YouTube... Is YouTube still relevant?

[TacoSenpai]

On 2/25/2018 at 3:43 PM, AshleyAshes said:

I get that crying about 'Mainstream Media' is super trendy these days but your statement doesn't even make sense.  YouTube clearly shills for the advertisers, the people who pay them money, not the media, who pays them nothing.

The problem is that Youtube doesn't enforce their own community guidelines and ToS equally.  I mean the classic example pointed out by many is talking about Syrian dead children and showing somewhat graphic images of it.  On one hand CNN, Fox, and MSNBC are allowed to post it on their channels and even get ad revenue from it.  Yet anyone else that does it gets striked or the ability to monetize it taken away because its "inappropriate content".  My question would be what makes the big media exempt?

[AshleyAshes]

16 minutes ago, LordTaco42 said:

My question would be what makes the big media exempt?

They don't scare advertisers, duh. YouTube is going to side with whoever can safely and reliably produce ad money.

 

Again, I get it's TRENDY to think it's 'ebil elite news media' but this thing is just money.  It's advertisers.  Why will the news media show you car crashes and the repatriation of dead soldiers so much more than litter's kittens?  Cause that gets the clicks and the TV ratings and those get the advertising dollars.  Even CNN has slashed a big chunk of it's investigative journalism wings because those produce less money relative to the costs.  People don't want in depth investigate news stories, they want an article full of quoted twitter comments after someone's boobs pop out of their dress at an awards show.

 

It's the same reason why The Simpsons is nearing it's 30th year but risky but interesting series see so much more trouble lasting.  Because the Simpsons is safe, it brings in viewers and viewers mean advertising money.  ...Even if The Simpsons has been trash since not long after it's 10th season.

 

I understand that it's easier to imagine some 'grand powerful news media conspiracy' but it's false.  It's just pandering to a planet full of morons so as the morons will buy pizza bagels and iPhone games.

 

The problem is not the product.  The problem is the consumers who are getting the product that they, by in large, want.

[asus killer]

6 minutes ago, LordTaco42 said:

The problem is that Youtube doesn't enforce their own community guidelines and ToS equally.  I mean the classic example pointed out by many is talking about Syrian dead children and showing somewhat graphic images of it.  On one hand CNN, Fox, and MSNBC are allowed to post it on their channels and even get ad revenue from it.  Yet anyone else that does it gets striked or the ability to monetize it taken away because its "inappropriate content".  My question would be what makes the big media exempt?

youtube cannot have someone watch every upload and see the context of the video. Think of the difference between CNN showing a swastica because they report on some crazy nazis, and some youtuber mentioning a swastica to say death to all that are not blond. There is probably some algorithm that picks that up and removes monetization. Then some youtuber can mention a swastica just in the same context than CNN, but youtube cannot have someone watching the video to see the context. It's easier to just trust CNN won't post nazi propaganda because they follow network rules and some random YT don't.

That's my take on it. 

[samcool55]

This is the reason why i think stuff like floatplane is very relevant.

Youtube got ruined mainly because they tried to get as much money out of it as possible. Which makes sense.

But by doing so they also made it a big piece of crap because they are so desperate keeping the views up and the advertisers happy.

 

Meanwhile Floatplane won't suffer from this, ads aren't an issue so bad channels can easily be suspended without worrying too much about money because revenue depends on amount of people paying for a subscription, not amount of views.

 

Youtube won't go away, but i'm sure stuff like Floatplane will cause a big dent on the long term.

Also, it's unlikely Floatplane will ever be sold because it's created by Linus and Luke, and as we know they mainly care about content creators, not money.

 

When you arrive at work, as a boss, and the biggest POS in the parking lot is yours, you know you are doing it right.

[oldSock]

I don't know. YouTube can lose only so much and then things will have to change. Yes float-plane is a awesome idea and i wish them all the best. I really do want them to succeed.

 

That said what is the future of YouTube? I honestly don't know. I can speculate but I don't see advertisers returning unless the consumers of said advertisers show less support. 

 

The reality is consumers can make a really big difference. If they are not happy about how companies act towards content creators then surly a consumer strike can have a massive effect on their profits. 

 

I think it would be wise if advertisers take note and realize that individuals can also become 'sensitive' and stop supporting their brand service and or consumables because they stopped supporting a platform. I don't think it will happen but it is possible maybe?

 

I don't know but it is food for thought.  

