Hello, it's Hank. Um, this is weird. I'm going to try and write a script while you're watching. Um, I don't know how that's going to go. It's probably just going to be weird, but maybe, uh, it'll be useful to someone out there.

(0:16) So the script I want to write, uh, it's currently called "Untitled Document". It's going to be about comments on the Internet. Um, this is going to be really weird. I have no idea if this is going to work, so we're just going to name it "Comments" for now. That name will not be the name of the video, and I start- this is nice to have a tool to start every script with. (types) And then look! I've started, so I'm not just staring at a blank screen any more. "Good morning, John."

(0:44) Um, I'm not sure- so I know the- the, like, vague thesis of this thing, which is that, uh, I don't think Internet comments are as bad as everybody else thinks they are. There's just sort of, uh, you know, everybody knows, "Don't look at the comments," "YouTube comments are a cesspool of waste and disgusting-ness." People look at Vlogbrothers videos and they say, "Woah, there's a corner of the Internet where Vlog- where comments aren't terrible. Ah, weird!"

(1:13) Um, so my goal is to say, uh, well, maybe, but is that- I- I think that- so, yes, I agree that Internet comments are terrible, but- but the, uh, the- the thesis has been that it's because of anonymity, that anonymity allows - and, like, I've seen no data to support this, I've looked - that anonymity creates, uh, like, like, people are all evil on the inside and once you allow them to be anonymous, then their evil comes out, and, see, we've got evidence of that, right here on comments on the Internet because these people can be anonymous and look that they're terrible. See? Look how terrible they are. Um, but I don't believe that, I don't think. Now, I'm willing to be swayed.

(2:08) So, um, my first thing that I'm doing is- is- is researching this, so I've got "The Psychology of Online Comments" open twice here for some reason. Um, "Several weeks ago, on September 24th..." This is, you know, how you've got to start videos. You have an idea and you're like, "Well, let's see. Um, uh, let's see if this is actually viable or interesting, and if there's anything that we can- we can talk about." So, uh, "Popular Science has banned comments on this website". I just found this by searching for "Internet comments". It was, like, the third thing down.

(2:43) Um, "According to a September Pew poll, a quarter of Internet users have posted comments anonymously." Well, that's a surprisingly low number. "As the age of a user decreases, his reluctance to link a real name..." His? "...with an online remark increases..." Agreed, that makes sense. "...forty per cent of people on the eighteen-to-twenty-nine-year old demographic have posted anonymously." Well, uh, haven't all people on the Internet posted anonymously? Am I- sorry, I might just be confused about this. "One of the most common critiques of online comments cites a disconnect between the commenter's identity and what he [or she] is saying..." Let's not pretend that women can't be trolls, guys. "...a phenomenon that the psychologist John Suler memorably termed the 'online [disinhibition- disinhib- disin-] disinhibition effect.'"

(3:30) Okay, wow, there's it- a PubMed article, so that's legit. From 2004! Well, that seems a little outdated. "While online, some people self-disclose or act out more frequently or intensely than they would in person." I- yes, I agree with that. "[The] article explores six factors that interact with each other..." Oh, but I can't read the whole article. Can I read the whole article? No? Let's look this up and see if I can read it on Google Scholar.

(4:06) [cough] (pause)

(4:14) Full text? Please? Full text? Full text. Ah, I don't want to pay $51 for- for- for- fee- for- for twenty-four hours of viewing. I don't want to do that. That's dumb. Come on. (pause) Hello? Dooty doot doot doot dadoot dadoot. What, where is it? (pause) Okay, now I'm clicking on this and I'm back to where I was before. Woah. "References", "Cited by", "How to Cite", "Author Information", "more content by..." "like this..." "Get PDF". Ah. (sighing) it's always so- ah! I don't ha- no.

