I should perhaps clarify a few points. First, I am offering advice on how to avoid drama altogether. That may or may not be the best thing to do at all times depending on your personality and the point of the show. Many highly successful people thrive on "drama" and use it to build up their audience while maintaining a certain level of buzz and excitement about their show. I can point at pretty much any talk show for evidence. However, the key difference is that these people are usually the instigators or at least are in charge of the drama or controversy, and if you watch carefully they avoid certain types. It is rare, for instance, to hear or see one being blasted on a personal level--i.e., for being fat, having an ugly wife, personal facts about them, etc. My guess is only the dirtiest and most brazen shock jocks and hacks tolerate or support that kind of behavior. Meanwhile, the professional satires that get done about them are often funny without being downright offensive to the person him or herself. I could cite the recent example of Sarah Palin and Tina Fey. While Tina's performance may have possibly upset Ms. Palin, it could easily have been more more personal and abusive. Watch this video and tell me if it's really abuse or just good-natured humor with the occasional "zinger." This isn't mean-spirited, abusive stuff at all, and I think that's the key difference. Also, it's in an appropriate forum (SNL). Like Weird Al's songs, it's almost a mark of honor and fame for them to select you as a target!
Contrast that with someone making a "parody" video of you on YouTube where they are saying libelous and slanderous things about your personal life--suggesting you are a pedophile, showing footage of the house you live, showing pictures of your children, making fun of your family or close friends, going on their channels to repeat all this...Or even just a video where they are cussing you out in some fit of rage. This is the kind of crap I'm talking about. There's really nothing funny about it all. It's just abusive and in some cases possibly illegal or at least against YouTube's guidelines.
# We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we don't permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity).
# Things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people’s personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts or to violate the Terms of Use are taken very seriously. Anyone caught doing these things may be permanently banned from YouTube.
Here's the clarifications on harassment and impersonation:
# We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we don't permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity).
# Things like predatory behavior, stalking, threats, harassment, intimidation, invading privacy, revealing other people’s personal information, and inciting others to commit violent acts or to violate the Terms of Use are taken very seriously. Anyone caught doing these things may be permanently banned from YouTube.
# Impersonating another user by copying someone's exact channel layout, using a similar username, or posing as that person in comments, emails or videos is considered harassment. If you want to keep your account, stay away from participating in any form of impersonation or harassing activity on the site.
# Users shouldn't feel threatened when they're on YouTube. Period. Don't leave threatening comments on other people's videos.
A few things are made clear here. One is that it is okay to parody someone as long as you make it clear that it is a parody and don't try to pass yourself off as the person by using a similar username or copying their layout. If you made a different looking channel with a different username, it should be okay as long as you don't make threats, reveal personal info, or indulge in hate speech. I think it should be sufficient to put a message like "This is a parody!" or something in front of the video.
Also, it seems they are very specific about what "hate speech," much more specific than most people. Here it seems to only apply to racist and sexist comments. Apparently, it's worse to make fun of someone for being old than for being stupid. I am wondering if someone saying "You're a fag!" or "this is so gay!" would count as hate speech if you aren't gay. I would assume it would be hate speech regardless, since it is hateful towards a group, which seems to be the issue here.
It does appear, though, that comments like "I hate your videos," "You're an idiot!", "Your video sucks!," "You should quit making videos," and so on are all tolerated, along with all the variations thereof. So, the choice is whether to delete these, ignore them, or respond to them. To avoid drama, go with the first one. To encourage some drama (assuming your fans/friends will respond), go with the second one. For maximum drama, go with the last option. The choice depends largely on your own stomach and personality and what kind of community you want to foster.
Again, I hope I was clear before that I'm not talking about constructive criticism here; only the sort of comments in the above paragraph. I would assume any healthy person would be able to handle constructive criticism; if not, they probably should turn off comments altogether.
Great video as always!
I should perhaps clarify a few points. First, I am offering advice on how to avoid drama altogether. That may or may not be the best thing to do at all times depending on your personality and the point of the show. Many highly successful people thrive on "drama" and use it to build up their audience while maintaining a certain level of buzz and excitement about their show. I can point at pretty much any talk show for evidence. However, the key difference is that these people are usually the instigators or at least are in charge of the drama or controversy, and if you watch carefully they avoid certain types. It is rare, for instance, to hear or see one being blasted on a personal level--i.e., for being fat, having an ugly wife, personal facts about them, etc. My guess is only the dirtiest and most brazen shock jocks and hacks tolerate or support that kind of behavior. Meanwhile, the professional satires that get done about them are often funny without being downright offensive to the person him or herself. I could cite the recent example of Sarah Palin and Tina Fey. While Tina's performance may have possibly upset Ms. Palin, it could easily have been more more personal and abusive. Watch this video and tell me if it's really abuse or just good-natured humor with the occasional "zinger." This isn't mean-spirited, abusive stuff at all, and I think that's the key difference. Also, it's in an appropriate forum (SNL). Like Weird Al's songs, it's almost a mark of honor and fame for them to select you as a target!
Contrast that with someone making a "parody" video of you on YouTube where they are saying libelous and slanderous things about your personal life--suggesting you are a pedophile, showing footage of the house you live, showing pictures of your children, making fun of your family or close friends, going on their channels to repeat all this...Or even just a video where they are cussing you out in some fit of rage. This is the kind of crap I'm talking about. There's really nothing funny about it all. It's just abusive and in some cases possibly illegal or at least against YouTube's guidelines.
Some of the stuff from their Community Guidelines is worth posting here:
Here's the clarifications on harassment and impersonation:
A few things are made clear here. One is that it is okay to parody someone as long as you make it clear that it is a parody and don't try to pass yourself off as the person by using a similar username or copying their layout. If you made a different looking channel with a different username, it should be okay as long as you don't make threats, reveal personal info, or indulge in hate speech. I think it should be sufficient to put a message like "This is a parody!" or something in front of the video.
Also, it seems they are very specific about what "hate speech," much more specific than most people. Here it seems to only apply to racist and sexist comments. Apparently, it's worse to make fun of someone for being old than for being stupid. I am wondering if someone saying "You're a fag!" or "this is so gay!" would count as hate speech if you aren't gay. I would assume it would be hate speech regardless, since it is hateful towards a group, which seems to be the issue here.
It does appear, though, that comments like "I hate your videos," "You're an idiot!", "Your video sucks!," "You should quit making videos," and so on are all tolerated, along with all the variations thereof. So, the choice is whether to delete these, ignore them, or respond to them. To avoid drama, go with the first one. To encourage some drama (assuming your fans/friends will respond), go with the second one. For maximum drama, go with the last option. The choice depends largely on your own stomach and personality and what kind of community you want to foster.
Again, I hope I was clear before that I'm not talking about constructive criticism here; only the sort of comments in the above paragraph. I would assume any healthy person would be able to handle constructive criticism; if not, they probably should turn off comments altogether.
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com