 

[TacoSenpai]

42 minutes ago, oldSock said:

I don't know. YouTube can lose only so much and then things will have to change. Yes float-plane is a awesome idea and i wish them all the best. I really do want them to succeed.

 

That said what is the future of YouTube? I honestly don't know. I can speculate but I don't see advertisers returning unless the consumers of said advertisers show less support. 

 

The reality is consumers can make a really big difference. If they are not happy about how companies act towards content creators then surly a consumer strike can have a massive effect on their profits. 

 

I think it would be wise if advertisers take note and realize that individuals can also become 'sensitive' and stop supporting their brand service and or consumables because they stopped supporting a platform. I don't think it will happen but it is possible maybe?

 

I don't know but it is food for thought.  

 

Honestly the biggest question in all of this is cost.  Sure Alphabet can justify being in the red for now and use the ad money and whatever bit they get from Youtube Red to offset it however, as people continue to upload more content at higher resolutions the cost goes up for all the storage, maintenance, and manhours that is needed.  To me its no surprise they've expanded their range of paid services from Youtube Red to Youtube TV to potentially try to offset this without turning youtube into a paid service though I don't think its too far off. 

 

Of course the catch 22 is that they might need the income from making youtube a paid service to keep it running but that would also detract from using Youtube in the first place for a good amount of people and create a means of competition by potentially giving other smaller upstart internet video streaming services a way to compete by charging for services to get established and maintain their platform.  Alphabet does not want that. 

[MegaTechPC]

I know its super trendy right now to hate on everything Youtube does (and there is merit to some of the criticism for sure) but I think the beauty of Youtube is sometimes taken for granted nowadays.  I guess I just remember what it was like pre-Youtube, back when I had website for my band and was trying to get our music and live shows out there for public consumption.  Even image-hosting was a huge ordeal (remember Imageshack???) and I started up the band Youtube channel right near the launch of the platform.  It was almost magical to me that I could upload full videos to the net for free and hope that random people around the world might actually be able to see and hear our music.

 

Even now Youtube is an amazing platform for people to create and share literally unlimited ideas (well, within reason) around the world.  People are so worried about monetization and trying to make a buck that they have forgotten all about the incredible freedom and opportunities offered by Youtube beyond monetization.  

[TacoSenpai]

7 hours ago, MegaTechPC said:

I know its super trendy right now to hate on everything Youtube does (and there is merit to some of the criticism for sure) but I think the beauty of Youtube is sometimes taken for granted nowadays.  I guess I just remember what it was like pre-Youtube, back when I had website for my band and was trying to get our music and live shows out there for public consumption.  Even image-hosting was a huge ordeal (remember Imageshack???) and I started up the band Youtube channel right near the launch of the platform.  It was almost magical to me that I could upload full videos to the net for free and hope that random people around the world might actually be able to see and hear our music.

 

Even now Youtube is an amazing platform for people to create and share literally unlimited ideas (well, within reason) around the world.  People are so worried about monetization and trying to make a buck that they have forgotten all about the incredible freedom and opportunities offered by Youtube beyond monetization.  

I actually think part of the problem became when youtube started making it so that people could monetize.  Sure you can argue that it gave a means for content creators to make money but that train only lasted so long until multiple adpocalypses.  As with most things in life once money gets involved things get a tad touchy.  I mean in the old days as you indicated it didn't matter if you used little clips here or there or used a soundtrack in the background etc.  But once people had the capability to make money off of it well copyright and content claims happened for an obvious reason.  Occasionally you might find something really cool and unique but I do think there's a reason alot of the content you see posted to Youtube today is commentary, commentary over gameplay, talking head number 873 etc. 

[oldSock]

This is why I enjoy forums

 

Yes the joy of YouTube and the fact that it is free is really been taken for granted. Yes a lot of YouTube content creators dislike what is happening but they still must accept that they can basically host high quality video for free on a very popular platform. That is so perfectly stated above.

 

One can appreciate the Billions that are spend in infrastructure and the incredible difficulty to try and monitor millions of uploads and not to mention the added difficulty of creating basically new software solutions to help with this incredibly complicated task.

 

I also appreciate the need for pay walls and the like. I just wish that there where more payment options available. Other then that I think if advertisers keeps on doing what they do a YouTube pay wall will become a realty.

 

Will it work? 

