14- YouTube becomes MoneyTube... Goodbye.

'ATHENE' was a very popular YouTube series about the life of a pro-World of Warcraft player. Over the course of one month, 14 'ATHENE' clips were uploaded to YouTube, many of which made it to YouTube's 'Videos' front page which showcases YouTube's daily most popular videos. But YouTube systematically removed many of its clips for no valid reason...

While the clips often had 'sexy' content, they never violated YouTube's Terms of Service and were never anywhere near as explicit as the clips of some YouTube partners. And yet many of the 'ATHENE' clips got removed (flagged or rejected) by YouTube, not by the YouTube community but by the YouTube staff members themselves*.

Flagged clips are removed from the 'Videos' front page and all the 'popular' lists ('top rated', 'most viewed',...) and become inaccessible to normal YouTube visitors. This means they don't get any chance of reaching a large audience.

This does not happen to YouTube partners, who are normal YouTube users admitted into YouTube's partner program. What nobody seems to notice is that these partners are allowed to use more explicit content and are immune to becoming flagged because YouTube makes a lot more money out of their views (through shared revenue from advertisements).

Partners are even allowed to break YouTube's Terms of Service by using fake thumbnails (i.e. a picture of a sexy model that has nothing to do with the clip), while non-partner clips with sexy-but-acceptable (non-fake) thumbnails often get flagged asap when they gain popularity.

Partners are allowed to upload sex scenes and other borderline explicit content, while ATHENE clips get removed for having cleavage. And of course we are not the only ones who are being discriminated like this, many others have complained about being treated the same way.

YouTube is killing creative content for commercial reasons, but YouTube is also the only way to reach the internet masses through video, as it is by far the most popular video site online. I (Athene) have stopped making the clips to clearly show that I do not support the way YouTube discriminates its users. Maybe I will return if Google starts applying their "Don't be evil" mantra to YouTube and make all users equal, just as it should be according to their net neutrality-statements.

YouTube can be contacted at the following e-mail address: editor@youtube.com


*YouTube states: "Each flagged video is promptly reviewed by YouTube administrators (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) who immediately remove any content that violates the Terms of Use."

This means that the YouTube community can choose to flag videos but every flagged video is first reviewed by YouTube's staff who then decide whether it gets flagged or not. Because of YouTube's popularity, all popular videos get flagged at least once. So it is ultimately YouTube themselves who decide which popular videos get removed and which stay.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• youtube
• money
• athenewins
• rant
• commentary

[flymolo20z]

is that TITanic?......

[ChillWithM4tt]

Thats Straight Up Man...

[vannellen1994]

wtf

[anonymouslydead]

So, tttt is to make every1 good at YouTube shit... So then it won't be moneytube anymore? Clever.

[qfdsxf]

one sec you seemed gay next sec you seemed bi

[dwatkins13]

You're a pro or you're a noob that's life

[HunToad]

HAHA OWNED

[YuutaNGRP]

02:05

[TheSaMuRiDuCk]

Boobs

[nonennify]

Sounds like the Youtube staffers are more pro than you. Pwned.

[ZodiakAsHell]

You quited WoW and you entered Physics ? Jesus christ...