stop, but hopefully this is a wake up call.

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Claude

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#29  Edited By Claude

But, I'm cool with putting a random video in a thread... right?
 
Like... Yip... I agree.
 
 

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deactivated-5c5cdba6e0b96

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I agree with all of this, there is way way to much youtube spam, the only spam from youtube that should be accepted on these forums is when I post the song "Why can't we be friends" because it needs to be posted atleast twice a week.

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gamefreak9

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#31  Edited By gamefreak9

LOL, look what i found guys!!! Isnt this funny? :P

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jakob187

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#32  Edited By jakob187

Do you guys have ANY idea just how badly I wanna post a random YouTube video right now and type "LULZ" under it?  LOL 
 
Anyways, it's a good reminder to have up.  Probably should've used "YouTube" in the title...because as I've learned, most people are stupid.  Either way, this is definitely something that needed to be reiterated. 
 
I'll make sure post 10,000 from me is a random YouTube video...just to milestone it.  = D

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Red12b

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#33  Edited By Red12b
@jakob187:
YES!
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Jesus

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#34  Edited By Jesus

Wow I guess I missed this thread... woops...
I call for a youtube forum... so all us youtubers can spam away

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OutOfBounds9000

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#35  Edited By OutOfBounds9000

 
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
 
The spam sucks,but i dont think its spam....

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gamer_152

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#36  Edited By gamer_152  Moderator

It's such a shame we've gotten to the point where there is so much rubbish turning up on the forums that the mods have to make a sticky topic about it. Still, it was a good call putting this out there and I agree completely with everything said. Keep up the good work guys.

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PufferFiz

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#37  Edited By PufferFiz

One thing I have noticed is that People just posting "read the sticky" is just as annoying and spam'y as topics with just a youtube video.  If the topics are such a big deal about raising post count. these thoughtless comments should be considered spam as well.

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apathylad

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#38  Edited By apathylad
@JJOR64 said:
" It's great that this was posted but, people will still do it I bet.  Either way, glad to see that something is being done about this issue. "
Why didn't I notice this thread before today? :(
Just to be on the safe side, I'll probably stop making threads whenever Yahtzee or the AVGN makes a new video. It's hard for me to say something about the videos when they're pretty self-explanatory.
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Jeust

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#39  Edited By Jeust

And i think this should have a bit more of thought. 
 
As there can be posts that only contain a video, but that video is interesting, and is debatable.  
 
People aren't omniscient enough to know where everything they care is.  
 
This forum should also be a place where people can find what matters to them. 
 
And what defines a good topic? 
 
A topic with a good number of responses? 
 
A topic that the original poster thinks that should get everyone's attention?

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JJOR64

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#40  Edited By JJOR64
@Apathylad: You can still post videos but, you just need to provide more commentary to go along with it.
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Jeust

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#41  Edited By Jeust
@JJOR64 said:
" @Apathylad: You can still post videos but, you just need to provide more commentary to go along with it. "
that will only give birth to threads where the users waste words not to get the topic canned... you know that don't you?
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apathylad

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#42  Edited By apathylad
@Jeust said:
" @JJOR64 said:
" @Apathylad: You can still post videos but, you just need to provide more commentary to go along with it. "
that will only give birth to threads where the users waste words not to get the topic canned... you know that don't you? "
That's my concern as well. I'm afraid I will need to write a formal essay in order to not get flagged by other users.
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Brendan

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#43  Edited By Brendan
@Apathylad said:
" @Jeust said:
" @JJOR64 said:
" @Apathylad: You can still post videos but, you just need to provide more commentary to go along with it. "
that will only give birth to threads where the users waste words not to get the topic canned... you know that don't you? "
That's my concern as well. I'm afraid I will need to write a formal essay in order to not get flagged by other users. "

It's actually not that hard to not get flagged, the only ones where I've seen it happen are exactly what the moderators talked about, mostly consisting of "lolz!" followed by meaningless quote trees.  If you can resist that urge, then you're probably fine.
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RHCPfan24

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#44  Edited By RHCPfan24

I really like this proposal; I hope everyone follows it but I am still seeing a few pop up here and there. Nonetheless, I appreciate the mods commitment to stopping this spam. It doesn't benefit any of us in the end.

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sjschmidt93

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#45  Edited By sjschmidt93

Yup. All we got is U-tube's these days.

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jakob187

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#46  Edited By jakob187
@Jesus said:

" Wow I guess I missed this thread... woops... I call for a youtube forum... so all us youtubers can spam away "

It's good that you actually read the rest of the thread, including the comment from Hamz himself...who happened to say that a YouTube forum would be pointless...as you'd basically just be doing what YouTube already does - showing a bunch of random ass videos for people to see. 
 
