Wednesday 16 August 2017

Youtube's Greatest Failing - The Career Killer


Youtube is arguably one of the single most important websites on the internet. Short of Google itself - owned by the same company, of course - and the likes of Hotmail, there are few people who are not tied to it in some way. Its existence spurred on creativity from areas we would have never seen before, allowed shows which would have never been possible without it to reach audiences of millions, and yet it is a flawed system. In fact, the days are likely numbered system's current structure and nature.

This sort of doomsaying is something I have personally always tried to resist unless things look dire. Unless there have been multiple warnings, a vast number of problems which have gone ignored or almost a full scale cataclysm, then I would remain silent. Yet, for a very long time the cracks have been showing and Adpocalypse seems to have been the result of all of this. 

If you have somehow missed this, the Adpocalypse was part of an ongoing series of problems relating to advertising revenue offered to its creators. This first started when several major corporations abruptly withdrew their advertisement campaigns from the system, likely in response to a few unsavory acts by high profile members. Pewdiepie dressing up in full Nazi regalia (among other things) stands up as the prominent example, but there were more than a few others, such as the Counter-Strike: Go gambling fiasco and worse things still. Understandably, they were likely unwilling to be associated with such acts but opted instead to remove themselves from everything as a result. 

Unfortunately, such a decision hit the advertising revenue of many creators quite hard, and it heralded the start of a major downward spiral for more than a few creators. Several efforts were made to try and remedy this issue, which ranged from effectively outsourcing moderation of videos to very stringent standards which they would opt to implement against creators. You can find a full documentation and links outlining much of this here, and parody videos by someone much funnier than I outlining just how bad this is here and here. Such efforts to try and draw advertisers back to the platform displayed a sheer bloody-minded stubbornness when it came to actually working with their creators or even offering them any direct information. So, even as these procedures threatened the jobs of several hundred thousand people, perhaps even more, they were granted nothing.

While Youtube's response to the aforementioned actions and issues by its members was undeniably a major problem, many suspect that it is actively trying to drive others away from the platform. Not just those who might repeat the errors outlined above, but also those who opposed Google's well known ideological leanings. While this would normally be the sort of thing I would put down to conspiracy theories, it does indeed look as if the changes to the current algorithms are focusing almost entirely upon certain types of content creators. Feel free to look it up yourself, but you might find that political coverage channels, more profanity laden commentary videos and odder things still (professional wrestling being one, apparently) have either been demonetized or reduced to a fraction of their previous income. 

Anything which might draw the ire of a rival power or those they might garner cash from seems to be being hit hard, to the point where some have completely lost what was once a reliable livelihood for themselves. That or move to Twitch, but given that is owned by the same company, I would unfortunately say that the days of using that platform to escape this are numbered. It might take months for it to catch up, but it slowly but surely will. The Wild West era of the internet has slowly been dying out for quite some time now and this might be another step towards that end.

However, there is one other alternative I would like to offer in regards to just what might be causing this erratic change in income for many people. One which is somewhat less conspiratorial when it comes to the business' decisions and instead focuses upon one fact above all else: There are more people trying to make money via Youtube than ever. Youtube's processors and main servers need to desperately keep up with a truly staggering amount of information thanks to this, and this is a costly venture no matter how you cut it. Between this factor and the loss of interest from major backers, there might simply not be enough cash to go around anymore. 

Yes, anyone can stop to watch almost any video no matter how major or small they might be, but there will always be only so much money which can be granted to any creator. That amount has likely been stretching thin for quite some time now - something alluded to by the abrupt dip creators see late every year in terms of their income - so with this latest disruption, they cannot offer the level of support as they once did. This could even tie into the previous point to some degree, where they are using it as an opportunity to trim their membership and limit costs to themselves. Specifically with them focusing upon creators who are typically safer, and less risky, bets to draw in viewers.

I certainly do not think that Youtube's days are numbered. It's not going to die out overnight, or fall apart in any way. It's simply too big to fail. However, as I have said before, things which are too big to fail are hardly immune to decay, and we have seen negative change after negative change for years now. After a while, without steps made towards actually improving the system, it will keep rotting away from within until it reaches breaking point. I simply hope that things are resolved long before it becomes irreversible.

As ever though, I would like to end stressing that these are ultimately personal thoughts over all else. I am not a Youtuber outside of a few occasional uploads, nor do I have enough insight into the company itself to offer a definitive answer to what is taking place, or highlight the Adpocalypse problem in full. While much of this is based upon recent news, please take this as a few independent theories and concepts over definitive truth.

6 comments:

  1. Any advice for someone who wants to become a Let's Player on Youtube?

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    1. Honestly, just this - Make it a hobby. Make it something you can regularly devote yourself to, experiment with and stick to a certain routine, but aim to do it largely out of personal fun. Even before so many big names became involved, most people did this for fun and lucked into their current careers. You can make some money off of it certainly, and with hard work even make cash off of it, but the whole system is a very unpredictable minefield.

      Someone working on the platform might be able to say more, but i'm afraid that's all I can offer on this, personally.

