They came, they saw, they conquered! During their visit to YouTube HQ in November, the Community Council had the opportunity to exchange thoughts and ideas directly with 'Tube staff from various teams and participate in usability studies. Through ongoing discussions with YouTube and beta feature testing (like video recommendations and a new home page design in the works), users bgirl5, bradofarrell, sarrycrey, tlg847, and visiblemode have made great strides in representing the community's voice within the product. Here's a run down of features YouTube's Community Council has brought their influence to thus far:



features recently implemented with the help of council input:



--RSS LINKS ON VIDEO BROWSE PAGES



--'MOST ACTIVE TODAY' & 'PREVIOUSLY POPULAR' VIDEO SEARCH



--SUBSCRIPTIONS UPDATE - (Closed and suspended accounts now automatically removed from subscriptions)



features scheduled which are coming soon:



--CHARACTER COUNTER FOR COMMENTS - A visual counter letting you know when you are approaching the character limit when writing comments on videos.



--RECENT COMMENTS - A module on your channel page showing all the videos (& comments) you have ever commented on.



To continue the cycle of feedback and discussions going between the community, the Council, and YouTube, we invite you to send us your ideas for new features, site improvements, and your input on the following list to suggestions@youtube.com.



items currently in progress or under consideration that we'd like to get more community feedback on:



--'VLOGGER' TYPE CHANNEL - What type of specific features would you like to see for a vlogger account type?



--'YOUTUBE BASICS' VIDEO - A brief video with educational step-by-step instructions for things like: how to report issues to Help Centre, how to make the most of your channel design, etc.. What are some helpful tips you think would be cool for newer users?



--MORE CHANNEL STATS - What kind of stats related to your channel would you be most interested in seeing?



--VIDEO RECOMMENDATIONS - These could be based on what types of videos you and your friends watch, add as 'favourites', channels you subscribe to, etc. (ie. "If you like this channel, you might also like...").



--DISCOVERING NEW COMMUNITIES - Offering new ways for YouTubers to find other like-minded users and sub-communities more easily.



--EMAIL NOTIFICATIONS - We have heard many requests for improvements on our notifications system and want to get your take on changes you would like to see made to emails and getting updates from YouTube in general.



--FULLSCREEN PLAYER - What features are you interested in seeing on the full screen player?



--'FRIENDS' MANAGEMENT - Improving managing and organizing 'friends' on your channel.



--COMMENTS/VIDEO RESPONSES PER INDEX POINT - Referring to a specific point in the video you are commenting on or making a video response for.



Remember to send your thoughts on the features above to suggestions@youtube.com and we'll check them out. (Note: this email address is for feature requests and ideas only. Please contact our Help Centre if you are having an issue you need immediate assistance with).







Our goal is to continue bringing forth ideas and feedback from you, and the Council, and turn them into actual features on the site which will benefit the overall YouTube community. Rest assured, this group has been working diligently to turn users' suggestions into realities.



This message has been brought to you by your friendly YouTube Community Council.

Until the next update...



The YouTube Team