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Making a Better YouTube

2018-01-05 · letter vlog · Hank · 4:00 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

Asked why he doesn't start a YouTube competitor, Hank frames the choice as revolt or reform and gives six reasons he won't leave YouTube (it works, his problems aren't his viewers', the algorithm, discovery, any big platform would have the same problems, attachment), arguing that you improve a place you love by working for it rather than fleeing; he plugs a creator-focused VidCon Europe.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Viewers urge a YouTube competitor; revolt or reform, and why revolutions go badly

  • ★★ Whenever people get frustrated with YouTube, Hank gets many messages asking why he doesn't start a competitor to it. — 00:00:00 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says this comes down to a central question for any situation you're upset with, whether government, relationship or online platform: do you revolt or reform? (hedged) — 00:00:08
  • ★★ Hank says revolting against a government means taking it down, which usually goes badly: those in power won't give it up, people kill each other, and often the worst people win. (hedged) — 00:00:29

00:00:50 — Reasons one to five for staying on YouTube: quality, his viewers, the algorithm, discovery, problems shared by any big platform

  • ★★ Reason one: YouTube is actually quite good; the player works almost every time and moves seamlessly between phone, computer and TV, and creators get a gigantic audience and big ad sales. — 00:00:53 · YouTube
  • ★ Hank says YouTube creators benefit from the ad sales team of the second largest corporation in the world. — 00:01:02 · YouTube
  • ★★ Reason two: Hank's problems with YouTube are his, not his audience's; his viewers are his faves too and he wants to give them the experience they are comfortable with and have had for eleven years. — 00:01:06 · YouTube
  • ★★ Reason three: YouTube is really good at getting people to watch videos; that is what its somewhat insidious algorithm is designed to do. — 00:01:28 · YouTube, recommender system
  • ★★ Hank has philosophical problems with a company training neural networks to hack the brain into watching more, but every social platform does it and those that don't will lose out over the next ten years. — 00:01:34 · attention economy
  • ★★ Reason four: Hank wants new people to find his content, so it has to be where new people will find it, and YouTube shows his videos to new people. — 00:01:48 · YouTube
  • ★★★ Reason five: YouTube's problems are those any sufficiently big social video platform would have: getting advertisers in, monetizing for creators, and too much open uploading to review it all. — 00:02:01 · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says any new platform that got big enough to matter would have exactly the same problems YouTube has now. — 00:02:16 · YouTube
  • ★ Hank says he doesn't actually know how to solve those problems. (unsure) — 00:02:22

00:02:26 — Reason six, sentiment; criticism imagines solutions that only work for us; work to improve a place you love

  • ★★ Reason six: Hank is sentimentally attached; just as he won't leave his country when things go bad, he won't abandon YouTube to become worse without him. — 00:02:26 · YouTube, United States
  • ★★★ Hank says that when we criticize, we only have to imagine a solution that works for us, not one that works. — 00:02:37
  • ★★ Hank says communities, offline or online, are more complicated: they have many stakeholders with different needs and wants. — 00:02:43
  • ★★★ Hank says he isn't saying give up: when you love a place you should work to make it better, and imagining you can run away to a problem-free place is a self-indulgent fantasy. — 00:02:58
  • ★★★ Hank cares a lot and is willing to fight for a better YouTube, as are many others he knows; that, not starting from scratch, is how you make it better. (hedged) — 00:03:09 · YouTube
  • ★ Hank notes that the video is also about America. (playful) — 00:03:20 · United States

00:03:21 — Asks for ideas to make YouTube better; VidCon Europe 2018 for creators and industry; sign-off

  • ★★ Hank asks viewers to leave ideas for making YouTube better in the comments. — 00:03:23 · YouTube
  • ★★ VidCon Europe this year (2018) is focused entirely on creators and industry, the place for these conversations. — 00:03:30
  • ★★ VidCon Europe will have no fan-focused community portion this year (2018) because that lost a lot of money last year (2017). — 00:03:36
  • ★★ VidCon Europe runs March 22nd to 24th in Amsterdam, with tickets at VidConEurope.com, a chance for creators of all sizes to meet each other, brands and platforms. — 00:03:40 · Amsterdam

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank says the question for him isn't whether to reform but how. — video description
  • ★★ In the description Hank says much of YouTube's problem is arguably a cultural problem rather than YouTube's, and points to a Verge article he only partly agrees with. (hedged) — video description · YouTube
  • ★★★ Hank says there is no way, at least right now, to create a YouTube alternative that would work for creators: many people have tried and some are trying now, but he doesn't think it's possible. (hedged) — video description · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank says making YouTube and its community the best they can be is hard and long and may feel foolish, since it is a corporation, not a democracy, but it is where we are. — video description · YouTube
  • ★★ Hank thinks there is space to make YouTube better, but only if good ideas get pushed and implemented. (hedged) — video description · YouTube

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: YouTube

Also: Amsterdam · attention economy · recommender system · revolution · United States · VidCon Europe

Only in the description or credits: The Verge

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