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WEBVTT
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Kind: captions
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Language: en
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00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:04.350
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Despite the length and effort of this video,
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this is not an attempt at creating a magnum
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00:00:04.350 --> 00:00:08.840
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opus. Far from it, it is a cathartic mess
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designed to cap off my first year of Youtube
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00:00:08.840 --> 00:00:14.460
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while also indirectly and incompletely chronicling
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my experience with platforms, attention economies,
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00:00:14.460 --> 00:00:20.260
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and the desire to be recognized in my works.
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It is, largely, an effort of practical explanation
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00:00:20.260 --> 00:00:25.519
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mired in anecdote, to which I provide a smaller
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companion, more expressly telling My Youtube
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00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:29.330
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Story and sharing my feelings on the state
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of things.
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00:00:29.330 --> 00:00:34.399
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This will be a journey, from a made-up website
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to places monetizing creativity to a ridiculous
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00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:38.680
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cryptocurrency project, into the past- and
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a glance to the future.
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00:00:38.680 --> 00:00:41.940
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It is, despite this, still an essay with a
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thesis:
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00:00:41.940 --> 00:00:46.739
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The monetization of creativity, though a means
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of nominally empowering creators, will forever
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||
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00:00:46.739 --> 00:00:51.260
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||
be intrinsically hostile to creativity, so
|
||
long as it is an incentive to
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00:00:51.260 --> 00:00:52.260
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Produce.
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00:00:52.260 --> 00:00:57.010
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We’ll be discussing the twofold path of
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||
monetization: one, the advertisers who are
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00:00:57.010 --> 00:01:02.960
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drawn in, and two, the payout for content
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creation and how creation becomes…production.
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||
00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:06.700
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Some sites have one, some sites have both—
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though it’s rare to see the payout without
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00:01:06.700 --> 00:01:12.460
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||
ads, we do have one example. The focus will,
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at first, largely be on that latter part–
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||
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||
00:01:12.460 --> 00:01:16.260
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payout– demonstrated through a few models
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||
of how sites have implemented payout and the
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||
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||
00:01:16.260 --> 00:01:18.600
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||
subsequent cultural ripple.
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||
00:01:18.600 --> 00:01:22.759
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||
Sites or apps changing their layout and design
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||
approach can massively impact culture and
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00:01:22.759 --> 00:01:27.689
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we just kind of accept that. Think of Instagram
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and the change from being a place where people
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00:01:27.689 --> 00:01:31.960
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once only posted wordless photos to how it’s…basically
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||
tiktok now.
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||
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||
00:01:31.960 --> 00:01:36.200
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||
Generally, apps have expanded functionality,
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||
or indeed, chased the market of other successful
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||
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||
00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:41.690
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||
apps by adding features meant to turn their
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||
platform into an alternative– again, instagram
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||
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00:01:41.690 --> 00:01:46.409
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||
(and youtube) trying to be tiktok.
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But there’s a lingering question of if people
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||
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||
00:01:46.409 --> 00:01:52.009
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would even *want* to use instagram or youtube
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to…do a tiktok, if creators weren’t directly
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||
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||
00:01:52.009 --> 00:01:56.829
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||
incentivized to create there. For a bit on
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||
how those incentives work, there’s a video
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||
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00:01:56.829 --> 00:02:02.020
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||
by Swell Entertainment which I’ll link below.
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Indeed, incentives will be a lingering theme
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||
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||
00:02:02.020 --> 00:02:03.119
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||
of this video.
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||
00:02:03.119 --> 00:02:08.300
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Generally, the point is that things…change,
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||
and one of the biggest sources of change is,
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||
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||
00:02:08.300 --> 00:02:11.380
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||
inevitably, monetization and the culture it
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brings.
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||
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||
00:02:11.380 --> 00:02:16.290
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How about we used a made-up example to chart
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the general trajectory of online content spaces…
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00:02:17.290 --> 00:02:19.290
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For fun, let’s just make up a site.
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00:02:19.290 --> 00:02:21.879
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We’ll call it… Embler. [apologies if there’s
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already a cheap tech startup called this]
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||
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00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:26.739
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Embler is a picture hosting social media site.
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On Embler, people are able to post almost
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||
00:02:26.739 --> 00:02:31.069
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whatever they want provided it doesn’t break
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laws. The site was originally intended as
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||
00:02:31.069 --> 00:02:36.069
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||
a place to post stunning vistas or cottagecore
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home vibes (fe backgrounds). Sure, some users
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00:02:36.069 --> 00:02:40.849
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||
would post an image of some text but it didn’t
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||
change the vibe much and was usually some
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00:02:40.849 --> 00:02:44.510
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live laugh love type junk.
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Eventually comments were enabled and a bit
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||
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||
00:02:44.510 --> 00:02:50.129
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||
of conversation started in the comment sections,
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||
treating them like threads, sometimes irrespective
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||
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||
00:02:50.129 --> 00:02:51.849
|
||
of the actual pic.
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||
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||
00:02:51.849 --> 00:02:57.020
|
||
After update 1.7, called Binding internally,
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||
the site featured text posts without the image
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||
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||
00:02:57.020 --> 00:02:58.020
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||
element.
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||
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||
00:02:58.020 --> 00:03:01.830
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||
Shortly after, this became the dominant way
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users interacted with the platform, going
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||
00:03:01.830 --> 00:03:08.020
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||
from an image posting board to sort of an…
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Ur-Forum, and people took to it well enough.
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||
|
||
00:03:08.020 --> 00:03:13.099
|
||
Eventually this change allowed for more interactivity
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||
between users and a degree of…personality
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||
00:03:13.099 --> 00:03:15.239
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||
to come out from the formerly wordless space.
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||
00:03:15.239 --> 00:03:19.830
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With that, people start amassing followers
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around their personalities and commentary
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||
00:03:19.830 --> 00:03:25.129
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more than just how nice their DSLR photos
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looked. Sure, some people mourned the vibe
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||
00:03:25.129 --> 00:03:29.220
|
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change (Camus) but generally people liked
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having a place to post more of themselves,
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||
00:03:29.220 --> 00:03:33.129
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even if it is angery poetry (Camus mask).
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People are largely posting for the sake of
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||
00:03:33.129 --> 00:03:37.360
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sharing their feelings or communicating with
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friends, but some people have started to find
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00:03:37.360 --> 00:03:43.040
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reward in being recognized in an online space,
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and really dive into the idea of growing followerbases.
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||
00:03:43.040 --> 00:03:48.489
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||
Now by this point, there have been ads on
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the site for a while, but it’s not intrusive.
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00:03:48.489 --> 00:03:51.000
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Or, no more intrusive than on other sites.
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00:03:51.000 --> 00:03:55.209
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Eventually, the site gets big and profitable
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enough that– to encourage growth of the
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00:03:55.209 --> 00:04:00.900
|
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platform and “give back”-- Embler starts
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a program to pay their largest contributors.
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00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:05.680
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The change is…subtle, at first. People just
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post what they always did, and indeed they
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00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:10.560
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||
don’t meet the threshold for pay anyway.
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But big accounts can now make it “their
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|
||
00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:15.299
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||
job” without having to worry about outside
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sponsors which were…tolerated at most by
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|
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00:04:15.299 --> 00:04:19.410
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||
the site administration.
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The fact that people *can* make it their job
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00:04:19.410 --> 00:04:25.130
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becomes aspirational, even.That said, not
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everyone on the platform jumps at the opportunity
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00:04:25.130 --> 00:04:29.680
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to earn, and the dichotomy of posters and
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lurkers is still there. There will always
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00:04:29.680 --> 00:04:33.639
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be lurkers (lowen?).
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But eventually the tone of content shifts.
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00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:36.570
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People are now posting things with calls to
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action baked in.
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00:04:36.570 --> 00:04:41.060
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Advertisers have made it clear that a nebulous
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||
range of content is unwanted, even when it
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||
00:04:41.060 --> 00:04:45.960
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||
doesn’t break site rules.
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||
An entire subculture once only full of aspirant
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||
00:04:45.960 --> 00:04:50.500
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14 year olds, develops around the question
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of “how to get big”.
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||
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||
00:04:50.500 --> 00:04:54.820
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||
Content is made with the express purpose of
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||
pretending to hold a definitive answer, the
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00:04:54.820 --> 00:04:59.850
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only true answer, to that question.
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In the end, creativity becomes a job option.
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00:04:59.850 --> 00:05:04.440
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For some, it’s incredibly lucrative, for
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||
others, supplemental advertising is part of
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||
00:05:04.440 --> 00:05:10.139
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||
their content, and for some there’s external
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platforms to help. These factors tether content
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00:05:10.139 --> 00:05:14.300
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||
to routine, and so begins the phenomena of
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monthly content waves.
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||
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00:05:14.300 --> 00:05:19.350
|
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With the advent of Embler becoming a “job”
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comes a marked shift in quality of content,
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|
||
00:05:19.350 --> 00:05:23.230
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||
and with a shift in quality comes a shift
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in expectations.
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00:05:23.230 --> 00:05:25.880
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Casual amateurism becomes near derided.
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00:05:25.880 --> 00:05:29.960
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Some big posters are even allowed to bend
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rules, so long as advertisers don’t personally
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00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:34.630
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step in or, as the case often becomes, get
|
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goaded into stepping in.
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||
00:05:34.630 --> 00:05:39.220
|
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It becomes clear that some people start flooding
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the site with content that, by just barely
|
||
|
||
00:05:39.220 --> 00:05:44.240
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||
skirting the line of several rules but breaking
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none of them, are producing cash grab content,
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|
||
00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:48.570
|
||
farming engagement, things like that. It starts
|
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to become a problem to the point of affecting
|
||
|
||
00:05:48.570 --> 00:05:52.889
|
||
the site ecosystem.
|
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The way the site filters content starts changing
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|
||
00:05:52.889 --> 00:05:57.660
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||
under the apparent idea of providing a better
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user experience, but to safeguard from bad
|
||
|
||
00:05:57.660 --> 00:06:01.620
|
||
actors, the mechanisms of the site are kept
|
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intentionally obtuse to such a degree that
|
||
|
||
00:06:01.620 --> 00:06:07.090
|
||
no one person, neither working on the site,
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working for the site, or posting on the site,
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||
|
||
00:06:07.090 --> 00:06:11.800
|
||
could explain how it works.
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This goes smoothly until eventually some users
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||
|
||
00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:15.960
|
||
start ironically worshiping the mechanism
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that filters posts. As with all ironic things
|
||
|
||
00:06:15.960 --> 00:06:20.090
|
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on the internet, given a digital generation,
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i.e. the length of one full rotation of an
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|
||
00:06:20.090 --> 00:06:24.990
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American High School student body, around
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4 years, the irony is lost on the new site
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00:06:24.990 --> 00:06:29.840
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members, and they begin worshiping in earnest.
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This turns out to be the way to summon a dead
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00:06:29.840 --> 00:06:35.520
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god named Gargalon or something who proceeds
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to vanish as suddenly as he arrived, signaling
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00:06:35.520 --> 00:06:37.400
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the End of Days.
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00:06:37.400 --> 00:06:40.380
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Wait what was the metaphor again?
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00:06:40.380 --> 00:06:41.950
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Okay let’s go with a different approach.
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00:06:41.950 --> 00:06:45.880
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I’m just gonna go through some sites I have
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personal experience with and less focus on
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00:06:45.880 --> 00:06:52.180
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how they transformed across years, so much
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as how their culture is informed by the monetization.
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00:06:52.180 --> 00:06:54.300
|
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Less before-and-after, more… case studies.
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00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:00.520
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There’s this site called Medium. It’s
|
||
basically youtube for sapiosexuals. It’s
|
||
|
||
00:07:00.520 --> 00:07:07.210
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||
like “oh I don’t watch tv I read” for
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the internet. Like a blog. It’s a blog.
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||
|
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00:07:07.210 --> 00:07:11.490
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Okay, being less facetious, it’s a platform
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founded by one of the co-founders of Twitter
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||
|
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00:07:11.490 --> 00:07:16.849
|
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Evan Williams–originally intended to be
|
||
longer twitter. I suppose, at that time, the
|
||
|
||
00:07:16.849 --> 00:07:21.169
|
||
name was conceived to be a declaration of
|
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post length.The design has since pivoted to
|
||
|
||
00:07:21.169 --> 00:07:23.890
|
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Williams’ other area of expertise, blogging.
|
||
|
||
00:07:23.890 --> 00:07:28.580
|
||
It is now a place for blogs and air quotes
|
||
“journalism” without having to make a
|
||
|
||
00:07:28.580 --> 00:07:32.330
|
||
website or understand wordpress. It’s a
|
||
hosting platform.
|
||
|
||
00:07:32.330 --> 00:07:35.979
|
||
By the nature of how blogs have been monetized
|
||
for almost their whole existence, it’s a
|
||
|
||
00:07:35.979 --> 00:07:41.010
|
||
little hard to say whether the monetization
|
||
of Medium is an innovation or tradition, really,
|
||
|
||
00:07:41.010 --> 00:07:46.050
|
||
but there’s a bit of what I’ll call hybridization
|
||
going on. The appeal, and how the site markets
|
||
|
||
00:07:46.050 --> 00:07:50.270
|
||
itself, is as a place where one can earn from
|
||
sharing their thoughts.
|
||
|
||
00:07:50.270 --> 00:07:51.830
|
||
This is how its structured:
|
||
|
||
00:07:51.830 --> 00:07:55.440
|
||
Medium has a whole host of categories and
|
||
a tag system for designating how articles
|
||
|
||
00:07:55.440 --> 00:08:00.690
|
||
get sorted by “genre” so far, nothing
|
||
special. Now there are two types of articles:
|
||
|
||
00:08:00.690 --> 00:08:04.240
|
||
normal and premium, with premium denoting
|
||
a paywall.
|
||
|
||
00:08:04.240 --> 00:08:08.409
|
||
If one pays for premium membership they can
|
||
get past this individually selected paywall
|
||
|
||
00:08:08.409 --> 00:08:13.800
|
||
as many times as they want. Without membership,
|
||
you get to pass the wall five times a month.
|
||
|
||
00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:18.509
|
||
Three enmeshed things make Medium interesting
|
||
for our purpose: the ad-free nature, the way
|
||
|
||
00:08:18.509 --> 00:08:21.830
|
||
people pay in, and the way people get paid.
|
||
|
||
00:08:21.830 --> 00:08:25.400
|
||
But first things first, why does Medium exist?
|
||
|
||
00:08:25.400 --> 00:08:29.310
|
||
The history isn’t very long and I won’t
|
||
go in that deep. Essentially Williams tried
|
||
|
||
00:08:29.310 --> 00:08:33.890
|
||
to make the first idea and it didn’t go
|
||
super well, because “twitter but more words”
|
||
|
||
00:08:33.890 --> 00:08:38.740
|
||
just means a feed of facebook rants. From
|
||
there a pivot was made to article style posts,
|
||
|
||
00:08:38.740 --> 00:08:43.729
|
||
ostensibly reinventing the blog space, and
|
||
then proudly standing by that reinvention,
|
||
|
||
00:08:43.729 --> 00:08:49.260
|
||
with an intended mission to save blogging
|
||
from oncoming irrelevance. After that, monetization
|
||
|
||
00:08:49.260 --> 00:08:53.760
|
||
for creators in the form of the paywall came
|
||
up in around 2017, pivoting the content to
|
||
|
||
00:08:53.760 --> 00:08:59.020
|
||
a sort of… each man his own New York Times
|
||
op-ed writer, dogshit takes optional.
|
||
|
||
00:08:59.020 --> 00:09:04.870
|
||
What needs to be considered is that Medium
|
||
exists to pay people. Let me put it this way.
|
||
|
||
00:09:04.870 --> 00:09:10.620
|
||
Writers existed before Medium. Youtubers didn’t
|
||
exist before Youtube. Yes, people made videos
|
||
|
||
00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:15.450
|
||
prior to youtube, but first and foremost the
|
||
point of youtube originally was ease of hosting,
|
||
|
||
00:09:15.450 --> 00:09:19.870
|
||
which led to a new type of platform.
|
||
In part, Medium has that angle too: it is
|
||
|
||
00:09:19.870 --> 00:09:24.630
|
||
a platform for articles, no need to learn
|
||
how to use Wordpress or make your own website,
|
||
|
||
00:09:24.630 --> 00:09:29.230
|
||
SPEAKING OF MAKING YOUR OWN WEBSITE, nobody
|
||
sponsors me. but I bet you thought of someone,
|
||
|
||
00:09:29.230 --> 00:09:33.540
|
||
because you’re on youtube and I said “making
|
||
your own website.” Kinda scary isn’t it.
|
||
|
||
00:09:33.540 --> 00:09:37.089
|
||
The new generation of corporate jingles being
|
||
etched in your brain.
|
||
|
||
00:09:37.089 --> 00:09:41.500
|
||
Uhh. I hope several people didn’t just click
|
||
away trying to find where the ad ends, cause
|
||
|
||
00:09:41.500 --> 00:09:44.200
|
||
there isn’t one…
|
||
Medium’s main value and primary goal is
|
||
|
||
00:09:44.200 --> 00:09:48.910
|
||
in being a place where writers can monetize
|
||
their content. It is, in effect, democratizing
|
||
|
||
00:09:48.910 --> 00:09:54.330
|
||
not access to writing, but access to deploying
|
||
a paywall. That paywall is the hybrid element,
|
||
|
||
00:09:54.330 --> 00:09:58.779
|
||
taking blogs and merging them with a tactic
|
||
borrowed from traditional media outlets, themselves
|
||
|
||
00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:01.390
|
||
archaically positioned on the modern internet.
|
||
|
||
00:10:01.390 --> 00:10:04.800
|
||
With that in mind, let’s talk about paying
|
||
in, and paying out.
|
||
|
||
00:10:04.800 --> 00:10:10.329
|
||
Hmm. Okay well the old link to how payout
|
||
works and the site premise is gone, and the
|
||
|
||
00:10:10.329 --> 00:10:14.779
|
||
new one just says “A portion of your membership
|
||
will directly support the writers and thinkers
|
||
|
||
00:10:14.779 --> 00:10:20.190
|
||
you read the most” with no elaboration.
