Youtube Audio Preview

Posted byRandall 576 Comments on Youtube Audio Preview

Wow. It seems someone at YouTUBE took this comic seriously and decided to add an “Audio Preview” feature. Now you can hear your comments read aloud to you.

Of course, it’s an optional button using speech synth rather than a mandatory dramatic reading, so it’ll just be used for entertainment by people who haven’t played with a speech synthesizer before:

But then, after a little more browsing around, I see this:

So maybe there’s hope after all.

576 replies on “Youtube Audio Preview”

  2. The problem will be that instead of actually realizing the moronic-ness (is that a word?) of youtube posts, the authors will instead refuse to use the audio preview, and continue to post spam. (Not advertising spam, content spam)

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  3. I think they need to add a feature where the comment is read in the voice of a whiny 10 year old girl – the average maturity level of a youtube commenter.

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  4. “(The audio preview of my own post sounded moronic!)”

    I love this. There’s something almost poetic about it.

    It’s funny, because the moment I saw that feature on Youtube, I came right here because I knew there would be a blag. I just knew it.

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  6. @Andrew

    Regarding the refusal of users to listen to their own comments…perhaps they can lookup how many comments a user has made that has been given a negative rating. A user with an average rating of -5 (or whatever) will initiate the playback of their comments automatically before it is posted.

    Once a user reaches another milestone of -10, a simple message indicating the user is a douchebag could be displayed so that they are self aware.

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  9. “(The audio preview of my own post sounded moronic!)”

    Unfortunately this illustrates that audio preview does not have effect the xkcd comic intended.
    This poster blames the audio preview for the moronicity of his own post.

    (The audio preview of this post sounded fantastic!)

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  10. Hahaha, amazing! They so took the idea from you.

    The free speech ideologist in me is very pleased that words like motherfucker are still allowed. Not that I need to use those words. I just like the possibility.

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  13. The second I saw that I came here to check the blag, how awesome haha. I’m not sure how useful the feature is, but I’m 100% with AtlasRider on his idea. You get brownie points.

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  14. The dramatic readings had me in stitches. Crying like a babby. Best thing in the whole WORLDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!

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  15. First 4chan’s r9k board, now YouTube?

    XKCD will rule the world (of the internet)!

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  17. What? A powerful public company recreating your comic? If I were you, I’ll surely suspect about my so-called “reallity”.

    Wake up Randall (“Truman Show” references are also applicable).

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  21. I just saw this feature and immediately came over to see if there was a blag.

    It’s a really bad voice synth though, the one on my computer sound so much better.

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  22. With blurred names and without links to the videos in question, I am forced to assume that you fabricated those screen shots.

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  24. Wow! I came across this feature a minute ago and immediately rushed here to preach the good news. This is what happens when Youtube is owned by Google. They LISTEN.

    The audio preview feature is still quite buggy. For me, it cuts out about four seconds before it should, and the voice is difficult to understand. However, there IS hope. I must say Well Done to the both of you!

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  25. OGM thats awsome!!!!!!!!!

    i got mad lulz from tihs…mclame is a douche lol its really funny hearing that read out lout…i didnt no computers could “do” that…talking i mean…teh prob with youtube coments is that youtubers are all morons … thatll change wunce this feature starts getting used!!!!

    (Note: Stylistic satire of YouTube comments is hurtful to your intelligence. I feel a bit dumber than I did just a few minutes ago. I imagine after writing this comic Randall’s IQ was cut in half for a few days.)

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  26. Greatest thought ever, and it actually came to be. Listen to it before you submit it. It’s funny because it’s true, and came to be. Thank you xkcs. I hope it works. 😀

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  27. I request the update of “life imitates xkcd” section of wikipedia article.

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  28. Wouldn’t a feature like that be useful enough for people who are say… blind or partially sighted?

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  29. It caught me off guard because it sounds like a synthesized version of my own voice.

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  30. Nice, now its ultra easy to make it into a virus.

    You could probably even do it with html injection.

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  31. Oh my [non] god. Life will never be the same… They should require audio preview until you have a certain amount of up-rated comments.

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  32. But how would we force the idiots to leave their speakers on?

    This is going to wind up involving some very elaborate hacking…

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  35. Oh wow. Now I definitely need to find a way to implement “xkcd in Popular Culture” in any Wikipedia page that i can.

    Hearing myself say something is really, really fun. It makes me think, Would people think I sound like that? So, I guess it does its job, and does it well. Anf for the record, I post nice youtube comments, honestly! C:

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  37. I was playing with it myself and several people point out XKCD as a likely inspiration. And the “play” button has been put where the “post comment” button used to be so a hell of a lot of people are clicking it accidentally. So in many cases people are getting a default dramatic reading of their comment without intending it.

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  38. I hope that maybe the internet will start using other of the sometimes childish (but always clever) ideas here at xkcd. Maybe one day, in the future, his ideas may be intergrated into society (although if he gets it into the internet he’s basically taken over the world!!). Though I agree with others here that we need to do something about the douchebags who simply will not listening to their comment, maybe if the comment is “douchebagyish” enough, a message should pop up saying “Hey moron, ya you, obviously it took you a long time to rake your brain for that many swear words, but instead of using up all that time looking for cuss words, why don’t you do something productive. Like… oh I don’t know, kill yourself. It would offend a lot less people than your comment would.”

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  40. I noticed it a couple of minutes ago, and immediately thought “XKCD is behind this”. I checked the blag, and here it was… It’s amazing to know that important people will listen to your (awesome) ideas.

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  44. That is truly the most amazing thing I have seen as a result of an XKCD comic. I am just hoping that people will actually use it.

    George Gough

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  47. Wow. I just noticed the Audio Preview button on YouTube and came here to see if Randall had noticed it as well. Guess so.

    Fuckin’ hilarious.

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  49. Quote from Otto
    “It’s amazing that Randal wields such awesome power!

    But… will he use it for good, or for evil?”

    I believe you meant… will he use it for good, or for awesome!

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