YouTube Communities rollout hits a sour note with some users

Last September, YouTube introduced its Communities feature to select creators, aiming to enhance engagement and provide new ways for audiences to interact. After what the company described as “positive feedback” from testers, YouTube recently began expanding the feature to more creators. However, early public reactions suggest that not everyone is thrilled about it.

According to YouTube’s official announcement post, creators must manually enable the Communities feature for it to be visible to their subscribers. But despite this expansion, the adoption rate appears low. More concerningly, for the few channels that have enabled it, the feature seems to be receiving a mixed — if not outright negative — reaction from some viewers.

A recent Reddit thread discussing the Communities feature has attracted significant attention, and not in a good way. Many users were taken aback by what they found in their favorite creators’ community sections. The complaints range from confusion over the feature’s purpose to outright shock at the kind of content being shared.

One user summed it up bluntly: “WHAT THE F**K IS THAT SPONGEBOB ONE,” referring to an inappropriate image posted within a creator’s community tab. Other users expressed similar sentiments, with comments like “MY EYES!” and “I DIDN’T WANT TO SEE THAT SECOND ONE BRO.”

Below is the image in question:

The issue seems to stem from how the Communities feature allows community posts — including images — to be displayed prominently in the subscription feed. In some cases, creators or their moderators may not be monitoring these posts closely, leading to an influx of questionable content. “Sometimes you see new features that you know won’t last, but this one is even worse than others I’ve seen in the past. I’m surprised it was ever even rolled out,” the OP observed.

Another concern is the challenge of moderating posts effectively. YouTube allows subscribers to interact with community posts, but some users argue that there isn’t enough control over what gets shared. One Reddit user suggested that YouTube should make the feature text-only or introduce a manual approval system for images, allowing creators to filter out unwanted content before it goes live.

The frustration allegedly led one creator, Corridor Crew, to disable the feature altogether after backlash from their audience. “Update: holy shit, Corridor Crew removed this feature from their page. I feel honored to have a small positive impact on their YouTube page,” wrote the OP.

Beyond the moderation issues, there’s a bigger question: Do viewers actually want the Communities feature?

Many users subscribe to YouTube channels for video content, not for a social media-like experience. “I only subscribed to see cool movie after effects,” again, the OP lamented, frustrated by the unexpected posts in their feed. They also noted that out of their 300 subscriptions, only two creators had the feature enabled — suggesting that even content creators themselves might not be enthusiastic about it.

With YouTube continuing to expand Communities, it’s worth asking: Have you seen this feature on your favorite channels? Have you used it? And most importantly — do you think it adds value to your YouTube experience, or is it just unnecessary clutter?

Drop a comment below and let us know your thoughts! Should YouTube tweak the feature, or is it doomed to be another failed experiment?