OMG life is just an imitation of art amirite
October 9, 2008 5:53 PM   Subscribe

xkcd had an idea to counter YouTube comment stupidity, and apparently someone at YouTube was paying attention. Not everyone is convinced however. (And there's always Comment Snob).
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane (31 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
So ... people read YouTube comments, huh?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:59 PM on October 9, 2008 [3 favorites]


I wonder if the audio preview will read a string of random consonants. I believe the name for XKCD was even chosen because it's unpronounceable.

What does XKCD stand for?

It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings.

posted by Pseudology at 6:03 PM on October 9, 2008


>>So ... people read YouTube comments, huh?

When I feel really good, like humanity has a chance, I read 'em. Feeling goes right away.
posted by SaintCynr at 6:05 PM on October 9, 2008 [15 favorites]


I'm the opposite. When I'm feeling really stupid, I read them for a lift.
posted by pompomtom at 6:06 PM on October 9, 2008 [5 favorites]


It needs to learn acronyms - it spells them out usually (double-u-tee-eff) though for OMG it just said omg.

Still, this is hilarious in my book.
posted by SirOmega at 6:06 PM on October 9, 2008


according to this it's not really working. There's still stuff like " :o THE MOST VIDEO ON YOUTUBE WTF ". Seriously...

"I wonder if the audio preview will read a string of random consonants"

just try it out, it works fine.
posted by kolophon at 6:11 PM on October 9, 2008


So ... people read YouTube comments, huh?

Shit, I read the back of cereal boxes if I'm looking that way and my eye catches the beginning of a phrase. I'd can't help but read the YouTube comments, and every single one of them makes me a little bit stupider. It's like stabbing my soul with an icepick.

Those dramatic readings Munroe linked to were amazing.
posted by Caduceus at 6:11 PM on October 9, 2008 [2 favorites]


This is bad news for the insane.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:11 PM on October 9, 2008


That's weird... I just tried it and for some reason my audio preview is sped up so it sounded like a frightened mouse on helium. Which, while amusing, is probably not going to make anyone think twice about calling anyone a dum faget lol.
posted by louche mustachio at 6:14 PM on October 9, 2008


Still, this is hilarious in my book.

Does your book, the one where you keep track of what's hilarious, read itself out loud? If it did that would be hilarious in my book.
posted by pwally at 6:18 PM on October 9, 2008 [4 favorites]


YouTube comments are worth it, if only for things like the endless debate about whether this video is real or not.
posted by burnmp3s at 6:19 PM on October 9, 2008 [15 favorites]


Which once again begs the question: Does xkcd imitate life or does life imitate xkcd?
posted by mordacil at 6:20 PM on October 9, 2008 [1 favorite]


It's not actually an acronym. It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation

Oh, I always pronounced it 'ecstasy' in my head, but I guess I transposed a few letters.

...Or maybe I'm just thinking of a new wave band from the 80s.
posted by dgaicun at 6:34 PM on October 9, 2008 [2 favorites]


Youtube comments are the sound of a hundred thousand morons fapping -- with one exception. I dial up a lot of amateur musicians performing covers of songs I want to learn, and I have to say with extremely rare exception, the comments on those clips are positive, supportive, even kind -- regardless of the quality of the performance. I'm always amazed at the contrast between these posters and those in the rest of the youtube universe.

So youtube's not all bad.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:43 PM on October 9, 2008 [2 favorites]




Which once again begs the question

Obligatory?

posted by vira at 6:54 PM on October 9, 2008 [2 favorites]


12-18 months ago, I posted a video of a stupid Lego thing I'd made. I called it a "perpetual motion machine". Dozens and dozens of comments have corrected me since then, few if any of which have read any of the previous callouts.

It's pretty hilarious, as long as you don't take it too seriously. (Metafilter: It's pretty hilarious, as long as you don't take it too seriously.)
posted by DU at 7:06 PM on October 9, 2008


Okay, so I now really want the ability to play Metafilter comments aloud. I just spent more time than I should admit pasting these comments into at&t's text to speech. Anyone know of something like this that will do a whole web page? By god, I need to listen to the infamous Palin thread.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 8:30 PM on October 9, 2008


This was a dumb idea from a dumb cartoon. If they want comments to be smarter, they have to find a way to make it prohibitively complicated to post. And people will still post dumb shit, but at least it'd be a little slower.
posted by graventy at 8:38 PM on October 9, 2008


And people will still post dumb shit, but at least it'd be a little slower.

Sez U!
posted by pompomtom at 10:00 PM on October 9, 2008


> This was a dumb idea from a dumb cartoon.

Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors).
posted by sdodd at 12:45 AM on October 10, 2008


This was a dumb idea from a dumb cartoon. If they want comments to be smarter, they have to find a way to make it prohibitively complicated to post. And people will still post dumb shit, but at least it'd be a little slower.
UTube should charge a little something to register to comment. Say some small sum like $5. Giving stuff away free attracts 'em.
posted by Bitter soylent at 2:01 AM on October 10, 2008


Since a link in this tread led me to read the following Youtube comment. I am reposting in hopes that people realize that words hurt...they really do.
Warning: My brain has not been processing correctly ever since I read this, may you fare better.

LAWL
fuck it im voten for nator :D

posted by P.o.B. at 2:23 AM on October 10, 2008


> Okay, so I now really want the ability to play Metafilter comments aloud. I just spent more time than I should admit pasting these comments into at&t's text to speech. Anyone know of something like this that will do a whole web page? By god, I need to listen to the infamous Palin thread.

Opera has a built in text-to-speech thing. Just select some text, press v, and hey presto, it reads it to you (although it pronounces "youtube" as "yow-tube"). Wouldn't surprise me if there is an extension for Firefox which can do something roughly similar.
posted by bjrn at 2:37 AM on October 10, 2008


Yeah, bjrn, but the youtube program mainly needs select words like LOL!!! (variants: LOL!!, LOLLORZ, LOLercoaster), suxxorz, the gay. Perhaps "u play god dude!!" for abysmal guitar playing, as well. It saves memory.
posted by ersatz at 7:27 AM on October 10, 2008


"teh gay", sorry for the misspelling.
posted by ersatz at 7:28 AM on October 10, 2008


OMFG!!! DIS FUKIN ROX! LOLLOLLOL

Can we bring this to Metafilter?
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 8:26 AM on October 10, 2008


Okay, so I now really want the ability to play Metafilter comments aloud.

Well, it's not the Palin thread, but Violet Blue did that.
posted by lunit at 9:53 AM on October 10, 2008


Ah, days of innocence past....
posted by Artw at 4:50 PM on October 10, 2008


I thought the entire point of reading YouTube comments was to a) feel smugly superior or b) gather evidence to support arguments regarding the pervasive erosion of education. If you want Hegelian dialectics, YouTube is a poor choice of destination.
posted by notashroom at 12:51 PM on October 11, 2008


You're right about the Youtube thing, ersatz, some basic phrases could be included. With the Opera speech thing, I was thinking about general text-to-speeching while browsing, not just "teh lulz" comments on youtube.
posted by bjrn at 3:19 AM on October 13, 2008


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