Poll: So, let's vent about Youtube a bit.

[yamy]

Just two things for me:

1. Stupid layout. I get having a clean aesthics but having 1/3 of the screen blank is just stupid. More so if you have to make people click to expand the list of playlists on the homepage when there's nothing stopping it from filling the whole page.

2. Loading stutter. I've been getting this stutter for weeks now where the frame rate of the first 30 seconds stutters really bad. My system hadn't changed so it must be youtube messing their engine up.

 

[Goofguy]

I haven't been having too many technical issues so I don't get upset about that. I just immensely dislike the community. The comment section on pretty much all videos is a hive of scum and villainy full of attention whores, trolls and aggressive agenda pushers.

 

[Angie7F]

I hate the ads. Why do I have to be forced to watch ads.
At least show me ads that match my needs, not some random schooling program for little kids.
i hate kids!

 

[Leemaster777]

My only real complaint with Youtube right now is purely technical in nature, but it's pissing me off to no end.

When I fullscreen the video, it doesn't actually fullscreen. The video just sort of goes into the corner of the screen without actually taking up the whole screen (leaving the border either black, white, or just showing the page where the video isn't shown).

Weirdly, this only seems to happen when I use Youtube on Google Chrome. I tried it on Internet Explorer, and it was fine. I can't find any solution to this, and it's really beginning to annoy me.

 

[Rossmallo]

The massive buffering speed drops are extremely annoying, and the constant changing of the layout really gets to me too.

 

[FamoFunk]

I've just logged onto desktop YouTube for the first time in a long-ass time. I agree, the layout is horrific and I'm one for never caring about new changes like that.

It also tried to changed my username to my real name (to do with linking it all up with my G+ account) I don't want to do that, I want to keep my username. It's let me keep it... for now. I don't like how people's comments are with their name, not usernames any more.

 

[anthony87]

For the past month and a half I've just been having random videos not buffer at all. I'll get the first few seconds and then it'll stop, I'll wait five minutes and still nothing. I click further on the timeline, nothing happens. I refresh the page over and over again, nothing happens.

Also has it been really slow loading up the comments and sidebar thumbnails for anyone else? I'll click on a video and it'll take a good 20-30 seconds for the rest of the page to actually show up.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I really don't have problems like other people are pointing out except:

It also tried to changed my username to my real name (to do with linking it all up with my G+ account) I don't want to do that, I want to keep my username. It's let me keep it... for now. I don't like how people's comments are with their name, not usernames any more.

It does the same to me just about every time I want to comment on a video. Except that it asks me if I want to link it with my real name on my Facebook account.

After I find the way to say no, because it doesn't directly let me say no, I can comment, and it doesn't ask again for another few comments, but then it will start again by asking me if I want to use my real name, because it says it is easier and all.

I would tell them, "You know what is easier!? Just letting me comment and be done with it!"

 

[Ironside]

I dont particularly like their new channel layout thing which I assume will eventually become mandatory and stop everyone having custom backgrounds. I used to like seeing all the different backgrounds that my favourite channels came up with, but it looks like with their push for more mobile is going to lead to it being limited to just that stupid bar at the top. (also dont like how the videos are layed out on channels in the new layout.)

On the technical side of things I havent had too many problems though - it slows down occassionally, but I just put that down to them doing upgrades or some such thing. I am actually very surprised that they have managed to keep the site running with so few problems for so long considering that there are over 9 years worth of video footage uploaded every day.

 

[rofltehcat]

I don't like youtube much anymore since they switched to "you may only buffer one minute"... I got pretty slow internet sometimes and would like to buffer the whole vid, preferably even throttled so I can play without high ping at the same time

The latter part is probably just wishing, but limiting it to 1 min was really unnecessary.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

I hate the ads. Why do I have to be forced to watch ads.
At least show me ads that match my needs, not some random schooling program for little kids.
i hate kids!