|
||
From my memory this is how it worked…at
|
||
|
||
00:10:20.190 --> 00:10:25.630
|
||
least at some point: For a monthly or upfront
|
||
fee, users get to circumvent the paywall.
|
||
|
||
00:10:25.630 --> 00:10:30.050
|
||
A portion of the money collected from said
|
||
fee is put into a creator fund, kind of like
|
||
|
||
00:10:30.050 --> 00:10:34.829
|
||
how shorts work on youtube, if you’re familiar.
|
||
Then, the pay is portioned out each month
|
||
|
||
00:10:34.829 --> 00:10:40.290
|
||
according to not views, not visits, but how
|
||
many likes, called kudos, an article gets
|
||
|
||
00:10:40.290 --> 00:10:44.670
|
||
*from paying members*
|
||
In effect, this means the free-to-read visitors
|
||
|
||
00:10:44.670 --> 00:10:50.620
|
||
using up one of their 5 freebies cannot contribute
|
||
to payout in any manner beyond the psychological.
|
||
|
||
00:10:50.620 --> 00:10:55.320
|
||
The way it was explained, again to my memory,
|
||
was that paying members were essentially assigning
|
||
|
||
00:10:55.320 --> 00:11:00.250
|
||
a portion of their pay-in to an article for
|
||
every kudos they gave it. It must be noted
|
||
|
||
00:11:00.250 --> 00:11:04.720
|
||
here that readers can give up to 50 kudos
|
||
to a single article. There is no finite pool
|
||
|
||
00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:08.860
|
||
of kudos to give out in a month. They’re
|
||
not like casino chips with a static value.
|
||
|
||
00:11:08.860 --> 00:11:13.639
|
||
The worth of a kudos is relative to the amount
|
||
of them divvied out. This allows for some
|
||
|
||
00:11:13.639 --> 00:11:18.180
|
||
manner of granular-satisfaction spending.
|
||
In theory, if I have a membership and I give
|
||
|
||
00:11:18.180 --> 00:11:23.930
|
||
one article a single kudo and no other articles
|
||
any, that article’s writer will get my whole
|
||
|
||
00:11:23.930 --> 00:11:28.980
|
||
prize share. If I give one article 50 and
|
||
another 50, they’re both splitting it evenly.
|
||
|
||
00:11:28.980 --> 00:11:33.420
|
||
If I give 20 articles 50 kudos, the split
|
||
is, again, even.
|
||
|
||
00:11:33.420 --> 00:11:38.380
|
||
My suspicion is that many medium subscribers
|
||
are medium contributors. In one sense, this
|
||
|
||
00:11:38.380 --> 00:11:43.120
|
||
makes perfect sense, people who are on the
|
||
platform will consume on platform. It’s
|
||
|
||
00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:48.389
|
||
a generalized hobby space in the way Youtube
|
||
is, but with a narrower reach. As such, the
|
||
|
||
00:11:48.389 --> 00:11:53.209
|
||
platform is inhabited proportionally, by a
|
||
larger host of consumers who are themselves
|
||
|
||
00:11:53.209 --> 00:11:54.670
|
||
creators.
|
||
|
||
00:11:54.670 --> 00:11:58.839
|
||
If my suspicion is right, it would go pretty
|
||
far towards explaining the nature of content
|
||
|
||
00:11:58.839 --> 00:11:59.839
|
||
on the platform:
|
||
|
||
00:11:59.839 --> 00:12:04.230
|
||
A culture exists on the site of writing articles–
|
||
of course behind the paywall– geared solely
|
||
|
||
00:12:04.230 --> 00:12:09.260
|
||
to be advice on how to “make it” on the
|
||
platform. As we’ll see later, this is not
|
||
|
||
00:12:09.260 --> 00:12:14.570
|
||
an uncommon dynamic. The more generalized
|
||
content has its own similar vibe.
|
||
|
||
00:12:14.570 --> 00:12:18.899
|
||
In theory, the content of the site could have
|
||
taken on any shape, but instead there’s
|
||
|
||
00:12:18.899 --> 00:12:24.120
|
||
a looming productivity cult.
|
||
It may just be my experience, subscribed as
|
||
|
||
00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:29.170
|
||
I was to the tags of “writing” and “freelancing”
|
||
among the others that were “non-work interests”,
|
||
|
||
00:12:29.170 --> 00:12:33.751
|
||
but the majority of articles put in front
|
||
of me were paywalled guides to success. Going
|
||
|
||
00:12:33.751 --> 00:12:37.959
|
||
on the site incognito, the suggestions are
|
||
still productivity geared.
|
||
|
||
00:12:37.959 --> 00:12:42.269
|
||
Here’s another question: when does one decide
|
||
to put up the wall?
|
||
|
||
00:12:42.269 --> 00:12:45.800
|
||
When people have something important to say,
|
||
there’s arguments in either direction for
|
||
|
||
00:12:45.800 --> 00:12:50.600
|
||
if they ought paywall it. Shouldn’t people
|
||
earn for their time and effort? Say my story
|
||
|
||
00:12:50.600 --> 00:12:55.199
|
||
about an important issue everyone should know
|
||
about goes viral, shouldn’t I get something
|
||
|
||
00:12:55.199 --> 00:13:01.010
|
||
for my trouble? And besides, the paywall has
|
||
five free uses a month, it’s not *really*
|
||
|
||
00:13:01.010 --> 00:13:03.420
|
||
blocking anyone from seeing my critical information…right?
|
||
|
||
00:13:03.420 --> 00:13:08.040
|
||
There’s a lot to be said, and indeed likely
|
||
a lot of ink spilled about the effects of
|
||
|
||
00:13:08.040 --> 00:13:12.769
|
||
digital journalism colliding with a need to
|
||
keep the lights on, or profit. For an example
|
||
|
||
00:13:12.769 --> 00:13:16.779
|
||
of this, I merely cite the way some articles
|
||
with information pertinent to things like
|
||
|
||
00:13:16.779 --> 00:13:22.580
|
||
elections or the global pandemic were paywalled
|
||
by big journalism sites. But is that not fair?
|
||
|
||
00:13:22.580 --> 00:13:27.770
|
||
Was creating the article not labor? How else
|
||
do we cover the cost of producing the article,
|
||
|
||
00:13:27.770 --> 00:13:32.720
|
||
of doing the research, of hosting the information?
|
||
Well, as some of you might already be aware,
|
||
|
||
00:13:32.720 --> 00:13:36.860
|
||
that argument has some holes, biggest of which
|
||
being that running a for-profit newspaper,
|
||
|
||
00:13:36.860 --> 00:13:41.980
|
||
or even running one at-loss is not always
|
||
altruistic.
|
||
|
||
00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:47.520
|
||
Medium at certain points has paid famous people
|
||
to post on their platform, behind the paywall,
|
||
|
||
00:13:47.520 --> 00:13:49.410
|
||
another tactic that will return.
|
||
|
||
00:13:49.410 --> 00:13:55.050
|
||
The core reason to be on Medium *is* that
|
||
possible paywall, that angle of payout, and
|
||
|
||
00:13:55.050 --> 00:14:00.430
|
||
it’s no more altruistic of Medium to “create
|
||
the opportunity” than anything the Gig economy
|
||
|
||
00:14:00.430 --> 00:14:01.430
|
||
promises.
|
||
|
||
00:14:01.430 --> 00:14:06.250
|
||
As far as the cultural impact goes, note that
|
||
there is genuine content on Medium, but there’s
|
||
|
||
00:14:06.250 --> 00:14:12.180
|
||
also the scars of incentivizing a particular
|
||
culture, of clickbait headlines, of churning
|
||
|
||
00:14:12.180 --> 00:14:17.940
|
||
out content, of feigned empowerment. The paywall
|
||
isn’t a “pay people what their worth!”
|
||
|
||
00:14:17.940 --> 00:14:21.140
|
||
initiative, it’s an earnings scheme.
|
||
|
||
00:14:21.140 --> 00:14:26.810
|
||
But what if there was a much worse monetization
|
||
scheme for writing articles? I mean, sure
|
||
|
||
00:14:26.810 --> 00:14:31.170
|
||
it’s a bit hard to imagine, but like…
|
||
what if we combined two radically awful ideas,
|
||
|
||
00:14:31.170 --> 00:14:36.190
|
||
like say the unusable Fandom wikis but for
|
||
regular wikipedia content and cryptocurrency
|
||
|
||
00:14:36.190 --> 00:14:39.610
|
||
Web 3.0 decentralization fantasies.
|
||
|
||
00:14:39.610 --> 00:14:43.670
|
||
Well we don’t need to imagine, cause it
|
||
was real and I was personally involved.
|
||
|
||
00:14:44.769 --> 00:14:50.620
|
||
I simply cannot begin to tell you how excited
|
||
I am to have an excuse to share this story.
|
||
|
||
00:14:50.620 --> 00:14:55.430
|
||
Okay so back in like 2017 I was working in
|
||
a bar and a coworker of mine who was a relatively
|
||
|
||
00:14:55.430 --> 00:15:00.399
|
||
early adopter of Cryptocurrency—he’d been
|
||
at it for years and, again this was 2017–
|
||
|
||
00:15:00.399 --> 00:15:06.279
|
||
told me about this new platform that was doing
|
||
a writing contest with a cash payout. Kinda.
|
||
|
||
00:15:06.279 --> 00:15:12.080
|
||
The platform was planned to be, and explained
|
||
to me as “decentralized wikipedia” which…we’ll
|
||
|
||
00:15:12.080 --> 00:15:16.910
|
||
come back to shortly. The contest was to write
|
||
the first wiki articles for the platform and
|
||
|
||
00:15:16.910 --> 00:15:21.820
|
||
the top three articles got a prize, paid in
|
||
Ethereum, a then mid-sized competitor to Bitcoin
|
||
|
||
00:15:21.820 --> 00:15:25.320
|
||
but not as entrenched in the crypto space
|
||
as it is now.
|
||
|
||
00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:29.079
|
||
For the curious this isn’t about to become
|
||
a cryptocurrency rant, though I probably do
|
||
|
||
00:15:29.079 --> 00:15:33.889
|
||
have one in me. It is, however, important
|
||
to understand the culture this site was designed
|
||
|
||
00:15:33.889 --> 00:15:38.600
|
||
in and around. I’m not gonna go too deep
|
||
into that here, and while I would suggest
|
||
|
||
00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:43.130
|
||
Dan Olson’s Line Goes Up to get a sense
|
||
of it all, the videos is hours long and you’d
|
||
|
||
00:15:43.130 --> 00:15:46.829
|
||
forget to come back here. Also chances are
|
||
you’ve already seen it.
|
||
|
||
00:15:46.829 --> 00:15:51.709
|
||
My friend was very “in” on the idea of
|
||
the platform, called Lunyr, and planned to
|
||
|
||
00:15:51.709 --> 00:15:56.600
|
||
buy the token— which mind you is like buying
|
||
stock in a company, particularly an initial
|
||
|
||
00:15:56.600 --> 00:16:02.170
|
||
public offering– not like buying a digital
|
||
currency in this case. He fully believed in
|
||
|
||
00:16:02.170 --> 00:16:08.589
|
||
this company and their plan. I was…skeptical,
|
||
but I mean, maybe there was something to it,
|
||
|
||
00:16:08.589 --> 00:16:12.350
|
||
so I sent something in and was part of the
|
||
community for a little while.
|
||
|
||
00:16:12.350 --> 00:16:16.661
|
||
So what was the plan?
|
||
Well, the short version is, as I said, a decentralized
|
||
|
||
00:16:16.661 --> 00:16:21.620
|
||
wikipedia. But, wikipedia famously doesn’t
|
||
make money unless it’s doing that fun little
|
||
|
||
00:16:21.620 --> 00:16:27.399
|
||
guilt trip donation drive at the top. Lunyr
|
||
wanted to have ads. In fact, that was a selling
|
||
|
||
00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:31.920
|
||
point, because Lunyr itself and investors
|
||
weren’t the only ones poised to make money.
|
||
|
||
00:16:31.920 --> 00:16:36.940
|
||
They wanted to offer an aggressive meritocratic
|
||
earning opportunity with their platform. Articles
|
||
|
||
00:16:36.940 --> 00:16:41.060
|
||
would get ad revenue for clicks. And, I know
|
||
I’ve implied this already, (or outright
|
||
|
||
00:16:41.060 --> 00:16:46.079
|
||
said it) but these articles are meant to be
|
||
wikipedia style articles, not recipe blogs
|
||
|
||
00:16:46.079 --> 00:16:51.200
|
||
or news articles or whatever. But the idea
|
||
is also to write an article that rakes in
|
||
|
||
00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:52.610
|
||
views. Hmm.
|
||
|
||
00:16:52.610 --> 00:16:56.410
|
||
So the goal becomes writing the best article,
|
||
winning the marketplace of ideas, and getting
|
||
|
||
00:16:56.410 --> 00:17:00.579
|
||
the most views. There’s a lot wrong with
|
||
how this model shakes out and I’m sure some
|
||
|
||
00:17:00.579 --> 00:17:06.089
|
||
of it feels immediately apparent. For one,
|
||
topics. Writing the article on some obscure
|
||
|
||
00:17:06.089 --> 00:17:10.900
|
||
Irish poet from the 18th century might be
|
||
a non-competitive space, but it’s also not
|
||
|
||
00:17:10.900 --> 00:17:15.050
|
||
likely to get many clicks, the incentive to
|
||
write about things that aren’t already common
|
||
|
||
00:17:15.050 --> 00:17:19.280
|
||
knowledge isn’t really there. And as for
|
||
making sure articles are written well and
|
||
|
||
00:17:19.280 --> 00:17:23.589
|
||
not just made up unsourced nonsense, well,
|
||
we’ll get more into it later, but for now
|
||
|
||
00:17:23.589 --> 00:17:29.380
|
||
just know that there were intended to be self-deputized
|
||
subject experts who vetted things.
|
||
|
||
00:17:29.380 --> 00:17:33.799
|
||
The incentive to write these things at all
|
||
is dependent on pay. That’s the short version.
|
||
|
||
00:17:33.799 --> 00:17:38.640
|
||
The monetary incentive made this immediately
|
||
an untenable trainwreck.
|
||
|
||
00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:41.940
|
||
And people… uhh
|
||
Didn’t seem to get what the whole site was
|
||
|
||
00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:43.710
|
||
even meant to be.
|
||
|
||
00:17:43.710 --> 00:17:47.679
|
||
This really is at least half-tangential but
|
||
it’s too funny to not mention.
|
||
|
||
00:17:47.679 --> 00:17:53.809
|
||
Wiki-style articles. That’s the intent,
|
||
yeah. Easy to understand, even if the “decentralized”
|
||
|
||
00:17:53.809 --> 00:17:58.291
|
||
lingo flies over your head, even if the connection
|
||
to the blockchain stuff makes no sense, the
|
||
|
||
00:17:58.291 --> 00:18:01.270
|
||
“wikipedia” part should still click.
|
||
|
||
00:18:01.270 --> 00:18:05.020
|
||
The submissions they got, however, and I know
|
||
this from seeing what articles came up on
|
||
|
||
00:18:05.020 --> 00:18:10.990
|
||
day one, were more like… bad Medium posts.
|
||
One I saw and distinctly remember was “Why
|
||
|
||
00:18:10.990 --> 00:18:16.419
|
||
do women date jerks?” which, after “review”
|
||
was requested to be reformatted to sound more
|
||
|
||
00:18:16.419 --> 00:18:21.250
|
||
like an academic article and renamed itself
|
||
to “the jerkboy theory”...
|
||
|
||
00:18:21.250 --> 00:18:24.670
|
||
Continuing that trend, lots of the content
|
||
on the site was what you might expect from
|
||
|
||
00:18:24.670 --> 00:18:29.850
|
||
the culture of the crypto community, even
|
||
as far back as 2017. So while that one article
|
||
|
||
00:18:29.850 --> 00:18:35.060
|
||
was basically a retooled rant about how “women
|
||
only date assholes”, it was hardly alone.
|
||
|
||
00:18:35.060 --> 00:18:39.540
|
||
There was another filled with Pick up artist
|
||
dating tips. And another one I saw was about
|
||
|
||
00:18:39.540 --> 00:18:44.190
|
||
“FEMALE SEXUAL HYPERGAMY”
|
||
Almost all the articles I saw were either
|
||
|
||
00:18:44.190 --> 00:18:49.470
|
||
slightly veiled redpill interests or literally
|
||
about the crypto community itself, like articles
|
||
|
||
00:18:49.470 --> 00:18:54.800
|
||
about Etherium or coins or whatever.
|
||
This is no longer tangential, because it played
|
||
|
||
00:18:54.800 --> 00:18:59.830
|
||
a hefty part in the site’s downfall as well.
|
||
The site wanted to replace wikipedia and terrible
|
||
|
||
00:18:59.830 --> 00:19:04.080
|
||
business model aside, it presumed it could
|
||
farm out all the content generation to users,
|
||
|
||
00:19:04.080 --> 00:19:08.430
|
||
and that somehow this would produce a rounded
|
||
and totalizing pool of information.
|
||
|
||
00:19:08.430 --> 00:19:13.510
|
||
Based on the incentives, on paper, they thought
|
||
users would rush to stake writing The Winston
|
||
|
||
00:19:13.510 --> 00:19:17.510
|
||
Churchill article, and that, presumably once
|
||
the big known topics were covered, people
|
||
|
||
00:19:17.510 --> 00:19:22.000
|
||
would go for more obscure ones, trying to
|
||
claim more and more “real estate” so to
|
||
|
||
00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:24.490
|
||
speak.
|
||
My clever idea in all this was that it would
|
||
|
||
00:19:24.490 --> 00:19:29.750
|
||
be very smart to twist articles one writes
|
||
to always have an undue amount of hyperlinks
|
||
|
||
00:19:29.750 --> 00:19:32.059
|
||
to other articles you made.
|
||
|
||
00:19:32.059 --> 00:19:38.280
|
||
So, say you wrote the article on WW1, a HUGE
|
||
topic. Not only would this be a popular search,
|
||
|
||
00:19:38.280 --> 00:19:43.240
|
||
but it would also provide branches to *tons*
|
||
of other topics. So what if you just also
|
||
|
||
00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:47.750
|
||
happened to corner all those topics too, rushing
|
||
to fill in every possible hyperlink with an
|
||
|
||
00:19:47.750 --> 00:19:51.880
|
||
article that you made?
