Monday, September 3, 2018

I Had a Dream and YouTube Turned it into a Nightmare

Imagine having a dream, working on it for two years and growing while watching that goal get bigger and brighter then one day the lights are turned off on you. Suddenly, you wake up into a nightmare and have no direction. You have no idea of where you're going or what is going to happen. Your dream, although not gone, is crushed like a bunch of grapes under bare feet at an old winery.

This is what it is like having a YouTube channel right now. There is no direction. Many creators are being told that we are guilty of "duplication" without any real definitive information on what this means. Rumors are flying around; people are making assumptions. Some are deleting their old videos which causes them to lose views and minutes--criteria needed for the Google AdSense program.

There are creators who have poured their heart and soul into their work for many years while building a group of dedicated watchers or listeners. Some have fans in the hundreds of thousands, others just a mere few. Yet after all of the hard work, the platform they have all chosen to support is not supporting them. The company is dangling the carrot and every time we reach the finish line, it is extended even longer.

Sadly, this had caused one woman, Nasim Aghadm, to go on a rampage at the YouTube headquarters as they took away her income. I was personally not a fan of her work, but I understand she did get the shaft rather hard. I don't support what she did at all, but I see the anger in others daily as we all speak of this company on social media as other creators lose their income in the drop of a hat. When asked, a standard generic response from YouTube is given that sometimes makes no sense at all. People are frustrated.

No one really knows the company's direction. Is it really the advertisers making these calls? Why is it the same advertisers support multiple television stations with what would be considered "duplicate content" then? They support horror movies, controversial topics, etc all on TV. Is it really the advertisers? Or, is it a bunch of CEOs trying to clean up a mess they allowed to manifest by not paying attention to the advertisers, watchers, and creators? Or maybe even worse, political correctness and "social progressive enlightenment" has oozed its way into the company and is now being forced upon its viewers and creators?

Google has a strange monopoly because people refuse to use anything else. They are big enough to offer just about anything yet sadly also control everything. Isn't that the truth of many of the broadband ISPs? People complain yet they still use the companies they despise. Where does one draw the line?

Yes, I'm stuck in the middle of all of this without direction. I have a horror channel. I write my own stories and I have permission to tell the other stories I narrate. I sometimes record my own fitting clips and sometimes I use royalty free images to create new videos that are different than others. I use the music of a composer because, although I can play a piano and guitar, I am far from a composer. I can't afford to buy a license or pay someone to write something unique so I use royalty free music with permission. Sadly, everything I do with the exception of writing my own stories, seems to be frowned upon by YouTube. Even the stories that are horror stories might even be "too violent" for them. Maybe. We don't really know what is violent or what is considered not usable for ads. The clips I piece together using fun special effects or unique ways of creation are usually from royalty free work. Supposedly this makes my videos unmarketable. Who knows! All I see is a message that I am denied because of "Duplication."

I guess this means in order to be a producer on YouTube I can't use other people's music unless I pay a fortune. I can't use pictures or clips, unless I pay a fortune. I can't use stories unless I pay a fortune. I can write them myself and God forbid they are a little bloody or I just might not be able to use them! Do I just toss the graphics, stand up in a white robe, and tell my stories? That isn't me.

Would someone please create a different platform, one that can compete and can find advertisers like television does. There's a market for everything, you can't tell me there isn't because we see it daily. I think YouTube just needs to understand it can't be the big control freak PC company it wants to be and one day people are going to stop watching and creating for them.
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Check out my podcast at www.scarystorytime.com. I also have a YouTube channel where I want to bring my creations to light, but I don't know if it will be a waste of time anymore. Right now it is in a state of change because of the current "policies" so I have 3 channels that separate the different ideas I have. Listen to my horror stories I have written at Scary Story Time (right now under the playlist "Spooky Boo Originals" until I move the other content). Listen to the Creepypasta stories of others that I tell at Creepypasta BOO!. Listen to scary stories from callers and interviews at Midnight Monsters.

You can also find me on Patreon. You can find many other creators, producers, and writers on Patreon. If not mine, please do find a creator you like on Patreon and support their work.

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