Caption your signed videos in YouTube! Be forewarned. They are out there. Waiting for anybody on his or her "enemies list" as their motive to flag your video when it does not violate any of YouTube's community guidelines. These abusive flaggings were perhaps made easier when videos were done in sign language.
In a YouTube video presentation Th3HaroldDeafVideo brought up a possible problem of YouTube and that is they don't have YouTube video reviewers who know (at least skillfully enough to see the nuances) sign language of signed videos that were flagged. Th3HaroldDeafVideo recounted a time when a few well known deaf vloggers who were targeted by haters had their YouTube account suspended for the supposed violation of YouTube's community guidelines. And raised the specter that YouTube may have video reviewers who may know some sign language but not enough to understand adequately the nuances of sign language, do not know sign language at all when reviewing, or they are deferring to the number of flags a video received without attempting to understand what was said in a signed video. Those are the possibilities.
Has anybody ever been a victim of flagged (signed) videos by malicious flaggers in your own YouTube account when those videos did not at all violate YouTube's community guidelines?
Hence, one of the good reason to include captions to your signed videos as a way to protect yourself and minimize the chance of your videos getting flagged by haters who will hate you (as a person) regardless of what you said in your videos. Especially when haters who come in packs and target your videos for removal with the goal of getting your YouTube account closed through excessive (abusive) flagging of videos.
Here is YouTube's community guidelines. And here's the page to YouTube's Content Reporting and Removal with specifics like Flagging Videos in the menu to select from. Here's is what they say about flagging.
Flagging videos is anonymous and no one will know who flagged the video, however we do require you to be logged in to flag a video. YouTube staff review flagged videos 24 hours a day, seven days a week to determine whether they violate our Community Guidelines and nothing will be removed automatically or with enough flags. Encouraging others to flag another user's video off the site may be considered harassment and could result in a strike on your account or account suspension.Note the yellow highlight. Th3HaroldDeafVideo may be right that there is a group of deaf people in YouTube land who have in mind to collectively harass any particular deaf vlogger in YouTube they don't like by flagging his/her signed videos as an attempt to get the person's YouTube's account suspended. If that's the case then those people are simply cyberbullies who have nothing better to do but flag videos of people they don't like. Flagging abuse is common in YouTube as you can see. Although I do wonder why these abusive flaggers behave like? Is it the content they don't like or more like they don't like the person because he or she violates their own "deafhood" sensibilities and don't know any better?
My signed videos have never been flagged. I include my own captions in my own videos. Maybe it's time to include captions in your own signed videos just for good measure in case your YouTube video gets flagged with the possibility that YouTube video reviewers may not know or know little sign language to know the difference? If you know you're a controversial person or are not well liked by some in the deaf community, maybe it's time to include captions to your signed videos from now on? Might be a smart move. After all, haters gonna hate. I've had my share.
Addendum:
It's just not a YouTube problem but anywhere on the internet social scene such as Facebook or even in a deaf run community forum where haters who try and appeal to moderators with constant whining and complaining by hitting the "complaint button" or, if you're unlucky enough, get moderators who are themselves unwitting abusers of their own moderating powers by making up stuff along the way as a reason to get your account suspended or banned. Either way, haters gonna hate.
Addendum II:
In YouTube's Community Guidelines on "Harassment" near the bottom it states:
It comes down to respect. YouTube is all about sharing and interacting with the community in respectful ways. If you're not sure whether a video or comment you've made crosses the line, follow a simple rule of thumb: if you wouldn't say it to someone's face, don't say it on YouTube. And if you're looking to attack, harass, demean, or impersonate others, go elsewhere.The problem is when harassment really becomes a harassment issue? Or perhaps the real issue is whether the person has a thin skin or thick skin who would either squeal like a stuck pig and make harassment charges or have that person simply shrugs his shoulders and move on?