|
||
That’s going to shape content. And moderation
|
||
|
||
00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:56.760
|
||
was unlikely to target an article for including
|
||
superfluous hyperlinks… because….
|
||
|
||
00:19:56.760 --> 00:19:59.400
|
||
Well let’s talk about moderation.
|
||
|
||
00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:03.419
|
||
Moderation was also expected to be farmed
|
||
out. Or more accurately, it was meant to be
|
||
|
||
00:20:03.419 --> 00:20:08.500
|
||
self-evident, done by the community, and in
|
||
the community’s own interests to moderate.
|
||
|
||
00:20:08.500 --> 00:20:14.361
|
||
Like… some kind of hyper-individuallist
|
||
community effort? I dunno, in truth this whole
|
||
|
||
00:20:14.361 --> 00:20:18.590
|
||
thing feels like a case study in how ancap
|
||
communities cannot function.
|
||
|
||
00:20:18.590 --> 00:20:23.040
|
||
In terms of moderating for quality there was
|
||
only one approach and it had a simply massive
|
||
|
||
00:20:23.040 --> 00:20:26.880
|
||
blindspot.
|
||
The quality of articles would be self-correcting
|
||
|
||
00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:31.600
|
||
because the best articles would win in the
|
||
marketplace of ideas and get the clicks they
|
||
|
||
00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:32.600
|
||
deserve.
|
||
|
||
00:20:32.600 --> 00:20:34.790
|
||
Okay actually there’s like four blindspots
|
||
there…
|
||
|
||
00:20:34.790 --> 00:20:39.410
|
||
Let’s run through that one again. “The
|
||
Quality of articles would be self correcting
|
||
|
||
00:20:39.410 --> 00:20:44.420
|
||
because the best articles would win in the
|
||
marketplace of ideas and get the clicks they
|
||
|
||
00:20:44.420 --> 00:20:48.420
|
||
deserve.”
|
||
Okay, uhh, problem one. I’m not on wikipedia
|
||
|
||
00:20:48.420 --> 00:20:53.190
|
||
sorting articles by number of citations or
|
||
how compelling the writing is, I’m there
|
||
|
||
00:20:53.190 --> 00:20:57.280
|
||
trying to learn what the fuck this band everyone
|
||
keeps mentioning is all about.
|
||
|
||
00:20:57.280 --> 00:21:02.980
|
||
Two is that they hoped to incentivize touching
|
||
up bad articles by “splitting revenue”
|
||
|
||
00:21:02.980 --> 00:21:09.059
|
||
from an article based on edits. Now fundamental
|
||
to this, on some level is the blockchain element
|
||
|
||
00:21:09.059 --> 00:21:12.770
|
||
of it…or allegedly that was part of it.
|
||
Because in theory there weren’t supposed
|
||
|
||
00:21:12.770 --> 00:21:18.220
|
||
to be edits. Stuff was etched in stone. But
|
||
in practice they actually DID do edits to
|
||
|
||
00:21:18.220 --> 00:21:23.140
|
||
pages. I guess their idea was that users would
|
||
write wholly distinct new better versions
|
||
|
||
00:21:23.140 --> 00:21:28.919
|
||
of other articles and replace the old one…
|
||
acting as market competition, but for info
|
||
|
||
00:21:28.919 --> 00:21:30.840
|
||
on what clouds are.
|
||
|
||
00:21:30.840 --> 00:21:35.150
|
||
But that was highly impractical, so it just
|
||
opened up to editing like we saw with the
|
||
|
||
00:21:35.150 --> 00:21:39.320
|
||
Jerkboy theory one. Sure, the old versions
|
||
were somewhere on the blockchain, but that
|
||
|
||
00:21:39.320 --> 00:21:44.500
|
||
seems to solve a non-problem. Wikipedia doesn’t
|
||
have famous instances of whole articles vanishing
|
||
|
||
00:21:44.500 --> 00:21:48.760
|
||
to censorship. Solving this non-problem just
|
||
invented another one.
|
||
|
||
00:21:48.760 --> 00:21:53.470
|
||
Open seasons was declared on articles for
|
||
producing needless edits and then having to
|
||
|
||
00:21:53.470 --> 00:21:57.490
|
||
somehow calculate shares of an article’s
|
||
ownership. If I write the Winston Churchill
|
||
|
||
00:21:57.490 --> 00:22:02.390
|
||
article and it looks like this and someone
|
||
comes by and adds to it making it look like
|
||
|
||
00:22:02.390 --> 00:22:08.490
|
||
this, do I still get a share? Keen eyed viewers
|
||
might notice that I’ve literally copy pasted
|
||
|
||
00:22:08.490 --> 00:22:13.220
|
||
wikipedia here, and no, that wasn’t just
|
||
to avoid writing a whole fake winston churchill
|
||
|
||
00:22:13.220 --> 00:22:17.980
|
||
article, it’s because this was ANOTHER LITERAL
|
||
PROBLEM OF THE SITE.
|
||
|
||
00:22:17.980 --> 00:22:21.990
|
||
Three. People were copypasting things from
|
||
wikipedia. The site runners said they didn’t
|
||
|
||
00:22:21.990 --> 00:22:26.679
|
||
like this very much, because they had to pretend
|
||
to be better than wikipedia so obviously they
|
||
|
||
00:22:26.679 --> 00:22:32.110
|
||
would curate only the most smart boy, powerful,
|
||
intellectual, and thorough userbase. This
|
||
|
||
00:22:32.110 --> 00:22:36.299
|
||
meant that, far less than the charge of plagiarism,
|
||
the concern was that Lunyr’s information
|
||
|
||
00:22:36.299 --> 00:22:42.419
|
||
ought to be different somehow. I mean, that’s
|
||
in the conceit. Decentralized Wikipedia didn’t
|
||
|
||
00:22:42.419 --> 00:22:46.900
|
||
just mean like… wiki on the blockchain.
|
||
If anything, the blockchain obsession and
|
||
|
||
00:22:46.900 --> 00:22:51.669
|
||
the practical site function were wholly divorced.
|
||
It meant something to the effect of “Wikipedia
|
||
|
||
00:22:51.669 --> 00:22:56.510
|
||
without meddling from “insert bad thing”
|
||
I’d call this Wikipedia for paranoid libertarians,
|
||
|
||
00:22:56.510 --> 00:23:00.659
|
||
but Jimmy Wales, the founder of wikipedia
|
||
is already a self-professed libertarian, so
|
||
|
||
00:23:00.659 --> 00:23:04.659
|
||
I don’t think there was some fear of his
|
||
“secret totalizing control” or “political
|
||
|
||
00:23:04.659 --> 00:23:08.490
|
||
bias” as motivation for founding Lunyr as
|
||
a competitor.
|
||
|
||
00:23:08.490 --> 00:23:12.490
|
||
Now, sidestepping the myriad of problems that
|
||
presents in terms of authorial intent and
|
||
|
||
00:23:12.490 --> 00:23:17.750
|
||
historical accuracy and biases and all that,
|
||
it’s still a fundamentally absurd issue
|
||
|
||
00:23:17.750 --> 00:23:22.140
|
||
to have. They presumed their userbase would
|
||
act in good faith…which you should never
|
||
|
||
00:23:22.140 --> 00:23:23.560
|
||
do on the internet.
|
||
|
||
00:23:23.560 --> 00:23:27.760
|
||
They presumed that the users would prioritize
|
||
the viability of the site and incredibly long
|
||
|
||
00:23:27.760 --> 00:23:33.570
|
||
term vision, a deeply long term investment,
|
||
instead of embracing the core tenant of crypto–
|
||
|
||
00:23:33.570 --> 00:23:38.020
|
||
fast money. The site runners were so blind
|
||
to this reality of their userbase that they
|
||
|
||
00:23:38.020 --> 00:23:43.460
|
||
were genuinely *mad* that the quality of articles
|
||
was as shamelessly low as it was. Eventually,
|
||
|
||
00:23:43.460 --> 00:23:48.510
|
||
once the wikipedia copy-paste issue was “handled”
|
||
by being made against the rules, people started
|
||
|
||
00:23:48.510 --> 00:23:52.710
|
||
just doing that with articles not in English,
|
||
because literally nobody on their skeleton
|
||
|
||
00:23:52.710 --> 00:23:56.200
|
||
crew staff of 3 dudes living in LA knew another
|
||
language.
|
||
|
||
00:23:56.200 --> 00:24:01.080
|
||
All this may have you wondering, okay but
|
||
what were the actual mechanisms of content
|
||
|
||
00:24:01.080 --> 00:24:05.179
|
||
review? What does leaving it to the people/market
|
||
mean?
|
||
|
||
00:24:05.179 --> 00:24:09.350
|
||
The way things passed inspection was that
|
||
someone just looked at it, verified it, and
|
||
|
||
00:24:09.350 --> 00:24:14.750
|
||
got a cut of the future proceeds of the article
|
||
for being its “quality reviewer.” Now
|
||
|
||
00:24:14.750 --> 00:24:19.480
|
||
uhhhhhhhhhh. The level of faith in the community
|
||
on display here makes the “communism only
|
||
|
||
00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:25.340
|
||
works in an ideal world” thing right wingers
|
||
say look like the utmost projection. The creators
|
||
|
||
00:24:25.340 --> 00:24:30.250
|
||
of the site left moderation to the community,
|
||
with a monetary incentive for sheer volume
|
||
|
||
00:24:30.250 --> 00:24:34.840
|
||
of articles okayed, somehow presuming that
|
||
people would take the task seriously instead
|
||
|
||
00:24:34.840 --> 00:24:40.080
|
||
of, AT BEST clearing articles for the sake
|
||
of getting in on an easy revenue stream, or
|
||
|
||
00:24:40.080 --> 00:24:45.210
|
||
at worst and most easily manipulable– forming
|
||
off-site groups that just circularly approve
|
||
|
||
00:24:45.210 --> 00:24:47.890
|
||
each other’s stuff no matter how dogshit
|
||
it is.
|
||
|
||
00:24:47.890 --> 00:24:50.130
|
||
And so we circle back to language.
|
||
|
||
00:24:50.130 --> 00:24:55.460
|
||
Four. Translation. Translations were supposed
|
||
to also structure their payout as a pyramid
|
||
|
||
00:24:55.460 --> 00:24:59.740
|
||
scheme. The French article on the decline
|
||
of a woman’s value as she got older would
|
||
|
||
00:24:59.740 --> 00:25:04.500
|
||
have to pay a share of its earnings back to
|
||
the original English one. In turn, of course,
|
||
|
||
00:25:04.500 --> 00:25:09.059
|
||
this led to people taking the actual articles
|
||
that were up, and trying to “stake” foreign
|
||
|
||
00:25:09.059 --> 00:25:12.210
|
||
language versions by running them through
|
||
google translate.
|
||
|
||
00:25:12.210 --> 00:25:15.720
|
||
Who cares if it’s bad? People won’t know
|
||
that before they click on it, and it’s not
|
||
|
||
00:25:15.720 --> 00:25:19.799
|
||
like entertaining content where people share
|
||
it around if it’s good.
|
||
|
||
00:25:19.799 --> 00:25:24.070
|
||
Cumulatively, we end up in a situation where
|
||
there’s not really recourse to fix that
|
||
|
||
00:25:24.070 --> 00:25:31.039
|
||
or do quality control. Say I technically wrote
|
||
the first article on Alex Jones in Tagalog
|
||
|
||
00:25:31.039 --> 00:25:35.590
|
||
by copy paste translating it. If someone goes
|
||
in to fix my article, I still get a share
|
||
|
||
00:25:35.590 --> 00:25:41.270
|
||
of whatever their work amounts to, in perpetuity.
|
||
This disincentivizes people from ever improving
|
||
|
||
00:25:41.270 --> 00:25:46.100
|
||
an article until there is literally nothing
|
||
left to stake claims on. This competitive
|
||
|
||
00:25:46.100 --> 00:25:51.760
|
||
collaboration was untenable from the start,
|
||
the monetization scheme was untenable from
|
||
|
||
00:25:51.760 --> 00:25:52.760
|
||
the start.
|
||
|
||
00:25:52.760 --> 00:25:57.970
|
||
All that aside, the worst hole in the business
|
||
model is the premise itself: Why would I go
|
||
|
||
00:25:57.970 --> 00:26:03.440
|
||
to an incomplete website to seek my information,
|
||
under the promise that this information is
|
||
|
||
00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:08.960
|
||
“decentralized”-- somehow presuming that
|
||
1, wikipedia is centralized, which I guess
|
||
|
||
00:26:08.960 --> 00:26:14.080
|
||
is code for secretly run by Hillary Clinton
|
||
or something, and 2, that a platform with
|
||
|
||
00:26:14.080 --> 00:26:18.500
|
||
literal monetary incentives would produce
|
||
more objective high quality articles than
|
||
|
||
00:26:18.500 --> 00:26:23.970
|
||
a volunteer system. The concept was that it
|
||
was “free from censorship” but when pressed,
|
||
|
||
00:26:23.970 --> 00:26:28.539
|
||
nobody could name an actual censorious thing
|
||
about Wikipedia, and given that the articles
|
||
|
||
00:26:28.539 --> 00:26:32.630
|
||
that came out on launch were just like…
|
||
bad incel talking points, I can only imagine
|
||
|
||
00:26:32.630 --> 00:26:34.909
|
||
what censorship meant to that community.
|
||
|
||
00:26:34.909 --> 00:26:38.791
|
||
This whole thing was like watching someone
|
||
say “Let the free market decide” without
|
||
|
||
00:26:38.791 --> 00:26:43.020
|
||
getting that that’s just an empty platitude,
|
||
as the market crowdfunds an initiative to
|
||
|
||
00:26:43.020 --> 00:26:46.889
|
||
have Mr Market Decider himself lowered into
|
||
a vat of acid.
|
||
|
||
00:26:46.889 --> 00:26:50.440
|
||
In the end it was a terrible product with
|
||
foolish goals, and a contributor-base who
|
||
|
||
00:26:50.440 --> 00:26:55.720
|
||
cared more about monetizing an idea than seeing
|
||
that idea flourish… and yet it had enough
|
||
|
||
00:26:55.720 --> 00:26:59.660
|
||
of an earnest streak I can’t exactly call
|
||
it a grift.
|
||
|
||
00:26:59.660 --> 00:27:03.409
|
||
That said it also certainly wasn’t free
|
||
of the crypto cult culture, of systematic
|
||
|
||
00:27:03.409 --> 00:27:08.620
|
||
aggression towards anyone pointing out a flaw.
|
||
A fear of fear poisoned people’s minds.
|
||
|
||
00:27:08.620 --> 00:27:13.860
|
||
The term “Fudding” meaning fear, uncertainty,
|
||
doubt, was thrown around at any instance of
|
||
|
||
00:27:13.860 --> 00:27:18.960
|
||
a perceived critique. Naturally, this abject
|
||
W for Free Speech enjoyers was not conducive
|
||
|
||
00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:21.210
|
||
to getting problems noticed or fixed.
|
||
|
||
00:27:21.210 --> 00:27:25.779
|
||
It’s like the toxic positivity of a video
|
||
game hype train, but worse cause people think
|
||
|
||
00:27:25.779 --> 00:27:30.100
|
||
it’s gonna make them the next American Billionaire.
|
||
I think I said something in the discord one
|
||
|
||
00:27:30.100 --> 00:27:34.580
|
||
time about how there was a bug, and got @’d
|
||
by like six people over it.
|
||
|
||
00:27:34.580 --> 00:27:37.920
|
||
By the time I had remembered the site even
|
||
existed and further cashed out what I had
|
||
|
||
00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:43.720
|
||
left of whatever paltry amount of their token
|
||
I got, they had around 3000 articles up and
|
||
|
||
00:27:43.720 --> 00:27:49.270
|
||
the vast vast majority of them suffered from
|
||
these aforementioned problems. The company,
|
||
|
||
00:27:49.270 --> 00:27:55.110
|
||
which may I remind you was literally three
|
||
guys in an office, went dark in 2017-2018
|
||
|
||
00:27:55.110 --> 00:27:59.500
|
||
though I wouldn’t say it was a rugpull.
|
||
Lunyr’s failure derived from incompetence
|
||
|
||
00:27:59.500 --> 00:28:01.000
|
||
not intent.
|
||
|
||
00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:05.740
|
||
In the end, it’s not exactly concrete proof
|
||
of where monetization leads, nor is it free
|
||
|
||
00:28:05.740 --> 00:28:10.669
|
||
from the…cultivated culture of duplicity,
|
||
haste, immediate-gratification, and outright
|
||
|
||
00:28:10.669 --> 00:28:15.390
|
||
grifting common to Crypto land. It does, however,
|
||
still provide us with an understanding of
|
||
|
||
00:28:15.390 --> 00:28:20.240
|
||
how incentives have to meet with the userbase
|
||
intent, and without sufficient control over
|
||
|
||
00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:25.590
|
||
users in other ways, the whole thing collapses.
|
||
Further, it’s a strong example of how these
|
||
|
||
00:28:25.590 --> 00:28:32.059
|
||
platforms are reliant on incentivizing communities
|
||
to exist and create for them. They needed
|
||
|
||
00:28:32.059 --> 00:28:36.680
|
||
the contest not to drum up interest, or as
|
||
a marketing ploy, but to literally get their
|
||
|
||
00:28:36.680 --> 00:28:41.990
|
||
site populated with articles. I mean, what
|
||
were all the losers gonna do? *not* post their
|
||
|
||
00:28:41.990 --> 00:28:45.270
|
||
thing right after and try and still score
|
||
some cash?
|
||
|
||
00:28:45.270 --> 00:28:49.620
|
||
Can we learn anything from the way this site
|
||
functioned? The intrinsic model of a crypto
|
||
|
||
00:28:49.620 --> 00:28:55.020
|
||
climate warps it a fair bit to being more
|
||
about early adoption and revolutionary promises.
|
||
|
||
00:28:55.020 --> 00:28:58.710
|
||
So much is predicated on getting in at the
|
||
ground floor, that the business model itself
|
||
|
||
00:28:58.710 --> 00:29:03.380
|
||
is hardly applicable to other sites.
