Limited or No Ads (Day 2839 - 9/2/17)

Previous Vlog (Day 2838) | Next Vlog (Day 2840)

Stephen discusses the recent problems that content creators on YouTube have been facing, specifically problems leading up to the Limited or No Ads situation.

In early 2017, many advertisers chose to stop advertising YouTube, which led to a decrease in revenue for both YouTube and content creators.

To get advertisers back, YouTube developed an automated system that would judge if videos were 'violent', 'profane', 'sexual' and 'controversial'. They also gave advertisers the power to choose what kind of videos they wanted their ads to run on. It was a good idea, but the system made mistakes and flagged many videos that were completely fine.

This led to a huge drop in revenue for people whose content got flagged. Some creators stopped YouTube entirely, some started using Patreon, some started streaming more on Twitch, while Stephen and Mal decided to just keep going.

And then, a week or two ago, YouTube finally let creators see if their videos have been flagged or not, using a system they called Limited or No Ads. Stephen got it during Cheffcon, and was able to see that 90% of the videos he had uploaded to cover Cheffcon had been flagged, which was depressing.

YouTube also gave them the ability to challenge their videos being put in Limited or No Ads, by requesting a manual review. However, since it takes a few days for manual review, the creator still ends up losing a lot of revenue. What's more, after a video goes green, it can go back to being yellow, which is bizarre. Also, when their videos are reviewed, their videos are at the mercy of the person reviewing them.

Anyway, that's it! Stephen promises that for their channels, they will keep releasing content like usual.