 

That is a very good question. One I cannot answer truthfully. But it will be interesting to see.

 

Honestly thank you for taking the time to post. I learned a lot.

 

[oldSock]

6 minutes ago, LordTaco42 said:

I actually think part of the problem became when youtube started making it so that people could monetize.  Sure you can argue that it gave a means for content creators to make money but that train only lasted so long until multiple adpocalypses.  As with most things in life once money gets involved things get a tad touchy.  I mean in the old days as you indicated it didn't matter if you used little clips here or there or used a soundtrack in the background etc.  But once people had the capability to make money off of it well copyright and content claims happened for an obvious reason.  Occasionally you might find something really cool and unique but I do think there's a reason alot of the content you see posted to Youtube today is commentary, commentary over gameplay, talking head number 873 etc. 

100% agree...

 

I use to enjoy 'music videos' where people will take anime movies and series and so on and add music to it. There really was some cool videos made but i don't see many of them anymore OR i am just looking in the wrong places.

 

But I do wonder how many people will remain with YouTube if there is no more money to be made? That is scary in a way.

 

But I think even if there is no money to be made copyright strikes and the like will continue regardless. I think that part is here to stay. I can be wrong but I don't know.

 

[MegaTechPC]

16 hours ago, oldSock said:

100% agree...

 

I use to enjoy 'music videos' where people will take anime movies and series and so on and add music to it. There really was some cool videos made but i don't see many of them anymore OR i am just looking in the wrong places.

 

But I do wonder how many people will remain with YouTube if there is no more money to be made? That is scary in a way.

 

But I think even if there is no money to be made copyright strikes and the like will continue regardless. I think that part is here to stay. I can be wrong but I don't know.

 

I used to do that all the time back in the day with my DBZ collection!  Here's an oldie I did way back in 2003:

 

 

This was how I originally learned how to use Adobe Premiere and I always thought it was fun finding ways of syncing the onscreen action to the music in creative ways.  Btw, please forgive the video quality.  I was using a capture card on my Pentium 3 back then that was finicky to say the least (plus my PC could only handle low-res files in editing and renders took hours).  We really have come a long way in 15 years...

[SoraN32]

i rather pay for floatplane and watch the video here more freedom for what they post

[oldSock]

12 hours ago, MegaTechPC said:

I used to do that all the time back in the day with my DBZ collection!  Here's an oldie I did way back in 2003

i use to/and still do love this stuff... Awesome song... i personally grew up with Robotech. and ordered the DVD box set. Looking forward to relive the story line. i must say i wonder if it will still hold my interest as it once did.  

 

As for YouTube i think i personally am done with them. Today was another slow day no real content to watch and a BUNCH of "personal interest" channels got deleted and closed down. The topic is of a sensitive/personal matter hence not appropriate to mention here.

 

But that was the last straw for me. It is censorship being applied in a big way and i am done spending time on the platform.  

 

Looking forward to what Linus and their platform will be doing. Other then that i RIP YouTube. You where awesome "once" but after today??? just no....

 

[MegaTechPC]

10 hours ago, oldSock said:

i use to/and still do love this stuff... Awesome song... i personally grew up with Robotech. and ordered the DVD box set. Looking forward to relive the story line. i must say i wonder if it will still hold my interest as it once did.  

 

As for YouTube i think i personally am done with them. Today was another slow day no real content to watch and a BUNCH of "personal interest" channels got deleted and closed down. The topic is of a sensitive/personal matter hence not appropriate to mention here.

 

But that was the last straw for me. It is censorship being applied in a big way and i am done spending time on the platform.  

 

Looking forward to what Linus and their platform will be doing. Other then that i RIP YouTube. You where awesome "once" but after today??? just no....

 

Hey, I'll never hate on someone for having a different point of view than me.  If YT no longer serves your needs I can't blame you for no longer patronizing the platform.  Its nice that FP is coming along at just the right time for you (and others I'm sure).

[oldSock]

1 hour ago, MegaTechPC said:

Hey, I'll never hate on someone for having a different point of view than me.  If YT no longer serves your needs I can't blame you for no longer patronizing the platform.  Its nice that FP is coming along at just the right time for you (and others I'm sure).

I am looking forward to FP My beef with YouTube is there is no middle grounds anymore. Especially for smaller channels. The talking head channel i enjoyed was removed and for no real good reason. That double standards type deal is what i dislike. It is not good. Some can get away with basically 'anything' as long as they are trendy and popular. Others that basically just give their opinion on a subject 'no cringeworthy content" disappears? 

