The Good, The Ad, and The Ugly (Patreon)

When I tried to post my most recent video, I went to set up the end screen that I now add to most videos. The end screen is the little set of picture links in the last half-minute or less of a video, where I link to one or two related videos, have a subscription link, and link to my Patreon page. But this time, Youtube wouldn't allow me to add the Patreon link. I clicked the link next to the notice, and read that beyond a certain subscriber point (I think 10,000), Youtube now requires you to set up monetization with Adsense before you can link to your own crowdfunding page.

This is, needless to say, unnecessary and unfortunate, because I feel that part of what people like is the ad-free experience I offer. I also suspect that the ads Youtube would select as "related" to my content would  be ads for things I'd hate, like the Wikipedia-clone books about "Ragnar Lothbrok, The Extraordinary Viking" that publishers are vomiting out, or popular channels with messages or content I don't approve of. At the same time, I depend on Patreon to offset the time and resources put into the videos, and I need to link to it.

All this adds up to my attempt to compromise with the Youtube machine: I applied for an Adsense account, because I'll have to have it now, but I also clicked on "Do not monetize my existing videos." Hopefully I can continue to select the option simply not to use the Adsense account, but if I have to add ads just to link to Patreon, I will make sure they are the most inobtrusive possible ads. For now at least, if you do have Adsense ads, there is the option not to allow banner ads on the video or video ads before the presentation.