I've been using this[1] extension for some time now. It's awesome when there's already a submission for the video.

[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/alientube-for-yout...

As bad as a lot of Youtube comments are, it's perfectly possible to moderate them well and have a thoughtful discussion using them, which removing this feature makes more difficult.

[some game or tv show] brought me here

99 people are Justin Beiber fans

etc...

xkcd on YouTube comments: https://xkcd.com/202/

True. I'd rather have that feature if I was a content creator to get an overall picture of my viewership and whos watching my content

Except if you participate in the discussion and dislike censorship, no matter what it is said.

The parent was surely joking about, err, "quality" of average YouTube comments thread.

Sure, but I have no issues with the "quality" of the average YouTube comments thread.

I don't want to censor (from YT comments) people whose comments I disagree with, or consider stupid or shallow, or even people that are undeniably racist or ignorant or whatever.

If I ran YouTube I would censor the living heck out of it. The lack of effective moderation has turned the comments section into a niche tool. Many people, maybe the majority, aren't eager to add a new comment in the midst of a wall of obscenity... it isn't worth it. I like the "biker bar" analogy, per http://www.chuqui.com/2015/07/the-death-of-reddit/

When it comes to law, I'm against almost any form of censorship, and wish we had less of it than we do now. So I would be strongly against any law that would force YouTube to censor themselves.

I wouldn't support a law banning doctors from blasting DubStep in their offices. But I wouldn't choose a doctor who did so.

I don't support forcing companies to censor users, but I prefer to visit ones that moderate their comments.

>If I ran YouTube I would censor the living heck out of it. The lack of effective moderation has turned the comments section into a niche tool.

If by "niche tools" you mean "billions of people, of all races, countries, beliefs, politics, religion, ideology, etc" participate in it, and no single ideology or ethics prevails, unlike in 99.999% of internet sites, then I agree.

YouTube is a local government. Instead of censoring content, YouTube should provide tools for video publishers and users to form the commenting niches they want, and help people avoid reading comments they don't want to read.

Sure, if they implement that effectively, your way works for me too.

I have no problem if 10% of videos have all the comments from the "worst" 10% of YouTube users. It just turns me off to have the "worst" 10% spraying bile and stupidity over 90% of videos on Youtube, scaring off the "best" 10% of users from leaving their own comments.

Note: I invented these percentages, and "best/worst" is subjective.