YouTube (Patreon)

I appreciate all the comments on the videos, the stories shared and the overall positive vibe. There are a small minority of negative or problem comments to contend with. Those fall into three categories:

1) Abusive - delete comment and block user from channel

2) Bot or Bot-wannabe - delete and report

3) Angry - keep comment but dismiss it with a joke.

The best type of comment I get are the ones that challenge my opinions -- and I'm not talking "it was a clarinet, not a flute" -- things that are debatable. Effective debate means standing up for your beliefs but being open-minded enough to allow those beliefs to change or evolve based on counter-arguments and new information. This activity makes you smarter. In social media these days, the reaction is to block, copyright-strike, bully or 'cancel' anyone who does not share your opinion. This makes you dummer.

At 10K subscribers, it's a challenge to answer all comments when a new video is released. Channels with 1 million subscribers would be just impossible. If you know something in their video is inaccurate, you are further ahead to make your own video with a counter argument than expect your comment to be noticed and debated by the creator. I've always thought the 'Actman' channel on YouTube was pretty good - Well researched, good humour, enjoys debate. Except he repeatedly claims the direct influence for Halo was Doom and Half-Life. Ummm... Marathon?! He's either falling prey to the pitfall - 'If I haven't played it, it doesn't exist'. Or, worse, forcing a false narrative because that's what you want the truth to be, kind of like saying "Steve Jobs saved Apple with the iMac".

Recently, this 'Actman' has been demanding YouTube to enforce their policies on a truly abusive and toxic YouTube creator who has violated several rules without repercussion. Everyone watching this unfold was shocked this week when Actman, himself, was demonetized for reasons that were so minor and forced that YouTube's true motives were clear.

George Orwell's '1984' showed, in horrifying detail, life in a totalitarian regime, as warning to protect democracy. 1984 becomes a standard that we can measure the decline of any democracy against. I'm seeing some parallels with YouTube's handling of the Actman incident. He spoke against "The Party" and the Party has decided to punish him, or even go so far as make him an 'unperson' to silence him and any who would speak in his favor on their platform. Having policies that they enforce if it benefits them and not for the protection of the creators of product for their video hosting site, is essentially taking their creators for granted. 

I watched my old Power Macintosh G4 video this morning and commercials had been doubled! Even though I specifically marked where I wanted the ads to be placed, extra ones now pop on randomly in the middle of a sentence, ruining a joke or the flow of video. It was not my idea to squeeze more money out of the video at the expense of the viewer experience.

Patreon is still a bit buggy, but it's been a good alternative for sharing video links, thoughts and information. They cannot host videos, but are looking to provide that in the future. Plus, they don't take 30% of the donations like YouTube does with their copy of Patreon called 'memberships'. I'm surprised YouTube does not yet remove any links or references to Patreon from their site.

We remember similar things happening with Microsoft when they gained too much power. Crushing and eliminating any software company that could conceivably challenge them in the future, thereby stifling the advancement of technology. That's why they have laws against monopolies. I'll never say Steve Jobs single-handedly saved Apple in the 90's, but his Apple did go on to beat Microsoft - and did so passively by competing and creating superior products for consumers. Meanwhile, Microsoft's hubris made them lazy and caused their own downfall from king of the technology sector. If history is any indicator, YouTube will lose in the end.

Anyway, I wanted to get these thoughts out of my head and out there, so thanks for reading! Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments! (as long as they align with mine. lol)