Observations about YouTube

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Saltlake58

Member
Apr 9, 2015
2,907
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Utah, United States
Moderators - if this subject fits better somewhere else, feel free to move -

Time has passed since YouTube's war on guns began. While the videos seem to have some relatively set rules, it seems that universally, shooting, hunting, and related videos are de-monetized so discouraging posting for professionals. So what was the real result of the war on shooting?

Well, I do see a drop in the number of videos, but, many of the videos I do see also get posted on Full30 or somewhere else. 

But the bigger change is sponsorship.

More and More I see Patreon pages, or just out and out industry sponsorship, meaning YouTube only took out the fringe videos, perhaps the professionals doing even better financially and YouTube just being a carrier, free carrier at that. Now, YouTube makes money on the videos as we either pay to eliminate adds or have to watch adds to get to our favorite shooting video. YouTube doesn't pay anything to the shooting video creators, so doesn't pay their pittance and saves a couple bucks.

Some channels even produced their own product line and advertise for sale on YouTube. It doesn't cost them to upload to YouTube and YouTube foots the bill for the hardware and bandwidth, so free infrastructure to video creator.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that the financial landscape of the YouTube video is changing, somewhat outside of YouTube's control. If YouTube cracks down too hard, people just don't upload. No new uploads, YouTube precarious position of king of the hill in streaming is at risk due to viewer boredom. While Google doesn't break out YouTube's profit or loss, thought is that it's not making all that much compared to costs so constantly under pressure to keep people coming to keep their advertisers happy.

Please keep the discussion on the up and up, as chastising YouTube and Google here will serve no purpose, but is anyone else seeing a slow but definite shift in the YouTube landscape?
 
You can completely block ads on youtube so that you never new they exist and free of charge. There are lots of free apps like AdBlocker Ultimate for Firefox. You can turn them on or off to support the creators you choose.
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Yes I block ads in my browser with that but I thought I would mention that it does not work FOR ME when I go to YouTube.

I think we are going to have to find an alternative to YouTube because they are social justice warriers and can turn us off again any time 

I already contribute to the PragerUniversity video site because YouTube banning a bunch of their educational videos that expose liberal fallacy's or support some point of Conservative thought or actual real history instead of the fake stuff.

https://www.prageru.com/5-minute-videos

PragerU is going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if they can.

We airgunners need to start thinking about fighting for our existence on YouTube and on other social media sites like Facebook.

FYI - Did you know the New York Attorney General has threatened all the banks based there that if they do business with gun businesses they will be "investigated"? The Insurance companys too and the NRA already got dropped by it's company.

So yes, YouTube (it's parent/owner Google) is a problem.

https://www.prageru.com/videos/why-35ths-compromise-was-anti-slavery

https://www.prageru.com/videos/fascism-right-or-left


 
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You can completely block ads on youtube so that you never new they exist and free of charge. There are lots of free apps like AdBlocker Ultimate for Firefox. You can turn them on or off to support the creators you choose.
Click to expand...

Yes I block ads in my browser with that but I thought I would mention that it does not work FOR ME when I go to YouTube.

I think we are going to have to find an alternative to YouTube because they are social justice warriers and can turn us off again any time 

I already contribute to the PragerUniversity video site because YouTube banning a bunch of their educational videos that expose liberal fallacy's or support some point of Conservative thought or actual real history instead of the fake stuff.

https://www.prageru.com/5-minute-videos

PragerU is going to go all the way to the Supreme Court if they can.

We need to start thinking about fighting for our existence on YouTube and on other social media sites like Facebook.

FYI - Did you know the New York Attorney General has threatened all the banks based there that if they do business with gun businesses they will be "investigated"? The Insurance companys too and the NRA already got dropped by it's company.

So yes, YouTube (it's parent/owner Google) is a problem.

Click to expand...


It should... have you tried adding NoScript? Nothing loads without your approval.
 
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Youtube still has total control over their algorithm. Smaller channels are totally at Youtube’s mercy as to how much they grow. The biggest draw to my channel were squirrel hunting videos that Youtube age restricted. Every single hunting video of mine that was drawing 200k or more views got age restricted and YT refused to unrestrict them, although they were no more graphic than squirrel videos from many industry-backed content creators whose videos have not been age restricted

My channel never stopped growing, but it slowed to a trickle. I would probably be at 20k subs or better now instead of the 10k I’m at. 

The only difference between me and lots of the other people posting identical videos that show similar hunting content without age restriction is that 1) I’m not industry backed and 2) I actively engage anti-hunters in my comments. I virtually never discussed politics, but I did discuss religion and evolution regularly and how each fit into the morality of hunting. I do think that makes me fit a profile whenever Youtube reviews my age restriction appeals and probably turns off the Youtube reviewers. 

I can say I’ve noticed that by throttling back the exposure of my videos, I don’t get near as much anti-hunter traffic as I used to. 
 
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Yes, the demonetization (YouTube ceasing to pay for videos, or de-emphasizing videos) of production work by shooters is a real problem. I always have a seed of doubt when I see a video on a product, if it is directly sponsored or funded by the manufacturer. I liked all of the independent voices out there showing and discussing products. Many of the independents have seen the money stream partially or totally choked off. It is hard for reviewers to be totally impartial if they are funded by, or receive free product from a manufacturer. I would know this, as I was (at one time) sponsored by a manufacturer of a non-airgun product. There is always pressure to emphasize the good, and speak of a mitigation for the bad. "This is a great product, just remember to always.... ".