(5:06) Well, okay, well, what are the things? What are the six things? The six things that interact - dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic interjection, dissociative imagination and minimizing of authority. Personality variables will also influence the extent of disinhibition. "Rather than thinking of disinhibition as the revealing of an underlying "true self,"" - which is what we generally think we're talking about, when we're talking about online comments being evil. We think that there is some evil lurking in all people, except of course ourselves.

(5:44) Uh, "we can conceptualize there's a shift to a constellation within self-structure" - oh my goodness - "involving clusters of affect and cognition that differ from the in-person constellation". Constellation? Is that like a psychological term I don't know? (deep sigh) Hmm...

(6:01) "The effects of" and then there's related articles over here. Um, "Online communications among adolescents", "Developing a model of adolescent friendship formation on the internet", "Effects of motivations and gender on adolescents' self", "Self disclosure in online chatting" "Disinhibition: its effects on appetite"..and that's a different kind of disinhibition I think. Let's check out this self-disclosure one. "Self-disclosure on the Internet. The effects of anonymity on the self and the other." This sounds interesting to me. "The effects of anonymity on self-disclosure were investigated in a CMC (computer-mediated communication) situation by separately manipulating the anonymity of the self and the other. It was hypothesized that anonymity of the self would enhance disclosure, whereas anonymity of the other would decrease it. Female undergraduate students were randomly assigned to a 2 x 2 experimental design. The anonymity of the self and the other was manipulated in the profile, such as the photo, name, and sex of the self or the other, on the computer screen. The results indicated that anonymity of the self decreased the feeling of anxiety, but had no effect on disclosure, whereas anonymity of the other decreased the feeling of closeness and decreased the intimacy of disclosure." That doesn't sound interesting to me at all. That is exactly the effect that I would've expected. I mean, that's perfectly legitimate research...but... it's not helping me. So let's copy and paste these things. I'm gonna have to guess what they are, 'cause God only knows...What is it? Comments. What's this one? Oh, this is an old script. Um, so, dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, well I know what that is it's the thing about not being the same time. So you're yelling into a void, um, and there's, there's, the conversation is not two-way so you get to argue with yourself for a little while, solipsistic interjection, dissociative imagination, and minimizing of authority. So, um, the reason that I wanted to make this video, which is probably how I'm gonna start the video, is that, uh, in the Nerdfighter Census a lot of people said that they don't comment on Vlogbrothers videos because they are afraid of the comments.

(8:32) Um, let me make sure that I am recording here; I am. Okay, um. So let's, let's start, let's start out. Well, this is gonna be hard to to do this with you watching (haha). Um, good morning John. This is difficult, uh, so what did I do?

(9:33) Mmm, not demographic. Sociological.

(9:47) Katherine: Did you let Lemon out?
Hank: I did. She (pause) and then I left her out there for too long and then she looked at me and then I realized that I did all the dishes with her still outside. And then I let her in. And she was like "Oh, I'm fine. Can I have a bone, please?" (laugh) Yep. Waiting there, standing forever. Freeze like a dog Popsicle if we did it in winter.
Katherine: (laugh) Just...
Hank: Yep, she'd just be standing there.
Katherine: Staring at the door.
Both: (laugh)

(10:24) Hank: (mumbling while re-reading) ...respectful sociological researcher would... light a baby on fire for. That's probably not the best, but you know what I'm getting at. (laugh) See? See, scripts would be funnier if I didn't have to worry about making metaphors like "light a baby on fire for". That's not funny. Yeah, it's only funny to some people, but not all people. Umm, but yes, I will fix that later. Some very dramatic thing. Some very dramatic, but it's very difficult for me to do with you watching, as I say. Umm... question mark? Uh...

(11:38) Ba-babababababa-baba-ba-ba.

(11:57) Uh, now I actually want to load the census up. Cause I wanna actually see what the data says cause it's been a long time. "How often do you comment on videos?" "Only if I have something to add"... So, "Never" is by far the most and "Rarely", so that takes up about 60%. And then, uh, and then the oth- (chuckles) the 30%, so 90% of people basically don't. And then uh, and then I say, somewhere on here, I believe I asked people to... Wait. Right. Okay, so now- Wait.

