Leave Comments on YouTube

There are many reasons why someone might want to leave a comment on a YouTube video. Maybe you’re inspired by the content, or you want to offer some advice on an incomplete How-to video; maybe you disagree with a vlogger’s opinions, or maybe you want to build connections and share your similar tastes and experiences with the online community. Whatever your reasons for wanting to comment on a YouTube video, this article will guide you through the process.

Steps

Ensuring That You Have a Google Account

  1. Find out if you already have a Google account. If you already use any Google products — popular ones include Gmail, Blogger, Maps, and YouTube — you have a Google account. If you don’t remember the password to your account, recover it through Google account recovery.[1]
  2. Sign up for a Google account. If you don’t already have a Google account, you can create one directly through the YouTube home page (in your web browser) or the YouTube app, which is downloadable through Google Play (Android) or the App Store (iOS).
    • Android app: Touch the menu that looks like three dashes (—) stacked on top of one another and go to “Sign in.” Then, touch the plus (+) sign next to “Accounts” to create your Google account.[2]
    • Computer: Click “Sign in” in the upper right corner of the YouTube page that you’re on. Then, click “Create Account.”[2]
    • Mobile site (i.e. through the web browser on your mobile phone or tablet): Touch the menu that looks like three stacked dashes and go to “Sign in.” Touch the plus (+) sign next to “Accounts” to create your Google account.[2]
    • iOS: You cannot currently create a Google account in the YouTube iOS app. Instead, you’ll need to access the YouTube mobile site via your web browser (likely Safari) and follow the “Mobile site” instructions.[2]
  3. Link your legacy account with your Google account. If you created your YouTube channel before May 2009 and haven’t signed into it since 2011, your channel is a legacy channel. To access it you must link it with a Google account before you can continue using it.
    • To link a legacy account with a Google account, sign into the Google account you want to link to your YouTube channel, then enter https://www.youtube.com/gaia_link into your web browser’s address bar. This will bring you to a sign-in page. You’ll need to enter your username and password for the legacy channel, and then click on the blue “Claim Channel” button.[3]

Leaving Comments on YouTube Videos

  1. Ensure that you are logged into your Google account. If you are using the YouTube app on your mobile phone or tablet, you are likely already logged in. If you are accessing YouTube through the mobile site or your computer/web browser, and you are not already signed into your Google account, click on the blue “Sign in” button in the upper right hand corner of the YouTube page that you’re on.
  2. Go to the video that you want to comment on. Make sure that you are commenting on the correct video. You might even want to pause your video at the end so that the page does not load a new video once it is done.
    • If a new video loads, just click “back” in your browser, or find the video you want to comment on through “Search” or your play history. You can access your “History” through the menu that looks like three dashes stacked atop one another.
    • If a new video loads and you fail to notice it, you could end up commenting on that video instead. If you accidentally do this, be sure to delete your message before moving back to the video you originally wanted to comment on.
  3. Locate the comment box beneath the video. The comment box sits beneath the video’s info and the words, “All Comments.” You should see your Google account image/profile pic to the left of the comment box.
    • If you don’t see the comment box right away, scroll down the page a little bit and you should find it.
    • If you still can’t find the comment box, it’s possible that the user has comments turned off for their video, in which case you will see the words “Comments are disabled for this video,” and you will not be able to leave a comment.
  4. Write your comment in the comment box. The process is almost exactly the same regardless of whether you’re commenting via the YouTube website or app.
    • On the web (i.e. when accessing YouTube via your web browser on your computer, tablet or smart phone), type your comment into the box that says “Share your thoughts.”[4] The box might also say “Add a public comment.”
    • In the Android or iOS YouTube app, type your comment into the box that says “Add a comment.”[4]
  5. Click the blue “Post” button. Once you have written a comment that you’re happy with, touch (if you have a touchscreen) or click on the blue “Post” button that sits just beneath the bottom right corner of your comment box.
  6. Check to make sure that your comment was posted. YouTube comments are arranged in chronological order, with the newest at the top, so yours should be either at the top or close to it. Over time, it will move down the list.
    • Note that older comments can be pushed to the top of the list by new replies posted beneath the comments.[5]

