Comments on: “MormonMessages” YouTube Channel Update

By: David Nielson

David Nielson — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 03:00:24 +0000

Good question. We are learning that religious videos tend to be very polarizing. The comments coming in either tend to be very positive or very negative. We will allow comments that contain honest suggestions for improvement or questions. We will also allow neutral and positive feedback. We will not show comments that are overtly negative towards the Church or its leaders on an official Church channel. This may have some negative effect on credibility, but the alternative is not acceptable. Of course, the star ratings are unfiltered.

By: rr

rr — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:26:24 +0000

Nice to see the Church on YouTube, but the video commentaries appear heavily moderated — I see only comments that heap unequivocal praise on the videos. I’m curious what effect this very overt PR has on credibility.

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:56:37 +0000

I like this site very much, I agree with its purpose and I agree that the Church and as many member as possible should put up as much good content as possible. I have one suggestion about your comment on the top though. I have never seen the anti m video you mentioned, only heard about it, I think you should not mention it directly, or it could spark curiosity and produce the opposite result of what we are all trying to do.

Your comment is: “…I want Church-friendly content to be at the top of the search results, not the Godmakers video…” perhaps you could say the same thing without mentioning an anti Mormon video specifically. So if you wouldn’t mind, could you change that and delete my comment as well for the same purpose? Thanks a lot. Again, I’m very excited about the force for good this effort of sharing the Gospel online can have. At the very least it will counteract all the junk that’s out there.

Regards,

Alex

By: David Nielson

David Nielson — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:43:39 +0000

While I disagree with your assertion that inappropriate content is there “almost every time,” it sounds like we can agree on the benefits of achieving partner status.

By: Ted

Ted — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:19:47 +0000

I’m really glad the Church now has partner status. The inappropriate videos were not “occasional”; there was either anti-mormon stuff in the related list or sexually inappropriate stuff in the promoted list almost every time. This will remove a big barrier to my letting my kids watch this.

By: Jon Bell

Jon Bell — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:11:39 +0000

There are lots of us that feel the same way. Myself and a small group of other BYU students are trying to bring uplifting entertainment to the internet via a new web series that we are producing. The story is fiction, but we hope it will be uplifting and entertaining to those who watch and participate. We also have a youtube channel (also not an endorsement of all youtube content, but an effort to bring uplifting content to where the people are) at http://www.youtube.com/thebookofjer3miah. Our website is http://www.jer3miah.com. We would for more viewers and any feedback as well.

By: Semyon

Semyon — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:11:02 +0000

Ah, I wish I could watch all these videos! Alas, I’m a BYU student.

By: David Nielson

David Nielson — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:23:45 +0000

Thanks for the suggestions. A quick update. YouTube granted Content Partner status to MormonMessages so we are looking into what that will allow us to do. We are also going to try the titling suggestion on upcoming videos.

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:38:56 +0000

Big fan of this new direction the Church has been taking. Glad to see that MormonMessages is updated frequently as well. I second the encouragement of looking into partner status–all Church channels should–there are some real advantages to it. Because it’s an official Church channel and it is getting good traffic, you shouldn’t have any problem getting approved.

One major suggestion is that you mention you want these kind of videos to come up when people search for “Mormon” and similar phrases. If that’s the case, those words–”Mormon”, “Mormons”, etc.–need to be included in the title. With the views they are getting, many of the MormonMessages videos would show among the top results if they had “Mormon” in the title. However, they are only showing for phrases like “Dieter F. Uchtdorf” or “Gordon Hinckley.”

Even if you just put “Mormon Messages: Dieter F. Uchtdorf – Create”, this would have a MAJOR impact–maybe consider putting the phrase “Mormon Messages” (two words) in the title of each video.

Keep up the great work. You are taking LDS Youtube videos to a new level.

By: Rob W

Rob W — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:28:07 +0000

Definitely look into becoming a YouTube Content Partner so you can have more control over what appears under “Related Videos”. I think being a partner actually allows you to remove that feature altogether. Of course, you’ll have to meet certain criteria to even be considered, which includes having thousands of visitors per day.