|
||
That said, the climate of crypto is a window
|
||
|
||
00:29:03.380 --> 00:29:09.169
|
||
into the logical endpoint of a hyper-monetized
|
||
internet. Crypto itself exists with the promise
|
||
|
||
00:29:09.169 --> 00:29:15.140
|
||
of monetizing everything. That’s why there’s
|
||
projects seeking to like… turn MMO grinds
|
||
|
||
00:29:15.140 --> 00:29:21.870
|
||
into earning potential. NFTs, by design are
|
||
not only an art theft scam, but also, remarkably,
|
||
|
||
00:29:21.870 --> 00:29:28.210
|
||
driven by the idea one can monetize *memes*
|
||
something we all take as famously having no
|
||
|
||
00:29:28.210 --> 00:29:29.590
|
||
ownership.
|
||
|
||
00:29:29.590 --> 00:29:34.230
|
||
To return to a narrower insight: Lunyr is
|
||
a case study of how their incentive structures
|
||
|
||
00:29:34.230 --> 00:29:39.620
|
||
for generating content– or more correctly
|
||
prompting user generated content, seeing as
|
||
|
||
00:29:39.620 --> 00:29:44.960
|
||
they didn’t make anything themselves, made
|
||
the collapse inevitable irrespective of the
|
||
|
||
00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:46.730
|
||
broader crypto ecosystem.
|
||
|
||
00:29:46.730 --> 00:29:51.290
|
||
From this, we’re set to look at incentives
|
||
more narrowly and we’re going to do so on
|
||
|
||
00:29:51.290 --> 00:29:53.770
|
||
a site that literally all of you are acquainted
|
||
with.
|
||
|
||
00:29:54.970 --> 00:29:59.110
|
||
With youtube, a journey of sorts began for
|
||
me, and while I’m sure it’s got as much
|
||
|
||
00:29:59.110 --> 00:30:03.560
|
||
passing similarity to the journey of others
|
||
as it does moments of disconnect, it is my
|
||
|
||
00:30:03.560 --> 00:30:09.630
|
||
window into another intersection of monetization
|
||
and a platform, one I had far less of a view
|
||
|
||
00:30:09.630 --> 00:30:12.270
|
||
into when I simply consumed on the platform.
|
||
When I started out, it was a lonely thing.
|
||
|
||
00:30:12.270 --> 00:30:14.049
|
||
There was nobody I could really talk to about
|
||
“work” struggles. Even when I found spaces
|
||
|
||
00:30:14.049 --> 00:30:19.270
|
||
of creators, it felt more like I was walking
|
||
past communities or through their places of
|
||
|
||
00:30:19.270 --> 00:30:23.210
|
||
congregation, on a journey alone, rather than
|
||
walking with them.
|
||
|
||
00:30:23.210 --> 00:30:26.860
|
||
I had to walk that Lonesome valley by myself.
|
||
|
||
00:30:26.860 --> 00:30:31.610
|
||
Early on I compiled a list of videos from
|
||
various creators seeking to explain the process
|
||
|
||
00:30:31.610 --> 00:30:36.669
|
||
a bit, from Thoughtslime’s two or so tutorials
|
||
on what to consider when doing youtube, to
|
||
|
||
00:30:36.669 --> 00:30:42.250
|
||
the odd Q&As of many creators where people
|
||
had asked things about The Process– and
|
||
|
||
00:30:42.250 --> 00:30:47.240
|
||
to things less intended for the purpose of
|
||
getting people into creation like Big Joel’s
|
||
|
||
00:30:47.240 --> 00:30:51.840
|
||
video on small creators– something that
|
||
gave me direction, intended or not, on where
|
||
|
||
00:30:51.840 --> 00:30:53.269
|
||
to go next.
|
||
|
||
00:30:53.269 --> 00:30:59.720
|
||
From there, I gravitated to these “Small
|
||
Youtuber” spaces, particularly the discords.
|
||
|
||
00:30:59.720 --> 00:31:04.900
|
||
I’m…alright at being present in online
|
||
community spaces, so being in discords wasn’t
|
||
|
||
00:31:04.900 --> 00:31:10.000
|
||
particularly strange to me. What was strange
|
||
was the way it kind of reminded me of Lunyr.
|
||
|
||
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:13.539
|
||
Not in that it was a grift or whatever, and
|
||
not that everyone there was just hoping to
|
||
|
||
00:31:13.539 --> 00:31:18.169
|
||
make a quick buck…but they were all there
|
||
to make *something*.
|
||
|
||
00:31:18.169 --> 00:31:20.809
|
||
They wanted to Make It™
|
||
|
||
00:31:20.809 --> 00:31:24.640
|
||
And that came with its own culture– one
|
||
I wouldn’t say translates fully to Youtube
|
||
|
||
00:31:24.640 --> 00:31:29.809
|
||
the platform, but it presents pretty plainly
|
||
many concerns the platform plagues its creators
|
||
|
||
00:31:29.809 --> 00:31:32.559
|
||
with.
|
||
Brushing aside the army of 14 year old hopefuls
|
||
|
||
00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:37.250
|
||
who join to take no critique themselves while
|
||
loudly saying the system is broken because
|
||
|
||
00:31:37.250 --> 00:31:42.160
|
||
their 2 episode minecraft letsplay has been
|
||
uploaded for 19 minutes and hasn’t cleared
|
||
|
||
00:31:42.160 --> 00:31:45.799
|
||
a million views…Most people were there to
|
||
put in the work in some form.
|
||
|
||
00:31:45.799 --> 00:31:50.820
|
||
I don’t think the space ever got competitive
|
||
or included bad faith advice as some form
|
||
|
||
00:31:50.820 --> 00:31:56.179
|
||
of sabotage, it was uplifting, but it’s
|
||
uplifting in a “nobody wants to be here”
|
||
|
||
00:31:56.179 --> 00:32:00.559
|
||
kinda way. Less Crab Bucket and more… waiting
|
||
to get adopted.
|
||
|
||
00:32:00.559 --> 00:32:05.149
|
||
If adoption required like… ample lifehacks
|
||
and eye catching cool hair or something. The
|
||
|
||
00:32:05.149 --> 00:32:06.480
|
||
metaphor is escaping me.
|
||
|
||
00:32:06.480 --> 00:32:11.610
|
||
What I saw there was largely people trying
|
||
to workshop things, figure out not just their
|
||
|
||
00:32:11.610 --> 00:32:16.690
|
||
craft, but the algorithm. When I later “graduated”
|
||
to the “Partnered Youtube” discord, it
|
||
|
||
00:32:16.690 --> 00:32:20.660
|
||
felt like all the hustle elements of the culture
|
||
were cranked up to 11. Now, there’s nothing
|
||
|
||
00:32:20.660 --> 00:32:24.980
|
||
wrong with playing the game, so to speak.
|
||
It’s impressive that people are even collaborating
|
||
|
||
00:32:24.980 --> 00:32:30.279
|
||
and sharing how to “make it” on some level.
|
||
Honestly, I kinda get why people fall for
|
||
|
||
00:32:30.279 --> 00:32:34.250
|
||
sigma male grindset stuff. Given the way that
|
||
youtubers are basically all entrepreneurs,
|
||
|
||
00:32:34.250 --> 00:32:39.890
|
||
you’d think this stuff would be super popular
|
||
here. In terms of how one “runs” a youtube,
|
||
|
||
00:32:39.890 --> 00:32:44.910
|
||
you have to put in tons of hours before it
|
||
becomes “worth your time” financially.
|
||
|
||
00:32:44.910 --> 00:32:50.080
|
||
It’s very aspirational.
|
||
But it isn’t how I hear most anyone in at
|
||
|
||
00:32:50.080 --> 00:32:54.350
|
||
least the parts of youtube I’m on talk about
|
||
their channel. It’s something more reserved
|
||
|
||
00:32:54.350 --> 00:33:00.100
|
||
for the people who are, I imagine, yearning
|
||
to be stars, thus the… yearning discords.
|
||
|
||
00:33:00.100 --> 00:33:05.019
|
||
There’s a few reasons for why even with
|
||
a *left tube* that is very concerned with
|
||
|
||
00:33:05.019 --> 00:33:11.919
|
||
visibility and subsistence, few people fall
|
||
into the grindbrain– one of which is gigantic.
|
||
|
||
00:33:11.919 --> 00:33:17.250
|
||
Among the smaller reasons is creativity and
|
||
expression. Ugh. Imagine that, creativity
|
||
|
||
00:33:17.250 --> 00:33:21.639
|
||
is reduced to being a small impediment to
|
||
hustle, rather than a counterpoint, so grand
|
||
|
||
00:33:21.639 --> 00:33:26.590
|
||
is the large hurdle. The creativity thing
|
||
is really easy to explain: People make things
|
||
|
||
00:33:26.590 --> 00:33:31.990
|
||
cause they want to make them. That’s always
|
||
going to be contrary to monetary incentive,
|
||
|
||
00:33:31.990 --> 00:33:36.920
|
||
even when they overlap. Passion pervaded even
|
||
in those youtuber spaces, even when people
|
||
|
||
00:33:36.920 --> 00:33:41.539
|
||
were also talking about branding or falling
|
||
into pits of gamification.
|
||
|
||
00:33:41.539 --> 00:33:45.610
|
||
While I was in the Youtube Discords, I almost
|
||
felt like all the advice didn’t apply to
|
||
|
||
00:33:45.610 --> 00:33:50.409
|
||
me. At the time I debated if I was being stubborn
|
||
about style, and sometimes I was, which is
|
||
|
||
00:33:50.409 --> 00:33:56.110
|
||
why I can see growth, in retrospect, that
|
||
makes me wince, that I didn’t –for example–
|
||
|
||
00:33:56.110 --> 00:34:15.649
|
||
notice my audio was bad. But when I look back
|
||
at the space I feel like it genuinely was
|
||
|
||
00:34:15.649 --> 00:34:20.310
|
||
ill-fitting advice for the side of Youtube
|
||
I wanted to end up on. Advice about how the
|
||
|
||
00:34:20.310 --> 00:34:25.520
|
||
“first 50 videos are gonna suck” doesn’t
|
||
really work for channels at my pace. Advice
|
||
|
||
00:34:25.520 --> 00:34:31.079
|
||
about uploading every four days at the exact
|
||
same time doesn’t suit longer form content.
|
||
|
||
00:34:31.079 --> 00:34:36.210
|
||
People still had outlets for creativity, sure,
|
||
but the grind took precedence. The goals were
|
||
|
||
00:34:36.210 --> 00:34:39.310
|
||
always reaching numbers, not people.
|
||
|
||
00:34:39.310 --> 00:34:42.440
|
||
As a brief aside:
|
||
I don’t mean to sound dismissive, necessarily.
|
||
|
||
00:34:42.440 --> 00:34:46.490
|
||
Maybe there’s some stuff in there we could
|
||
all do to learn. Sometimes I worry we might
|
||
|
||
00:34:46.490 --> 00:34:51.099
|
||
over-presume our own suppression and just
|
||
stop trying to “play the game” even a
|
||
|
||
00:34:51.099 --> 00:34:55.099
|
||
little. Sometimes I worry there are ways we
|
||
are out of touch. And perhaps I should only
|
||
|
||
00:34:55.099 --> 00:34:59.200
|
||
speak for myself here, but sometimes I worry
|
||
that we value integrity more than the platform
|
||
|
||
00:34:59.200 --> 00:35:03.320
|
||
allows and aren’t pragmatic with our concessions
|
||
in order to reach goals.
|
||
|
||
00:35:03.320 --> 00:35:05.369
|
||
But this video can’t be all worry.
|
||
|
||
00:35:05.369 --> 00:35:10.431
|
||
Another thing those Youtuber spaces operated
|
||
on, beyond grind and an…individualist community
|
||
|
||
00:35:10.431 --> 00:35:16.210
|
||
was… some measure of mysticism.
|
||
These spaces act as, whether they know it
|
||
|
||
00:35:16.210 --> 00:35:20.619
|
||
or not, cults of appeasement
|
||
And their Gospel transcends them, to the whole
|
||
|
||
00:35:20.619 --> 00:35:24.760
|
||
of the site.
|
||
The Algorithm is a capricious god to be flattered.
|
||
|
||
00:35:24.760 --> 00:35:32.750
|
||
Guides are made, remade, rituals discussed,
|
||
debates formed around the nature of the machine.
|
||
|
||
00:35:32.750 --> 00:35:38.710
|
||
Less passion has gone into divining the cosmological
|
||
significance of saints than that of the Algorithm’s
|
||
|
||
00:35:38.710 --> 00:35:41.580
|
||
nature.
|
||
The Algorithm is kept obtuse by Youtube as
|
||
|
||
00:35:41.580 --> 00:35:47.160
|
||
a matter of practice, it is in their interest
|
||
to avoid the very “gaming” most people
|
||
|
||
00:35:47.160 --> 00:35:48.840
|
||
implicitly seek.
|
||
|
||
00:35:48.840 --> 00:35:54.130
|
||
And in that logic, that which strives to answer
|
||
the algorithm, a transformation occurs whereby
|
||
|
||
00:35:54.130 --> 00:35:59.780
|
||
opinions and taste become “best practice”
|
||
and a “language” of content creation forms
|
||
|
||
00:35:59.780 --> 00:36:07.140
|
||
that is unintelligible to the viewers of said
|
||
content. Said language is expressed in “objective
|
||
|
||
00:36:07.140 --> 00:36:12.480
|
||
quality notes” for thumbnails. Yes, thumbnails
|
||
can be bad or lack readability but there’s
|
||
|
||
00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:17.970
|
||
nothing inherent in the human condition to
|
||
the memetic prevalence of soyfacing or whatever
|
||
|
||
00:36:17.970 --> 00:36:23.369
|
||
the hell people call the gaping mouth feigned
|
||
surprise thing. Yes, arrows are something
|
||
|
||
00:36:23.369 --> 00:36:27.820
|
||
we’re trained to look at, and then follow
|
||
with our eyes, but I don’t actually know
|
||
|
||
00:36:27.820 --> 00:36:30.980
|
||
that it makes a video twice as enticing to
|
||
see them.
|
||
|
||
00:36:30.980 --> 00:36:35.579
|
||
When Hideo Kojima “predicted memes” or
|
||
whatever dorks attribute to him as “the
|
||
|
||
00:36:35.579 --> 00:36:42.310
|
||
point” of the Gene Meme Scene and MGS2,
|
||
he didn’t mean wojaks or cat pics, he meant
|
||
|
||
00:36:42.310 --> 00:36:47.630
|
||
the way information is conveyed, the memetic
|
||
conditions, stuff like the “language”
|
||
|
||
00:36:47.630 --> 00:36:48.630
|
||
of thumbnails.
|
||
|
||
00:36:48.630 --> 00:36:55.230
|
||
It’s a product of platform culture, regardless
|
||
of it it works or is mocked…or both. Clickbait
|
||
|
||
00:36:55.230 --> 00:37:00.630
|
||
is, allegedly discouraged by youtube’s own
|
||
rules, but said rules aren't using the colloquial
|
||
|
||
00:37:00.630 --> 00:37:07.140
|
||
definition of “kinda cringy predictable
|
||
curiosity fishing” They *Want* you to do
|
||
|
||
00:37:07.140 --> 00:37:08.140
|
||
that.
|
||
|
||
00:37:08.140 --> 00:37:13.140
|
||
No, there’s a slight shift in how they define
|
||
rulebreaking clickbait, towards being outright
|
||
|
||
00:37:13.140 --> 00:37:18.349
|
||
deceptive, something where the content inside
|
||
doesn’t match up. But how is that determined,
|
||
|
||
00:37:18.349 --> 00:37:22.630
|
||
exactly? If Matthew Patthew doesn’t make
|
||
a shocked face in his A-reel, poggin it out
|
||
|
||
00:37:22.630 --> 00:37:27.540
|
||
big mood, is it clickbait? What about tiddy
|
||
thumbnails? I don’t think there’s any
|
||
|
||
00:37:27.540 --> 00:37:32.370
|
||
more quantitative evidence that tiddy thumbnails
|
||
lead to people clicking off from a video midway
|
||
|
||
00:37:32.370 --> 00:37:37.250
|
||
than your average thumbnail. I don’t imagine
|
||
people feel betrayed that there wasn’t bouncy
|
||
|
||
00:37:37.250 --> 00:37:42.080
|
||
bazonga content in the video titled “This
|
||
GUY SOLD THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE TWICE”
|
||
|
||
00:37:42.080 --> 00:37:43.810
|
||
Bait might just work.
|
||
|
||
00:37:43.810 --> 00:37:47.450
|
||
But I would be skeptical of anyone who claimed
|
||
to know for certain or that they could prove
|
||
|
||
00:37:47.450 --> 00:37:48.450
|
||
it.
|
||
|
||
00:37:48.450 --> 00:37:53.260
|
||
A lack of access to algorithmic knowledge
|
||
is supplanted with what is, essentially folk
|
||
|
||
00:37:53.260 --> 00:37:59.210
|
||
practice backed up by loose science. We don’t
|
||
know the line between superstition and feature.
|
||
|
||
00:37:59.210 --> 00:38:03.880
|
||
An example you might see on twitter is posting
|
||
the link to a video in the replies, not the
|
||
|
||
00:38:03.880 --> 00:38:08.750
|
||
original tweet, because something something
|
||
links are suppressed. These folk practices
|
||
|
||
00:38:08.750 --> 00:38:13.920
|
||
are sometimes localized to one community,
|
||
and sometimes the product of… self-deputized
|
||
|
||
00:38:13.920 --> 00:38:17.849
|
||
experts whose claim to expertise is a subscriber
|
||
count.
|
||
|
||
00:38:17.849 --> 00:38:24.120
|
||
A while ago noted Elon Musk reply guy Mr Beast
|
||
gave the advice of making 100 videos before
|
||
|
||
00:38:24.120 --> 00:38:29.859
|
||
being a success. Beyond being a comical example
|
||
of falling for a survivorship bias paradigm
|
||
|
||
00:38:29.859 --> 00:38:35.010
|
||
to ask the big youtubers how to get big when
|
||
the real answer is “who knows” there’s
|
||
|
||
00:38:35.010 --> 00:38:39.950
|
||
something very funny to how his imprecise
|
||
wording led to some guy, or…probably a middle
|
||
|
||
00:38:39.950 --> 00:38:46.260
|
||
schooler, really, in the youtube discord creating
|
||
100 videos in an attempt to follow that advice.
