Web 2.0 is all about interactivity and talking with web visitors. And YouTube is full of people leaving comments on videos.  But have you ever really sat down and read many comments on YouTube? Popular videos have hundreds of comments. Most of the comments are either spam, trolls or other annoying people.

That’s why Rohit Bhargava, a marketing professional, writes on his blog that he sees no point in publishing videos in YouTube and allowing comments. Sure, blogs are great forums for conversations, but YouTube, he says is filled with “people posting racist views about kids, using swear words and having all kinds of useless, mean and idiotic ‘conversations.’” He writes:

“For some reason, commenting on videos encourages stupidity.”

Now, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with people who comment on Digg, YouTube, blogs, MySpace or any other sites. However, using comment moderation is important to limit the amount of spam and trolling. After all, lots of blogs moderate their comments, but very few YouTubers moderate their comments.

And I doubt that commenting on videos encourages stupidity, but people must feel comfortable with the level of anonymity that YouTube has.

I think that’s the most interesting thing. Why do people believe they can leave dumb or racist comments on public forums? Would they ever say these things in person? Face to face with someone else? No. Absolutely not. But people feel safer when behind the veil of the Internet and their keyboard.

Bhargava says he advises people to “embed the video elsewhere and choose to moderate or remove comments on YouTube altogether.”

I agree. Especially, if you’re a company trying to use YouTube in business: turn off or moderate comments. Trying to keep a professional look to your video can backfire if visitors are subjected to spam comments or vicious trolls trying to shock people.

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