Weird YouTube comments

[Mark Moore]

I have had a YouTube channel since 2006. Last year, I got hit with a bunch of annoying, repetitive comments demanding I make a specific type of video and cease making others. I ignored the posters but eventually make a post to Reddit, asking for advice on how to handle the situation. A YouTuber named Redditor (who I'd never heard of) read it and asked me if he could make a video about my situation. I was surprised but agreed to it. Here's his video:

Thanks to this video, my subscriber count tripled overnight.

However, more recently, I've started getting weird comments on my videos again. These aren't harassing, necessarily, but they are weird. Taken at face value, I seem to have become a hit in Nigeria, although I suspect I'm just being trolled. To what end, I don't know.

Here are some of the comments:

Marvin

• 13 days ago
Mark, I had the same issues with my copies of Ghost in the Shell. So disheartening. Keep up the good fight and great pick-ups brother. Much love

Marvin

• 13 days ago
Brother, I'm stuck on the second gym. Why oh why did I pick turtwig! haha love it

Marvin

• 9 days ago
MARk, this year at thanksgiving dinner my family held hands and said a prayer for you. Hope you get all the best pick ups

Jo

• 6 days ago
So blessed Marvin.

Koiness32

• 9 days ago
This is amazing!

Jo

• 6 days ago
I believe you, when I say this is so wonderful I mean it. ALWAYS. Much love

Benjamin

• 6 days ago
yes you Mark are getting very famous here in nigeria, loving your videos every day , we can not get enough

Marvin

• 6 days ago
absolutely. Mark is known in Africa. I play his videos on the tv in my shop. Customers love this bearded kind man

Benjamin

• 6 days ago
@Marvin maybe yes I go to your shop one day, I go where Mark is....one day

Marvin

• 6 days ago
@Benjamin yah brother it's all we got. cornmeal mr mark and good times. We are at oyetola idowu on the six corner next to the cow statue. look forward to you big benjamin

Benjamin

• 6 days ago
@Marvin too far on bike , I may bus next season, brother Much love

Stanley

• 6 days ago
Man I'm in Lagos working crazy hours on my motoscooter delivering raw materials. Sometimes i get depressed but I see this kindness in the world and I am restored. Keep doing you, love from a fellow booktube fan

Stanley

• 6 days ago
What bird is this? I never seen this before. He is a fantastic musician and you are an honorable father to say the least.

Benjamin

• 6 days ago
Very nice ! Tooky was my father's name Rest his soul April 3rd 2003

Stanley

• 6 days ago
I'm on a roll watching these videos MArk. I'm lonely tonight and this makes me good. I can't get this drink in Africa but I love to see you drink it. Much love thank you

Marvin

• 6 days ago
Very good mr. mark. the fabulous Tooky Bird. You have great kindness for this creature

Benjamin

• 6 days ago
the good man Mark I love this video much Love from Gombe , Nigeria my friend

Stanley

• 6 days ago
Pokemone? This man is a BEAST. Mark don't ever stop

Jo

• 5 days ago
Such a sweet song. Tears in my eyes

Benjamin

• 5 days ago
I wake up I eat breakfast and I turn on Mark now every day, my new routine Much Love from Nigeria thank you

Benjamin

• 3 days ago
happy to see this when it first air my young brother Mobo and small sister Aisha there to join me....made our night..watching again otutu ihunanya gi <means much love in my language>

Jo

• 3 days ago
brother i'm not dead don't listen to lies. I only had a bad serving of bristling nettle stew. I am okay.... my wife is liar. cant believe it....

Benjamin

• 17 hours ago
@Jo Thank god you are here with us today brother....we are blessed by your presence, the light shines..."a man does not wander far..without his sack" my father always told me this RIP 2006....miss him so much...revenge

Marvin

• 3 days ago
on my third view. i just gotta get this drink somehow

Benjamin

• 3 days ago
thank you friend for showing me this man, my new best youtuber ..bless you and brother jo

Stanley

• 3 days ago
Just about to leave for the day on my motoscooter, thought I'd check out this rerun. Gives me strength. Thank you brother mark

Stanley

• 2 days ago
redditor sent me

Stanley

• 2 days ago
I do Uber on my motoscooter. aye love it

Also, these guys show up whenever I do livestreams. I have chat replay enabled on my videos, so, if you go and watch some of my more recent livestreams, you can see even more bizarre comments in the chat. One from today went something like "It is my hope to one day see mr. mark dressed in traditional Nigerian clothing."