(12:48) You can't do text analysis with this many results. Uh, "I never log onto YouTube", I "usually don't have anything constructive-", "I'm more of a quiet observer", "Don't have anything meaningful to say", "Nothing to say"... "don't want stalkers." That's terrifying. "YouTube comment section is scary", "Because I already see my opinion expressed...", cause "YouTube comments are a dark and scary place". Uh, "Because I am a towering mountain of ignorance", "Never felt like-" "Low self-esteem", "Just apathetic", "Catching up on videos", "No idea", "Avoiding hate". "Don't have an account", "People on YouTube comments are annoying as hell so I just don't read them". "I don't feel like it", "I don't have a channel", uh, "I don't have anything to say", "Usually get into arguments". (pause) "I refuse to get Google Plus." (pause) "I don't want to embarrass myself too much." Umm... can I search for "hate"? Let's search for "hate". (pause) I have no idea if the hell, if it's going to work. It's going to tell me the number of times the word "hate" appears, that would be nice. That would be helpful. (results pop up) "I hate trolls", I "really hate trolls", showing 78 responses for "hate". How about "trolls"?

(14:34) 89.

(14:46) I'm feeling like it's not searching all 30 responses--30,000 responses--is my guess. It really feels that way to me. What about- What if I search for "comments"? Because if that's not more than a hundred, then- or more than a thousand, with 30,000 people replying. It's definitely not searching all 30,000. It's too fast. (pause) Yeah, a thousand. (pause) So... one thing I c- I mean, obviously I can say uh- That lots of people said they were afraid. Let's look for the word "afraid". I wish I could do 'OR's, but I can't. (sigh)

(15:42) I'm sorry I'm not entertaining you. (pause) You get to see how boring this is. Yeah, so 36 people saying, um... "afraid of confrontation", "afraid of the backlash", "afraid of receiving hate", "afraid of backlash", "afraid of the incorporation of Google Plus", "cyber bullies", "rude people". (pause) "Angry Internet people".

(16:22) "Comments scare me", "comments scare me", "I'm scared of being attacked for my opinion"... Uhh... "because I'm scared of being yelled at", "YouTube comments scare me", "because I'm scared to voice my opinion", "I have anxiety and am scared about other people's criticism". "I'm scared of getting negative comments made toward me", "people scare me", "I'm scared of hate". "I'm scared of judgment". "I'm just scared". (pause) "Scared to have an opinion on the Internet unless it's Tumblr". (chuckles) "Scared to say anything". "Scared that people will be disrespectful", "people are scared of me", "the In- Internet comments scare me", "I'm scared of commenting", "I'm scared of human interaction". That's slightly different. (pause) This is more of a profile of anxiety than it is... of... umm, now I'm re-thinking this. I still want to make this video, but I'm re-thinking the survey aspect of it. "Shy person"... "YouTube comments scare me", "scared to embarrass myself", "scared to express my feelings", mm. "Abusive responses".

(17:36) Umm, interesting. So, starting over from the top here. Umm... I'm here to debunk a myth. At least, I think it's a myth, as previously discussed, I am a towering mountain of ignorance. So- umm- it's very- very hard to uh, to have an opinion anymore after realizing how uh- how- how people don't really have the right to have opinions, because we're all probably wrong. But, no one's right. No one's 100% right. But anyway uhh... (pause while typing) Okay. Umm... I think the thing I want to say is that the Internet- this is- this is the pith- umm- the Internet doesn't bring out the worst in people. It brings out the worst people. So that's the- that's the- that's the quotable moment here. Umm, so, so, so I'm here to debunk a myth. A myth that probably all of us believe...

(20:17) ...a fountain of vomitous hate. (pause) Is that not how you spell vomitous? Geez. Uhh... mmm.

