There are two types of YouTube comments. There are comments from random people on very popular videos. Those are often an excuse for people to say something with a big audience, and those comments have usually been of low quality. The other type of comment is when there's a small community around some particular niche subject or particular content creator. And there the quality of the comments can actually be pretty decent, because it's not just drive-by comments from random folks. Unfortunately, YouTube's comments changes have generally targeted marginal improvements on the quality of the first kind of comments to the detriment of the second kind.

They were never great but they were better before.

If by "before" you mean 2008, then yes, arguably. Starting around 2009 I've started using various browser extensions to hide the comments, and I've never been happier.

I don't understand. Can't you just... not read them?

That kind of software is easier to install, but less consistent.

No. To sift through the comments you want to read, you need to at least read a few words/sentences of even the unwanted ones - that wastes time and makes us slow.

Hilarious. I recall saying to myself YouTube won over Google video because they supported comments early on. They really understand social. Laughing at myself...

As I noted at the time, fixing a roiling cesspit by draining it into the freshwater supply is hardly a solution.

YT comments should have been hauled out and shot. Not jackboot-forced onto other platforms as well.

Yeah, there was a project comparing YT comments with Metafilter comments at one point: http://comments.thatsaspicymeatball.com/

Looks like the latest comments are from Feb 2015, sad that it's not still live.

Not a terrible quality snapshot though.

Metafilter's highly underappreciated.

Sometimes I think that's a good thing.