YouTubes treatment of the air rifle community is especially perplexing; as their restriction were largely in response to school and mass shootings. I am not sure that even a single example exists of a lethal mass shooting performed with an air rifle. I would wonder if the same restrictions exist for bow hunting videos. All I expect is equitable treatment by a public platform (such as YouTube), relative to the actual risk of outcomes. We are not getting it at this time.
 
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Addertooth, I agree that the treatment is perplexing, but seems to be fall out of the larger war on guns. We in the United States have a unique view of guns internationally, and YouTube seems to be enforcing a more international view that anything that's a weapon is bad.

I have no idea where this will end, but my original point is that the war on producers of shooting related videos forced the producers to change funding models, or in other words, Capitalism at it's best.

While I don't know if YouTube is profitable or not, best estimates I've heard is that it's not making much if any money. YouTube is very international, and must abide by international / local laws, so I see some of their problems, but that doesn't help this community.

Only time will tell.
 
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Bullfrog - on morality of hunting. Unless the poster is a Vegan, they don't have much of a leg to stand on. Hunting is just a different form of harvesting an animal for food. Wonder where that last hamburger came from?

In my mind, (And I know i'm weird), there isn't any difference between plants and animals. all definitions that draw lines between plants and animals is an artificial definition humans created, not nature. So, if you really want to confuse the self-righteous anti-hunter, just get into "Plants have rights too" movement. Ask them to explain how they can justify eating, poor defenseless plants that have feelings too.
 
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This has been an interesting read.

I can share that from my side of things, YouTube has never been much of a financial contributor to AEAC. While all 106 of my vids are monetized, and I averaged 234,000 views a month in 2018... I earned an annual total of $2,400. If you guys do want to encourage your favorite content creator to upload, blocking adds certainty isn't going to get that accomplished for ya. The big firearm and airgun channels are still making good money off of YouTube... with the largest airgun channels easily making $3,000-6,000 a month from YouTube monetization....and the big firearm channels making much, much more.

If you are subscribed to a channel and are not receiving notifications, be sure you are both signed into your YouTube account AND that you have the notification bell for that channel activated. If you do both of these things, you will receive YouTube notifications. I've helped A LOT of people with this and still 2/3 of my subscribers do not receive notifications of my new postings because they are not signed into their YouTube account, do not have their notification bell activated, and/or are receiving their notifications into their email spam folder.

In regards to being an industry paid content creator and anyone's doubts on their freedom to be honest and unbiased, I haven't found issue with this so far. Initially, I had similar concerns as some of ya, but quickly discovered them to be unfounded. The way I achieved a mutual understanding with my 18 sponsors was simple... I told them up front to expect an honest review and that if they weren't comfortable with this, to please not send the product. I've also discovered that they all think as I do... and that's that I NEED to be honest, because if I'm not, I won't have a following, hence will be of no use to them & the community. I've actually been kicking around the idea of making a "full disclosure" Vlog vid on the inner workings of AEAC. Would something like that interest you guys?

On a final note, YouTube has upped the traffic algorithm for airgun channels quite a bit over the last 90 days. I've confirmed that Ted & Giles are seeing what I am. For example, my 2018 subs added averaged a rock steady 1,500/month. Over the last 90 days, it's averaged almost 2,000/month. Views have done the exact same for AEAC with a 2018 average of 234,000 a month... and a 90 day average of 250,000 a month. For those of ya that don't like watching videos, I've always got plenty of good pics & reading on AEAC's Facebook and Instagram, search "hookedonair."

Hope this helps shed some truth light on things as they actually are.

Best, Steve
 
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Steve - actually that's quite interesting. Perhaps after the initial over-reaction, YouTube is easing off a bit. Also interesting your observation of firearms channels making significant $$. I guess quite a bit of this is in the perspective of the observer. Me being an outsider and watching the reaction of some channels to up merchandise sales, and seek other sponsors to reduce YouTube's control, and you seeing YouTube perhaps coming around a bit. Maybe good news on both sides??
 
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Do all of the hunting type videos fall into all of this or just the ones that are monetized as far as them age restricting a video and such.
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None of mine are monetized anymore, but yet they're all age restricted except for just a couple of exceptions.

I wouldn't mind it as much if it was equitable across the board. My videos are no different than any other scope cam hunting videos. But for some reason Youtube targeted me and wouldn't let up. I was feeling it back in the Fall of 2017 before all the drama started in 2018. I probably offended some snowflake who works for Youtube in my debates with anti-hunters. 

But make no mistake about it, $$$ talks. The airgun industry is big money, and competition is tight between manufacturers and between media personalities. The bigger guys don't get messed with like us little guys do, and there's little motivation for the big guys to help us out where us little guys might be using rival products or otherwise be competition for viewers or subscribers. 

There was a lot of the big names circling wagons around each other when the drama happened in 2018. But no one had my back except my followers, same as true with several of the other smaller channels. I haven't forgotten that. 
 
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Steve - actually that's quite interesting. Perhaps after the initial over-reaction, YouTube is easing off a bit. Also interesting your observation of firearms channels making significant $$. I guess quite a bit of this is in the perspective of the observer. Me being an outsider and watching the reaction of some channels to up merchandise sales, and seek other sponsors to reduce YouTube's control, and you seeing YouTube perhaps coming around a bit. Maybe good news on both sides??
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I feel like it's their house and that we need to be very careful to play by their rules. I also feel like any good graces they extend us is not due to an increased tolerance. Gun business may be significant enough to hurt if it were gone.
 
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