You don’t have to create videos to know that the YouTube crowd is different than other social sites. Because YouTube makes it so easy to be anonymous, it opens the floodgates for trolling, immaturity, and all kinds of shenanigans that I’ll address below. 🙂
I thought it would be fun to highlight a few YouTube profiles that I’m sure we’re all familiar with. Please know this is all in fun. So if you’re lacking a sense of humor, you might want to skip this post.
Also, I used the word “guy” for effect, but of course women are just as capable of fitting these profiles.
1. Captain Obvious
Almost every video maker has uploaded at least one video with a glowing visual error that is obviously too late to correct or do anything about. Never fear, Captain Obvious is here to bring that boo-boo to the forefront!
Yes, I see the unidentified debris on my shirt. Thanks for making sure everyone else does too. Smooches!
2. The Interpreter
This is that guy who comments on your video with nothing more than a summary of what you already said. Hey, who needs closed captions when you have commenters like this? 😀
Seriously, though. Just as some people like hearing themselves talk, I think some people like seeing their own comments.
3. The Background Checker
I understand why people buy screens or film in front of blank walls. Sometimes my office furniture in the background gets more attention than me!
I swear, Samsung ought to give me a referral fee because I’m quite sure I’ve referred a few 24″ monitors based on the questions and comments I receive about it. 🙂
4. The Corrections Officer
This guy gets a kick out of finding fault and loves to let you know about it. From your pronunciations to the fact that you pointed to the left when you meant the right.
No matter how insignificant, you better believe this guy is ready to act… locating and correcting all mistakes in a single bound! </End cheesy Superman reference>
5. The Political Pundit
This is the guy who takes every opportunity to make the video message political. I’ve seen some of the most inspiring videos that have nothing to do with politics, turn into the ugliest war of words between Democrats and Republicans.
6. The “Topic”ally Challenged
This one can also apply to blogs, Facebook, etc. Rest assured there will always be that one person who posts a comment that has absolutely nothing to do with the video topic. These are often the same people who get angry at you for ignoring their comments.
7. The Jumping Jack
This impatient commenter jumps to ask a question that will be answered later in the video. I often enjoy reading the “colorful” replies generated by several annoyed viewers who can’t understand why he didn’t wait to see if this question would be addressed.
I must admit. As a video maker, I often enjoy seeing the backlash this guy generates. <Insert evil laugh here.>
8. The Lobbyist
He likes to rally everyone around his comment by asking for a “thumbs up”. I guess seeing a comment earn the “Top Comment” accolade underneath the video is just too irresistible for some. 😉
9. The Stand-Up Comedian
I don’t care how serious a video is, there will be at least one person who tries to make light of it by cracking a joke. He usually means no harm, but is often a Lobbyist in training.
I will never forget the person who asked one video maker if she recorded her video with a calculator because the quality was so poor. You gotta admit, that is pretty funny. 😀
10. The First Responder
You know exactly who I’m talking about. This is that guy who likes to announce he is the first one to comment.
He’s easily identified because his comment says nothing but “First!” Seriously? I guarantee he is that kid who will race you for everything!
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I’m sure there are more. Can you think of any I missed?
Sounds like you did a great analysis of YouTubers. Thanks for the insight!
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I think intent is the issue. It would be interesting to see what kind of content can be done, including even titles to videos, which would attract attention. Hey I thought this stuff was supposed to be fun?
Don’t you just feel bad for the jumping jack?
Really awesome post. Regarding your second point: yes, people love to hear themselves even in comments. I spend a lot of time on blogs/forums and this is true on every one. Very entertaining- thanks!
Hello there.. I really admire the effort you put in to study these kinds of personalities in blog comments. cooking up something for a specific personality is a great idea. 🙂
nice point. somehow you have made a great and interesting way of inspiring bloggers by studying these profiles of people. nice.
Yes, something good will be coming out from us because of them. But we can’t be just solely thinking about them because we may then lose our target. But then again if they become our targets, then that’s a whole other thing.. that makes things interesting.. I agree.