|
||
|
||
00:38:46.260 --> 00:38:50.900
|
||
The Kicker here is that many of the people
|
||
a step down in the “qualified to give advice”
|
||
|
||
00:38:50.900 --> 00:38:55.720
|
||
sphere are falling for that same bias. Where
|
||
Mr Beast himself is just presuming he skilled
|
||
|
||
00:38:55.720 --> 00:39:01.480
|
||
his way to the top, the people looking to
|
||
him as a case study have a different blindness.
|
||
|
||
00:39:01.480 --> 00:39:06.270
|
||
The Beast Observers, as I’ll call them,
|
||
look at large channels, huge ones, and analyze
|
||
|
||
00:39:06.270 --> 00:39:11.420
|
||
relative success compared to eachother as
|
||
though that data is unquestionably transferable.
|
||
|
||
00:39:11.420 --> 00:39:16.210
|
||
“This thumbnail with the pog face got a
|
||
million more views than this video doing uhh…ahh
|
||
|
||
00:39:16.210 --> 00:39:21.260
|
||
the home alone face –so better keep poggin”
|
||
“this title doesn’t have nouns and it
|
||
|
||
00:39:21.260 --> 00:39:25.859
|
||
did better so we can see that nouns are out”
|
||
–these methods of analysis are woefully
|
||
|
||
00:39:25.859 --> 00:39:31.660
|
||
incurious focusing on current success patterns
|
||
rather than the *rise* to that level. They
|
||
|
||
00:39:31.660 --> 00:39:35.410
|
||
make economists look like what economists
|
||
think they are.
|
||
|
||
00:39:35.410 --> 00:39:39.520
|
||
These “analyses” from looking at huge
|
||
channels to understand success presume and
|
||
|
||
00:39:39.520 --> 00:39:45.050
|
||
ignore too much to be objective. They presume
|
||
an objective path at all. First and foremost
|
||
|
||
00:39:45.050 --> 00:39:50.890
|
||
on my list of massive blindspots is the unquestioned
|
||
assumption in the analysis that from subscriber
|
||
|
||
00:39:50.890 --> 00:39:55.130
|
||
1 to subscriber 1 million the journey has
|
||
the same rules barring an exception we’ll
|
||
|
||
00:39:55.130 --> 00:39:56.130
|
||
get to.
|
||
|
||
00:39:56.130 --> 00:39:59.410
|
||
In presenting the “data” how they often
|
||
do, there’s a presumption that Mr Beast
|
||
|
||
00:39:59.410 --> 00:40:04.810
|
||
is earning the attention of 111 million views
|
||
from scratch each time, that any and everyone
|
||
|
||
00:40:04.810 --> 00:40:10.630
|
||
could be enticed by the ultimate juicy thumbnail.
|
||
There is, at once, an urge to understand youtube
|
||
|
||
00:40:10.630 --> 00:40:14.380
|
||
as a predictable machine, despite YouTube
|
||
itself having a vested interest in that not
|
||
|
||
00:40:14.380 --> 00:40:19.080
|
||
being the case– and an urge to pretend everyone
|
||
can “make it” with the right tactics.
|
||
|
||
00:40:19.080 --> 00:40:24.000
|
||
And while not as stark a zero sum game as
|
||
Crypto, that cannot be true. Not only because
|
||
|
||
00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:30.230
|
||
creativity and ideas will always retain a
|
||
portion of value, but also because Time –even
|
||
|
||
00:40:30.230 --> 00:40:36.040
|
||
shared across 2.1 billion people– is finite.
|
||
The Attention Economy is very real.
|
||
|
||
00:40:36.040 --> 00:40:39.490
|
||
And that’s saying nothing about taste or
|
||
preference or language. It’s like pyramid
|
||
|
||
00:40:39.490 --> 00:40:44.190
|
||
scheme exponential growth presumptions all
|
||
over again. There is no way to entice the
|
||
|
||
00:40:44.190 --> 00:40:48.410
|
||
whole of the platform. Not every single person
|
||
is a potential subscriber.
|
||
|
||
00:40:48.410 --> 00:40:52.380
|
||
Now, that’s not to disparage the actual
|
||
success of these deputies. Some of their efforts
|
||
|
||
00:40:52.380 --> 00:40:57.190
|
||
may have been naive, but their results were
|
||
very real, subscriber count in at least the
|
||
|
||
00:40:57.190 --> 00:40:58.900
|
||
tens of thousands.
|
||
|
||
00:40:58.900 --> 00:41:03.280
|
||
But the individual practices and beliefs were
|
||
not what caught my attention the most in the
|
||
|
||
00:41:03.280 --> 00:41:07.720
|
||
end. The striking part, the thing that formed
|
||
the Lonesome Valley, for me, was that these
|
||
|
||
00:41:07.720 --> 00:41:11.300
|
||
were communities built around wanting to exit
|
||
said community.
|
||
|
||
00:41:11.300 --> 00:41:15.520
|
||
It was a space designed where everyone in
|
||
it wanted to leave as soon as they could,
|
||
|
||
00:41:15.520 --> 00:41:20.440
|
||
seeking self-reliance and independence, to
|
||
have their own communities later. It’s another
|
||
|
||
00:41:20.440 --> 00:41:25.069
|
||
“communal” space with individualist aims.
|
||
Sure, people could network, but I don’t
|
||
|
||
00:41:25.069 --> 00:41:29.619
|
||
know how much that actually happened. One
|
||
channel I discovered from the starter space
|
||
|
||
00:41:29.619 --> 00:41:32.819
|
||
is Shea’s Violin who I’m shoehorning in
|
||
here with the hopes some of you will check
|
||
|
||
00:41:32.819 --> 00:41:38.480
|
||
out her channel. Supporting others, community,
|
||
is something Youtube does the least to encourage.
|
||
|
||
00:41:38.480 --> 00:41:42.780
|
||
It’s something WE fail to encourage half
|
||
the time, even though it’s important and
|
||
|
||
00:41:42.780 --> 00:41:46.330
|
||
effective.
|
||
That’s, I suspect, an implicit element of
|
||
|
||
00:41:46.330 --> 00:41:51.720
|
||
collaboration in the space– that people
|
||
collaborate in order to have an “excuse”
|
||
|
||
00:41:51.720 --> 00:41:55.710
|
||
to share each-other. I don’t know if that
|
||
marks me as paranoid, or if I’m right, but
|
||
|
||
00:41:55.710 --> 00:41:59.790
|
||
I really do get the sense that there’s some
|
||
part of it all that’s about having an excuse
|
||
|
||
00:41:59.790 --> 00:42:04.690
|
||
to mention another creator, not as payment
|
||
for the service of working together, but to
|
||
|
||
00:42:04.690 --> 00:42:10.990
|
||
work together as a justification for citation,
|
||
for name-dropping, for vouching. Building
|
||
|
||
00:42:10.990 --> 00:42:15.569
|
||
eachother up is the main tool we have to weaken
|
||
the hold the algorithm has.
|
||
|
||
00:42:15.569 --> 00:42:20.960
|
||
In fact, there’s also a small collective
|
||
trying to Kill God right now, called F the
|
||
|
||
00:42:20.960 --> 00:42:22.109
|
||
Algorithm.
|
||
|
||
00:42:22.109 --> 00:42:26.790
|
||
Now you may ask yourself if it’s relevant
|
||
that I may have been featured on FtA as their
|
||
|
||
00:42:26.790 --> 00:42:29.470
|
||
monthly nepotism pick once, welllll.
|
||
|
||
00:42:29.470 --> 00:42:34.900
|
||
Really–and I do mean this–the reason I
|
||
bring them up is to point at how there is
|
||
|
||
00:42:34.900 --> 00:42:40.380
|
||
concrete organization to circumvent the algorithm
|
||
through community support, rather than bow
|
||
|
||
00:42:40.380 --> 00:42:46.230
|
||
to and be subsumed by its vagaries or sliding
|
||
back down into a forced sense of individualism,
|
||
|
||
00:42:46.230 --> 00:42:48.230
|
||
back into the Lonesome Valley.
|
||
|
||
00:42:48.230 --> 00:42:53.470
|
||
The reason I bring up these Youtuber spaces
|
||
and their counterpoint in F the algorithm,
|
||
|
||
00:42:53.470 --> 00:42:58.119
|
||
despite not being platforms themselves, is
|
||
that they demonstrate how Youtube’s monetization
|
||
|
||
00:42:58.119 --> 00:43:03.660
|
||
culture ripples out, how it affects people
|
||
even at the most entry of levels, creates
|
||
|
||
00:43:03.660 --> 00:43:08.000
|
||
“languages” of creativity, or…moreso,
|
||
production.
|
||
|
||
00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:14.870
|
||
The creativity itself is a casualty to trying
|
||
to be “picked up.” Uniformity begets best
|
||
|
||
00:43:14.870 --> 00:43:21.770
|
||
practice, best practice begets uniformity,
|
||
so unto us all. In the language of youtube
|
||
|
||
00:43:21.770 --> 00:43:27.100
|
||
an Objectively Good thumbnail can exist. “Objectively
|
||
Good Practices” exist.
|
||
|
||
00:43:27.100 --> 00:43:31.930
|
||
Hell, while making this video I legitimately
|
||
debated excising the entire Lunyr section
|
||
|
||
00:43:31.930 --> 00:43:36.559
|
||
so I could market it as its own standalone
|
||
video, one that could more easily be attached
|
||
|
||
00:43:36.559 --> 00:43:40.760
|
||
to discussions of crypto cringe, more easily
|
||
offered as some manner of companion piece
|
||
|
||
00:43:40.760 --> 00:43:42.380
|
||
to Line Goes Up.
|
||
|
||
00:43:42.380 --> 00:43:46.420
|
||
Alternative to making it a punchy standalone
|
||
bit, I would feel disingenuous making it the
|
||
|
||
00:43:46.420 --> 00:43:51.619
|
||
center feature of the title or thumbnail for
|
||
*this* video. In turn, people won’t know
|
||
|
||
00:43:51.619 --> 00:43:56.660
|
||
to come to this video for a juicy crypto L.
|
||
I’ve had to, in that, consider the integrity
|
||
|
||
00:43:56.660 --> 00:44:02.670
|
||
of making an exploration of monetization culture
|
||
in one “succinct” video, or tearing out
|
||
|
||
00:44:02.670 --> 00:44:08.590
|
||
a chunk to use as bait on its own. That itself
|
||
is the impact of monetization culture.
|
||
|
||
00:44:08.590 --> 00:44:14.339
|
||
In that same vein I debated the near hyperbolic
|
||
positions of finding it either supremely tasteless
|
||
|
||
00:44:14.339 --> 00:44:18.800
|
||
or entirely to my point to mention patreon
|
||
in this video.
|
||
|
||
00:44:18.800 --> 00:44:22.940
|
||
While I recognize having an algorithm and
|
||
monetization culture itself are nominally
|
||
|
||
00:44:22.940 --> 00:44:28.099
|
||
distinct and that all sites have algorithms
|
||
(despite what some people think) we don’t
|
||
|
||
00:44:28.099 --> 00:44:32.460
|
||
see the same fretting over algorithmic impact
|
||
on other sites unless there’s a flare up
|
||
|
||
00:44:32.460 --> 00:44:37.690
|
||
in consciousness about the presence of an
|
||
algorithmic bias, like Facebook or Tiktok
|
||
|
||
00:44:37.690 --> 00:44:42.740
|
||
boosting fringe ideologies.
|
||
There’s a reason “Youtube and The Algorithm”
|
||
|
||
00:44:42.740 --> 00:44:48.500
|
||
is a truly endless discussion, rivaling theology.
|
||
|
||
00:44:50.640 --> 00:44:51.640
|
||
I’m so F*cking stressed out from running
|
||
my Pet Lizard’s Instagram account, I’m
|
||
|
||
00:44:51.640 --> 00:44:52.640
|
||
about to have A Nervous Breakdown.
|
||
I told my therapist…
|
||
|
||
00:44:52.640 --> 00:44:56.570
|
||
She said “well take a break from your pet
|
||
lizard’s instagram account”
|
||
|
||
00:44:56.570 --> 00:45:05.770
|
||
I said “I can’t! It’s my sole source
|
||
of income!”
|
||
|
||
00:45:05.770 --> 00:45:07.810
|
||
[smoking intensifies]
|
||
|
||
00:45:07.810 --> 00:45:11.910
|
||
When I started doing youtube a year ago, I
|
||
didn’t really have a sense of how to compare
|
||
|
||
00:45:11.910 --> 00:45:17.119
|
||
my experience to others, to get my bearings
|
||
on when I was doing something right or wrong,
|
||
|
||
00:45:17.119 --> 00:45:23.359
|
||
to find feedback. I craved it, particularly,
|
||
because I knew on some level platform success
|
||
|
||
00:45:23.359 --> 00:45:30.160
|
||
was not correlated to quality. There was an
|
||
algorithm in the way of meritocracy. Nevertheless,
|
||
|
||
00:45:30.160 --> 00:45:36.280
|
||
I still held, and indeed may never relinquish,
|
||
that sense of a looming… Question of Merit.
|
||
|
||
00:45:36.280 --> 00:45:40.109
|
||
At the end of the day, I don’t know how
|
||
anyone who makes content on a platform like
|
||
|
||
00:45:40.109 --> 00:45:46.130
|
||
this could even believe in meritocracy. I’m
|
||
not exactly pulling from a huge sample size,
|
||
|
||
00:45:46.130 --> 00:45:50.530
|
||
mind you, but just from my own work since
|
||
I’ve started, it’s been incredibly obvious
|
||
|
||
00:45:50.530 --> 00:45:55.990
|
||
that Youtube has complete control over my
|
||
success on the platform. You may say that’s
|
||
|
||
00:45:55.990 --> 00:46:00.890
|
||
hyperbolic. And maybe it is, but here’s
|
||
my perspective on the matter: In a space where
|
||
|
||
00:46:00.890 --> 00:46:06.570
|
||
total appeal, that is, appeal to every single
|
||
potential viewer is not my goal, all I can
|
||
|
||
00:46:06.570 --> 00:46:11.960
|
||
do, as a creator, is try to present myself
|
||
in ways that either I find appealing, or I
|
||
|
||
00:46:11.960 --> 00:46:17.051
|
||
assume will appeal to an audience.
|
||
Those aren’t entirely the same thing, and
|
||
|
||
00:46:17.051 --> 00:46:21.630
|
||
there’s a question raised about displaying
|
||
one’s own taste in personality vs appealing
|
||
|
||
00:46:21.630 --> 00:46:27.980
|
||
to people and being a “character” but
|
||
that’s a huge branching topic all its own.
|
||
|
||
00:46:27.980 --> 00:46:32.790
|
||
Mirroring that is another branch into what
|
||
living under an algorithm is even like, and
|
||
|
||
00:46:32.790 --> 00:46:37.441
|
||
how a subculture of snake oil seminars has
|
||
formed in that ecosystem, but I’ll leave
|
||
|
||
00:46:37.441 --> 00:46:42.140
|
||
that exploration to Super Eyepatch Wolf’s
|
||
video linked below. There’s little I could
|
||
|
||
00:46:42.140 --> 00:46:46.690
|
||
add to that conversation beyond the glimpse
|
||
at the creator discords I already gave.
|
||
|
||
00:46:46.690 --> 00:46:52.770
|
||
For now I want to center on a different element,
|
||
the reason for the Algorithm: Audience.
|
||
|
||
00:46:52.770 --> 00:46:57.539
|
||
The audience we’re appealing to is and isn’t
|
||
people. Of course, youtube’s algorithm,
|
||
|
||
00:46:57.539 --> 00:47:01.640
|
||
from what we know, really only cares about
|
||
marketability and watch time. It promotes
|
||
|
||
00:47:01.640 --> 00:47:05.950
|
||
people who keep people on the platform for
|
||
as long as possible, in range of their ads
|
||
|
||
00:47:05.950 --> 00:47:10.900
|
||
for as long as possible. But there’s something
|
||
of a tension there. Quality is measured by
|
||
|
||
00:47:10.900 --> 00:47:16.300
|
||
quantity. It’s a framework of: “Let the
|
||
free market of the attention economy decide”
|
||
|
||
00:47:16.300 --> 00:47:21.079
|
||
rather than the marketplace of ideas. There’s
|
||
a lot of implicit assumptions about the value
|
||
|
||
00:47:21.079 --> 00:47:26.369
|
||
of a video in the valuing of watch time.
|
||
While it would be easy, nay, expected for
|
||
|
||
00:47:26.369 --> 00:47:31.520
|
||
me to say this is all bad, this is ultimately
|
||
the quirk that has led to the relative success
|
||
|
||
00:47:31.520 --> 00:47:36.431
|
||
of the Video Essay Genre in a world of tiks
|
||
and toks. And credit where it’s due, the
|
||
|
||
00:47:36.431 --> 00:47:40.849
|
||
reason I keep to this medium, both in terms
|
||
of consumption and production are because
|
||
|
||
00:47:40.849 --> 00:47:47.100
|
||
it is *the best* way to find and be part of
|
||
thoughtful, topical, and radical conversations.
|
||
|
||
00:47:47.100 --> 00:47:50.740
|
||
Imagine telling literally anyone in the year
|
||
2000 that there would be a video hosting site
|
||
|
||
00:47:50.740 --> 00:47:55.119
|
||
where people make a living not just giving
|
||
quirky skit-laden rants about “[popular
|
||
|
||
00:47:55.119 --> 00:48:00.180
|
||
thing]” but in-depth analysis of global
|
||
economic conditions. Imagine telling someone
|
||
|
||
00:48:00.180 --> 00:48:05.550
|
||
that even in Early Youtube days. You’d sound
|
||
more out of touch than early Lunyr adopters,
|
||
|
||
00:48:05.550 --> 00:48:07.880
|
||
except for the whole part about being wrong.
