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YouTube stars heading for burnout

theguardian.com

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Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#11

Post by sidstling »

I respect people who have the ability to entertain thousands of viewers, I really do. At the same time I’m really happy that wasn’t even an option when I was young. I’m sure I would have spent even more time playing video games if esports, twitch and YouTube had been a thing in the 90ies.

I know, I know, not everyone is alike, but at age 35 I’m really happy that my job involves serious adult challenges, and that my success in life isn’t depending on thousands of teenagers pushing a like button.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#12

Post by wybiral »

pmoriarty wrote: post #9
wybiral wrote: post #8

In my experience the frustrating part about YouTube is when the crowd wants content that you're not interested in making. For instance, I've made a few videos about building clusters from Raspberry Pi's, which I did just for kicks and to have something to play around with. They get more attention than my (imo more interesting) videos about programming or various other electronics topics, to the point that it dwarfs m…

"I also learned very quickly that the YouTube comments section is chaotic and is not a recommended place for someone looking for thoughtful critique on their material." YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. You'd think the site as a whole could benefit tremendously from quality comments, but apparen…

The problem is that 1 in 1000 of them are actually thoughtful questions or genuinely grateful feedback that you don't want to miss. You just have to dig through 999 comments saying "you suck" or "send me something for free".

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#13

Post by tehwebguy »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #10
pmoriarty wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I also learned very quickly that the YouTube comments section is chaotic and is not a recommended place for someone looking for thoughtful critique on their material." YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. You'd think the site as a whole could benefit tremendously from quality comments, but apparen…

The article wonders if YouTube has a deliberate trollbait policy for its comments because it "improves engagement." So it's possible that civil comments are not just not a priority, but actively contraindicated.

The answer is yes. Dislikes allegedly count 100% as much for the engagement algo as likes.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#15

Post by wgerard »

anonymous5133 wrote: post #7

If they feel burnout then they should just stop making videos for awhile or move on to doing something else.

> stop making videos for awhile

It has a huge detrimental effect. Each day you take a break can set you back by several. From the article:

>> “I left for less than 48 hours and lost 40,000 subscribers on Twitch. I’ll be back today… grinding again.”

> move on to doing something else

There's not a clear career path to anything else. Many of them have spent their formative adult years streaming, and transitioning to another career would be incredibly difficult and likely pay significantly less.

Sure, there are the mega-streamers who have (hopefully) saved enough money that they could absorb that gigantic setback, or have enough celebrity that they can transition to something else, but I doubt the majority of them have earned enough to support a major life transition - like, say, going back to school full-time.

This is also one of the problems former professional athletes face, and there are actually a lot of interesting parallels between the two groups. "Broke" is a really interesting watch if you haven't seen it already that is quite eye-opening: http://www.espn.com/30for30/film?page=broke

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#17

Post by fl0wenol »

pmoriarty wrote: post #9
wybiral wrote: post #8

In my experience the frustrating part about YouTube is when the crowd wants content that you're not interested in making. For instance, I've made a few videos about building clusters from Raspberry Pi's, which I did just for kicks and to have something to play around with. They get more attention than my (imo more interesting) videos about programming or various other electronics topics, to the point that it dwarfs m…

"I also learned very quickly that the YouTube comments section is chaotic and is not a recommended place for someone looking for thoughtful critique on their material." YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. You'd think the site as a whole could benefit tremendously from quality comments, but apparen…

YouTube comments do not scale for moderation; its such a huge platform that it's likely not profitable to pay people to put a dent in it. Instead they expect the content creators to do it if they care to shape their own image.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#18

Post by pbhjpbhj »

pmoriarty wrote: post #9
wybiral wrote: post #8

In my experience the frustrating part about YouTube is when the crowd wants content that you're not interested in making. For instance, I've made a few videos about building clusters from Raspberry Pi's, which I did just for kicks and to have something to play around with. They get more attention than my (imo more interesting) videos about programming or various other electronics topics, to the point that it dwarfs m…

"I also learned very quickly that the YouTube comments section is chaotic and is not a recommended place for someone looking for thoughtful critique on their material." YouTube's comments are some of the absolute worst I've seen on the web. It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. You'd think the site as a whole could benefit tremendously from quality comments, but apparen…

> It's interesting that YouTube has made no effective efforts to improve their quality. //

You imply it, but it's worth noting that they have made efforts but failed/stopped. Google can't/won't fix it. I suspect as someone else mentioned they realised that fixing comment quality reduces "engagement"; like tabloid news.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#19

Post by wybiral »

sidstling wrote: post #11

I respect people who have the ability to entertain thousands of viewers, I really do. At the same time I’m really happy that wasn’t even an option when I was young. I’m sure I would have spent even more time playing video games if esports, twitch and YouTube had been a thing in the 90ies. I know, I know, not everyone is alike, but at age 35 I’m really happy that my job involves serious adult challenges, and that my s…

> my success in life isn’t depending on thousands of teenagers pushing a like button

In a certain sense, though, most serious adult business still boils down to people seeing an ad, installing an app, buying a product, attracting investors, or teenagers clicking a like button.

Edit: The YouTubers who go on to do it at a more serious capacity will also learn valuable first-hand lessons in dealing with partnerships, sponsors, public relations, release cycles, etc. All of which are useful depending on what it is that you want to do in your career.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#20

Post by progval »

always_good wrote: post #6
Ricardus wrote: post #2

I don't find this surprising. When I started podcasting in 2005, even doing a weekly 'cast with my friend and co-host was a lot of work. We also had day jobs. But the pressure to create content was still there. These full time youtubers must feel in 100x more, particularly if they have Patreon people to keep happy. We derived no income from our show, and in fact it cost us money to produce. In some ways I wish some o…

> they have Patreon people to keep happy Reminds me of when I briefly accepted donations from users of my forum. Suddenly it was like my life was beholden to people that had once given me $5. At least when they'd given me $0, it was pretty straightforward to dismiss their complaints and they'd looked silly when they'd demanded more of my free time. But once they gave >$0, the water got murky. I ended up refunding eve…

I have the same issue. A partial solution is to only accept anonymous donations (eg. on Liberapay). Even better if you have multiple projects and don't know which one is getting you the donations.
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