Google has tried over and over again to get me to use my real name, and I have inadvertently created subaccounts: one going by "Greg B" and one was another "stevethefishdotnet" which I thought was my regular channel, but apparently it is a third account I no longer need. It used to be that you could sign into your YouTube account and choose "close my account," however I still get YouTube e-mail sent to my yahoo email address that was tied to my very first YT account, which ironically DID use my first and last name, but I closed it in favor of the anonymous "stevethefishdotnet" account I opened in 2008 or so. That was the year I began uploading videos, and I did NOT want to use my real name! I thought I closed that account. Why am I still getting messages according to subscriptions I had made way back in 2007?
So when it came time for Google to force channel owners to create Google+ accounts just to modify their channels, I played along. One of my best friends is a Google fanboy, who lines his desk at work with all those vinyl Android robot figures and spends money on custom painted ones. He was all on board with Google+, so I thought, "Well, why not?"
So after it created a stevethefishdotnet G+ account, I thought I would try connecting some people with those stupid "circles." It told me that I needed to set up my account. Well, okay... It was asking me for my name, and I only gave it Greg B. It turns out that it was creating A TOTALLY SEPARATE GOOGLE+ account called Greg B that I do not even need! I thought I was updating my first one! What do I need with two accounts? I thought Google was afraid of anonymity and such, so how does it help to allow people to create multiple accounts? Sounds rather devious to me.
I take it back.. I think that is about the time that the Greg B channel was created, which I never asked for. So now I have three channels and two G+ accounts, and all I really wanted was just that one YT channel. I have found a website that gives a guide on how to delete a Google account, but I couldn't get it to work and I am not sure if there is zero danger of accidentally deleting my main channel in which over 1300 people have subscribed to. Why is it so difficult? They never even let me delete my first YT account anyway, and it was far clearer on how to do that back then. With everything tied to just one gmail account, I don't want to risk losing everything!
They did a good job cracking down on all that bogus Sub4Sub nonsense and doing away with that pointless "friends" stuff. But once I got that dumb G+ account, I could no longer go directly to my inbox. I had to search and search for it, and I finally found it. I had to go into my Video Manager screen first, and the Inbox was located on the lefthand side. Gee, thanks a lot, morons!
At least I had just one place I could go to for looking at comments and such. Now that's been taken away from me. They are forcing everyone to use G+ and assuming that everyone wants to use it. This article sums up the backlash, yet it fails to realize that most of us who have signed up for Google+ have done so because Google has forced us. I couldn't care less about G+. I just wanted a YouTube channel.
If Google is so concerned about YouTube's reputation as a haven of trolls, why not consider the following? These are my suggestions, and forcing everyone to create yet another account to something they don't care about wouldn't be necessary.
- Give YT users' accounts a reputation rating. Other sites do this, and if everyone is thumbing down somebody's comments, that could raise a flag saying that the dink is probably a troll.
- Monitor how many times a person has been blocked on other users' channels. It shouldn't be grounds for immediate account suspension because I am sure the 4chan crowd could exploit that for their immature mischief, but it could be a start.
- Monitor how many times somebody's unwarranted video shares have been marked as spam and take action against that user. I think only once or twice I have been sent a video that I actually liked, but the rest have been nothing but crap.
Out of frustration, I opened a Vimeo account to see what that was like. But then it says that I cannot upload any videos of videogame gameplay and such. Why not? Stupid. I don't think I will be using that site. No wonder nobody uses it. Last night I opened an account on DailyMotion and uploaded my Super Famicom videos. At least DailyMotion accepts the gaming community. I like its usability, and I like how I can choose the video's thumbnail just by pausing the video and clicking on the camera. You'd have to become a Youtube Partner in order to choose the thumbnail of your videos!
So what do the rest of you think about these changes? When will it stop? "What is your real name? What is your bank account? We promise not to charge you anything without your consent. How much is your income? Are you married? What is your blood type?When you pee, do you hold it with your left or right hand?" I believe that their main target is just tracking people's behavior so that they can help marketers make money off them. Maybe eventually it will become like Futurama, in which advertisements are broadcast into your brain, making you dream commercials while you sleep. And before that, after physical media has been removed, they'll figure out a way to make you pay a microtransaction for every time you play a game or listen to a song, even after you've already bought it. We're already heading down that road as it is. It's just sick.