(21:59) The argument... (pause) Wah! The arg-Wuhh!

(24:02) Suppose... there's a dickhead. (chuckle) What's a- What's a word I can use instead of dickhead? A shitstick, a cock... face, a douchebag, yeah. Imagine, if you will, a douchebag. Prefer something a liiiiiiiiiiiittle more socially acceptable. Asshole is the actual word for what I want. So what's- I guess- Imagine, if you will- if you will, a d-bag. (chuckles) That's pretty funny.

(26:02) I hope it's okay that I'm assuming this guy is a man. (sigh) Umm, "Imagine if you will, a d-bag. This person goes on the Internet and says nasty things to people. He's a racist and he's a sexist and no one likes him. He has no friends because he doesn't like people and because people don't like him. On average, he expresses his beliefs in person to zero people per day in the physical world, unless he happens to have some d-bag friend."

(26:52) Uh, let's not say the Internet. Let's say anonymity. "Anonymity doesn't bring out the worst in people, it simply brings out... the worst people." Okay, so, "Good morning John! I'm here to debunk a myth. A myth that's probably- A myth that probably all of us believe - a simple statement that's- a simple statement that there's no way not to believe. The Internet clearly brings out the worst in people. Like, I mean, you've seen the comments. People see comments on Vlo-" Eh. (exhale) "YouTube comments are a cultural cesspool, we all know this." (pause) "People see comments on Vlogbrothers- People see comments on Vlogbrothers and they say 'Oh my! The only sane place on the Internet, which, as we all know, allows the- allows the deep evil inside of every human, except for me of course, to spew forth in a fountain of vomitous hate.' And yeah, I see it. On our sex episode of Crash Course Psychology, comments getting voted up saying that homosexuality is a disease. And there are two hosts of SciShow Space - one male and one female - yeah, guess which one gets more hate - guess which one gets comments on their appearance every single video. There's no denying this. But you never really see those people in the real world. I mean, you and your friends, you aren't hate mongers, it must be other people then. The people at the grocery store who seem so nice, but who don't- but who you don't really know. They must go home to the anonymity of the Internet- They must go home and the anonymity of the Internet allows them to share their-" (pause)

(28:47) "shrug off their..." (pause) Yeah, "allows them to shrug off their cultural burden... Shrug off their cultural burden. (continues to read script not on screen capture) That's the argument. And yes, anonymity does have some- That's the argument, but I want to make a hypothes-here. Hypothesis here. Anonymity doesn't bring out the worst in people. It simply brings out the worst people. Imagine, if you will, a d-bag. This person goes on the Internet and says nasty things to people. He's a racist and he's a sexist and no one likes him. He has no friends because he doesn't like people and because people don't like him. On average, he expresses his beliefs to zero people in the physical world per day, unless he happens to have a d-bag friend to reinforce his peculiar beliefs. But on the Internet, he not only gets to express his views, he gets to argue about them. This is a kind of power, getting a reaction out of people. He gets to carefully craft his response to every comment- He gets to carefully craft his response to every comment, it's fun. It's a game, people play along. IRL, this wouldn't be fun at all, it would be terrifying, but in this way, it's just a little thrilling. It's a rush. This person isn't a sweetheart all day long. The reason you don't meet Internet trolls in real life is because they're hiding- Isn't because they're hiding, it's because they don't talk to people, because they've been ostra- ostracized by society because they suck." (inhale)

(30:17) "They are suck." (chuckle and breathing) "Of course this is just a theory, but it would be a fairly easy theory to test because I bet Internet trolls..."