Anyway, I just wanted to share this. Anyone else encounter anything similar?

 

[asterixsmeagol]

Some friends of mine have a YouTube channel reviewing movies and somehow they started getting a bunch of Indian people demanding they review Bollywood movies. They eventually did a few and their viewership numbers went way up so now they split maybe 50/50 American/Indian reviews.

 

[addiesin]

I think you're experiencing a small amount of the "fame" side of a parasocial relationship. These people have followed your story and become attached to you, there's something they see that keeps them coming back and they start to feel like they know you after a lot of exposure to your content. I think it's pretty common for people who are gaining an audience. Apparently David Hasselhoff "is" (maybe was?) big in Germany.

 

[Mark Moore]

I think you're experiencing a small amount of the "fame" side of a parasocial relationship. These people have followed your story and become attached to you, there's something they see that keeps them coming back and they start to feel like they know you after a lot of exposure to your content. I think it's pretty common for people who are gaining an audience. Apparently David Hasselhoff "is" (maybe was?) big in Germany.

I kinda doubt that's what's going on. If you look closely at the comments, Benjamin gives two different years for his father's death. Also, he made the rather creepy comment, "I go where Mark is....one day".

Side note: a few years ago, I posted a video where I talked about the death of one of my cats. A while later, I found a letter to me from one of my viewers, where she expressed her condolences for Kiciu's death. The thing is I have never given out my home address on YouTube. Furthermore, the envelope wasn't addressed or sealed. This woman had literally found my house and put the letter in my mailbox herself.

More recently, a rather obsessive reader of my blog, Riverdale Reviewed, kept posting comments, asking me to upload full, unedited episodes of the 1987 cartoon series, The New Archies. He claimed it was his favorite cartoon series ever. When he got no response there, he found my YouTube channel and posted a comment on a random video, again asking me to upload the entire cartoon series. I haven't replied, and I have no intention of uploading these episodes.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

If it's a troll, it's a bit elaborate.

 

[Mark Moore]

The weird comments continue:

Jo

• 2 weeks ago
goodbye my friend

shawarma gaming

• 2 weeks ago
Bro how old are you

shawarma gaming

• 2 weeks ago
Just asking I hope you all good

Benjamin

• 2 weeks ago
I can not believe I missed this.....I was out working...lost for words....im so sorry mark, praying for you from Nigeria

Benjamin

• 2 weeks ago
Mark.....I missed it again. do you have a schedule that I can follow so I do not miss this again? thank you mark, much love

Benjamin

• 2 weeks ago
i will not forgive myself for missing this....

Benjamin

• 2 weeks ago
hello mark, my sister Aliyah wants to know more about this show....

Benjamin

• 4 days ago
MMMMMM cocoanut mark

Benjamin

• 2 days ago
mark so much stuff..cristmas come early this year no cristmas for me this year, have to work, last year same...next year same....struggling. many mouths to feed...no $..pray for me mark merry cristmas

Marvin

• 2 days ago
Mark you're scaring me. much love

Stanley

• 21 hours ago
Thumbs down. I don’t like this

Stanley commented: "My motoscooter broked down. And you won’t even give me a shout out. I hate this channel and I hate my job"

Benjamin

• 16 hours ago
mark i have a update my brother maurice dead...little sister in bed very ill. i pray and pray..this still is happening..mark what to do? you are a friend of mine...please help me mark

At this point, I'm absolutely convinced that I'm being trolled. From the overdramatic laments over having missed my livestreams to blaming me for not giving them a shoutout to asking me for advice on dealing with sick relatives, this seems like a coordinated effort to leave annoying comments on my channel. Should I just report the lot of them to YouTube?

 

[reave]

The weird comments continue:



























At this point, I'm absolutely convinced that I'm being trolled. From the overdramatic laments over having missed my livestreams to blaming me for not giving them a shoutout to asking me for advice on dealing with sick relatives, this seems like a coordinated effort to leave annoying comments on my channel. Should I just report the lot of them to YouTube?

Could be bots. Pretty random stuff.