“Why are YouTube users so rude?”

It’s a question we’ve all likely asked from time to time when startled by the ignorance and verbal violence of YouTube users in the comments section. This has not escaped the attention of the world’s better-natured internet users, with Buzzfeed voting YouTube commenters as the nadir of online debate, calling the YouTube comments section a “disaster on an unprecedented scale.”

Now there’s a sliver of hope. YouTube just announced that creators and channel owners will now be able to pin comments. YouTube also reminds users that they can manage intemperate voices by electing to hire a trusted moderator or blacklist certain words or phrases. They can also use YouTube’s “Opt-In” verbal crime-fighting algorithm to help keep the comments section from sounding like a scene out of a Tourette Syndrome documentary film.

The “Opt-In” feature is still in beta test mode. “This feature will give creators access to a new moderation setting that will hold only potentially inappropriate comments for review, and reduce the amount of time needed to monitor your community comments,” YouTube says.

This is a smart move by YouTube, whose notorious comments section has been maligned by the world’s media and thoughtful public for years. To give readers an example, as this story is being written, the U.S. transgender singer Ezra Furman is playing on YouTube. A quick scroll of the comments section revealed this rather thorny epigram (the grammatical, punctuation and spelling errors have not been fixed):

“i cant get past f**king dudes becoming bitches.  tranny is popular, cool and progressive.  if youre not down with tranny fag faggness youre a oppressive ass from the 50’s.  its not ok and its not cool to dress like a bitch. trannys are like injured horses they need to be taken out to a field and shot.”

Perhaps there is no need to ban users such as the transgender hater John Hawley, when we can now simply make them disappear.

Photo credit: S.H via Flickr