(30:39) Fill? (exhale)

(31:12) (reading while typing) "And honestly, I think finding out about these people is vital because culture of the Internet is greatly influenced by this narrative. People believe that commenters are abusive and so, good people avoid comments. YouTube tends, nowadays, tends to promote discussion rather than good comments, leading to hateful comments that get lots of discussion- that get discussion flowing, being constantly promoted. Indeed, hate is what..." (pause) "Trolling..." (typing)

(33:03) This is already too long, by the way. No, it's not. It's not too long. (pause) "Dissociative anonymity, invisibility, asynchronicity, solipsistic interjection,-" I don't know what that is. "dissociative imagination,-" I don't know what that is. "and minimization of authority." I don't know what that is, either. I guess minimization of authority might be like um, sort of the, sort of cultural authority of, of people nearby and around... not being there? So the Panopticon not watching, when you're on the Internet? Cause you're in your house and you can tell nobody's watching, nobody sees you. (sigh) Umm. (pause) 2004, we should have done better and more research since then. This is like, I honestly think this is a huge deal. Like, I think... Internet comments- I think like the narrative that the Internet is a dangerous cesspool- So there's like a, there's an article here that I loaded up, um, and it says, uh, "Our addiction to the Internet is as harmful as any drug and what passes for comment these days is often simply foul abuse. (pause) The focus on surfing rather than proper reading has impoverished literature." Oh Robert Fisk, you are so indignant. Uh, 6,000 shares and that's so good, so successful. "Something rotten in the state of technology... (reading from article, which quickly turns into mumbling) ...people sucked. People sucked." (pause) Um...

(34:51) I don't know, maybe I need a stronger outline here, cause I feel like I'm, I'm sort of wobbling around. Um... So, we've got, uh, introduction here, which I think is pretty strong. I could probably- I could probably cut it down some. It's pretty long. Umm... but let's just say intro... (pause) This is also kind of intro, it's more... This is my thesis statement here, which is really deep. (pause) Umm... cause there's a thing I want to say, which is that, um, the belief that the Internet is a-, is-, is a-, is a cesspool of-, of negative interaction is a... I think it holds the Internet back. I think if you actually look at what the Internet, like, what social structures on the Internet have done, it's pretty impressive. Like, there are lots of really constructive and Internet- and interesting places and uh, and on YouTube and on, you know, social media sites that are broad like Tumblr, um, and social media sites that are narrow like Facebook and social media sites that are, uhh, both broad and narrow like Reddit, and, uh, and then like information distribution sites like, uh, like Wikipedia, um, and information creation/curation sites like Wikipedia. There's just so much cool stuff and... and... (pause) and I also think that there might be- and so- so there's that thing, "the Internet is great". That's a section I want to have, and then umm, "people aren't terrible". That- That is an important point. That's something I definitely want to say. Umm, so I obviously write poorly- uh, if I hadn't done this correctly, I would have started out and I would have said "Okay, what is it that I want to say? I want an introduction, I want my thesis statement and I want to say, umm, I want to explain the psychology of an Internet troll a little bit" and this is all intro- it like- I- I probably should make more... Umm... I do. I say that this is of course a theory. Umm, so the psychology of the Internet troll here. (pause) Ah.

(37:18) "Troll psych"... Umm... and then this is of course, but (with)out absolutely... and I- like, I really, like, I honestly, like, if I- I had time, I would do this research myself. It sounds fascinating and useful. Umm... (sigh) "culture of the Internet is greaaa... and the Internet is great. People believe the commenters are abusive, so good people avoid the comments, umm... or even the entire Internet. And the Internet is great."

(38:12) "It's not the struct- It's not the- It's not the person... not the person or an increase in the number of people; it's simply that those people get highlighted (pause) when there are hundred thousand people in a room. Some of them are going to suck." (pause) That's another good point. Umm... (pause) (mumbles while typing) "psychology..." (pause) "results in only..."

(39:39) Yeah, I need to tighten both of these sections. I need to tighten my... And that won't be a problem and I need to tighten thissss... I got my thesis statement is good but I need to tighten this, this d-bag thing. (pause) I mean, it kind of says everything I want to say. Like, there- there's a lot there. (pause) "YouTube, nowadays, tends to actually promote..." (pause) "discussion rather than good comments, leading to hateful comments that get discussion flowin'-" Flowin'? Uh, "being constantly promoted. Indeed, the entire goal of trolls is to get discu- is to get discussion because they want interaction. They want interaction. It makes them feel superior and it makes them feel connected." I wanna take out this because I don't- Pity isn't really part of this. This is just a discussion. Umm...