 

But it is awesome in a way. Mega-positive about FP and hope others will also do the same.

 

But if you have time to burn have a look at this. Be warned it is about 39min.

How to BUILD a YOUTUBE ALTERNATIVE

[DELTAprime]

Until all the creators I like and want to pay for are on Floatplane, yes YouTube is relevant.

[oldSock]

4 hours ago, DELTAprime said:

Until all the creators I like and want to pay for are on Floatplane, yes YouTube is relevant.

100% agree. The same was true for me. But because 90% of what i watch is now basically 'gone' i am just waiting for FP and see how that goes.

 

To be fair YouTube did become a very big target for copyright stuff and all the rest. It is really not completely their fault. Some of the stuff was beyond their control. i will be the first to admit that that is true. But that said there are things in their control that wasn't handled properly. Deleting channels 'just because' yea... that just sucks...

[Ein0r]

I am probably too poor to ever watch floatplane. Especially if there will be  3,5,7 or more creators on FP that i regularly follow.  Because everyone seems to be behind their own pay wall.

 

LTT puts out some cool videos. But also a lot of product "reviews". And that is also a reason why i like watching LTT: To see what is cool, up and coming and if some of that is any good. But in the end this is also just an ad. And several of the channels i watch do this. And if all (or at least several) of them migrate to floatplane only, i will not watch them anymore. Since the entertainment factor is not big enough and i can get the information i need quite easily somewhere else and in better quality for less money or free.

 

I wish them all the luck, but another micro payment video service is too much for me. Guess i will stick with youtube then and other homepages.

Amazon prime, netflix, audible, other streaming services, Twitch Subscriptions, Youtube Red, Patreon boni, that shit ads up. And since youtube is stil the biggest and most known free video service, it wont change all that soon as long as amazon, or alibaba or other sites dont up their game.

 

[oldSock]

40 minutes ago, Ein0r said:

I am probably too poor to ever watch floatplane. Especially if there will be  3,5,7 or more creators on FP that i regularly follow.  Because everyone seems to be behind their own pay wall.

 

LTT puts out some cool videos. But also a lot of product "reviews". And that is also a reason why i like watching LTT: To see what is cool, up and coming and if some of that is any good. But in the end this is also just an ad. And several of the channels i watch do this. And if all (or at least several) of them migrate to floatplane only, i will not watch them anymore. Since the entertainment factor is not big enough and i can get the information i need quite easily somewhere else and in better quality for less money or free.

 

I wish them all the luck, but another micro payment video service is too much for me. Guess i will stick with youtube then and other homepages.

Amazon prime, netflix, audible, other streaming services, Twitch Subscriptions, Youtube Red, Patreon boni, that shit ads up. And since youtube is stil the biggest and most known free video service, it wont change all that soon as long as amazon, or alibaba or other sites dont up their game.

 

For a lot of people cost is secondary. In my case there are restrictions to consider and exchange rates. That changes the game a bit.

 

Streaming services in general will be more lucrative if they consider other payment options and also consider a few other aspects regarding content itself. 

 

I personally would support FP but would limit my pick on what i view and who i support.  That said netflix 'last time i check' still allow people to pay them via Google Play. Pure genius considering how many people use that method where i live. Overall i am sure they have a bigger audience that pay them directly. 

 

Still this allow for a bit of much needed flexibility. 

 

Yes content is a competitive market and eventually YouTube will get real competition 'once they figure out how to make it profitable' But many news outlets here where i live also demand subscriptions per month and they don't even push out any video content. it is just basically a digital version of a newspaper. That said they are successful.

 

Thus i think it comes down to quality and value. To be clear when i speak of quality i am not talking about 100K Video quality that only the most highest and most expensive screen can show you. Rather production quality.

 

A lot to think about but the future is on its way and fast.  

[MegaTechPC]

I wish Linus and Luke all the success in the world with FP and I really do applaud the idea of trying to offer another option to Youtube, but I also agree with the above poster about all these pay-walled content delivery services.  Its gotten to a point where if you were to commit to every platform you'd be looking at multiple hundreds of dollars a month because it all really does add up.  Sure, they suck you in with the idea that "Its only $10-20 per month", but when you're talking about subscribing to 10 or more of these services the costs become untenable.