Policies

Comments Policy (YouTube)

Interacting with viewers’ comments posted on tutorials at https://www.youtube.com/techfixflix is a huge priority for TechFixFlix, as we develop our brand and nurture our community, investing a considerable amount of our time to ensure that every one of your comments is read and replied to in detail and that your questions are answered as fully as possible to the best of our knowledge.

Our aim is to create a safe online space where everyone is welcomed and valued, accessible to all ages, reflecting our brand and values, and attractive to our advertisers and commercial partners. We treat user comments and our replies as an extension of our platform and brand, carrying almost equal weight to the primary video content. As such, we moderate our comments carefully, and will remove any which we believe to be inappropriate, as exemplified by the non-exhaustive list reproduced below.

We use YouTube’s Block/Hide User feature as our primary enforcement mechanism, meaning that any comment can be rendered invisible to other users. Additionally, any previous comments submitted by the user will also be hidden from public view. We operate a single strike policy, without appeal. Whilst we appreciate that our decisions are necessarily subjective, we will entertain no further discussion once a viewer has been blocked. Our comment review programme typically processes and approves or rejects any comment within twenty-four hours of submission, although this may be extended where a longer response is required.

It isn’t our intention to restrict free speech, discussion and even debate via this policy, and the total number of users blocked via this policy has been remarkably low. In our channel’s first three years, only 140 users have been blocked by this mechanism, which is a tiny percentage of the overall comments we have received. Checking the comments for any of our videos will provide numerous examples of comments which we deem acceptable.

Examples Of Unacceptable Comments

This is a non-exhaustive list of the types of comment which we will not approve. It is derived from examples received over three years of real-world comments, and will be updated over time to reflect future issues as they arise.

Discriminatory Language

Any user directing discriminatory language toward TechFixFlix staff or members of our community relating to accent, age, appearance, disability, ethnicity, gender, marital or parental status, nationality, personal association, physical features, race, religion or sexual orientation, will be subject to this policy.

Bullying And Harassment

Any comment which, in our view, has the intent of bullying or harassing a member of staff or our community for any reason will be subject to this policy.

Revealing Personally Identifiable Information Or Passwords

The very nature of our field brings us into contact with users’ personal information and passwords. On occasion, users have inadvertently supplied information in public fora which may be personally identifiable, and/or present a security risk to that individual. Users in this category will not be blocked from future comments, although the specific comment containing their information will be deleted.

Profanity / Swearing

We’re certainly not prudish in relation to the creative linguistic arts, but we appreciate that many people are, and societal norms of politeness dictate that our site be acceptable to the broadest section of society. Our intention is that anyone should be able to access our content at any time, without the risk of being offended. From a commercial standpoint, we also strive to be a brand which advertisers are happy to place their advertisements beside.

Naturally, this is highly subjective, particularly when profanity is used for comic effect. As a general guide, we use major television networks’ pre-watershed guidelines when assessing suitability. In short, if you don’t hear it on B.B.C. television before 9 p.m., you won’t read it in comments for TechFixFlix videos.

We appreciate that this is further complicated by the fact that we attract an international audience, sometimes communicating in a second language or even via translation tools. This means that sometimes we may get this wrong, and so might you.

Arguing

The internet is fundamentally broken, and civility is always the first casualty. We intend to change that, and will continue to approach all discussions civilly. In short, we will not argue with you. There is nothing to be gained from it.

Almost every discussion forum follows a similar thread, where an initial comment is posted, a second comment disagrees, then the original poster counters angrily, and an argument follows. Having created humanity’s greatest learning resource and educational tool, we waste it by screaming at each other. Tech channels are the worst offenders, where frustration is high, tolerance is low, and levels of understanding occupy a wide spectrum.

We advocate an entirely different model for internet discussion, based upon civility, politeness, decency and understanding. We invite you to follow us in this aim. We will happily offer assistance to anyone who observes this simple initiative.

Trolling

Whether or not a user is intentionally trolling us, or a member of our community is again a subjective issue, and not always straightforwardly defined. Where suspected trolling is observed in our comments, the user will be subject to this policy.

Typing Random Letters Or Unintelligible Sentences / Comments Which Fail To Add Value

Any comment which fails to add value to subsequent readers will be subject to this policy. Strings of random letters, numbers or symbols, or unintelligible sentences will be removed for the benefit of future reference.

Cross-Promotion Of Rival Channels / Brands / Options

We invest an incredible amount of time and resources producing high-quality original content for publication on our channel. We therefore consider it to be poor form for users to promote their own content or channels on our platform without good reason, and will remove any comments using our video as a promotional tool.

Sub-For-Sub

The practice of reciprocal subscription does nothing to advance the organic growth of a channel, and we will not participate in or promote such practices. We will remove any direct or indirect reference to this practice.

Scams

Any attempt to deliberately mislead members of our community for any reason will be subject to this policy.

Breach of Copyright, Piracy, Cracks

As a channel dealing primarily with computer software, our comments inevitably attract those looking to distribute copyright material, typically in pirated or “cracked” form. Naturally, these products both deny revenue for legitimate software authors and distributors, and potentially endanger the security of the device upon which they are running. Consequently, postings of this type will be subject to this policy.

Requests For Our Work Product

Some of our projects produce or manipulate software or files in a redistributable form. For example, our projects which run macOS under virtualisation on Windows create an .iso file containing a macOS operating system installer. We frequently receive requests to upload or send these works to our viewers, despite clearly stating in every video that such requests will not be honoured. As such, we are effectively being invited to participate in breach of copyright in the form of software piracy, which we will not do. We are not a software publisher, and our role is to provide tools and instruction, rather than an end product. Where we make a resource available for download, this will be clearly identified both in our videos and written descriptions.

Describing As A Virus Or Malware

All software demonstrated on our platform is extensively researched and tested, and potentially evaluated and used over a period of several years, before being included on our channel. Consequently, we can state with a high degree of confidence that no product shown will contain a virus or malware when obtained from an official source in the normal course of business. Any user making such an accusation must provide a detailed analysis in support of their assertion, or their comments will be subject to this policy.

“Doesn’t Work”

Anyone casually reading comments for a video and seeing the phrase “Doesn’t work” without context, explanation or exemplification will naturally think twice before following that tutorial, potentially costing that channel its viewer. Every video we make is extensively tested over an extended period in advance of its publication, and we can state with certainty that our methods work. As with any tech tutorial, we cannot guarantee that it will work on every possible configuration of every system, and it would be wholly unrealistic to imagine that it could. Whilst we understand that a particular technique may not work for you on a particular setup, we will not accept unfounded and unelaborated assertions which incorrectly characterise an entire project. We will always reply in instances where the user states “this isn’t working for me because…” or “this isn’t working for me, and this happens…”

Suggestions Of Fakery

Our tutorials are highly stylised to distinguish them from the pack, and present the clearest possible explanation and user experience. Our videos overlay graphics, are not run in real-time to avoid unnecessary waste and are tightly edited. This distinctive style has been received with overwhelming positivity…and occasional disbelief. We exercise considerable editorial control in order to make the best content with the greatest level of clarity we can offer. However, the tutorials never move away from a linear representation of any process, with a clear line drawn from beginning to end. As such, they are every bit as valid as an unedited and unannotated tutorial run in real time. We will not accept accusations to the contrary, and will delete them.

When we said we love to hear from you…

…we meant it. Don’t be too put off by the stipulations listed above. The overwhelming majority of posts in our comments are absolutely fine, and receive a reply from us within 24 hours. Don’t forget to provide as much detail as possible, including corresponding timecodes from our videos where applicable.