|
||
|
||
00:48:07.880 --> 00:48:12.760
|
||
But remember. Just as Quality is measured
|
||
by Quantity here, viability is measured by
|
||
|
||
00:48:12.760 --> 00:48:17.550
|
||
someone…or something, that doesn’t even
|
||
watch the videos.
|
||
|
||
00:48:17.550 --> 00:48:21.830
|
||
James Stephanie Sterling of The Jimquisition
|
||
has– I promise I’m going somewhere with
|
||
|
||
00:48:21.830 --> 00:48:27.420
|
||
this–, in the past, raised the point that
|
||
game players are not consumers so much as
|
||
|
||
00:48:27.420 --> 00:48:32.720
|
||
cattle when it comes to how very large publishers
|
||
work their business models. The customers
|
||
|
||
00:48:32.720 --> 00:48:37.780
|
||
are shareholders who are, in turn, catered
|
||
to with large presentations not showcasing
|
||
|
||
00:48:37.780 --> 00:48:43.339
|
||
new and exciting games, but revenue streams
|
||
and monetization models. That’s why despite
|
||
|
||
00:48:43.339 --> 00:48:48.210
|
||
being remarkably unpopular, something very
|
||
few people really wanted in the games they
|
||
|
||
00:48:48.210 --> 00:48:53.710
|
||
played, NFTs sort of manifested in a manufactured
|
||
consent kind of way and were just offered
|
||
|
||
00:48:53.710 --> 00:48:58.960
|
||
as inevitable exciting upcoming features,
|
||
with the guise that players had demanded them.
|
||
|
||
00:48:58.960 --> 00:49:03.859
|
||
It was a new revenue stream, and it indeed
|
||
had been demanded by customers, but those
|
||
|
||
00:49:03.859 --> 00:49:06.150
|
||
customers weren’t the players.
|
||
|
||
00:49:06.150 --> 00:49:12.869
|
||
And so unto Youtube and platforms like it.
|
||
Advertisers are the customers, buying ad space.
|
||
|
||
00:49:12.869 --> 00:49:18.750
|
||
Creators aren’t creating content, as far
|
||
as youtube cares, they’re creating ad space.
|
||
|
||
00:49:18.750 --> 00:49:24.510
|
||
Content consumers, in turn, are less customers
|
||
to be appealed to as they are the responsibility
|
||
|
||
00:49:24.510 --> 00:49:31.500
|
||
of a creator to cultivate. I am but a free-range
|
||
cow growing its own grass. There’s not even
|
||
|
||
00:49:31.500 --> 00:49:34.270
|
||
an effective illusion of hierarchy here..
|
||
|
||
00:49:34.270 --> 00:49:38.240
|
||
And, mind you, youtube doesn’t pay creators,
|
||
technically.
|
||
|
||
00:49:38.240 --> 00:49:42.059
|
||
Let’s compare this model to two typical
|
||
service style jobs in the US:
|
||
|
||
00:49:42.059 --> 00:49:47.220
|
||
A cafe job works like this: a worker puts
|
||
together x drinks an hour each worth some
|
||
|
||
00:49:47.220 --> 00:49:51.940
|
||
small cost in materials and sells them. Profit
|
||
for the business comes from the difference
|
||
|
||
00:49:51.940 --> 00:49:56.869
|
||
between the income represented by how much
|
||
the drink sells for and expense in the form
|
||
|
||
00:49:56.869 --> 00:50:02.099
|
||
of materials and labor cost. Basic stuff.
|
||
A bartender is the same thing, except we have
|
||
|
||
00:50:02.099 --> 00:50:07.329
|
||
to change the model for expense. There’s
|
||
no labor cost. In a sense, because the bartender
|
||
|
||
00:50:07.329 --> 00:50:11.390
|
||
earns from the goodwill of patrons through
|
||
tips alone, as a worker, they are, from a
|
||
|
||
00:50:11.390 --> 00:50:16.140
|
||
twisted perspective, renting the bar and its
|
||
stock from the owner in order to put on a
|
||
|
||
00:50:16.140 --> 00:50:21.680
|
||
show of work. The cost of doing their work
|
||
is simply everything they made from drinks.
|
||
|
||
00:50:21.680 --> 00:50:26.490
|
||
They may not bring their own tools.
|
||
Youtube is somewhere between this. It both
|
||
|
||
00:50:26.490 --> 00:50:32.040
|
||
seeks the charity of patrons, and gives a
|
||
cut of ads. We effectively rent the platform
|
||
|
||
00:50:32.040 --> 00:50:36.700
|
||
by paying half our earnings. In that way,
|
||
pay is based on performance without pretending
|
||
|
||
00:50:36.700 --> 00:50:41.590
|
||
to be a commission model. You’re paid what
|
||
you “earn” in that you are not paid if
|
||
|
||
00:50:41.590 --> 00:50:46.980
|
||
you earn them nothing. But at least you owe
|
||
no rent for the space.
|
||
|
||
00:50:46.980 --> 00:50:50.910
|
||
Now imagine if a bartender’s boss, instead
|
||
of just scheduling for good or bad shifts,
|
||
|
||
00:50:50.910 --> 00:50:56.420
|
||
had a lever they could pull to invite people
|
||
to the bar and more or less invent a “good/busy”
|
||
|
||
00:50:56.420 --> 00:51:01.710
|
||
night whenever. Now imagine the bartender
|
||
never knows when it’s gonna happen, if ever,
|
||
|
||
00:51:01.710 --> 00:51:06.700
|
||
and granted, no promises are made, but there’s
|
||
always the idea. Instead of the normal system
|
||
|
||
00:51:06.700 --> 00:51:12.150
|
||
of taking a slow tuesday to earn a good friday,
|
||
we are constantly working Sunday, with no
|
||
|
||
00:51:12.150 --> 00:51:14.230
|
||
idea if the crowd is coming.
|
||
|
||
00:51:14.230 --> 00:51:19.089
|
||
And it doesn’t seem to be based on quality
|
||
of work, expediency, contentedness of guests,
|
||
|
||
00:51:19.089 --> 00:51:23.890
|
||
just quantity of drinks drunk. But there’s
|
||
hints everywhere that maybe the lever gets
|
||
|
||
00:51:23.890 --> 00:51:27.470
|
||
pulled based on what outfit the bartender
|
||
wears and what drink they’ve got listed
|
||
|
||
00:51:27.470 --> 00:51:30.480
|
||
on their sandwich board outside.
|
||
More than anything, there’s a pervading
|
||
|
||
00:51:30.480 --> 00:51:34.390
|
||
mood that the boss might hate your music taste
|
||
and just hasn’t told you yet, even though
|
||
|
||
00:51:34.390 --> 00:51:38.020
|
||
you still use the default bar playlist and
|
||
radio safe edits.
|
||
|
||
00:51:38.020 --> 00:51:39.099
|
||
That’s youtube.
|
||
|
||
00:51:39.099 --> 00:51:42.930
|
||
To anyone who has spent more than one angry
|
||
headline pondering what censorship truly is
|
||
|
||
00:51:42.930 --> 00:51:46.451
|
||
in the corporate age, it is no surprise that
|
||
the dictates of content are not the First
|
||
|
||
00:51:46.451 --> 00:51:50.290
|
||
Amendment or “cancel culture” or anything
|
||
beanie boy would decry, they’re…corporations.
|
||
|
||
00:51:50.290 --> 00:51:55.540
|
||
I almost want to go on a whole tangent about
|
||
the massive sides of the human experience
|
||
|
||
00:51:55.540 --> 00:52:00.210
|
||
that are left out of discussion on platforms
|
||
because of this angle, but I don’t want
|
||
|
||
00:52:00.210 --> 00:52:04.059
|
||
to risk demonetizing this video that’s also
|
||
already approaching an untenable length. For
|
||
|
||
00:52:04.059 --> 00:52:08.450
|
||
just a singular example, look at what creators
|
||
like Evie Lupine have to go through to talk
|
||
|
||
00:52:08.450 --> 00:52:12.670
|
||
about their content, the hoops being jumped
|
||
through, and the eternal feeling of being
|
||
|
||
00:52:12.670 --> 00:52:17.420
|
||
“unsafe” from it all suddenly vanishing,
|
||
of getting hit by the ban bat that’s so
|
||
|
||
00:52:17.420 --> 00:52:21.190
|
||
inconsistent and malleable it might as well
|
||
be a pool noodle.
|
||
|
||
00:52:21.190 --> 00:52:26.680
|
||
Much, very much has been said on this topic
|
||
before. It exemplifies the negative current,
|
||
|
||
00:52:26.680 --> 00:52:31.420
|
||
an impact of monetization culture, just as
|
||
much as bait content, just as much as memetic
|
||
|
||
00:52:31.420 --> 00:52:36.160
|
||
language. The key takeaway from a space like
|
||
YouTube is that its monetization, the way
|
||
|
||
00:52:36.160 --> 00:52:42.020
|
||
it has the potential to be a job has shifted
|
||
the incentives for making content. To Corporate
|
||
|
||
00:52:42.020 --> 00:52:46.299
|
||
Youtube, the ideal would be that nobody even
|
||
looks at or thinks about their analytics,
|
||
|
||
00:52:46.299 --> 00:52:51.710
|
||
“just, just create some things, make stuff,
|
||
fill the space,” that’s their ideal. We
|
||
|
||
00:52:51.710 --> 00:52:56.060
|
||
shouldn’t even think of the fact the algorithm
|
||
is there, just let it do its magic
|
||
|
||
00:52:56.060 --> 00:53:01.530
|
||
Instead, they’ve created a space where entire
|
||
channels find success in trying to talk people
|
||
|
||
00:53:01.530 --> 00:53:03.390
|
||
through navigating the algorithm.
|
||
|
||
00:53:03.390 --> 00:53:08.059
|
||
There’s a paradox to those channels too,
|
||
which I only note here because I love a good
|
||
|
||
00:53:08.059 --> 00:53:10.940
|
||
paradox.
|
||
Say my channel is expressly dedicated to teaching
|
||
|
||
00:53:10.940 --> 00:53:16.499
|
||
people about the algorithm. Subscribe for
|
||
more hot tips like these! Okay, now, the audience
|
||
|
||
00:53:16.499 --> 00:53:21.420
|
||
is only going to be youtube hopefuls. But
|
||
how does one get that ball rolling? Who would
|
||
|
||
00:53:21.420 --> 00:53:25.670
|
||
listen to some guy claiming to have Cracked
|
||
the Code™ on the algorithm, who himself
|
||
|
||
00:53:25.670 --> 00:53:31.650
|
||
only has like…300 subscribers, you know?
|
||
They don’t *make* content that looks remotely
|
||
|
||
00:53:31.650 --> 00:53:37.220
|
||
similar to what any aspirants come to them
|
||
for. They aren’t like you or any of the
|
||
|
||
00:53:37.220 --> 00:53:42.359
|
||
hopefuls. Using themselves as an example of
|
||
what to do is absurd, because their audience
|
||
|
||
00:53:42.359 --> 00:53:47.579
|
||
is remarkably desperate, by design. I don’t
|
||
say this to knock them, but to simply call
|
||
|
||
00:53:47.579 --> 00:53:50.710
|
||
attention to the way authority for these claims
|
||
works.
|
||
|
||
00:53:50.710 --> 00:53:54.559
|
||
I watched a few hours of content from these
|
||
kinds of channels to shore up my thoughts
|
||
|
||
00:53:54.559 --> 00:53:59.050
|
||
for this section and it wasn’t very worth
|
||
it, at least for the sake of this video’s
|
||
|
||
00:53:59.050 --> 00:54:03.261
|
||
content. In terms of the advice they had,
|
||
I learned what I’ve always known, which
|
||
|
||
00:54:03.261 --> 00:54:08.000
|
||
is that youtube is unsuited for “rapid pivots”
|
||
as I appear to do on my channel, and that
|
||
|
||
00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:14.180
|
||
youtube deeply prioritizes growing within
|
||
niches over reaching into many niches. Which
|
||
|
||
00:54:14.180 --> 00:54:19.809
|
||
makes sense. The reason larger channels, even
|
||
in LeftTube Land can do pivots is because
|
||
|
||
00:54:19.809 --> 00:54:23.840
|
||
with their personality in effect becoming
|
||
their own niche they are, effectively, too
|
||
|
||
00:54:23.840 --> 00:54:27.130
|
||
big to fail.
|
||
By every tip and bit of advice they give,
|
||
|
||
00:54:27.130 --> 00:54:32.220
|
||
Hbomberguy should be an abject failure channel,
|
||
and yet he’s managed to “crack the code”
|
||
|
||
00:54:32.220 --> 00:54:37.000
|
||
in an entirely different direction. It’s
|
||
the kind of thing they, in salvaging authority,
|
||
|
||
00:54:37.000 --> 00:54:41.750
|
||
would incredulously laugh off as “It shouldn’t
|
||
work but it does” like a poker player who
|
||
|
||
00:54:41.750 --> 00:54:43.109
|
||
failed to call a bluff.
|
||
|
||
00:54:43.109 --> 00:54:48.680
|
||
Regarding the content of the gurus:
|
||
The advice is usually genuine, sometimes sound,
|
||
|
||
00:54:48.680 --> 00:54:52.760
|
||
and always more subjective than they can admit.
|
||
One added feature of it all is that they often
|
||
|
||
00:54:52.760 --> 00:54:58.130
|
||
want to play up how much youtube is “constantly
|
||
evolving” so that they can remake old guides.
|
||
|
||
00:54:58.130 --> 00:54:59.319
|
||
It’s a business.
|
||
|
||
00:54:59.319 --> 00:55:03.960
|
||
They’re a monetized channel that makes its
|
||
money in ways that I can seldom call outright
|
||
|
||
00:55:03.960 --> 00:55:07.809
|
||
predatory, despite its intrinsically desperate
|
||
audience. Some of these channels are also
|
||
|
||
00:55:07.809 --> 00:55:12.170
|
||
the only place I’ve seen discussions of
|
||
what I can only call…content creator self
|
||
|
||
00:55:12.170 --> 00:55:17.201
|
||
care? Things like reminders of one’s own
|
||
worth, that this is a job, that it’s not
|
||
|
||
00:55:17.201 --> 00:55:23.410
|
||
a reflection of self worth, that Youtube hasn’t
|
||
exactly done you any favors. It’s almost…radical
|
||
|
||
00:55:23.410 --> 00:55:27.069
|
||
to see that in spaces so dedicated to grind.
|
||
|
||
00:55:27.069 --> 00:55:32.490
|
||
My point is that there is a, perhaps unexpected,
|
||
kindness in these guide spaces sometimes,
|
||
|
||
00:55:32.490 --> 00:55:38.160
|
||
it’s not raw grift. But that gets washed
|
||
out by where the brunt of content positions
|
||
|
||
00:55:38.160 --> 00:55:39.160
|
||
itself.
|
||
|
||
00:55:39.160 --> 00:55:44.380
|
||
The odd but entirely predictable prevalence
|
||
of videos claiming to be a guide to the…exact
|
||
|
||
00:55:44.380 --> 00:55:49.589
|
||
minimum requirements for monetization paints
|
||
its own picture. This stuff is exclusively
|
||
|
||
00:55:49.589 --> 00:55:54.910
|
||
a product of the monetization culture. Without
|
||
the culture, yes, people would still desire
|
||
|
||
00:55:54.910 --> 00:56:00.750
|
||
to be viewed, but I think folk practice would
|
||
outstrip guides. This stuff is pure business.
|
||
|
||
00:56:00.750 --> 00:56:05.460
|
||
It’s mysticism. It’s content that would
|
||
be entirely meaningless without other youtubers
|
||
|
||
00:56:05.460 --> 00:56:11.230
|
||
and self-imagined “soon-to-be” youtubers
|
||
to consume it. It’s bait and confidence,
|
||
|
||
00:56:11.230 --> 00:56:13.430
|
||
but that’s business.
|
||
|
||
00:56:13.430 --> 00:56:17.349
|
||
Looking back at it all, I want to say “Oh
|
||
Brave New World” to this whole monetized
|
||
|
||
00:56:17.349 --> 00:56:22.520
|
||
platform thing, this world of creativity being
|
||
a job, but the truth is… our expression
|
||
|
||
00:56:22.520 --> 00:56:26.430
|
||
has always been for sale.
|
||
|
||
00:56:26.430 --> 00:56:30.450
|
||
The monetization of content has always kind
|
||
of been there, but in a more implicit and
|
||
|
||
00:56:30.450 --> 00:56:34.359
|
||
insidious way. Don’t worry this isn’t
|
||
about to pivot into some lecture about the
|
||
|
||
00:56:34.359 --> 00:56:38.540
|
||
patronage of Early Modern painters or something.
|
||
Also, before this point I’ve contained the
|
||
|
||
00:56:38.540 --> 00:56:45.410
|
||
conversation to sites focused on…well, “creators”
|
||
figures intended to be the key content generators.
|
||
|
||
00:56:45.410 --> 00:56:51.010
|
||
But I want to expand our perception of what
|
||
“content” is and, in turn, who does “content
|
||
|
||
00:56:51.010 --> 00:56:52.010
|
||
generation.”
|
||
|
||
00:56:52.010 --> 00:56:55.780
|
||
We’re sticking to the internet, and going
|
||
back to 1994.
|
||
|
||
00:56:55.780 --> 00:57:00.040
|
||
Note that there is a lot going on in this
|
||
essay to come, and I won’t unpack even most
|
||
|
||
00:57:00.040 --> 00:57:05.349
|
||
of it. I look to it here, for our purposes
|
||
as a cultural artifact, one that illuminates
|
||
|
||
00:57:05.349 --> 00:57:08.539
|
||
how innate these issues are to the internet.
|
||
_______________________________________
|
||
|
||
00:57:08.539 --> 00:57:14.211
|
||
it is fashionable to suggest that cyberspace
|
||
is some kind of island of the blessed where
|
||
|
||
00:57:14.211 --> 00:57:17.900
|
||
people are free to indulge and express their
|
||
Individuality.
