Well, there's currently no way to successfully block virus links in YT comments so I'll be disabling them on new vids until there is.
— Stuart Ashen (@ashens) November 10, 2013
Virus links can be anywhere on the Internet but we can use our brains to avoid clicking bad links. Will Stuart Ashen be blocking all links on the Internet? If a link is shortened there are various URL X-ray sites to see where the link goes without clicking it, but usually you can guess whether or not the link is likely bad. The new YouTube comment system is brilliant, yes some people will abuse it but we should NOT limit communication due to the people who abuse the system.
LOL regarding v3.co.uk who wrote: "YouTube co-founder Jared Karim returned from eight years of silence on the site to post his first ever comment..."
Well, it seems the new YouTube comments are good for promoting debate, 8 years of silence broken!
G+ is great and the comment integration with YouTube is brilliant. I think anonymity on the net is a good thing. Initially I thought a G+ account wasn't essential for commenting on YouTube but its seems a G+ account is needed. You can however set-up your YouTube account to allow commenting via a business or other non-personal name, which means you have a G+ Page in any name instead of a personal profile. Anonymity on G+ being a bit of grey area. After nymwars G+ started allowing some people to be anonymous. I have been suspended twice on G+ due to my name but I successfully appealed each time.
My support of the G+ and Tube integration is only regarding the longer posts, the ability to include links, and the mixing of + and Tube comments, my support is independent of the anonymity issues. I already had a G+ account so I can't really comment on whether or not forcing people to get a G+ account is a bad thing.
On the issue of spam I don't think blocking links is the answer, it's like taking way our freedoms to prevent terrorism, I'd rather have freedom with a greater threat of terrorism. Twitter has a spam and malicious link problem too but they don't block links.
Internet novices or kids may not know how to use the Internet safely, but we shouldn't create a padded cell type Internet to cater for uneducated types. ISPs or shcools or parents or websites should tell newbies how to use the net in one simple page, it wouldn't take more than a handful of sentences: Use good up-to-date anti-virus software. Some links could be malicious, they could damage your computer via malware. Be careful what you download/install. Use this URL x-ray if you want to see where a short link goes. Be careful talking to strangers.
I like the idea of long YouTube comments, which are displayed in contracted form. You can expand the long comment to see more, or not if you don't want to read more. The idea of posts made on G+ being displayed in the comments of YouTube is great IMO, I don't think it is bizarre, it's a great way to unify the different aspects of Google, it is a great way to increase the debate, it's great networking.
I think Google could actually go a step further by having a tab regarding Tweets or Facebook posts which mention/discuss the video, but due the the walled-gardens mentality I doubt that will happen soon.
It's a shame some big YouTube users have turned off comments. Perhaps they will come back when YouTube or Google fine-tunes the new commenting system. If they actually gave it a chance their input could help refine things, maybe. The G+ and YouTube integration could be great for content creators because they can now follow a part of the conversation they were previously unaware of. Hopefully Google's attempts to create AI will weed-out spam.