10. Managing Your Uploaded Videos
In the previous chapter you learned how to upload videos to YouTube. Your work's not done, however; you still have to manage your videos, block unwanted viewers, view user comments and ratings, and so on.
Editing Video Information
As discussed in Chapter 9, "Uploading Videos to YouTube," you can edit any and all information entered about your video on the Edit My Videos page. You get to this page by clicking the My Videos link on the YouTube home page; this displays a list of all the videos you've uploaded, as shown in Figure 10.1. From here, click the Edit Video Info button underneath the video you want to edit.
Figure 10.1. Click the Edit Video Info button to edit information for a specific video.
The fun begins when the Edit My Videos page appears, as shown in Figure 10.2. Here you can edit the video's title, description, tags, category, language, date and location details, sharing details, and the like. Click the Update Video info button when you're done editing.
Figure 10.2. Editing video information.
What can you do if you don't like the thumbnail image that YouTube chooses for your video? Nothing, unfortunately. YouTube doesn't have a facility to choose your own thumbnail image, so you have to live with the image that YouTube automatically selects.
Removing a Video from YouTube
When a video has run its course you can remove it from the YouTube site; otherwise, it'll stay online forever. (Or until YouTube goes out of business, whichever comes first.) To remove a video from YouTube, click the My Videos link on the YouTube home page to display the list of all your videos; click the Remove Video button below the video you want to delete. It's that simple.
Think twice before you click the Remove Video button. All videos you remove are permanently deleted from the YouTube site. You'll need to re-upload the video if you click the Remove Video button by mistake.
Dealing with Viewers and Viewer Comments
One of the fun things about uploading videos to YouTube is that you get to see the comments and responses from people who've viewed your videos. Although this can be fun, it isn't always pleasant—which is why YouTube lets you manage these comments.
Enabling or Disabling Comments and Video Responses
Viewers can leave both text comments and video responses to your videos—if you let them. At your discretion, you can allow, disallow, or allow with prior approval either comments or video responses for any individual video you upload. (This means you can allow comments for one video while disallowing comments for another.)
To control comments and video responses, click the My Videos link on the YouTube home page to display the list of all your videos; click the Edit Video Info button below the video you want to control.
When the Edit My Videos page appears, scroll down to the Sharing section. In particular, you're interested in the Allow Comments and Allow Video Responses options, shown in Figure 10.3. For either option you can choose the following settings:
- Yes, with Approval—Viewers can submit comments and video responses, but you have to approve these comments/responses before they appear on your video page.
- Yes, Automatic—Viewers can submit comments and video responses, and these comments/responses appear immediately on your video page.
- No—The comments and video responses sections do not appear on your video page.
Figure 10.3. Enabling or disabling comments and video responses.
Make sure you click the Update Video Info button after you've made any changes to these options.
Approving Comments and Video Responses
If you choose the "With Approval" option for comments or video responses, you have to manually approve any comments or responses viewers post to this video. When a viewer posts a comment or response, YouTube sends you an email, like the one in Figure 10.4. Thus notified, go to the YouTube site and click the email link at the top of any YouTube page, and then click the Video Comments (for text comments) or Video Responses (for video responses) link.
Figure 10.4. YouTube sends an email notification when you receive a comment or response to your video.
As you can see in Figure 10.5, this displays a list of all pending comments/responses in your inbox. Click the message link to display the comment, as shown in Figure 10.6. From here you can choose from the following options:
- Reply—Click to post a reply to a viewer comment.
- Remove—Click to disallow a pending comment, or remove a previously approved comment.
- Block User—Click to block a user from posting future comments.
- Approve—Click to approve and post this specific comment to your video page.
- Spam—Click to report this comment to YouTube as spam.
Figure 10.5. Pending comments and responses in your YouTube inbox.
Figure 10.6. Responding to a viewer comment.
So to approve a comment or response to your video, click the Approve link. To not approve a comment, click the Remove link.
Removing Viewer Comments and Responses
As you just learned, you can remove viewer comments and responses from the Video Comments and Video Responses sections of your YouTube inbox. You can also remove comments from the video page itself. Make sure you're signed in to YouTube; then go to the video page. Find the comment or video response you want to remove and then click the Remove link beneath that comment/response, as shown in Figure 10.7. Easy!
Figure 10.7. Removing an unwanted comment—click the Remove link.
Blocking Members from Leaving Comments
Every now and then you'll run into a virtual stalker; some disgruntled type who delights in leaving negative comments on all your videos. Although you can manually remove all of this user's comments, a better approach is to keep him from leaving those comments in the first place.
To this end, YouTube lets you block members from leaving comments and responses (and from sending personal messages to your YouTube inbox). To block a user, all you have to do is click on that member's name to access his channel/profile page, scroll to the Connect With box (shown in Figure 10.8), and click the Block User link. This user will now be blocked from commenting on your videos and contacting you.
Figure 10.8. Block a user from his or her channel/profile page.
You can also block a user who's commented on your video, directly from the video page. Just click the Block User link under that user's comments.
Unsubscribing Users from Your Channel
In addition to blocking user comments, you may also want to get rid of unwelcome subscribers to your video channel. You do this by clicking the My Account link at the top of any YouTube page; when the My Account page appears, scroll down to the Subscriptions & Subscribers section and click the Subscribers to My Videos link. This displays a list of members subscribed to your videos, as shown in Figure 10.9. To remove a subscriber, simply click the Unsubscribe link under the subscriber's name.
Figure 10.9. Removing a subscriber to your video channel.
Learn more about channels in Chapter 12, "Joining the YouTube Community—And Creating Your Own Channel."
Viewing and Managing Video Ratings
The other way that users can provide feedback on your videos is via YouTube's rating system. As you recall, videos can be rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 5 stars being the best and 1 star being the worst.
You can't rate your own videos, of course, but you can view the average rating of the other users who've viewed your videos. Just go to the video page and scroll to the options box below the video player; the current star rating will be displayed there.
You also have the option of not allowing viewers to rate your video. This may be desirable if you have private home movies posted, or real estate walk-throughs, or other types of videos that you don't want to be perceived in a negative fashion.
To turn off ratings for a specific video, click the My Videos link on YouTube's home page and then click the Edit Video Info button beneath that video. When the Edit My Videos page appears, scroll down to the Sharing section and the Allow Ratings option, shown in Figure 10.10. The default setting is Yes; select No if you don't want viewers to rate this video. Click the Update Video Info button when finished.
Figure 10.10. Disabling ratings for a video.
Want to increase your YouTube ratings? Then check out the tips in Chapter 14, "Profiting from Your YouTube Videos."