|
||
|
||
00:57:17.900 --> 00:57:23.059
|
||
some people write about cyberspace as though
|
||
it were a 60′s utopia. in reality, this
|
||
|
||
00:57:23.059 --> 00:57:29.440
|
||
is not true. major online services, like comp-u-serv
|
||
and america online, regular[ly] guide and
|
||
|
||
00:57:29.440 --> 00:57:34.970
|
||
censor discourse. even some allegedly free-wheeling
|
||
(albeit politically correct) boards like the
|
||
|
||
00:57:34.970 --> 00:57:39.559
|
||
WELL censor discourse. the difference is only
|
||
a matter of the method and degree.
|
||
|
||
00:57:39.559 --> 00:57:46.039
|
||
i have seen many people spill their guts on-line,
|
||
and i did so myself until, at last, i began
|
||
|
||
00:57:46.039 --> 00:57:51.640
|
||
to see that i had commodified myself. commodification
|
||
means that you turn something into a product
|
||
|
||
00:57:51.640 --> 00:57:57.099
|
||
which has a money-value. in the nineteenth
|
||
century, commodities were made in factories,
|
||
|
||
00:57:57.099 --> 00:58:02.950
|
||
which karl marx called “the means of production.”
|
||
capitalists were people who owned the means
|
||
|
||
00:58:02.950 --> 00:58:06.670
|
||
of production, and the commodities were made
|
||
by workers who were mostly exploited.
|
||
|
||
00:58:06.670 --> 00:58:11.359
|
||
i created my interior thoughts as a means
|
||
of production for the corporation that owned
|
||
|
||
00:58:11.359 --> 00:58:15.800
|
||
the board i was posting to, and that commodity
|
||
was being sold to other commodity/consumer
|
||
|
||
00:58:15.800 --> 00:58:22.190
|
||
entities as entertainment. that means that
|
||
i sold my soul like a tennis shoe and i derived
|
||
|
||
00:58:22.190 --> 00:58:27.150
|
||
no profit from the sale of my soul…
|
||
proponents of so-called cyber-communities
|
||
|
||
00:58:27.150 --> 00:58:31.940
|
||
rarely emphasize the economic, business-mind
|
||
nature of the community: many cyber-communities
|
||
|
||
00:58:31.940 --> 00:58:38.049
|
||
are businesses that rely upon the commodification
|
||
of human interaction. they market their businesses
|
||
|
||
00:58:38.049 --> 00:58:44.089
|
||
by appeal to hysterical identification and
|
||
fetishism no more or less than the corporations
|
||
|
||
00:58:44.089 --> 00:58:46.930
|
||
that brought us the two hundred dollar athletic
|
||
shoe.
|
||
|
||
00:58:46.930 --> 00:58:53.890
|
||
people can talk about cyberspace as a Utopian
|
||
community only because it is literature, and
|
||
|
||
00:58:53.890 --> 00:58:58.579
|
||
therefore subject to editorial revision. [Prior]
|
||
events plus another where a woman’s death
|
||
|
||
00:58:58.579 --> 00:59:03.760
|
||
was choreographed as spectacle online, made
|
||
me think about what electronic community was,
|
||
|
||
00:59:03.760 --> 00:59:09.059
|
||
and how it probably really did not exist,
|
||
except like i said, as a kind of market for
|
||
|
||
00:59:09.059 --> 00:59:13.640
|
||
the consumption of sign-value.
|
||
|
||
00:59:14.789 --> 00:59:19.079
|
||
The full essay is linked below. It’s interesting
|
||
and briefly touches many things that are…
|
||
|
||
00:59:19.079 --> 00:59:23.660
|
||
outside the scope of our discussion. I do
|
||
not intend to do a disservice to the questions
|
||
|
||
00:59:23.660 --> 00:59:28.470
|
||
it has for diversity, feminism, greenwashing,
|
||
any of that, by not including them. I recommend
|
||
|
||
00:59:28.470 --> 00:59:32.079
|
||
it in future, and may even cite it again someday.
|
||
|
||
00:59:32.079 --> 00:59:36.780
|
||
I won’t spiral all of this into talking
|
||
about the failed liberatory promise of techno-futurism
|
||
|
||
00:59:36.780 --> 00:59:41.740
|
||
and the internet, but I can’t help feeling
|
||
like with the communal internet, we are looking
|
||
|
||
00:59:41.740 --> 00:59:46.400
|
||
at a revolution betrayed. Perhaps that too
|
||
is for another day.
|
||
|
||
00:59:46.400 --> 00:59:51.359
|
||
From Pandora’s Vox, we see that questions
|
||
of commodity, of production have been here
|
||
|
||
00:59:51.359 --> 00:59:56.869
|
||
longer than, I would wager, half of today’s
|
||
prolific internet users have even been alive.
|
||
|
||
00:59:56.869 --> 01:00:02.700
|
||
In a sense, crypto is an attempted modern
|
||
solution to this now age-old problem. It is
|
||
|
||
01:00:02.700 --> 01:00:08.650
|
||
a solution that required the intensification
|
||
of the problem in the process of solving it.
|
||
|
||
01:00:08.650 --> 01:00:14.130
|
||
Crypto looked at how this manufacture of content
|
||
for the Owners of the Internet in 1994 could
|
||
|
||
01:00:14.130 --> 01:00:20.720
|
||
be solved by simply placing the power of monetization
|
||
in the hands of creators, of manufacturers.
|
||
|
||
01:00:20.720 --> 01:00:25.140
|
||
With that vision set, their eyes widened at
|
||
the potential of making every single facet
|
||
|
||
01:00:25.140 --> 01:00:31.119
|
||
of digital existence an earning opportunity,
|
||
of effectively seeing all things as production,
|
||
|
||
01:00:31.119 --> 01:00:35.680
|
||
without ever speaking in terms of labor. They
|
||
have blurred the meaning of being “paid
|
||
|
||
01:00:35.680 --> 01:00:40.300
|
||
for one’s time” imagining the entirety
|
||
of digital existence as transactional, which
|
||
|
||
01:00:40.300 --> 01:00:45.200
|
||
is, in some sense, like viewing every meal
|
||
in one’s life by a dollar to calorie ratio.
|
||
|
||
01:00:45.200 --> 01:00:50.230
|
||
It’s practical to a point of misery, mathematical
|
||
to the point of inhumanity.
|
||
|
||
01:00:50.230 --> 01:00:54.750
|
||
The execution of that ideal was far from successful
|
||
and, in turn, more or less created monetary
|
||
|
||
01:00:54.750 --> 01:00:59.980
|
||
schemes we’ve always had. Most of digital
|
||
monetization as a practice, from 1994 to now,
|
||
|
||
01:00:59.980 --> 01:01:05.789
|
||
has used some manner of democratization or
|
||
empowerment as its rallying cry, giving YOU
|
||
|
||
01:01:05.789 --> 01:01:11.020
|
||
the Creators a slice of the pie, finally.
|
||
But from Medium’s deployable walls to crypto’s
|
||
|
||
01:01:11.020 --> 01:01:15.329
|
||
feudal structures, to Youtube’s kingmaking
|
||
ghost in the machine, we’ve gotten nowhere
|
||
|
||
01:01:15.329 --> 01:01:16.660
|
||
fast.
|
||
|
||
01:01:16.660 --> 01:01:20.789
|
||
Tangential to this, there’s also a means
|
||
of monetizing our interaction not as a creative
|
||
|
||
01:01:20.789 --> 01:01:25.430
|
||
energy, but as a malicious little monsters.
|
||
To that, there’s a video by SK the Crusader
|
||
|
||
01:01:25.430 --> 01:01:30.880
|
||
that goes into the Main Character phenomena,
|
||
which has been with us since Humdog’s time.
|
||
|
||
01:01:30.880 --> 01:01:36.710
|
||
Ultimately, this is not a perfect and totalizing
|
||
view of the past, but it is a prescient relic.
|
||
|
||
01:01:36.710 --> 01:01:43.630
|
||
In it, we see a disdain for imagined utopia,
|
||
a critique, contempt, thus for the evangelizing
|
||
|
||
01:01:43.630 --> 01:01:49.210
|
||
utopians… who denied the monetization was
|
||
a danger. It hearkens to the cryptospace near
|
||
|
||
01:01:49.210 --> 01:01:58.980
|
||
two decades early. But it also reminds me
|
||
of someone and somewhere else.
|
||
|
||
01:01:58.980 --> 01:02:04.210
|
||
Okay okay, no I can’t find a way to pretend
|
||
Runescape is a platform, even if it does have
|
||
|
||
01:02:04.210 --> 01:02:06.450
|
||
one hell of a shitposting community.
|
||
|
||
01:02:06.450 --> 01:02:10.890
|
||
We’re returning to the present day with
|
||
Twitter, a place I never expected would become
|
||
|
||
01:02:10.890 --> 01:02:12.470
|
||
part of my job.
|
||
|
||
01:02:12.470 --> 01:02:16.950
|
||
Twitter is a bit of an odd addition to this
|
||
mix because it’s inherently opposed to monetization,
|
||
|
||
01:02:16.950 --> 01:02:21.589
|
||
and not just in a “how do we even do it”
|
||
kind of way like Vine was.
|
||
|
||
01:02:21.589 --> 01:02:26.109
|
||
I… I can’t believe I’m saying this but
|
||
maybe more sites need to be like twitter.
|
||
|
||
01:02:26.109 --> 01:02:27.510
|
||
Or like it was.
|
||
|
||
01:02:27.510 --> 01:02:32.510
|
||
I won’t go too deep into the evolving story
|
||
of Twitter’s…descent, both in that it
|
||
|
||
01:02:32.510 --> 01:02:37.140
|
||
is ongoing, and in that it’s covered ground,
|
||
but here’s the shortest bit for the blissfully
|
||
|
||
01:02:37.140 --> 01:02:38.380
|
||
logged out:
|
||
|
||
01:02:38.380 --> 01:02:43.049
|
||
In a fundamental misunderstanding of how Verification
|
||
is even given its value, Musk opted to turn
|
||
|
||
01:02:43.049 --> 01:02:49.070
|
||
it into a mix of paid status symbol, a membership
|
||
system, and a soft…inverse paywall. There
|
||
|
||
01:02:49.070 --> 01:02:54.020
|
||
are supposed algorithmic benefits to having
|
||
the verification, though nothing has materialized
|
||
|
||
01:02:54.020 --> 01:02:58.760
|
||
as of yet. If we know anything from exploring
|
||
Youtube, it’s that preferential algorithm
|
||
|
||
01:02:58.760 --> 01:03:02.980
|
||
treatment is a dream for many.
|
||
Following a slew of impersonation gags that
|
||
|
||
01:03:02.980 --> 01:03:08.320
|
||
cost advertisers collective billions in market
|
||
cap value of their stock, and delighted the
|
||
|
||
01:03:08.320 --> 01:03:13.520
|
||
entire internet, all for $8, there are now
|
||
allegedly plans to make company and government
|
||
|
||
01:03:13.520 --> 01:03:18.119
|
||
specific verification. The whole thing has
|
||
been like watching someone walk backwards
|
||
|
||
01:03:18.119 --> 01:03:19.869
|
||
in a spiral.
|
||
|
||
01:03:19.869 --> 01:03:24.349
|
||
Inexplicably we have ended up with Musk being
|
||
a hands-on moderator like this is some dingy
|
||
|
||
01:03:24.349 --> 01:03:28.150
|
||
DnD forum in 1994, or a contemporary crypto
|
||
scam.
|
||
|
||
01:03:28.150 --> 01:03:32.779
|
||
There has, for weeks now, been talk about
|
||
abandoning the platform. But there’s an
|
||
|
||
01:03:32.779 --> 01:03:36.420
|
||
important part of that which hasn’t exactly
|
||
been hashed out.
|
||
|
||
01:03:36.420 --> 01:03:41.720
|
||
The reason “where do we go now” is an
|
||
unanswerable question is because all the options,
|
||
|
||
01:03:41.720 --> 01:03:47.090
|
||
frankly, suck. Those of us on twitter know
|
||
we are on an imperfect platform. And all the
|
||
|
||
01:03:47.090 --> 01:03:51.231
|
||
other ones are no better. People talking about
|
||
Hive bring up that it’s “owned by an ableist
|
||
|
||
01:03:51.231 --> 01:03:56.101
|
||
and a trump supporter” as though that isn’t
|
||
the case with 4/5ths of the venture capital
|
||
|
||
01:03:56.101 --> 01:04:00.000
|
||
funded tech landscape.
|
||
Like seriously, good luck finding a site that
|
||
|
||
01:04:00.000 --> 01:04:03.130
|
||
isn’t owned by an ethically compromised
|
||
billionaire.
|
||
|
||
01:04:03.130 --> 01:04:08.100
|
||
My personal solution is that we all just colonize
|
||
academia.edu and set up accounts, shitposting
|
||
|
||
01:04:08.100 --> 01:04:11.369
|
||
in faux-essay, or critical response format.
|
||
|
||
01:04:11.369 --> 01:04:15.079
|
||
“Sir,
|
||
I have reviewed your recent post with regards
|
||
|
||
01:04:15.079 --> 01:04:22.200
|
||
to the claim that Stalin “would have been
|
||
an e-boy” with intense frustration. It is
|
||
|
||
01:04:22.200 --> 01:04:28.390
|
||
clear to me you lack either the seriousness
|
||
or the vigor to make it in this discipline.
|
||
|
||
01:04:28.390 --> 01:04:32.460
|
||
Clearly, Bukharin was the one with e-boy energy.”
|
||
|
||
01:04:32.460 --> 01:04:38.980
|
||
Now, realistically twitter is no stranger
|
||
to jokes and hyperbole about leaving the “hellsite”
|
||
|
||
01:04:38.980 --> 01:04:43.549
|
||
forever, but I want to, for a moment, take
|
||
quick stock of what stands to be lost with
|
||
|
||
01:04:43.549 --> 01:04:47.650
|
||
Twitter, because I think it’s dawning on
|
||
people that this sucks for a reason.
|
||
|
||
01:04:47.650 --> 01:04:51.510
|
||
Twitter is very helpful and effective for
|
||
activists and outreach programs.
|
||
|
||
01:04:51.510 --> 01:04:55.930
|
||
Much has been said about the efficacy of organization
|
||
and dissemination of information during the
|
||
|
||
01:04:55.930 --> 01:04:57.530
|
||
Floyd protests.
|
||
|
||
01:04:57.530 --> 01:05:01.930
|
||
For an even older example, think of the role
|
||
social media took in the Arab Spring, you
|
||
|
||
01:05:01.930 --> 01:05:06.210
|
||
may likely know more about the presence Twitter
|
||
had in that historical moment than the current
|
||
|
||
01:05:06.210 --> 01:05:09.450
|
||
state of a single country for whom it was
|
||
historical.
|
||
|
||
01:05:09.450 --> 01:05:14.390
|
||
But those things are practical. They’re
|
||
important, but not the focus of this discussion.
|
||
|
||
01:05:14.390 --> 01:05:18.460
|
||
I won’t go into every detail of twitter’s
|
||
culture, as shitpositng is more universal
|
||
|
||
01:05:18.460 --> 01:05:23.369
|
||
than the site, but I will explain what features
|
||
I think make it both a useful tool, a place
|
||
|
||
01:05:23.369 --> 01:05:28.270
|
||
of communities, and in some ways, resistant
|
||
to advertisers and…until now, cataclysmic
|
||
|
||
01:05:28.270 --> 01:05:29.380
|
||
levels of monetization.
|
||
|
||
01:05:29.380 --> 01:05:34.650
|
||
Twitter’s features allow for relatively
|
||
easy circulation of content, but also curation
|
||
|
||
01:05:34.650 --> 01:05:39.010
|
||
of one’s own feed. Where places like Tiktok
|
||
just blast you with the next thing in a row
|
||
|
||
01:05:39.010 --> 01:05:43.480
|
||
and it can be like Russian Roulette for transphobia,
|
||
twitter is more about following people than
|
||
|
||
01:05:43.480 --> 01:05:48.599
|
||
implicit ideas. There is an algorithm, to
|
||
be sure, but ad-spaces are noted when they’re
|
||
|
||
01:05:48.599 --> 01:05:52.779
|
||
present, and other than the occasional slot
|
||
dedicated to outright promotion or “based
|
||
|
||
01:05:52.779 --> 01:05:57.970
|
||
on your likes” content, most of the momentum
|
||
behind discovery is social networking.
|
||
|
||
01:05:57.970 --> 01:06:02.260
|
||
Corporations know this, which is why there’s
|
||
the existence of Brand Twitter, and brands
|
||
|
||
01:06:02.260 --> 01:06:03.789
|
||
trying to go viral.
|
||
|
||
01:06:03.789 --> 01:06:07.050
|
||
Likes and retweets come from individuals,
|
||
and while you can’t exactly predict the
|
||
|
||
01:06:07.050 --> 01:06:10.829
|
||
extent of what a mutual might like, which
|
||
could mean getting smacked in the face with
|
||
|
||
01:06:10.829 --> 01:06:15.130
|
||
er*tic zootopia art, for the most part it’s
|
||
a curated experience.
|
||
|
||
01:06:15.130 --> 01:06:19.829
|
||
The other end of this curation is that muting
|
||
and blocking accounts is easy and effective.
|
||
|
||
01:06:19.829 --> 01:06:24.930
|
||
You can block advertisers, no questions asked.
|
||
It’s so mundane a significant feature I’m
|
||
|
||
01:06:24.930 --> 01:06:28.130
|
||
going to repeat it for emphasis: you can block
|
||
advertisers.
|
||
|
||
01:06:28.130 --> 01:06:32.869
|
||
That may sound like it would cost twitter
|
||
a lot of potential clients, but think of it
|
||
|
||
01:06:32.869 --> 01:06:38.080
|
||
as the obverse of self selection. Advertisers
|
||
want their product shown to people who *are*
|
||
|
||
01:06:38.080 --> 01:06:45.010
|
||
interested, and if people who expressly *aren’t*
|
||
block them, that’s not a “wasted” impression.
|
||
|
||
01:06:45.010 --> 01:06:49.720
|
||
Some people like to brag about how deranged
|
||
their ads get because of their expert curation.
|
||
|
||
01:06:49.720 --> 01:06:54.140
|
||
Ads themselves are not rampant, which makes
|
||
me wonder if Musk’s claim that Twitter Blue
|
||
|
||
01:06:54.140 --> 01:06:58.340
|
||
will give you half the ads is either true
|
||
and meaningless, or they’re going to also
|
||
|
||
01:06:58.340 --> 01:07:02.310
|
||
crank the ad dial.
