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NEW: @YouTube confirms it is discontinuing its community captions feature, which allowed viewers to contribute subtitles to other channels to make videos accessible to #deaf and hard of hearing people.
The tool will be retired on 28 September 2020. http://liamodell.com/2020/07/30/youtube-axes-community-captions-feature-citing-low-usage-rikki-poynter-creator-insider-deaf-accessibility-pewdiepie-jacksepticeye-no-more-craptions/
The tool will be retired on 28 September 2020. http://liamodell.com/2020/07/30/youtube-axes-community-captions-feature-citing-low-usage-rikki-poynter-creator-insider-deaf-accessibility-pewdiepie-jacksepticeye-no-more-craptions/
The proposal was first announced on the Creator Insider channel in April, and was met with criticism from the #deaf community.
"[They] gave us more captioned channels and now we will risk having less of that," @rikkipoynter told TenEighty UK. http://liamodell.com/2020/07/30/youtube-axes-community-captions-feature-citing-low-usage-rikki-poynter-creator-insider-deaf-accessibility-pewdiepie-jacksepticeye-no-more-craptions/
"[They] gave us more captioned channels and now we will risk having less of that," @rikkipoynter told TenEighty UK. http://liamodell.com/2020/07/30/youtube-axes-community-captions-feature-citing-low-usage-rikki-poynter-creator-insider-deaf-accessibility-pewdiepie-jacksepticeye-no-more-craptions/
@TeamYouTube added they know many users rely on the feature, and confirm that they will be "covering the cost of a 6 month subscription of @AmaraSubs for all creators who have used the [...] feature for at least 3 videos in the last 60 days." https://liamodell.com/2020/07/30/youtube-axes-community-captions-feature-citing-low-usage-rikki-poynter-creator-insider-deaf-accessibility-pewdiepie-jacksepticeye-no-more-craptions/
Deaf campaigner and YouTuber Rikki Poynter responds to the decision. 
https://twitter.com/rikkipoynter/status/1288876550025338886?s=21 https://twitter.com/rikkipoynter/status/1288876550025338886
https://twitter.com/rikkipoynter/status/1288876550025338886?s=21 https://twitter.com/rikkipoynter/status/1288876550025338886
Musician and content creator Emma Blackery, who has more than 1 million subscribers on YouTube, comments on the announcement:
https://twitter.com/emmablackery/status/1288887165779312645?s=21 https://twitter.com/emmablackery/status/1288887165779312645
https://twitter.com/emmablackery/status/1288887165779312645?s=21 https://twitter.com/emmablackery/status/1288887165779312645
It’s also worth mentioning this announcement from YouTube earlier on in the week. It may well be that while community captions are gone, the ability for others to contribute subtitles through permissions may be the alternative going forward. https://twitter.com/liamodelluk/status/1288263489816072192?s=21
Hearing from a lot of people in the quote retweets that this will negatively impact VTubers or ‘Virtual YouTubers’, whose (often) Japanese videos are translated into other languages through this feature.
If you are a VTuber, or caption for someone who is, my DMs are open.
If you are a VTuber, or caption for someone who is, my DMs are open.
An online petition has emerged in response to today’s decision by YouTube. It currently stands at over 100 signatures. https://www.change.org/p/google-inc-don-t-remove-community-captions-from-youtube?recruiter=false&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=share_petition&recruited_by_id=3706e220-d2ab-11ea-9077-6f2c7321394b
Roundup as of midnight (UK time):
- YouTube announced on Tuesday that captions will soon be made available through permissions, but it's unknown if this will be an official replacement.
- A petition set up in response has >1k signatures.
More info. http://liamodell.com/2020/07/30/youtube-axes-community-captions-feature-citing-low-usage-rikki-poynter-creator-insider-deaf-accessibility-pewdiepie-jacksepticeye-no-more-craptions/
- YouTube announced on Tuesday that captions will soon be made available through permissions, but it's unknown if this will be an official replacement.
- A petition set up in response has >1k signatures.
More info.
http://liamodell.com/2020/07/30/youtube-axes-community-captions-feature-citing-low-usage-rikki-poynter-creator-insider-deaf-accessibility-pewdiepie-jacksepticeye-no-more-craptions/
It's getting late here in the UK, so I'll continue to add to this thread and my website tomorrow as more news breaks. http://liamodell.com
UK creator @PhilosophyTube chips in... https://twitter.com/philosophytube/status/1288920122468577280
As does Canadian YouTuber @FoldableHuman, with this interesting thread. https://twitter.com/foldablehuman/status/1288940174726975488
https://twitter.com/foldablehuman/status/1288940174726975488
Just received my email from YouTube about their plans to deprecate community captions in September.
Note the information in the penultimate paragraph. I’ve seen a few tweets around captions which were already published. YouTube confirms these will still be accessible after 28/9.
Note the information in the penultimate paragraph. I’ve seen a few tweets around captions which were already published. YouTube confirms these will still be accessible after 28/9.
I’ve mentioned this to a few people on here, but one question I have for YouTube is around reports of spam through the feature.
YouTube introduced an approval setting for community captions in August 2019, so surely reports of (published) spam after this date would be minimal?
YouTube introduced an approval setting for community captions in August 2019, so surely reports of (published) spam after this date would be minimal?
YouTube is yet to issue a statement in response to concerns following their announcement yesterday, but their @TeamYouTube account appears to be responding to individual enquiries/messages about community captions, sharing their reasons for axing it. https://twitter.com/teamyoutube/status/1289119996619010048?s=21