You probably already know this and you were being sarcastic about asking, but you have to watch ads because they fund the site and help the people making the content make money so that they can keep making the free content that you are watching.

Have you noticed how some of those gaming youtubers seem to have loads of time to make gaming videos and pretty much do what they want. Well it is because some of the more and greater successful youtubers are making enough money off of youtube partnerships from ad revenue that they can quit their day jobs and just make a career out of making videos and doing whatever else they want in their free time. From what I've seen of some gaming youtubers that quickly gained fame and followers, if a person is able to hit a good line of viewers and fans quickly, it will only take about two years to be totally dependent just off of youtube videos if they continually work at it and make regular content(two or three videos a week are all that is needed really).

 

[Tayh]

For those suffering buffering woes, try to set your local storage to unlimited:
Right-click on video -> settings -> Adobe Flash Player Settings - Set slider to unlimited.

 

[Hargrimm]

I hate the new layout, especially the one for channels. Took me weeks to finally realize where they put the playlists. Not on the top next to the button for videos, but on the very bottom of the page, under all the displayed videos. WHY?

As for technical problems, I installed an extension called SmartVideo for youtube to help me with that.
It doesn't solve the problem with audio or the video itself cutting off, but at least it ensures that it buffers when paused and remembers my settings for the quality.

 

[rofltehcat]

For those suffering buffering woes, try to set your local storage to unlimited:
Right-click on video -> settings -> Adobe Flash Player Settings - Set slider to unlimited.

Seems to work. Thanks a lot!

 

[Headsprouter]

I've been watching videos on my iPod recently, I don't know whether it's the iPod itself or just YouTube but it seems to pick and choose whether it wants to play the video in 180p or standard resolution. It's annoying.
I've been having the mute problem, too, and sometimes the video doesn't even show up and I just get audio! Damn, it's moody. I kind of wish YouTube wasn't owned by google. Purely for me getting increasingly worried about google's quest for world domination.

Oh, and never put the word "bacon" in a poll. The Escapist really likes bacon.

 

[Yopaz]

Adding to the list of technical problems with Youtube, sometimes when loading a video it will instead give me a version of the video with reduced duration. Example: if I click on a 5 minute video it might give me a 20 second copy of that video which only plays the first 20 seconds of it. The page has to be refreshed a few times until you can watch the damn video.

... not to mention the design and look of the site has been getting worse and worse.

I have to agree with this, its not just whining about change either, the site has objectively become worse to navigate.

It hasn't been getting objectively worse. I actually thought the last layout change was an improvement so this is still very subjective.

OT: I don't like how the loading seems so very random. I can watch a few videos and have no issues loading them, but then one video wont load at all. Now I have a pretty good connection so that shouldn't be an issue.

I get really annoyed at them trying to make me use my own name. No means no, not "No, but bug me about this every time". If there's one community I don't want to have my actual name it's Youtube.

Edit: Also, they should have abandoned flash a long time ago. Flash is an abomination when it comes to any serious website.

 

[Fijiman]

1. Layout designed for viewing on tablets, skewing the layout to the side for PC's.
2. Youtube not remembering video settings such as quality and window size. which I'm pretty sure it once did.
3. Homepage being set to "Watch to watch" instead of "Subscriptions" as it used to be.
4. Blocking videos based on your country/IP.
5. Deleting videos off my playlists and then not letting me know which video it was/what the name of the video was so I can find a replacement.

Except for number one and somewhat number four, I agree with all of those points. And let's not forget that the layouts keep getting worse and worse. I didn't like the last update to the channel page, but the new one that a lot of channels are using now is a blight on the internet.

 

[Pinkamena]

Youtube has put so many thorns in my side that trying to list them all would be futile. I would not use it if it had not been for the fact that it is THE video site.

 

[FFP2]

It keeps signing me out every 5 minutes for no reason, the new "One" layout is freaking awful and the fact that a dumbass can make one MILLION dollars a year for making rape jokes makes me lose faith in humanity.