@Brendan said:
" @Apathylad said:
" @Jeust said:
" @JJOR64 said:
" @Apathylad: You can still post videos but, you just need to provide more commentary to go along with it. "
that will only give birth to threads where the users waste words not to get the topic canned... you know that don't you? "
That's my concern as well. I'm afraid I will need to write a formal essay in order to not get flagged by other users. "
It's actually not that hard to not get flagged, the only ones where I've seen it happen are exactly what the moderators talked about, mostly consisting of "lolz!" followed by meaningless quote trees.  If you can resist that urge, then you're probably fine. "
This.  If someone posts up a political video talking about rights or upcoming bill ideas, or if they are posting up a video review for another place that can drive some form of discussion, then that's not spam - that's the purpose of a forum being used. 
 
Maybe people are unaware of what a "forum" is because of places like 4chan and such, which have changed the meaning for some people. 
 
A forum is someplace people converse about topics and issues.  These recent video spams of "LOLZ WATCH THIS IT'S FUNNY" do not promote any form of discussion.  If we allowed that, then we would see no discussion on these forums and instead would just serve as a secondary hosting site for YouTube, which I don't think they honestly need. 
 
I can't say that we all provide the greatest of commentary in some of our discussions (sometimes only one sentence giving some attempt as sarcasm or wit), but those who frown upon the idea of cutting down the YouTube spam are simply willing to promote disorganization and a LACK of community...and that defeats the purpose of a forum entirely.
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sjschmidt93

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#47  Edited By sjschmidt93
This thread was locked by Kane because it was a "U-toob" spam. 
 
If there were no Youtube videos would it make it okay? I mean, they're basically listing guitar solos and linking them for convenience. So, with that logic should mods start locking any thread that have "favorite" in it? because all of those threads result in lists, whether or not there are videos linked in the thread solely depends on the topic, if it can be related to a video, then there's gonna be videos. That thread was not just a "HEY COOL GAMING WEBSITE I JUST JOINED, CHECK THIS OUT!!" thread.
 
I'm not trying to be an asshole just questioning the legal system, if you will. 
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JoelTGM

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#48  Edited By JoelTGM

I hope the mods use good judgment here, because not all video posts are spam.  A lot of the time it's just an informing and interesting video that raises some questions, just like when someone posts a link to an article or even a little tid-bit of news, those topics don't get locked, and noone ever even questions whether or not they are spam, but if a video is posted now everyone is paranoid.

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ZombiePie

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#49  Edited By ZombiePie
@SJSchmidt93: Any "What Have You Been Listening to?" style thread (whether it be in the form of videos or text) will be locked as they don't have any discussion value.
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Jesus

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#50  Edited By Jesus
@jakob187 said:
" @Jesus said:

" Wow I guess I missed this thread... woops... I call for a youtube forum... so all us youtubers can spam away "

It's good that you actually read the rest of the thread, including the comment from Hamz himself...who happened to say that a YouTube forum would be pointless...as you'd basically just be doing what YouTube already does - showing a bunch of random ass videos for people to see. 
 
@Brendan said:
" @Apathylad said:
" @Jeust said:
" @JJOR64 said:
" @Apathylad: You can still post videos but, you just need to provide more commentary to go along with it. "
that will only give birth to threads where the users waste words not to get the topic canned... you know that don't you? "
That's my concern as well. I'm afraid I will need to write a formal essay in order to not get flagged by other users. "
It's actually not that hard to not get flagged, the only ones where I've seen it happen are exactly what the moderators talked about, mostly consisting of "lolz!" followed by meaningless quote trees.  If you can resist that urge, then you're probably fine. "
This.  If someone posts up a political video talking about rights or upcoming bill ideas, or if they are posting up a video review for another place that can drive some form of discussion, then that's not spam - that's the purpose of a forum being used.  Maybe people are unaware of what a "forum" is because of places like 4chan and such, which have changed the meaning for some people.  A forum is someplace people converse about topics and issues.  These recent video spams of "LOLZ WATCH THIS IT'S FUNNY" do not promote any form of discussion.  If we allowed that, then we would see no discussion on these forums and instead would just serve as a secondary hosting site for YouTube, which I don't think they honestly need.  I can't say that we all provide the greatest of commentary in some of our discussions (sometimes only one sentence giving some attempt as sarcasm or wit), but those who frown upon the idea of cutting down the YouTube spam are simply willing to promote disorganization and a LACK of community...and that defeats the purpose of a forum entirely. "
It was a joke sir.