I remember joining YouTube back in 2007, around fall. I was immediately attracted by its simple, yet efficient layout, and even though things haven’t changed very much since then, more and more features are being implemented into the site every day, making navigation and video watching extremely irritating at times. For instance, the new “Autoplay” option, situated at the bottom of most videos, pops up each time you pause one, making the website a general pain. Also, the users’ menu (or Control Panel) wasn’t this crammed with a thousand options, out of which at least a quarter seem to be directed towards advertising.

Which brings me to my next issue. For those of you who joined before 2009, then you probably remember that video browsing wasn’t so difficult to attain. Users were able to pick their searching option, be it by “Most comments”, “Most subscribed”, or anything that would satisfy their personal preferences. After 2009 and until the beginning of 2010, when clicking on the “Browse” option, members were instantly redirected to the “Most views” page, marking the beginning of the site’s desire to make more money. That was when YouTube started to go down. From that point up to now, it seems impossible to even try and describe what the “Browse” button had (and still has)  to offer.

The community didn’t feel like one anymore. Only those that were partners with the site got their videos featured at the top of the main page (ironically, even nowadays they are the same users, over and over again, that get their material promoted). This makes the other ‘smaller’ members feel unappreciated and unwelcome. Not to mention that the number of people commenting only to advertise their pornography, or to insult you only because you expressed an opinion, is constantly increasing.

Those being said, I am not sure how much longer I am going to want to be a part of YouTube, if certain aspects don’t change soon.