|
||
…if there’s anyone left who wants to advertise.
|
||
|
||
01:07:02.310 --> 01:07:07.150
|
||
Either way, it is very funny to see a paid
|
||
premium service that doesn’t even offer
|
||
|
||
01:07:07.150 --> 01:07:11.940
|
||
an ad-free experience. And again, we had the
|
||
means to block ads we didn’t like, which
|
||
|
||
01:07:11.940 --> 01:07:13.960
|
||
could be…cathartic.
|
||
|
||
01:07:13.960 --> 01:07:19.040
|
||
Ads aren’t the nuisance of twitter, bots
|
||
are. But bots are blocked just as easily and
|
||
|
||
01:07:19.040 --> 01:07:24.020
|
||
only really swarm to viral posts or ones that
|
||
mention keywords. I took a video of finding
|
||
|
||
01:07:24.020 --> 01:07:28.829
|
||
an ad, blocking it, and then scrolling until
|
||
I found another one and gave up after 2.5
|
||
|
||
01:07:28.829 --> 01:07:34.390
|
||
minutes because I was tired of speed scrolling.
|
||
Note this isn’t emptier than pre-Musk. The
|
||
|
||
01:07:34.390 --> 01:07:39.890
|
||
only difference is that half the ads now are
|
||
some Saudi image laundering program.
|
||
|
||
01:07:39.890 --> 01:07:43.299
|
||
Interesting to note here is that Musk’s
|
||
paid verification system conflicts directly
|
||
|
||
01:07:43.299 --> 01:07:47.940
|
||
with this “block whoever” system. With
|
||
this system of “negative curation” the
|
||
|
||
01:07:47.940 --> 01:07:51.760
|
||
incentive to actually be boosted isn’t all
|
||
that strong when you anticipate selective
|
||
|
||
01:07:51.760 --> 01:07:57.220
|
||
blocks. Verified status won’t evade blocking.
|
||
And in turn, as intimated when I said this
|
||
|
||
01:07:57.220 --> 01:08:01.710
|
||
became a new badge of shame to wear, people
|
||
have already figured out that best practice
|
||
|
||
01:08:01.710 --> 01:08:06.070
|
||
will be to auto-block anyone that has paid
|
||
verification, at once getting rid of the clowns
|
||
|
||
01:08:06.070 --> 01:08:09.530
|
||
willing to shell out and nullifying the signal
|
||
boost they paid for.
|
||
|
||
01:08:09.530 --> 01:08:15.320
|
||
This, all together, is the impact of monetization,
|
||
even in the negative, in resistance. Twitter
|
||
|
||
01:08:15.320 --> 01:08:20.390
|
||
is resistant to monetization because it gives
|
||
the users some tools of curation.
|
||
|
||
01:08:20.390 --> 01:08:24.600
|
||
And even without those tools, Twitter doesn’t
|
||
have the same capacity towards monetization
|
||
|
||
01:08:24.600 --> 01:08:28.739
|
||
as something like Youtube. Musk, bizarrely,
|
||
said in one tweet that he planned to turn
|
||
|
||
01:08:28.739 --> 01:08:33.969
|
||
twitter into a youtube competitor, saying
|
||
it would be partly financed by the verified.
|
||
|
||
01:08:33.969 --> 01:08:38.509
|
||
This would ostensibly adopt a somehow worse
|
||
form of what Medium does with its content
|
||
|
||
01:08:38.509 --> 01:08:44.110
|
||
with a vastly more significant data footprint.
|
||
He wanted to offer room for posting 40 minute
|
||
|
||
01:08:44.110 --> 01:08:49.960
|
||
videos at 1080p. That could be anywhere from
|
||
300 mb to 3 gigs an upload. On top of that,
|
||
|
||
01:08:49.960 --> 01:08:54.359
|
||
Twitter does not have what I would call a
|
||
navigable system. Tweets are meant to be flung
|
||
|
||
01:08:54.359 --> 01:08:58.929
|
||
into the aether and then forgotten about,
|
||
not something as laboriously crafted and “shelf
|
||
|
||
01:08:58.929 --> 01:09:01.130
|
||
stable” as a youtube video.
|
||
|
||
01:09:01.130 --> 01:09:02.969
|
||
Let’s step aside for a second.
|
||
|
||
01:09:02.969 --> 01:09:08.529
|
||
A few months ago Patreon lost a LOT of money
|
||
and had to fire a LOT of people over a failed
|
||
|
||
01:09:08.529 --> 01:09:13.420
|
||
attempt to break into tiktok. What Patreon
|
||
did was throw a lot money at a few big tiktokers
|
||
|
||
01:09:13.420 --> 01:09:18.219
|
||
and *some* money towards mid sized ones, in
|
||
an effort to promote patreon, to get the tikotkers
|
||
|
||
01:09:18.219 --> 01:09:22.940
|
||
to try it out and tell everyone to pay them.
|
||
This misstep was colossal.
|
||
|
||
01:09:22.940 --> 01:09:26.171
|
||
For reasons other than this, I was already
|
||
convinced that Patreon didn’t understand
|
||
|
||
01:09:26.171 --> 01:09:30.650
|
||
its own platform. But illustrative for our
|
||
purpose is how they failed to understand Tiktok.
|
||
|
||
01:09:30.650 --> 01:09:35.600
|
||
They assumed that creation was the same on
|
||
there as it would be on youtube, that fandoms,
|
||
|
||
01:09:35.600 --> 01:09:40.469
|
||
followings, support, was the same. They mistakenly
|
||
assumed that just because a tiktokker had
|
||
|
||
01:09:40.469 --> 01:09:45.029
|
||
1 million subs and millions of views, it would
|
||
be the same as hooking youtube audiences.
|
||
|
||
01:09:45.029 --> 01:09:48.640
|
||
They failed to consider the relative value
|
||
people put into short form video content consumed
|
||
|
||
01:09:48.640 --> 01:09:53.810
|
||
in a slurry. Supporting creators from places
|
||
like Youtube off-platform leads to the creation
|
||
|
||
01:09:53.810 --> 01:09:59.530
|
||
of things meant to endure– works.Tangible
|
||
things. Not necessarily to be viewed as funded
|
||
|
||
01:09:59.530 --> 01:10:04.130
|
||
projects, but at least as something with presence.
|
||
There are people who make longer form content
|
||
|
||
01:10:04.130 --> 01:10:09.360
|
||
than shorts for whom patreon would also be
|
||
a bad fit, on youtube no less. They also tried
|
||
|
||
01:10:09.360 --> 01:10:14.460
|
||
to get Mr Beast to join patreon which is an
|
||
even worse idea and I cannot afford to tangent
|
||
|
||
01:10:14.460 --> 01:10:17.370
|
||
into that.
|
||
The point is that they saw that some youtubers
|
||
|
||
01:10:17.370 --> 01:10:21.969
|
||
use patreon and without thinking through the
|
||
specific details of who, why, and how, they
|
||
|
||
01:10:21.969 --> 01:10:25.280
|
||
tried to slap that idea onto another video
|
||
platform.
|
||
|
||
01:10:25.280 --> 01:10:30.070
|
||
Similarly, Musk failed to consider just how
|
||
many people would be willing to pay for twitter.
|
||
|
||
01:10:30.070 --> 01:10:34.270
|
||
Sycophants came out of the woodwork to be
|
||
like “it’s just $8” usually ending it
|
||
|
||
01:10:34.270 --> 01:10:39.300
|
||
with the new calling card of the least funny
|
||
people on earth, the tilted cry laugh emoji.
|
||
|
||
01:10:39.300 --> 01:10:43.290
|
||
All that to say that Twitter is not in the
|
||
hands of someone who understands twitter.
|
||
|
||
01:10:43.290 --> 01:10:47.510
|
||
Musk is redesigning the app around his own
|
||
experience with having an abnormally high
|
||
|
||
01:10:47.510 --> 01:10:51.970
|
||
bot following and presuming that’s a shared
|
||
experience for all users, he’s presuming
|
||
|
||
01:10:51.970 --> 01:10:57.600
|
||
his experience as the world’s richest man
|
||
is normal. He’s listening to a cadre of
|
||
|
||
01:10:57.600 --> 01:11:03.560
|
||
dorks and somehow creating a publicly observable
|
||
echo chamber. Twitter is, ostensibly, in the
|
||
|
||
01:11:03.560 --> 01:11:08.460
|
||
hands of those assuring the emperor his clothes
|
||
look lovely.
|
||
|
||
01:11:08.460 --> 01:11:14.500
|
||
This leads us to the situation we were always
|
||
in, Twitter, our space, is out of our hands.
|
||
|
||
01:11:14.500 --> 01:11:20.563
|
||
I have likely done an imperfect job distinguishing creativity and production.
|
||
|
||
01:11:20.563 --> 01:11:23.002
|
||
To that end, I will
|
||
restate and emphasize.
|
||
|
||
01:11:23.002 --> 01:11:29.136
|
||
Creation is jeopardized when it becomes production
|
||
on the behalf of an entity like these platforms.
|
||
|
||
01:11:29.136 --> 01:11:37.770
|
||
However, on these platforms we cannot avoid
|
||
our creations becoming productions, even when we are, ourselves, unrewarded.
|
||
|
||
01:11:37.770 --> 01:11:43.409
|
||
Digital spaces are not a commons, not freely
|
||
owned by us all, though we are what comprises
|
||
|
||
01:11:43.409 --> 01:11:48.610
|
||
them. Without people, there is no platform.
|
||
That leads to a separate and, perhaps more
|
||
|
||
01:11:48.610 --> 01:11:50.179
|
||
subliminal theme:
|
||
|
||
01:11:50.179 --> 01:11:54.420
|
||
The way that these sites rely on users as
|
||
content creators.
|
||
|
||
01:11:54.420 --> 01:11:58.020
|
||
Simply that.
|
||
In part, though not formally a response to
|
||
|
||
01:11:58.020 --> 01:12:03.719
|
||
Line Goes Up, it did inspire this work, in
|
||
a perhaps unexpected way. The obvious route
|
||
|
||
01:12:03.719 --> 01:12:08.420
|
||
would be that I had the Lunyr story, but really
|
||
it wasn’t the “I too know about crypto
|
||
|
||
01:12:08.420 --> 01:12:13.860
|
||
nonsense” as much as it was that it forced
|
||
me to remember those spaces, their culture,
|
||
|
||
01:12:13.860 --> 01:12:19.400
|
||
and in doing so, I reconciled the uncomfortable
|
||
overlap with my youtube experience, with discussions
|
||
|
||
01:12:19.400 --> 01:12:25.250
|
||
of individualist communities, aspiration,
|
||
“making it.” I remembered that while crypto
|
||
|
||
01:12:25.250 --> 01:12:31.659
|
||
is a creatively bankrupt space, conversations
|
||
in Small Youtube were nearly as stark. What
|
||
|
||
01:12:31.659 --> 01:12:37.239
|
||
Lunyr did in having it’s only remotely academic
|
||
articles end up being about crypto projects
|
||
|
||
01:12:37.239 --> 01:12:42.449
|
||
feels like what Medium is doing with its articles
|
||
on being good at Medium, what part of youtube
|
||
|
||
01:12:42.449 --> 01:12:44.550
|
||
does with its gurus.
|
||
|
||
01:12:44.550 --> 01:12:49.120
|
||
There’s value to understanding how cultures
|
||
shift with monetization, and how incentives
|
||
|
||
01:12:49.120 --> 01:12:54.219
|
||
are formed, and how those incentives shape
|
||
what gets produced, but the biggest unifier
|
||
|
||
01:12:54.219 --> 01:12:59.070
|
||
here is that we don’t congregate on these
|
||
sites because they, the site, provide us with
|
||
|
||
01:12:59.070 --> 01:13:05.380
|
||
content, we congregate to witness and experience
|
||
other people. Despite these dual revelations,
|
||
|
||
01:13:05.380 --> 01:13:10.401
|
||
that of the filters and walls monetization
|
||
creates and of platform versus people, we
|
||
|
||
01:13:10.401 --> 01:13:16.810
|
||
are not granted some easy actionable control.
|
||
We are, thus, bound on both ends, unable to
|
||
|
||
01:13:16.810 --> 01:13:23.280
|
||
control our own output, even as nominally
|
||
free agents, and unable to reorganize.
|
||
|
||
01:13:23.280 --> 01:13:28.179
|
||
Efforts such as F the Algorithm, as I mentioned,
|
||
attempt to change this. Supporting others
|
||
|
||
01:13:28.179 --> 01:13:33.310
|
||
attempts to change this. But working within
|
||
these systems, there will always be that specter
|
||
|
||
01:13:33.310 --> 01:13:37.659
|
||
of monetization, wielding the algorithm like
|
||
a scythe.
|
||
|
||
01:13:37.659 --> 01:13:41.980
|
||
This is not my moment to call for revolution
|
||
so that I may make art freely without having
|
||
|
||
01:13:41.980 --> 01:13:47.150
|
||
to earn my keep, no, even now in the throes
|
||
of some form of passion, I have the clarity
|
||
|
||
01:13:47.150 --> 01:13:52.840
|
||
to see that as hyperbolic. It is more a reminder
|
||
that we are creating communities in spaces
|
||
|
||
01:13:52.840 --> 01:13:59.560
|
||
we cannot own, cannot control, cannot take
|
||
ownership of. What does the Twitter Purchase
|
||
|
||
01:13:59.560 --> 01:14:05.330
|
||
prove if not that? There is no Promised Land
|
||
we might flee to next.
|
||
|
||
01:14:05.330 --> 01:14:09.580
|
||
To end this on a note about the Digital Commons
|
||
would appear to get away from my point, but
|
||
|
||
01:14:09.580 --> 01:14:14.550
|
||
in truth these things are interlinked. As
|
||
I said, as Humdog expressed for us, these
|
||
|
||
01:14:14.550 --> 01:14:18.900
|
||
problems have been with us far longer than
|
||
even the titans of the modern internet in
|
||
|
||
01:14:18.900 --> 01:14:22.989
|
||
Google and Facebook.
|
||
We saw the flood wash over the dreams of the
|
||
|
||
01:14:22.989 --> 01:14:27.970
|
||
early tech utopians, and we could not build
|
||
upon that land, for laying foundation deep
|
||
|
||
01:14:27.970 --> 01:14:33.949
|
||
into mud, jagged with rubble, required power
|
||
we could not have, could not organize. It
|
||
|
||
01:14:33.949 --> 01:14:38.480
|
||
is not the fault or failing of anyone on the
|
||
internet today that it is how it is. Companies
|
||
|
||
01:14:38.480 --> 01:14:44.640
|
||
laid new foundations, and we moved onto the
|
||
land they owned. The Commons was never an
|
||
|
||
01:14:44.640 --> 01:14:53.390
|
||
option, the root issue, bigger than the whole
|
||
of the internet.
|
||
|
||
01:14:55.489 --> 01:14:59.970
|
||
Originally I intended to just cut this video
|
||
off. Full stop. I wanted to end on a note
|
||
|
||
01:14:59.970 --> 01:15:05.120
|
||
of dramatic impact but I don’t think it
|
||
matters that much. People click off when they
|
||
|
||
01:15:05.120 --> 01:15:09.870
|
||
do and being overly wrought in drama in the
|
||
last ten seconds isn’t what makes a video
|
||
|
||
01:15:09.870 --> 01:15:14.409
|
||
“do well”
|
||
I’m very very brainpoisoned right now about
|
||
|
||
01:15:14.409 --> 01:15:20.580
|
||
algorithms and success and caught in that
|
||
mixed web of like, wanting things to do well,
|
||
|
||
01:15:20.580 --> 01:15:25.100
|
||
naturally, and worrying I’m losing sight
|
||
of the distinction between reaching people
|
||
|
||
01:15:25.100 --> 01:15:29.230
|
||
and reaching numbers.
|
||
As I said at the start, this video has (or
|
||
|
||
01:15:29.230 --> 01:15:33.810
|
||
will have, depending on schedule) a companion
|
||
video that’s fully anecdotal and just exploring
|
||
|
||
01:15:33.810 --> 01:15:39.450
|
||
the last year. It’ll probably also be melodramatic
|
||
or sappy.
|
||
|
||
01:15:39.450 --> 01:15:43.910
|
||
Speaking of sappy.
|
||
Thanks, like, real, sincere thanks to everyone
|
||
|
||
01:15:43.910 --> 01:15:49.380
|
||
who contributes to the production of these
|
||
things, be it voice talent, with Little Hoot
|
||
|
||
01:15:49.380 --> 01:15:54.690
|
||
and Armchair Egyptology, script reads,..letting
|
||
me use the lizard breakdown, or patrons.
|
||
|
||
01:15:54.690 --> 01:16:00.449
|
||
..That’s not to say or imply prior thanks
|
||
were insincere, but I guess making this has
|
||
|
||
01:16:00.449 --> 01:16:06.360
|
||
made me hyper-aware of support.
|
||
Voiced Credits thanks this time go to:
|
||
|
||
01:16:06.360 --> 01:16:10.199
|
||
Chandler Mason*
|
||
Étienne Garant*
|
||
|
||
01:16:10.199 --> 01:16:12.120
|
||
Freddy*
|
||
Hausum*
|
||
|
||
01:16:12.120 --> 01:16:14.030
|
||
Nic*
|
||
Nitesurgeon*
|
||
|
||
01:16:14.030 --> 01:16:19.060
|
||
There’s a few new names here, and sorry
|
||
if you came for map game and got smacked with
|
||
|
||
01:16:19.060 --> 01:16:23.960
|
||
this. There will be map game again soon, after
|
||
the video in early January where I’m remaking
|
||
|
||
01:16:23.960 --> 01:16:29.929
|
||
my first one. That one doesn’t really have
|
||
a negotiable schedule spot if it’s an anniversary.
|
||
|
||
01:16:29.929 --> 01:16:33.370
|
||
But there I go, breaking my rule on promising
|
||
things.
|
||
|
||
01:16:33.370 --> 01:16:35.139
|
||
Uhh, bye.
|
||
|