(40:42) (reading while typing) "And if we all think the Internet is less great, the Internet will be less great. But my greater worry..."

(43:08) Sometimes it's hard to find the moment to end. (chuckle) I notice that I'll have, like, written, like, for two sentences after, umm, after the- I actually found a good ending. Sooo word count. 770, that is toooo looong, everybody. Well, these aren't- those aren't in the script. 758, that is still too long, everybody (while chuckling). Uh, it could- I could squeeze that in, but I'd rather not. Uh, "Good morning John, I'm here to debunk a myth. A myth that probably all of us believe, a simple statement that there's no way not to believe. The Internet, clearly brings out the worst in people. I mean, you've seen the comments."

(44:05) Uh, I could take out most of this... (pause) (reading while typing) "We all know the anonym-" (pause) "that anonymity allows the deep evil inside of every human, except me of course, to spew forth in a fountain of vomitous hate." (pause) "Yeah, I see it in our Sex-" So, like, to be clear, umm, uh, (chuckle) just so you know, I'm mentioning these things because I also want to promote them. I want to- I want people to realize that we did a sex episode on Sci- on Crash Course Psychology and that, uh, and that SciShow Space is a thing and that you should check it out and say nice things about Caitlin, who, pretty much only has shitty things said ab- said about her and like, every fucking video she does, it's a thing. It's really infuriating and she handles it very well and keeps getting better despite it. So, go Caitlin. "And yeah, I see it- I see it, on our Sex episode of Crash Course Psychology, comments getting voted up that say homosexuality is a disease. And there are two hosts on SciShow, one- SciShow Space, one male and one female and guess which one gets more hate - guess which one gets comments on their appearance every single video." (pause) Tit! (chuckle) Uhh...

(45:36) VER!... (chuckle) "But you and your friends, you aren't hatemongers. It must be other people. The people at the grocery store who seem so nice but when you"- but- but who you- "who seem so nice but who you don't really know, they must go home, ah, and, they must go home and the anonymity of the internet allows them to shrug off their cultural burden." (pause) (chuckle) Uh... Dingleberry? (laugh) No. That's good. Total turds. Become total turds! Yeah. That's good.

