New Feature Alert: Channel Guidelines

Managing Your Community with Channel Guidelines

Maintaining a healthy and positive environment in your comments and live chats is a priority for any Creator. To assist with this, YouTube provides a feature called Channel Guidelines. This tool allows you to quickly and concisely communicate your expectations to new viewers, ensuring they understand the rules of engagement before they start interacting with your content.

By setting clear chat and comment rules, you can proactively manage your community’s behavior. Rather than reacting to problematic comments after they are posted, guidelines serve as a first line of defense, onboarding new audience members into the specific culture and boundaries of your channel.

How to Set Up Your Channel Guidelines

Implementing these rules is straightforward and can be done directly through your channel settings. To get started:

1. Open your Settings within YouTube Studio.
2. Navigate to the Community section.
3. Select the Channel Guidelines tab.

Once you have accessed this tab, you can define how new viewers are greeted and what rules they must follow.

Customizing Your Community Rules

The Channel Guidelines feature is designed for brevity and clarity, providing two main areas for customization:

The Welcome Message This is your opportunity to make a great first impression. Use the welcome message to set the tone for your community—whether that is professional, casual, or high-energy—and let new viewers know they are welcome in your space.

Guideline Text Boxes To keep rules digestible, YouTube provides up to three separate text boxes for your guidelines. Because these are intended to be concise, it is effective to categorize your rules across these boxes. For example, you might use one box for general behavior and respect, another for rules regarding spam or self-promotion, and a third for specific topics that are off-limits in your chat.

The Impact of Clear Guidelines

When viewers encounter these guidelines immediately, it reduces ambiguity. It provides a clear reference point for both the audience and your moderators, making it easier to enforce community standards consistently. By taking the time to set up your YouTube channel guidelines, you create a more structured environment that encourages positive engagement and protects the overall quality of your viewer interactions.

Original transcript

Transcript

With the new Channel Guidelines feature, you can quickly and concisely explain your chat and comment rules to new viewers. To add them, go to your Settings under “Community” and select the “Channel Guidelines” tab. There, you can set a welcome message and fill in up to three text boxes for your guidelines.

Not sure how to explain chat and comment rules to new viewers? With YouTube's new Channel Guidelines feature, you can set clear expectations quickly. Learn more about this and other creator services on our Creator Services, or contact our expert below.