Writing Great Comments

  1. Familiarize yourself with YouTube’s community guidelines. YouTube’s community guidelines prohibit nudity/sexual content, violent/graphic content, hateful content, spam, harmful/dangerous content, threats, and content that doesn’t respect copyright.[6] For comments, the particularly relevant prohibitions are hateful comments, threatening comments, and spam.
    • Spam: do not use YouTube comments as a platform to advertise your own website or products.
    • Hate: if you think your comment might offend specific individuals or groups of individuals (for example, certain races, religious groups, nationalities, or genders), then don’t post it.
    • Threats: if someone makes a video that really upsets you, don’t send them threats.
      • If you think their video is hugely inappropriate and shouldn’t be on YouTube, you are welcome to report it using YouTube’s flagging feature. To access this feature, click on the “More” button beneath the video player, then in the drop-down menu that appears, click the “Report” button.[7]
  2. Think about why you’re commenting. What is your purpose for commenting on the video? Did it inspire you? Did it make you laugh? Do you think the person who made the video missed something and could improve it? Are you hoping to start a discussion thread?
    • As an example, let’s say you’ve watched a dance tutorial video on YouTube. You’re a beginner, and even though the tutorial was aimed at beginners, you felt that it was still too difficult. You want to communicate to the teacher in the video that you found the dance routine difficult to learn.
  3. Read other comments to avoid being redundant. Before commenting on a video, skim through as many comments as you can to ensure that you’re not just repeating what someone else has already said.
    • If you do find a comment that says what you want to say, consider liking (clicking on the “thumbs up” icon below the comment) and/or replying to it (clicking on the word, “Reply,” below their comment), rather than posting a new comment all together.
  4. Consider using mentions/tags. If you’re replying to someone else’s comment you might consider tagging the person to whom you are replying and/or tagging the channel name as well. You can do this by typing +[person’s name] or @[person’s name].[8]
    • A list of names should come up as you type, but if for some reason this doesn’t work, you might have better luck typing in their email addresses.
  5. Be respectful. If you don’t like a video, it’s okay to say so — just be respectful. If your first thought after watching a video is, “Well, that was terrible. What a waste of time!” why waste more of your time in commenting on it? If you simply must comment, figure out why you hated the video, and offer some advice on how it might be made stronger.
    • Don’t: “Teaching style sucks! What a waste of time — learn how to teach!!!!”
    • Do: “Thank you for making this tutorial! I’m a beginner, and even though the tutorial is made for beginners, I really struggled with it. For me, I think it would have really helped to have the dance broken down into more sections, with a couple of run-throughs after each section. At the end, instead of jumping straight to the full routine with music, it would have helped me to go through it twice more slowly and without music.”
  6. Add something to the conversation. Ideally, social media is about sharing ideas and building connections. If the only comment you have after watching a video is “that was dumb,” you’re not really helping anyone out or adding anything to the conversation. Maybe the video really is dumb; if that's the case and you feel like you simply must comment on it, try being informative, supportive, or at the very least, witty.
    • In the dance tutorial comment example, the user has made their comment informative by offering advice on how the creator of the video could improve it. Ideally, the creator will take this advice into account for their future tutorials. For added helpfulness, the commenter could even share a link to another video of the routine that they find more helpful (if one exists).
  7. Be relevant. Don’t be a spammy commenter. If you’re trying to promote your blog or some other product, don’t use other people’s platforms to do it. That said, if you know of another video, website etc. that is more informative than or expands upon the one you’ve just watched, it might make sense to add a link to that video/site/etc. in your comment.
    • Example: “Thank you for making this tutorial! I’m a beginner, and even though the tutorial is made for beginners, I really struggled with it. For me, I think it would have really helped to have the dance broken down into more sections, with a couple of run-throughs after each section. At the end, instead of jumping straight to the full routine with music, it would have helped me to go through it twice more slowly and without music. For others who want to learn this routine, I found a great tutorial here: website name dot com.
  8. Be brief. YouTube comments have an unlimited character count, but this doesn't mean you need to write an essay. The longer your comment, the less likely it is that someone will actually read it. Try to keep it as short as possible, while still being respectful and informative.
  9. Turn off caps lock — don’t shout. Typing in all capital letters is the written equivalent of shouting online. When your entire comment is in capital letters, people are less likely to take you seriously; they might even make fun of you for your lack of eloquence.[9]
    • An example of how shouting would look in a YouTube comment: “TEACHING STYLE SUCKS! WHAT A WASTE OF TIME — LEARN HOW TO TEACH!!!!”
    • Compare the all-caps version to the original: “Teaching style sucks! What a waste of time — learn how to teach!!!!” Somehow, the excessive capitalization makes the comment seem even ruder and less intelligent than when it was written in regular case.
  10. Format your comment’s text. You can use bold, italics, and strikethrough to make parts of your comments pop.[4] Consider italicizing words to help express your tone; bolding words to highlight key ideas; and adding strikethrough to lend humor. If you choose to use these text styles, use them sparingly.
    • Example: “Thank you for making this tutorial! I’m a (strikethrough)hopelessly terrible dancer(strikethrough) beginner, and even though the tutorial is made for beginners, I really struggled with it. For me, I think it would have really helped to have the dance broken down into more sections, with a couple of run-throughs after each section. At the end, instead of jumping straight to the full routine with music, it would have helped me to go through it twice more slowly and without music.”

Troubleshooting For When You Can’t Comment

  1. Refresh your page. If you are viewing YouTube through a browser (i.e. Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Explorer etc.), your options are to close and reopen the browser, or simply hit the refresh button (a curved/circular arrow) that sits next to your browser’s address bar (at the top of the browser window).
    • If you are logged into the YouTube app on a mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet, close and reopen the app.
  2. Ensure that you’re logged into your Google account. If you are viewing YouTube in a web browser, you should see your Google+ icon (user pic) at the top right of the window. If you are using an app, your Google+ icon will be in the top left corner of the app window.
  3. Ensure that the video you are trying to comment on does not have comments disabled. If it has comments disabled, you’ll see the words, “Comments are disabled for this video” beneath the video; this means you will not be able to comment.
  4. Enable cookies. If your browser blocks third party cookies, it may be preventing you from commenting on YouTube videos. To remedy this, go to your browser settings/preferences and check your privacy settings to ensure that third party cookies and site data are not blocked.[10]
    • If you want to continue blocking cookies from most third party sites, your browser should give you the option to only allow cookies from YouTube and Google.[10]
  5. Try opening YouTube in a different browser. If all else fails, see if you have the same problem in other web browsers. If you’re using Chrome, try Firefox or Safari, or whatever other browser you may have.

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Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ https://www.google.com/accounts/recovery/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/161805?hl=en
  3. ↑ https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1637615
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6000964?hl=en
  5. ↑ https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/HQlUstldUPM
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/yt/policyandsafety/communityguidelines.html
  7. ↑ https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2802027
  8. ↑ https://support.google.com/plus/answer/1320457?hl=en
  9. ↑ http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117390/netiquette-capitalization-how-caps-became-code-yelling
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/youtube/8sFK0PDlt7k
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