(45:23) "But I wanna make a hypothesis here. Anonym-anonymity doesn't bring out the worst in people. It simply brings out the worst people. Imagine, if you will, a D-bag. This person goes on the internet and says nasty things to people, he's a racist and he's a sexist and no one likes him." (46:39)
(46:44) I... I get to that later. And he's a se - and he's a sexist. He has no friends, because peop- because he doesn't like people, and because people don't like him. On average, he expresses his beliefs to zero people in the physical world per day, unless he happens to have a D-bag friend to reinforce his peculiar beliefs... 
(47:03) Let's just cut that...
(47:08) But on the Internet, he not only gets to express his views, he gets to argue about them. This is a kind of power; getting a reaction out of people. He gets to carefully craft his response in every comment; it's fun, it's a game! People play along!
(47:23) It's fun! I don't need it's a game. It's fun. People play along. IRL, this wouldn't be fun at all, this would be terrifying, but this way, it's just a little thrilling. It's a rush. I do, like, I know that this is how people feel, because I have felt this way, uh, not, I mean, I guess you could call it trolling, like, talking about evolution to creationists, that's - that kind of trolling, um, and, like I remember doing it when I was a kid! So, now I remember how it made me feel! Like, I'm superior to me, you are an idiot. That's how it made me feel. Not proud.
This person isn't a sweetheart all day long; the reason you don't meet Internet trolls in real life isn't because they're hiding, it's because they don't talk to people because they've been oc - ostracized by society because they suck. This is of course a theory, but it would be a fairly easy theory to test because I bet Internet trolls would absolutely love to fill out surveys for some psychology graduate students. They're bored. At home. And all they want to do is find ways to interact with other humans.
(48:32) And honestly, I think - and honestly, I think finding out about these people is vital, because the culture of the Internet is greatly influenced by this narrative. People believe that commenters are abusive and so good people avoid the comments or even the entire Internet and e - (typing noises)
(49:10) Ah, so what I did here is instead of calling out great supportive social spaces, uh, individually vocally, I'm just going to have the logos pop up, because that way I won't be wasting time talking about them.
(49:31) It's not the per - it's not the person and increase of in number of people - what? What? In the number people? (Laughs) Wow. (Laughs) What was I - what was going on there? Uhhhhhh....
(49:49) What am I talking about?
(50:03) But when they're a hundred thousand people in a room, some of them are going to suck, and the psychology of the Internet results in most of the nice people being quiet n - quiet about their niceness while trolls -
(50:23) Happy to comment at every s - at every available opportunity. YouTube nowadays tends to actually promote discussion rather than promote discussion rather than promote good comments, leading to hateful comments that get discussion flowing being constantly promoted. (Sighs)
YouTube nowadays tends to actually promote discussion - ah. Got it. Gotitgotitgotit.
YouTube nowadays actually tends to promote discussion, rather than good comments, leaving, leading to hateful comments that get discussion flowing being constantly promoted. Indeed, the entire goal of trolls is to get discussion, because they want interaction. It makes them feel superior and it makes them feel connected. And if we -
(51:03) So... this is separate... from... and so is this. Um...
(51:30) So let's see if that makes more sense. I don't know if it will. Um...
(51:38) But if we think the Internet is less great, the Internet will be less great. But my greater worry is that we'll look at the comments on a YouTube video and think "Well, look at this. At least a third of these people are spl - at least a third of these people are terrible. And then by extension, we'll believe that a third of people in the world are terrible. That's simply not true. Comment discussions select for D-bags, because they make the place hostile for everyone else, and when there's a hundred thousand people - now. Now is a good... now is a good... and when there's a hundred thousand people in a room, some of them are going to suck. And the psychology of the Internet results in most of the nice people being quiet about their niceness, while the trolls are happy to comment at every available opportunity. YouTube nowadays tends to actually promote discussion, rather than good comments, leading to hateful comments  - leaving - leading to hateful comments that get - that get discussion flowing being constantly promoted. Indeed, the entire goal of trolls is to get discussion, because they want interaction. It makes them feel superior and it makes them feel connected. Let me guarantee you, having met a great number of people: people are actually pretty cool, not because culture tells them they have to be, not because they're afraid of being found out, but because they're people. Just like me, and just like you.
John, I'll see you on Tuesday.
(53:08) Uh... 694! That is short enough! Um, so I, I mean at the end here, I also - there's a little something I'm doing here because of that anxiety that I kept seeing in the comments in the survey, um, people saying "I'm scared," um, and that scares me, a little bit, because I want people to feel welcome, I want people to feel like not only Vlogbrothers comments are a place that wants and needs their contributions but the world is. I don't want to like call out anxiety specifically here, but very sort of vaguely and generally... to share that people are people, and in my experience, about 90% of them are good. Now, that's not a great percentage. It's not, um, you know, I would prefer for that to be much higher, but it's high, anyway. I think that this is a pretty good script. Um, I'm going to record it without, um, I'm going to record it without editing it and then I'm going to upload it and then I'm going to let someone else edit it. This is all part of an experiment that I'm doing... to be open, and um, see what kind of cool things can happen if you just mess around. Sorry if this was extremely boring... and, uh, yeah!
I've been quiet because Katherine is in the other room, probably trying to sleep, so, um, yeah! OK. That's all. Yup.