If you are a YouTube user, you have probably noticed that you cannot, for the love of all that is good in the world, cannot comment if you are not using your real name, which ultimately means, you have to be using a Google+ account to be able to write a comment.

So why does this matter?

First, Google removes your right to privacy by disallowing you to use a fake name.  Second, Google is forcing people to sign up for Google+, a social networking service that most people don’t give a damn about.

So yeah, this is a pretty huge deal for anyone who’s an avid commenter on YouTube videos.

People use fake names on YouTube because they do not want what they do or say on the site be tied to them or their real names.  YouTube’s comments sections are a hive of activity, with some users providing really funny insights, while others like to fight or try to argue with others. But whatever they do, few people like doing so using their real names, so you can imagine how pissed off users are because of this change. The new system was introduced on November 6 with a video that’s garnered 50,476 down votes, and thousands upon thousands of angry comments.

Google’s Product Forum has been flooded with people complaining about the change and one John Doe, obviously a fake name, has launched an online petition in the hopes of getting the old YouTube comment system back.

“Google is forcing us to make google+ accounts and invading our social life to comment on a youtube video and trying to take away our anonymous profile. They are also trying to censor us unless we share the same worldview as they do,” the petition stated.

As of the time of this writing, the petition already has 177,867 supporters.  Aside from signing the petition, some people commented on why the recent change deteriorates the service itself.

“Stripping us of our anonymous profiles, forcing outside media and advertizements down our throats, censoring our comments and selectively giving commenters the ability to disable replies and ratings on their comments, among a host of unwarranted changes to the original, much more efficient and streamlined Youtube layout as a whole are just some of the many negative changes that are being made to Youtube. It’s ethically wrong to force these changes unto an unwilling userbase as it alienates them while devaluing the quality of the site and tarnishing your credibility.”

“This callous behavior needs to stop,” Aaron Vollhoffer of Tenton, Canada, wrote.

YouTube content creators are also annoyed with the changes, and have taken action to appease angry users.  TotalBiscuit is directing its subscribers to comment on Reddit instead, avoiding YouTube altogether.

F*ck you Google!

But is Google really as guilty as some people claim?  The company denies it, saying that it just wanted a cleaner comments section.  Google promised “smarter sortings” and “meaningful conversations” as a result of the changes, but unfortunately that’s far from what’s happened.

In fact, it could be said that even greater numbers of people are now cursing on the comments section and the more controversial comments are the ones displayed more prominently. The best example is Emma Blackery’s My Thoughts on Google+ video, which has over a million views, plus more than 167,000 likes, for its anti-Google stance.  Somewhat ironic, isn’t it?

Aside from that, the comments no longer have character limits, so you can post an entire novel if you want to.  And people can now post URLs, which means YouTube users can now easily be directed to phishing sites, or else porn sites that could be seen by underage users.

So what to do now?  Are we stuck with these changes?  Or is there something we can do to rage against Google aside from signing the petition?

Four Ways to screw with Google’s commenting system

While the petitioners are attempting to force Google to revert to the old system, it is at least possible to do away with the comments section altogether, via the following four methods:

Userscripts Toggle YouTube comment

This is an add-on for your browser which, when enabled, allows you to hide the comments section as well as edit YouTube in some way, such as moving buttons, and other elements such as the footer so these disappear.  A word of warning however:  YouTube may look weird and messy if you fiddle too much, and the add-on can be a bit erratic.

Turn off YouTube Comments Toggle

If you’re using Chrome, you can easily download this app from the Chrome Web Store.  The extension works with the new YouTube, allowing you to turn comments on or off easily without having to deal with any buttons or a crazy layout.

Comment Snob

If you don’t want to completely turn off the comments sections, but just want to filter out nasty or rage-inducing comments then you can try out Comment Snob.  It is available for Firefox and Chrome but some users report that it doesn’t work on Firefox unless you are using Windows 8, which means that Mac and Linux users might be out of luck.  Previews reviews of the app stated that it works like magic, filtering out unwanted comments.  You can set which comments can be filtered like those using all caps or using excessive punctuations.

Reddit Comments for YouTube

If you’re just tired of the mindless dimwits on YouTube, you can replace them with associated Reddit comment threads.  Just download the ‘Reddit Comments For YouTube’ extension in the Chrome Web Store.  So far, reviews for the plugin have been phenomenal, with some of the users stating that the creators of this listened to what the people want.