RE: The Bright Side of YouTube's Demonetization Spree
Respectfully, I think you're way off on this, and if you spend any amount of time trying to build a brand on YouTube you'll quickly understand. While it is their site, they also make you believe through their Terms of Services that everyone has a fair shake. The reality is that if for any reason they disagree with your content or your message, things start "happening" to your channel, and all your hard work can disappear overnight. And I guarantee you it's super hard work. Except for a few select "YouTube Partners" (such as "VEVO", where literally anything goes), for everyone else, it's clawing your way up every step of the way.
What YouTube really has (like facebook, twitter, ebay, etc) is access to huge distribution (otherwise why even complain? Just switch to a site like vidme.com and you're right back where you left off!) But it's still up to you to work your ass off to access that distribution (just like on steemit) and build your audience with quality content. And for whatever reason, it's not that easy to get followers on one platform to move over and follow you on another platform (ie. how many of your steemit followers are also with you on twitter or facebook?)
And even if you managed to build your channel up to bringing in thousands of dollars of revenue a month as we did (of which YouTube gets almost half that you know about), they won't hesitate to wreck one of their "partners" in a heartbeat if they disagree with their politics or whatever other social "agenda-du-jour" they're pursuing. But, like I said, until you've lived it...
PJW: YouTube Censorship: The Ugly Truth:
You might have also noticed that we came to this conclusion back in 2011!
I'm very much up to speed on the situation and one doesn't have to do a thing themselves in order to comprehend it (no need to shoot yourself to know that it would hurt and damage you because there are plenty of other case studies out there to learn from, right?).
Yes, YouTube offers fantastic distribution and they host our content for free. Those are very good reasons to use it... but it doesn't entitle us to anything. They don't owe us anything at all and we have no right to make demands of them. This sort of entitlement mentality is very similar to a lot of the people on Steemit that joined early, made thousands of dollars per post, and then started complaining when the price tanked. I'm telling YouTubers exactly what I tell Steemians - go away, shop around for better alternatives, and when you come back, quit complaining about how you aren't getting enough free stuff. Relying on YouTube to automate your client acquisition process is just lazy and it makes you vulnerable to changes in the system. I'm advocating for people to take responsibility for their own business, establish their own business relationships, and quit expecting someone else to do the work for them.