Opinion YouTube Doesn't Care About Genuine Creators Anymore

Oversoul

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I hate to be a pessimist but that's just how I feel now and all the changes they keep making just keep proving further and further how true that is.

Literally every change YouTube has made over the past couple of years has only served to make it more and more difficult for smaller content creators to get their feet off the ground.

What's weird is that there have even been some big YouTubers that were openly verbally against a lot of the changes they've been making including the most recent change of messing with your subscription feed so that you see the most popular stuff before the most recent. But does YouTube care? No. You would think after the whole situation with Xbox back in 2013 that enough people complaining loudly enough would be enough to change things but not in the case of YouTube because they are stubborn and selfish and only care about money.

YouTube has been specifically redesigned to favor and promote people who video spam and what I mean by that is people who upload pretty much every day and multiple times a day just mindlessly pumping out clickbait like a robot.

When I first started doing this a few years ago all of the general information said that you want to stick with shorter videos and have a schedule because most of the YouTube audience has ADHD and they prefer heavy editing and short videos but these days YouTube put such a heavy emphasis on watch time that it seems like it's the opposite now and I hate to say it but people aren't just going to change how they watch things because YouTube is forcing creators to change how they record them.

People who don't watch a videos longer than 30 minutes aren't going to suddenly watch hour long videos because the person that they are subscribed to started uploading them that way if anything it will just chase them away and alienate them and they will unsubscribe.

YouTube is forcing us to shoot ourselves in the foot.

Here's the thing. The people who watch me like me because I am genuine. I don't sugar coat it if a game has flaws, I don't censor myself to conform to YouTube's idiotic expectations and I don't have any interest in caving in to their ridiculous watch time expectations and uploading long videos multiple times a day. All that's going to do is alienate my audience and piss them off and make them feel overwhelmed and then they won't watch anyting because that's what happened before.

People like me because I'm genuine and I plan on keeping it that way I have no interest in selling out for views because that is unethical in my eyes. Success is not worth the cost of my soul. If I do make it I want it to be legitimate because I put out good content that I work hard on and because I'm a genuinely good, entertaining person. This is why I use Markiplier as inspiration he's one of the only big YouTubers I feel is actually genuine and actually deserves to be up there because he made it by working hard and putting out good content not by cheating his way to the top by playing the numbers game.

I'm getting tired of people telling me I don't have a snowball's chance in hell because I'm a good guy who cares about my audience. It sickens me that YouTube seems to give less than a **** about people like me but gives all the glory to people who are clearly just putting out content for the views and don't actually care about their audience.

Even communities like this with all of these promises of people supporting each other and your numbers growing but instead it just seems to be more crabs in a barrel crap where people are using each other to get to the top. I don't subscribe to anyone that I don't plan on actually watching because dead Subs hurt you. If you are subscribed to someone and you never watch their stuff you are not helping them you are hurting them. I reply to almost every comment people leave on my videos, and when I watch other people's videos I leave detailed comments with timestamps to show that I actually watched it and I'm not just leaving some generic "good job" half-assed comment.

So here's my advice to everyone. **** YouTube. **** what they want. Do what you want. Because at the end of the day your audience is going to be able to tell if you are being legitimate or if you are changing your style to try and keep up with the rat race and I'm not going to lie, some people will not respect that and you will lose subscribers if you start conforming. People appreciate genuineness. I've been told by some of my fans the reason that they would rather watch me over the popular people is because of that very reason because they can tell that I'm a genuine down-to-earth person and not some clickbait robot playing the numbers game. And if I'm being honest I personally would much rather watch genuine people to.

There are certain popular YouTubers I completely avoid like the plague because I know they are just following the trends.

My other piece of advice? If there are YouTubers that you watch that you truly believe are genuine and truly deserve the attention... Help it happen. Don't just watch the content and leave a like and a generic comment leave detailed feedback telling them about your favorite parts of the video what you liked and what you didn't, share the video with other people that you think would like it, help your favorite YouTubers advertise themselves because without you they will not succeed that's just the long and short of it YouTube has been redesigned to intentionally barricade small channels from progressing and now we have to rely more and more on our audience in order for that to happen. You can only reach out to so many people on your own you literally need your audience to reach out to other people for you that's the only way anymore.

By the way I apologize if I offended anyone with this post but I can imagine the only people I would have offended are the ones that follow the trends and go for the clickbait and video spam and if that's the case then I don't really feel bad because you're part of the problem.

People should be able to succeed simply by being good at what they do not by selling out. I don't know about the rest of you but I'm pretty confident in my content lately. I put literally hours into editing each video to the point where it's physically and emotionally draining sometimes. To know that that still gets overshadowed by idiots doing the tide pod Challenge and PewDiePie screaming at memes legitimately pisses me off not out of jealousy or anything but because it's just wrong morally and ethically
 

Jonathan

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Very well said, totally agree with what your saying. I can name several channels that are just click-bait these days, they were once good. Its sad to see YouTube going this way to be honest. I've been around on the platform since like 2007 (in one form or another), where channels were full of colour and you could really customise your page (I really miss those days). I do my best to support smaller channels I like as 99% of the time their content is way better that any larger channel I watch.​
 
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Oversoul

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oversoul53
Very well said, totally agree with what your saying. I can name several channels that are just click-bait these days, they were once good. Its sad to see YouTube going this way to be honest. I've been around on the platform since like 2007 (in one form or another), where channels were full of colour and you could really customise your page (I really miss those days). I do my best to support smaller channels I like as 99% of the time their content is way better that any larger channel I watch.​


Yeah I don't expect anyone to watch my content unless they genuinely enjoy it in fact I'm adamantly against it I don't believe in sub4sub and I don't want people watching out of obligation like some friends used to do. Anybody I subscribed to I have full intentions of actually sitting down and giving their videos my undivided attention along with leaving meaningful comments.
 

tovah

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well said everything u said is true tho its hard to find good small channels.
and when ppl sell out u mean for brand deals
 
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Oversoul

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well said everything u said is true tho its hard to find good small channels.
and when ppl sell out u mean for brand deals

I have found plenty of good small channels they just need the exposure. And I'm a small Channel and I've been told my stuff is good. It's all a matter of perspective. And I'm not talking about brand deals no and stuff like that so much as I am talking about people who just video spam by pushing out multiple videos a day without any concern for the quality
 

zeke morgan

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very well said, i completely agree that YouTube isn't doing enough to support smaller creators. As you refer to it does seem like YouTube doesn't care about the smaller channels, and is only there for the money from the bigger channels
 
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Thelazysideoflife

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I agree with everything you've been saying, and I am concerned about this situation as well... But it just means that persistence will mean even more, because without it, this time, it will be almost impossible to grow
 
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tovah

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I have found plenty of good small channels they just need the exposure. And I'm a small Channel and I've been told my stuff is good. It's all a matter of perspective. And I'm not talking about brand deals no and stuff like that so much as I am talking about people who just video spam by pushing out multiple videos a day without any concern for the quality
oh u mean all gta youtubers former cod youtuber almost half of them are guilty of that.
 

tovah

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With thumbnails the best approach is a mix between attention grabbing but not click-bait and informative of the video's content. So, not too flashy but not too boring. Balance.
my thumbnails were really clickbait early this year