YouTube Comments Discontinuation

Hello,

I have disabled the ability for people to comment on my YouTube videos directly on YouTube and the rest of this will explain why. If you want to contact me, please email me at me@xeiaso.net or any of the other contact methods listed at xeiaso.net/contact.

I use YouTube as a glorified file host for my videos. I use YouTube for this because YouTube seems to have the longest staying power and seems to be stable enough that I can rely on YouTube being the only copy of some of my older videos. As such, I don't totally actively monitor YouTube beyond what I get emails about. I'm thankful for the amount of support and for most of the comments I get on YouTube, but there are also some other things that come up that make me have to change my stance.

Being a visibly transgender person on the internet is a chore. I've managed to extract myself from online spaces with people that actively abuse me and I adjust settings aggressively to prevent future harassment. My Twitter account has an app attached to it that mutes everyone I don't follow in an effort to try to curb the hate I get that way. I think my Twitter blocklist is almost at 2000 entries now.

I recently got a YouTube comment that I am going to quote in its entirety:

Nice video, you he she furry cunt.

This is the kind of abuse that transgender people get on the internet, and I really really don't want to be in a position where I have to moderate this. I also don't want to have to have anyone I know moderate it. So my only real option is to close the YouTube comments on my videos in an effort to stop further hate. It is sad that I feel like I have no other option, I have gotten a vast majority of positive, topical and otherwise insightful comments. However YouTube comments are an environmental sacrifice zone. I do not want to propagate hate in my inattention to what random people do to a social aspect of a filehost that I just happen to use for videos.

If you see something that I say in a video and want to comment on it, please contact me through other means than YouTube comments. If I don't reply instantly on Twitter, I'll reply once I do a regular review of my lockout folder in Block Party. The more reliable way is going to be to email me though.

Be well to eachother, and please do what you can to avoid letting hate propagate.

I have one extra aside for the author of that comment I quoted: making those comments at the expense of other people is not funny. It is not edgy. It is not cute, and it is not a good way to get yourself known, and it is a fantastic way to end up alone in life.