YouTube stars heading for burnout • Hacker News Board

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#41

Post by TimothyBJacobs » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:11 AM UTC

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #26

wgerard wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ano…

> There's not a clear career path to anything else If you’re making $6 million / year, you have the resources with which to take time off and reconsider your choices.

It's a shame that that is the quote they decided to use in the article. But you can ask any Twitch streamer, if you take a vacation expect to lose large amounts of your subscribers.

On YouTube, if you stop posting videos for a while, YouTube will severely punish you in the algorithm. It'll take weeks before your videos start showing back up in user's subscription boxes.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#42

Post by AgentME » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:14 AM UTC

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…

This makes me think of how moot (creator of 4chan) was against receiving donations from 4chan users, presumably because of this type of issue. He later started selling "4chan passes" which added certain specific features to the site. I think that was a very clever way to go about it: the people who bought them couldn't demand moot's attention. They got a very specific thing out of their money and everyone knew that.

Considering these cases, I think it makes sense to make sure that whenever one accepts donations, they make it very explicit what the donator can rightfully expect. That could be as little as a token set of extra features, a badge on their user profile, or just warm fuzzy feelings without extra attention.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#43

Post by creato » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:18 AM UTC

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'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.

For lowest common denominator kind of content, I absolutely agree.

However, as soon as you step even a little bit off the beaten path, comments become a lot more reasonable and often interesting/useful. On all the videos on all of the channels I actually subscribe to, the comments are not bad. There are random assholes here and there, but they seem to be mostly shunned by the rest.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#44

Post by pandapower2 » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:22 AM UTC

menacingly wrote: post #37

This is an interesting story, definitely worth a click, but isn't it sort of also just the fundamental issues humans face in all pursuits that are based on interest? I feel like you'd get the same spirit of complaint from a disenchanted musician, actor, chef, or even entrepreneur. "It's a lot harder than I thought. The market's tastes are fickle, I've got to make stuff to please them instead of things that creatively…

The story of these youtubers certainly has strong echoes of other show business type careers.

>creators feel disposable ... in the knowledge that there are younger, fresher people waiting in the wings to replace them.

That sounds a lot like actors in particular. Today's hot new star is tomorrow's has been.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#45

Post by noobermin » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:23 AM UTC

ryandrake wrote: post #38

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…

Unless you're relying on your YouTube channel for money, who cares what subscribers want? What's the worst they can do? Unsubscribe. No big deal--you're not trying to make money. I've put up a few YouTube videos, I've got a few GitHub repos, etc. I don't even care how many likes or views or stars they get. I almost never even go back to the pages. When I publish something on the web I do it because I already finished…

Which is the right attitude if you're not trying to make a living off of youtube. For those who are, they have to care about what the subscribers want.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#46

Post by noobermin » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:25 AM UTC

wybiral wrote: post #19

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, sp…

If you think this is problematic, say, providing for teenagers to click like buttons rather than confronting global warming or extreme wealth inequality, the question then is why do things have to be this way?

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#47

Post by api » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:27 AM UTC

epx wrote: post #36

I have an YouTube channel, mostly for personal stuff. I did some effort to record some videos about several subjects, none had more than a hundred viewers. Then, in a sudden, a very shaky and short video with a Mallet steam locomotive punctured the Algorithm Wall and had thousands of views per day... I was even making $20/mo off YouTube until the early 2018 changes took place. And the fact is, divisive content is kin…

How many of the Nazis and other super divisive youtubers do you think are faking it or hamming it up for clicks? I do sometimes wonder "do these people actually believe this crap?" Same goes for totally outlandish conspiracy theories.

Controversy has always sold, but never before has the feedback loop been so tight.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#48

Post by xbmcuser » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:29 AM UTC

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…

They did try to fix it by linking your actual name with your comments by using Google plus but that had a huge backlash so was reversed.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#49

Post by fragsworth » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:33 AM UTC

api wrote: post #47

epx wrote: post #36

I have an YouTube channel, mostly for personal stuff. I did some effort to record some videos about several subjects, none had more than a hundred viewers. Then, in a sudden, a very shaky and short video with a Mallet steam locomotive punctured the Algorithm Wall and had thousands of views per day... I was even making $20/mo off YouTube until the early 2018 changes took place. And the fact is, divisive content is kin…

How many of the Nazis and other super divisive youtubers do you think are faking it or hamming it up for clicks? I do sometimes wonder "do these people actually believe this crap?" Same goes for totally outlandish conspiracy theories. Controversy has always sold, but never before has the feedback loop been so tight.

Not believing what you speak is a huge enthusiasm killer, and enthusiasm is most of what makes a good video. I'd guess almost all of the people with growing channels believe what they speak, and anyone on the fence might even subconsciously start believe what their audience wants.

Re: YouTube stars heading for burnout

#50

Post by mancerayder » Mon, Sep 10, 2018, 1:35 AM UTC

The anxieties are tied up with the relentless nature of their work. Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, makes an estimated $500,000 (£384,000) every month via live broadcasts of him playing the video game Fortnite on Twitch, a service for livestreaming video games that is owned by Amazon. Most of Blevins’ revenue comes from Twitch subscribers or viewers who provide one-off donations (often in the hope that he will thank them by name “on air”). Blevins recently took to Twitter to complain that he didn’t feel he could stop streaming. “Wanna know the struggles of streaming over other jobs?” he wrote, perhaps ill-advisedly for someone with such a stratospheric income. “I left for less than 48 hours and lost 40,000 subscribers on Twitch. I’ll be back today… grinding again.”

This fits into the stereotype of Millennials as entitled. He makes 500k a month, but can't get off the hamster wheel? Poor soul.