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I just went on one of my favorite (only?) mortician's YouTube pages to watch a video, and I saw that it was an older video from 2016, so I didn't see captions from the YouTuber as an option, but I did see the Community Captions / Contributions option.
#SaveCommunityCaptions
#SaveCommunityCaptions
It was a short video, only 5 or so minutes long, but as I started scrolling through, I realized that people had already contributed to the video. By the end, I changed absolutely nothing, because they were really good captions, and all I had to do was mark that they were good.
I don't doubt that people abuse the Community Contributions features, especially since there seems to be some confusion as to whether captions should be used for accessibility or comedy (hint, they're for accessibility), but you know what the normal response to that should be?
To fix the feature. You provide more ways for creators and the community to work on this together to provide accessibility. You don't take away the option like you're punishing a child at the expense of people who NEED captions to enjoy videos.
I don't know what tools @YouTube is working on that'll replace what's already there, but until then, they shouldn't be touching a feature that provides accessibility at ALL. The amount of languages people have contributed with, the community that this tool allows for, just...gone
I enjoy @TheGoodDeath's videos IMMENSELY, and if I want to watch her most recent videos, I can enjoy the captions that she provides, but for older videos, that maybe isn't an option, which allows her community to provide those for those that want or need them.
I think it's astounding that @YouTube hasn't had a single response (as far as I've seen) to @RikkiPoynter and everyone else who is just, confused and upset that a useful feature is being scrapped in lieu of something we haven't gotten a concrete answer about.
Even if one person used this feature. Just one, and they have benefitted from it, there is no excuse to take it away. Accessibility isn't optional, it's not something you can just take and give at will. If it's being "abused," fix it. #SaveCommunityContributions
If people abuse those features, why not make a Mod feature of some sort? Granted, I don't know how Community Contributions work on the creator's side, but there are so many basic changes that can be made to make it easier for everyone to make videos more accessible. This isn't it
I'll be linking some things under this thread related to this topic
