Youtube
12^th November 2025

Many people, myself included, are unhappy with how Youtube has evolved. Earlier this year (I think) the platform increasingly pushed and encouraged its monetised creators to get on board with Member's Only content, which is essentially a pay-wall, and divides viewers between those who can and can't pay (or can or can't justify paying); kind of like what X did when you pay for an account and then the big people can supposedly turn off interactions with those who don't pay. I don't care for such Member's Only content mainly because I have no interest in giving Youtube any of my money (they treated me unfairly and removed my own channel, so why would I?), but feeling the division between so-called Haves and Have-nots, is somewhat disheartening (something I've noticed throughout life). It would be pleasing to see an option to hide such content so it doesn't feel like a slap in the face each time I scroll through someone's content, but alas, no longer having an account means I probably wouldn't have access to such an option. I use the Unhook browser extension which does well to block various aspects of Youtube, but not (yet?) the Member's Only thumbnails, although I have requested it as a possible feature.

Just this month though I noticed a change in the menu options on Youtube videos; there is a new overlay/style going on. At first I thought this was just an aesthetic change, but then I started to think it was buggy. But no, the bug turned out to be a feature. Quite often I would click on the Settings icon in a video and change the quality (I like to keep my data usage low) (actually, Rumble needs to improve here because on there I have to do this for each video, whereas Youtube remembers my setting), and/or I like to increase the playback speed. This apparent bug was seemly preventing me from sometimes choosing a different playback speed; on some videos it worked, and on others not. I played around with it, trying to determine what worked and what didn't, even trying in a Private Browsing window, but eventually I discovered the 'bug' was intentional; the playback speed is now disabled in some videos/on some channels and is only available here to paid members. Jeez, thanks.

The Spiffing Brit did a video a while back on how the playback speed option can be exploited because, basically, by watching a video faster means you create less view time, and the algorithm likes view time to be high; they want eyes on screens. For me, absorbing content at a faster speed is a more efficient use of my time and so the prevention of me using this option feels like an attack on me, my life, and my time! It's kind of like being forced to sit through advertising (or any content) that provides no benefit to me - if a platform is too abusive in this manner then I will avoid it.

Youtube also likes to serve up as many adverts as possible, but there are ad-blockers for that. So far I can only think that to get around the lack of option to speed up a video on Youtube is to download the video using something like Y2Mate or Parabolic and then watch the video 'offline' in something like VLC media player, where you can increase the speed (actually I prefer Haruna media player on Linux because ] and [ speed up and slow down a video respectively).

Watching content offline also means I avoid adverts, but it also seems to make me more discerning about what I intend to watch. One downside though is finding I've downloaded a video that, once started, I might discover I don't actually want to watch it (kind of like paying for a movie to watch only to sit down and discover it's crap), but downloading stuff is generally good for long-form content from content creators I'm familiar with, and particularly podcast-style stuff where I can just listen to it as audio (VLC media player has this option on my phone).

So, yeah, screw you Youtube; once again you implement something that just f's people around for no gain but maximum annoyance. I can only understand this tactic if a) it's actually an abusive platform, and/or b) viewers like me actually cost the platform money since I'm not actually generating any net revenue while I pilfer content from it.

I think most well-established creators have felt the pinch from declining advertising revenue. They're either whinging about it and threatening their viewers with yet more adverts (1), being upfront about things and trying to be proactive (2), or are quietly aware of it and burying their head in the sand (3):

1) I don't think it's all that beneficial to complain about a particular person/channel behaving in this way (whinging and threatening their viewers with more adverts), since doing so is kind of like promoting them but 'Jeremy from The Quartering' was pretty much the first example I had for this topic and he did just this in his video titled 'Youtube Revenue Collapses, Creators Panic & The Reason Is Clear!' He receives justified flack for this in the comments section of the video, and not for the first time; not so long ago he was basically grovelling and trying to squeeze more money from his paid-up members - he doesn't do a very good job of considering how such tactics are likely to go down - every video he's pushing his coffee and in this video he's actually laughing about it.

2) The second approach (although he had some additional personal reasons for changing things up), was from the popular channel Mustie1 in his video 'Bought an Abandoned Farm/Shop, AS IS'. The title is somewhat deceptive, but the video does cover his reasons for why he bought this property and he asks his viewers what they think about the whole Member's Only thing, but of course there are those fanboys who always say they'll pay whatever it takes, which is fine for those with the means and feel that way inclined, but for everyone else there is the risk of a pay-wall.

3) I've noticed a number of well established channels actually going downhill while most of their loyal fans remain oblivious (should I name any? You can probably take your own objective glance at some of the channels you're subscribed to and see if any release far less content than they used to - would you have become a follower to someone who releases one video a month?). Since I don't have a Youtube account any more I don't have a 'Feed' to rely on to deliver new content, instead I have my own list of channels that is randomised. I then work my way through this list, checking in on each channel in turn to see what, if anything is new. In doing this I often see these channels have not released a new video for a while; sometimes a month or more goes by. Of course these creators don't owe me anything, far from it, so it is a little strange to get annoyed, but I suppose when you've invested some time or thought into these people you can't help but feel like they owe you some honesty? One trend seems to be when a channel becomes so big and they themselves invest in it, such as by quitting their job to do Youtubing full time, or constructing a studio or moving into a bigger property, or purchasing stuff with which to make content out of or create a big project. Then, I think, they become overwhelmed - I can relate to this. Perhaps, or in addition to this, Youtube's ad-revenue dries up and along with this, their original incentive.

One thing that seems common to each of these three points is that the monetisation of channels has become the problem; I would like to think that most of the channels I enjoy watching had humble beginnings, that they were begun purely as hobbies (or as a part of a hobby) with the potential for a bit of an audience with which to engage with. Sure, to develop a bit of money from Youtube would be nice, but this seems to become the be-all and end-all, especially when a Youtuber pretty much invests everything into their channel (quitting their full-time job and building their life around it). I would have liked to have gained an audience from my channel, and for a channel to become monetised would have been great (although they moved the goalposts on that so that irritated me too), but I think I'm thankful I didn't become something on Youtube because I can only shudder to think how any kind of "fame and fortune" screws some people over, especially if you become dependent on it only for the channel to be taken down!

At the end of the day I do consider myself to be a freeloader online, since I have no interest in paying for stuff where avoiding doing so is achievable within a few clicks, but obviously I do benefit/gain enjoyment from having stuff to watch/listen to. I'd like to think that if I had a nice steady flow of disposable income that I could trickle some off to the platforms and creators who provide me with stuff. I can't actually get my head around how the whole advertising system works, especially when what is being pushed is utter garbage (obviously it works on a lot of people in that they feel compelled to pay for stuff they've seen in adverts), but what is the way forward for this system?