YouTube comment sections are a dark place that you should only visit when you’re inebriated – or maybe not at all. But now the YouTube creators have a bit more control over their comment sections – if they haven’t turned comments off altogether.
Pinning Comments
Creators can pin their favorite comments to the top of the feed. You can either highlight great fan comments or your own comment filled with important information.
Show The Love
You can also give a “heart” Twitter-style to your favorite comments as well. This is an easy and fun way to let your viewers know you’ve actually read through the comments.
Usernames
When you comment on your own channel, your username will have a colorful border around it. Viewers will be able to tell that your account is the legitimate one in case someone else has made a fake account in your name. Verified creators will also have the recognizable checkmark next to their names too.
Moderators
As a creator of a YouTube channel you already have the ability to designate trusted people as moderators. This lets you focus more on content creation and less on the vitriol of negative commenters.
Blacklisting
The blacklisting feature could be thought of as a type of parental filtering. You’ll be able to block certain words and phrases from appearing in your comments. Add them to the box next to Blacklist and use a comma to separate words and phrases.
Comments that closely match these will be held for your approval, unless they were written by someone in your approved user list. You can even block certain links from appearing in comments as well. This should limit spammers.
These tools will be gradually rolling out over time, but if you want to submit your channel to try them out ahead of time, fill out this form.
