raam rahim asked:


cyber stalker harrasment ,How do I copy the embed code on an iPhone? Two weeks ago a user contacted me asking for my e-mail or IM (which I don’t do anyway) but I refused to give it to him. He eventually agreed to just talk on Youtube. Things were fine for a few days but then he started asking me a bunch of personal questions I did not want to answer. And when I wouldn;t answer within a few minutes he’d ask again and again and again. So then I asked him to stop and he did (for the most part) but then he started again and started talking about how his parents are divorced and his friends aren’t on Youtube ever (I started wondering if he actually has any). Eventually I just lost patience with him and blocked him.A few days later he tracks me down on Facebook. Then I blocked him there. A day or so later a new profile shows up on Youtube called “mgalusicfan” and he starts commenting all over my videos (again asking about weird things and WAY too personal questions) I blocked him and then “mgalusicisthebest” popped up with more of the same. I tried to talk him out of harassing me because I don’t want to spend the next few weeks following this loop until he gives up. I blocked him and then “yournotthemikeIknow” popped up (again more of the same).

Is there anything else I can do? In my humble opinion you’ve done almost everything wrong here. After 57 thousand angry comments on the blog, 9 thousand angry comments on the announcement video, dozens of “anti-beta” YouTube channels and online petitions against the change scattered all over the Internet, your response has been deafening silence, and the help page still promises a July 15th “forced migration” date. It’s completely unapparent whether or not anybody at YouTube has noticed the commotion. So what happens? The pitchforks are out, the voices are still getting louder and angrier and the ASCII art on the blog is getting bigger and more desperate. Some users commented they had flagged the video as “promotes hatred or violence”, and it wasn’t a joke.

YouTube, I can’t overstate how badly you’ve handled this. For such a huge site you ought to have something resembling a clue how to  listen to and interact with your users! The single thing you didn’t do wrong is that you (apparently) haven’t censored any criticism. Thank goodness, or everyone would have gone ballistic. You got that right by accident though, because actually it’s completely typical for responses to the YouTube blogs to be ignored.

Even if you respond now, damage has already been done. Users incensed by the lack of response have probably already gone to their forums and chatrooms all over the web and posted comments along the lines of “YouTube ****. They keep making stupid changes and don’t listen to their users.” Because as long as you aren’t listening, we’ll tell anyone who will.

This doesn’t reflect well on Google either. If there is ever a major revolt against a Google change like this, it looks like you/Google will be completely incapable of handling it. How can you expect to control a billion angry web surfers?

While I do sort of look forward to the potential fun and chaos of a massive Internet-wide revolt against Google, I suggest you get a clue. YouTubers have raised big objections to the design of the new channels, aggrandized by the fact that social website users will generally resist and reject major change to their pages, whether they’re improvements or not. It’s like getting up and finding someone switched your car for a different (newer) model overnight, while losing your toolkit and personally chosen seat covers (analogy to the channel backgrounds, etc). You’d feel indignant, right?Finally: I *HATE* the new channels. They’re a functional and asthetic regression in almost every way. A few users prefer them, but because of the complaints almost no-one thinks the change should be forced like it is. You should help the angry users because their anger won’t go away. It’ll be hidden for a while, but it will come flooding back at a later date the next time there’s a problem.

I’ve seen many of you discussing that you’re having trouble downloading your uploaded videos (to MP4). The majority of you mention that the “Download to MP4″ button sometimes doesn’t appear next to your videos, and so you’re unable to download your videoSomeone I can report him to? Youtube used to have an e-mail address on the contact us area but now I can’ find one.