Really awesome post. Regarding your second point: yes, people love to hear themselves even in comments. I spend a lot of time on blogs/forums and this is true on every one. Very entertaining- thanks!
Wow terry I liked that link and process. If you know these type of characters it can help you to get ahead of them. You could even write content answering certain issues before they have a chance to attack. I’ve seen this on some of Lisa’s posts before where she’ll say something like “before you ask thus and so, here is the answer.
But I’m thinking you can do some posts geared towards the “comedian”, like: 5 funny ways to get traffic tomorrow.
It would be interesting to see what kind of content can be done, including even titles to videos, which would attract attention. I believe that some people like the comic just want attention anyway. What’s interesting is that for every “comic” that posts there are hundreds of other “comics” watching.
I pretty much notice that “first guy” and “comedian guy” ahah..
But what sandra said was brilliant.. it’s a way of turning these types of profiles to profitable comments..
Funny article. Enjoyed it a lot.
The Corrections Officer seems to be the most frequent type, I have many videos on Youtube where they say something is spelled wrong while in fact it isn’t.
What courage Ysmaelle to admit that you have done some of those things. I know I have. I think intent is the issue. I know when I have done some of these things it was out of ignorance, lack of understanding internet protocols and how videos work and expectations for comments.
But one thing I know is that if you have a lot of this going on then its a good thing. There are many vloggers who can’t get even one comment let alone ten of these kinds.
Despite these comments as a sign that you are “doing” something and providing content(which is a good thing) it just goes to show that online is no different from offline. For these same personality types are in our workplace and maybe even families.
What would be interesting is how vloggers can take these types and then turn this around and perhaps give you constructive content for future blogs. The key to life is turning lemons into lemonade and not focusing on the lemons.
This things are ridiculous yet full of sense and are real. I myself would like to admit that I am doing some of the things being posted here. Well, maybe crowd home something in common when it comes to critics, views and comments. Anyway, I enjoy reading your post. Hope to get one post again from you.
Hi Lisa,
It is a very interesting post and I also really enjoyed the comments on your post.This post shows your deep observation for youtube. There are really lots of varities of youtube users.Thanks for sharing this post with us.
Miguel, I think The Critic would be somewhere between Captain Obvious and the Corrections Officer. LOL!
LOL, so true!
Lol…….
You forgot the critic. Always finding something to critizise about, instead of helping you or the viewers.
Lisa this post is bookmarked 🙂 Every point is damn true and it got some meaning in it which should be noticed. Once again great post.
Lisa your list is hilarious! The way you take time out to describe each..so funny. I have seen some crazy, irrelevant, and mean comments for some videos; quite frankly, I am not so sure I am ready for some of those comments. Then again, as you say, “YouTube teaches you to develop thick skin.” I may as well get on board! LOL!
Thanks, Genie! 🙂
Great representation of the YouTube crowd. I just started my own channel in the summer and am starting to receive comments with regularity now. At first, I was hoping and praying for comments. Now, I am kind of wishing I didn’t because they can me mean!!!
If you want popularity, unfortunately it comes with the territory. So you can either be less popular with fewer/nicer comments or be more popular and deal with the trolls. I vote for the latter. The good news is, the nonsense makes up a very small percentage of the overall comments. YouTube teaches you to develop thick skin. 🙂 Congrats on your new channel, Dave. 🙂
Great article post. May I add some more, what about spammers? There are many spammers leaving comments in Youtube too 🙂
I will need to get comments in my videos first, he he. : )
I laughed all the way through. I gotta try the thumb up thing though, if I get the most of those I might get more people to my channel LOL
I can only imagine what type of comments you receive!
Most of these apply to blogs as well. Although “the first” guy usually gets deleted on my blog so it doesn’t count 🙂
Ha ha! Yes, I could right a book about the comments I’ve received on the last 4 years. lol
Loved this post. I think I may just make a video to see how fast I can get one of each of these 🙂
The stand up comedian will always make our day. His jokes might be random but it is always spot on.
