Let us take a moment to talk about the adpocalypse: Part 3 - A retrospective 5.3+++ minute read27/8/2017 Greetings, fellow humans, Today, I would like to take a few moments to talk about the infamous YouTube #adpocalypse. This will be the final post in my trilogy, in which I talk about what could have been done better, as well as what practical steps we, as content creators or viewers, can take against the atrocities. My first post can be found here, and my second post can be found here. How could the situation have been better handled? I'm sure everyone would agree that this whole situation was handled very poorly. Just take a look at the number of people writing or making videos about this, most of the comments are negative. But, if anyone else was in YouTube's situation, could they have done any better? I'd like to think so. Let's take a look at how I think things should have been handled. I hope someone from YouTube is reading this... 1. Clearly defined rules I think I've said enough in my past two posts about how no one really knows why their videos are being "unsuitabled", but let me elaborate in further detail here. First, let's take a look at what YouTube has to say about their rules, shall we? As with everything related to YouTube, use your common sense, don’t abuse the site, and be respectful of others. The full list of details can be found on their website here. They happen to have a list of rules. Why couldn't they tell us exactly which part of the video broke which specific rule? I don't believe that they are incapable of doing so. I mean like, if you have an algorithm that can say "this video is unsuitable", surely there must be a few predefined triggers. Moreover, they have proven that it is possible with their system for copyrighted content. For example, if you have used a copyrighted soundtrack in your video, the system tells you exactly which part of the video it is at, and what soundtrack it was. There is also the option to remove the soundtrack, overlay it with another soundtrack, or dispute the claim. Why can't we have the same for this "limited ads" thing? Of course, whether a video broke a rule can be dependent on context as well. I can't say much for the other rules, since they don't apply to my situation, context or no context, but let's talk about "violence" in the context of video games. They even specifically mentioned video gameplay in their rules! Let's see what exactly they said... Violence in the normal course of video gameplay is generally acceptable for advertising, but montages where gratuitous violence is the focal point is not. Lets take a closer look at the above statement. "Violence in the normal course of video gameplay is generally acceptable for advertising..." What exactly do they mean by "generally" in this case? What are the exceptions? Considering that none of my videos had "gratuitous violence", and still got "unsuitabled", surely there must be some other exceptions. (I am assuming my video was "unsuitable" because of "violence", but I could be wrong, it could be the bot messing up and thinking that a dragon without clothes is "nudity") What then, are these exceptions in which violence in video games are not acceptable? We need to know, so that we don't have to make wild guesses. People have made speculations, but there are no official statements from YouTube to confirm or deny any of them. Could it be blood? But I've played a blood mage in DFO, which (obviously) will show a lot of blood, and not all of my videos on him have been "unsuitabled"... well not yet anyways. Could it be guns? But a few of my videos have characters using guns, which hasn't be "unsuitabled" yet.... Meanwhile A LOT of my other videos without either of these are getting "unsuitabled". Also, I think "gratuitous violence" needs to be explained further. The dictionary defines "gratuitous" as "done without good reason; uncalled for." In the course of gameplay, how would you know if an act of violence was called for or uncalled for? I would assume that something like attacking civilians or team mates, or attacking the corpse of an already dead enemy, would fall under this category. That much is obvious. But what about gray areas? What if the plot of the game forces you to make a difficult decision in which you may have to kill off someone innocent, or someone on your side? What about if an enemy is already dead, but I continue to air combo him for more points? In any case, an official explanation by YouTube would be nice. If we knew exactly which part of the video was being misunderstood by YouTube, it would be a lot easier to explain the context, and resolve it amicably. 2. Use the bot differently As you probably already know, YouTube has that automated bot thing... It's great and all, but why not use it differently? How it currently works: The bot rekts your video -> you dispute it -> one eternity later, maybe someone looks at it. Here's how I think it should have been done. The bot should flag a video and bring it to the attention of YouTube staff, but not immediately judge the video and deem it "unsuitable". The YouTube staff should be the one confirming that it is, indeed, unsuitable. Until that happens, we should still be able to get full ad revenue. If someone wants to upload content that does break the guidelines anyway, perhaps there could be an option to declare that, and if someone abuses by not declaring, warn or ban that person. Of course, like what many others have said, the bot needs to be less strict too. But enough wishful thinking for now. What can we do? What can a content creator do about this? Let's be honest: a boycott of YouTube won't happen overnight. It has too many viewers, as well as too many content creators, and I'm pretty sure YouTube knows that full well. However, it is also a fact that without content creators, YouTube would not succeed. As a fellow content creator, I also understand that it wouldn't be easy to simply ditch YouTube when you already have quite a few subscribers. If you can do so, good for you. But if you can't, then what I would suggest is instead to gradually start moving to other platforms. For example, I used to make videos exclusively for YouTube. However, I am currently thinking about switching to Twitch, and perhaps using YouTube just for archiving my past streams, while linking back to my Twitch. Perhaps, if YouTube doesn't get its act together, I could also gradually switch to Dailymotion or another video hosting site for my archives? You could also consider building your own website, so that sales of ad space are entirely up to you alone. Of course, stuff like Patreon, and asking for donations via Ko-fi, is a possibility too. Though I don't quite like the idea of a Patreon paywall, but it's something... If there's anything I've learned from all this, it is that you should never invest only in one source of income. As the saying goes, "don't put all your eggs in the same basket". What can a viewer do about this? Viewers, like content creators, are equally important to YouTube, because all that content can't sell ads if there's no one watching. As a viewer, you too can make a difference! But how? Well, like I mentioned earlier to content creators, you don't have to entirely boycott YouTube. But you can help the content creators whom you follow by following their other platforms as well. Does a person whom you follow have their own website? Or perhaps Twitch? Then watch their videos from that, instead of from YouTube. They'll probably earn more ad revenue, you won't be supporting YouTube as much, and you'll still get to see the same things. Win-win-win! Conclusion
Hopefully, with the combined efforts of content creators and viewers, YouTube will consider revising their policies. Even if they don't, less people working with YouTube will result in less people getting wrongly "unsuitabled", and then maybe they'll finally have time to look at all those videos they wrongfully accused. With this, I've said all I have to say about the adpocalypse. It is my sincerest hope that YouTube will take all the comments about it seriously, and improve. As someone once said, "complaining customers are your most loyal customers; if they didn't care about you, they would simply switch to your competitor". I would really like to continue working with YouTube, but it's simply not possible given the current situation. And now, we've come to the end of it all. Thank you for reading! As for myself, I'll be on Twitch. Follow me at twitch.tv/AphoticAmaranth to see my videos!
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Airi's Album (airi-nyan.weebly.com) Self taught artist. Feel free to contact her for commissions! MoeyyAS's GitHub (github.com/moeyyas) Computer programming expert. |