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  2. On the one hand, I do feel for the people who did this for a living and can no longer do it because Youtube keeps trying to take the easy way out with these new algorithms that keep harming it way more than helping it (just look at what their most recent changes have done to the horror community). There's also no denying that virtually every single major update to Youtube was negative (I'm giving them the benefit of doubt in assuming that there was one positive, even though I can't recall it) and I've got no doubts that the site is going to continue to get worse and worse as time goes on.

    On the other hand, I can't help but feel people shouldn't do Youtube to make a full-time living, or if they do, they shouldn't try to live the lavish lifestyles we currently see. Now when I say lavish, I'm talking about how they can just suddenly go on month-long vacations with little notice, or live in houses far too big for them to justify, or spend money on trivial items like collectible statues that cost hundreds of dollars (sometimes thousands if they're big/detailed enough, or are sold by a scammer) or take frequent trips to conventions across the country when those videos don't make nearly enough to justify their expenses. They also chose to make this their only line of work, so when it fails I can't help but feel they have nobody to blame but themselves.

    I certainly doubt Youtube's going to die anytime soon, if anything it'll be like when we were talking about GW's demise a long while back. They too were on a downward spiral, but thanks to good decisions and good PR they managed to pull out of that and recover, and I'm doubtful if Youtube's going to do the same. It might take years, but maybe they'll eventually go the way of Vine and their popularity might not save them after all.

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    1. Honestly, i'm not inherently against people making a full time living on Youtube, so long as it's at least not their first job. The likes of Totalbiscuit, Jim Sterling or a few others at least show a fair bit of restraint and even when they are flaunting their wealth, it's often played more for jokes than anything else. Plus it helps it's a drop in the ocean compared to some of the really big league people, and even a few of those events and expenses tend to be covered more by links or contracts with publishers rather than their own cash. There's at least some restraint there or, in some cases, the content is at least interesting or insightful enough to justify earning a living off of their content.

      The problem I personally find is when you have people dishing out money as you describe, but without having worked a single day elsewhere. No retail jobs from hell, no 9-5 desk work or even working as a delivery driver. It's like they lack context into a standard hard living and, without that, they tend to be infinitely more arrogant by comparison to a few of the others.

      Admittedly, I might be a bit biased in this case due to two reasons - The first is that a lot of big name ones I know about have been desperately hoarding away cash from day 1, just preparing for Youtube to crash. More than a few know that their job could abruptly end tomorrow without any warning from someone in Google, or even a reason for something which has ended their career. Even without the bile and hatred they often get in the comments, that's an incredible amount of stress to put on someone who has turned their life into acting as a video producer. The other reason i'm a bit hesitant to criticise this is that, well, I have also seen the other side of this coin. Gaming journalists in most cases tend to make barely enough cash to get by on thanks to their income having never increased over the past two decades, and even a few very talented Youtubers I watch (such as the Poparena) never get the views they need. So it's a bit hard to say that their creations do not justify having a better lifestyle when compared with that.

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    2. I also feel that it's unhealthy for people to hold onto Youtube or Twitch for so long as their only source of income, and I genuinely mean that in a very literal sense.

      Several streamers have died because their lifestyle offers next to no exercise and as such they develop physical issues that kill them before they realize that something's wrong. I know too that many people on Youtube have nearly identical lifestyles, but even if it isn't healthy physically, it's definitely unhealthy mentally. The more somebody's on Youtube it seems the more desperate they get to cling to it, and it always seems to have a negative impact on them and their content in the end. With some people I have no idea how they could handle leaving the site, as they pretty much live on it and twitter.

      On top of these though, doing Youtube full time looks terrible on your resume when you're finally finished with it one way or the other. Those people hoarding money in preparation for their career crashing are doing a smart move in my opinion (you should always save money) however if they just got a job every once in a while to keep some sort of experience in the workplace (as well as gain a reference) then they'd have a fallback they could use in case they need it, and as such they could alleviate some of their fears.

      I will agree that it's a shame a lot of people who make good content will never get the recognition they deserve, but unfortunately that's something I don't think will ever change.

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    3. Oh I understand that entirely. More than a few such as PressHeartToContinue and Markiplier exercise regularly to try and offset this, and even Jim Sterling seems to be aware of how easily it can take a massive toll on someone's physical health. The sort of long term damage it can cause can creep up on you very easily unless you actively offset it, and I say that as someone who has to stay seated at a desk for hours on end for each of his jobs. Plus, then there's the psychological issues of never speaking to anyone else at all which can cause some obvious problems as you pointed out. That said, I wouldn't say that this is wholly unique to just streaming or video production jobs. While it might not be quite to the same extent, I have seen other office jobs which rely upon having people tied to their desk for a solid twelve hours at a time, rarely if ever having a human conversation with anyone else.

      Though, yeah, I do agree that it's not much to go on unfortunately in terms of job opportunities. At the most you can usually spin it, with some good proof, to help become a video editor or assistant but there's not much beyond that. Unfortunately, even atop of that sort of thing, it also runs the risk of robbing someone of the humility they often need. Without the grounding of a bad job to start with, without the borderline trauma of some truly terrible entry level positions, shoving someone into having an audience of hundreds of thousands and an easy income can result in some very nasty things, both in terms of ego and actions.

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