Great post Lisa! Yeah I have seen and experienced a few of them! I am amazed at how OFF topic people can be sometimes….in my experience it seems to be on purpose to use someone else’s platform to promote their thing whether it be poltical, theological, Idea or Brand! It’s kinda like a video on the topic of Pizza and some guy commenting on it in all CAPS, “There is no God” or “Don’t Vote for ……” LOL I guess you could call it political or theological spam?? 🙂
Hello Lisa,
you make me laugh back here. This post is full with creativity and experience.
Yeah I’ve seen all these. Sometimes it makes you wonder how unhappy some of these people must be that they immediately try to tear someone down, especially when that person is trying to help people in a tutorial video. sheesh!
Also the subject matter brings out certain types. I’ll watch a walkthrough of a video game and the comments are downright harsh. Hey I thought this stuff was supposed to be fun? lol.
My sister does videos on tv shows. Soap Operas and night time dramas and such. Those people can be vicious!
Luckily I never put up anything controversial but as you mentioned, with some of the youtube commenters it just doesn’t matter.
The political pundit always stands out the most to me, because they really do go extremely out of their way in an attempt to make an issue political. They’ll even pretend they’re being sarcastic, when in reality they really do want to talk politics while watching a kid score a soccer goal.
Anyways, nice post 🙂
How about the Whisperer? I’ve come across a lot of different tutorials in YouTube where the one doing the tutorial has this really breathy voice that you can barely here. Can be quite frustrating to listen to and watch.
And usually their audio is also of the low quality 🙂 I think that Lisa was referring to the commenters, though.
I have seen many of those first responders. I think they just keep on browsing youtube to comment 🙂
I need a reality check. Seriously. I want your honest opinion. I visit YT videos and I post often. But I do not do videos.
Is this irritating to most YTers? I’ve wanted to know if I should post a response when I don’t do videos.
I also haven’t done a video because I havent’ found the subject for which I want to do videos.
I use to have a picture in my profile but I noticed that people responded to my “age” and therefore would not answer back on some of my questions or would give me a response which seemed derogatory. And then when I took down my picture I noticed I got more constructive feedback.
But I’m glad I found this post because I’m thinking that perhaps it isn’t “internet etiquette” to post a response when you don’t have a picture in your profile nor videos.
Many folks don’t have internet etiquette about many things. But I’m not afraid to ask.
Well I will speak for myself. Even though I was having some fun in this post, I appreciate all comments and I rarely go and look to see who posted unless it is something really off the wall. I don’t care if my commenters/viewers have videos or not. I would assume most video makers share that feeling.
But what Flo and I were talking about above was how the troublemakers tend to be anonymous people with no videos or picture of them. You should definitely keep commenting. Those who are making fun of your age are rude and immature. Just ignore them.
Great post, i guess as a youtube viewer i would at least like to be the first responder
First responder LOL that made my day
LoL Lisa. You really made my day with this post! I just uploaded a YouTube video and these personalities came to mind while I was editing it!
I have only been uploading food recipes videos for about 2 months but I’ve got a few Corrections Officers already. When I checked out their channels, guess how many videos they have uploaded? Zilch! Or maybe they are hiding behind a blank account. YouTube will be a better resource if only these trolls can go and make their own videos that will show us how it’s done 🙂 And with the popularity of your videos, you must be getting them in their thousands!
Hopefully with the new Edit Video option you can remove that “too-late debris” from your shirt before Captain Obvious comes around … 🙂 🙂 Still laughing out loud at the names you gave each personality … priceless!
Thanks, Flo. Yes! It’s always the people who don’t do videos or have an anonymous/blank profile that have the most crap to say! Glad I’m not alone. This is just one of those venting posts that felt good to get out. whooooooo-saaaaah! 🙂
I didn’t know you did videos. What’s your channel?
Yes, started making videos for my food recipes website in July. Here’s the channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NigerianFoodRecipes 🙂
I was glued to one of the videos Flo posted.
Don’t tell her I still didn’t try it out 🙁 But it looked sooo yummy… I love African food, although I only ate it in Ghana.
Ah Brankica, even if Lisa doesn’t tell me, be rest assured that there’s a YouTube personality (The One with the Crystal Ball) that will tell me about my viewers that are NOT trying the recipes in my videos :):)