YouTube's *Greatest* Forgotten Feature

Back in the day, YouTube used to have what was called video responses. Actually, they were a quite popular feature. However, they had less than a 1% clickthrough rate, took up too much space, and were considered to be clumsy.

In spite of all of this, I think they should make a return; here's why.

First and foremost, video responses were social: they encouraged engagement with the material you were watching. A single click on the like button or a comment do not fill this niche. When you made a video response, you were engaging with the platform and its creators in a visceral way; this builds a strong sense of community. 

These days, YouTube has prioritized shorts, and its rampant Tik-Tokification has not gone unnoticed. 

The only problem is: where should these video responses be displayed? 

I propose that the first thumbnail immediately adjacent to the current video should contain a playlist containing all of the video responses. YouTubers would have the ability to turn responses on or off on a given video at their own discretion.

The cons of maintaining video responses is that it would eat up a lot of server space; however, these days, everything's on the cloud. Data isn't even real anymore. It's all a figment of our imagination.

I mean, qubits and quantum dots, are those even real? What's an electron? What's that got to do with the price of tea in Bhutan?

I think I know where I stand in this debate: bring 'em back. It may be the losing side, but this is the hill I'm willing to die on.