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What the Most-Viewed Vlogbrothers Videos Say about YouTube (and about us)

2021-05-04 · letter vlog · John · 3:58 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Internet & YouTube (also: Books & writing) · mode: Personal essay · tags: self promotion

Reading Alexandre Daly's analytics of Vlogbrothers views since 2007, John argues that their least viewed videos (VidCon's introduction, Project for Awesome videos) are usually their most important, so they should worry less about views than about the health of the community; he then announces The Anthropocene Reviewed virtual tour and the coming first-chapter reading.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Part one: what the most and least viewed Vlogbrothers videos say about YouTube and about the community

  • ★★ The Anthropocene Reviewed book comes out two weeks from tomorrow, and John says he is a vast collection of exposed nerve endings. (playful) — 00:00:00 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)
  • ★★ Alexandre Daly recently published an analysis of Vlogbrothers views by year and of the most and least viewed video of every year since 2007. — 00:00:00 · Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Views surged in 2013 and especially 2014 as the success of The Fault in Our Stars drew Nerdfighteria toward broader pop culture, and many people went back to watch the 2007-2012 videos. — 00:00:00 · The Fault in Our Stars, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ After an algorithm update in late 2017, Vlogbrothers videos stopped appearing on the trending page. — 00:00:29 · recommender system
  • ★★★ John feared leaving trending would destroy the community, but it grew stronger: the comments became far more pleasant and Nerdfighter groups such as Tuataria and other Discord communities emerged. — 00:00:29 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John is conditioned to see more views as good, but their least viewed videos tend to be much more important than their most viewed ones. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ It wasn't always so: in 2007 the most viewed video, Accio Deathly Hallows, was also the most important, bringing thousands of new people into Nerdfighteria, many experienced in building online communities. — 00:00:58 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★ John says the brothers didn't really invent Nerdfighteria, those newcomers did, and without Accio Deathly Hallows Vlogbrothers would not still exist. — 00:01:27 · Nerdfighteria, Vlogbrothers
  • ★★ Their most viewed video of 2010 was Top 10 Animal Power Moves, which John doubts changed the world much. — 00:01:27
  • ★★ Their least viewed video of 2010 introduced VidCon, which became important to them and to the culture and business of online video. — 00:01:56 · VidCon
  • ★★★ Since 2010, 9 of their 11 least viewed videos have been about the Project for Awesome, which raised over $12 million for charity in that time. — 00:01:56 · Project for Awesome
  • ★★★ John argues that most years their single most unpopular video is also their single most important one. — 00:01:56
  • ★★★ Impact is almost impossible to quantify; after 15 years of analytics John concludes they shouldn't worry much about views but always about the community's health and productivity. — 00:01:56 · Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ More views that lead to toxic comment sections are bad for community; shared projects, even if not broadly popular, are good for it. — 00:02:26

00:02:55 — Part two: The Anthropocene Reviewed virtual book tour

  • ★★ Unless they want a video to reach a broad audience, they don't use custom thumbnails or optimize metadata on Vlogbrothers; they do on Crash Course, whose priority is reaching the most learners. — 00:02:55 · Crash Course
  • ★★ John really loves the Vlogbrothers community right now, and that is the metric that matters most to him. — 00:02:55 · Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighteria
  • ★★★ John announces a virtual tour for The Anthropocene Reviewed's release, supporting local independent bookstores, with a special guest each night and a new review written together nightly; tickets linked below. — 00:02:55 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)

00:03:24 — Part three: the first-chapter reading tradition continues with an animated video; vision-board sign-off

  • ★★ Since 2008, whenever either brother has a book out, the author reads its first chapter in a Vlogbrothers video; this continues soon with an animated video of The Anthropocene Reviewed's opening. — 00:03:24 · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book), Vlogbrothers
  • ★ John thanks Hank for making Accio Deathly Hallows all those years ago. — 00:03:53 · Hank Green

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Projects: Crash Course · Project for Awesome · VidCon

Works: Accio Deathly Hallows · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book) · The Fault in Our Stars

Organizations: Discord · YouTube

Groups: Tuataria

Concepts: Anthropocene · independent bookstore · recommender system · vision board

Products: YouTube comments

Only in the description or credits: Alexandre Daly

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