So basically the 8-Bit Guy is worried about being able to live an "upper middle class" life, opening an arcade with around 90 cabinets he bought, putting his name on a new retro style system that was mostly community driven in the end, releasing his own games to a massively broad audience unheard of elsewhere in the retro community and sometimes only getting 200000 views on a YouTube video in the first couple of days. I’m usually not the person to rant about things like that but: Sorry, LOL. 💸
@janbeta he raised a fairly polarising flag with the open-carry lunch order nonsense, now he’s surprised that was enough for a lot of people to look elsewhere?
@janbeta Agreed there. Ofcourse it's all about context as well, his standard of living is likely higher and if you have a lot of expenses as well, it might not be enough. But that's where he needs a reality check indeed. :) I appreciate him, but don't watch him a lot anymore due to other channels (like yours) just being better imho.
@supernov What strikes me as weird and kind of detached from reality is the fact that he literally has a million subscribers and could basically do anything he wants and still make money from that kind of reach alone (eg advertising his stuff as he does). People are buying lots of his games, sponsors would pay huge amounts as well. He’s in a very privileged position and doesn’t seem to realize or appreciate it very much. Seems really odd to me, but of course it’s always a matter of perspective.
@janbeta Yes it's odd, but to have a complete picture I would really need all of his financial info I guess. But again, not interested anymore. Which reminds me to become a Patreon of yours. ;)
@janbeta He claims he isn't "rich" but then labels himself "upper middle class" and seems to have enough spare cash for these side projects after not making as much money as he did last year.
Something in that doesn't add up really, does it?
Hearing him almost blame smaller channels for stealing his views because he was one of the original retro channels was pretty funny.
@james It indeed feels like he doesn’t realize the extremely privileged position he is in. Blaming the other channels made me chuckle a bit, mostly because he also says he didn’t release half as many videos as usual and wonders about the declining revenue.
@janbeta Yeah, I certainly have thoughts on this one... You don't know me, so apologies if this is coming in hot :)
First, I think he should be taken at face value when he says plainly "I'm not complaining, just stating facts" (paraphrased). I suspect he deals with a lot of mis-read verbal social cues... Once I viewed the video through the lens of "here are the numbers, why the numbers are down, and how I'm adapting" it made more sense. I believe he was trying to be open about a content shift
@janbeta Second, people very quickly acclimatize to their level of income / wealth / success and (on the whole) tend to want more. That's not everyone, of course, but it is a common theme.
So while it's absolutely WILD to hear multi-hundreds-of-thousands-views as disappointing... things are all relative. Not just to others on the platform, but also to your past performance, and it's a moving target :)
@janbeta His reasons for lower numbers though... I believe that's what he THINKS, but it's where it goes off the rails a bit.
As you said, the main reason is: he cut the number of videos DRAMATICALLY. That's a smaller potential view count in finite terms, but it's ALSO well known that the YT system favours frequent posters.
Pointing to smaller creators is a false zero-sum way of looking at things. Building interest around a video genre helps to draw people in and grow the overall audience
@janbeta Like, that zero-sum way of thinking works at the platform scale to some extent (Disney v. Netflix v. YouTube)... but at the individual program or channel level, it falls apart.
If you like murder mysteries, you probably watch more than one crime show, right? You probably want to watch many different shows within the genre, all with a different take or twist on the idea. And the different twists might open of the genre to different audiences
@janbeta He ignored the CPM metric as well. He's comparing peak pandemic viewership at a time when advertisers were still shifting spending from TV to streaming... to a time now when ad spending is in decline and people are watching less.
He did mention the pandemic thing, but I really think THAT and the lower video output are his actual problems. Easy for me to "backseat drive" though :)
@janbeta I don't want my posts to seem like I'm defending him. I commented on the video and wished him well on the arcade & docs, but also didn't know about some of the shady stuff I'm seeing in this thread.
I guess my thesis here is: people are flawed, and the world is complicated. Hahaha Thanks for entertaining my rant :)
@iiidiy Hey, no worries! You brought some new perspectives in, and I’m always interested in that. I generally like his work on YT and he actually is a pleasant person to talk to (I did so online on a few occasions). There’s some pretty crucial political things I strongly disagree about with him but that doesn’t really affect his retro videos fortunately. I just found the latest video a bit odd in light of the position he is in. All a matter of perspective, of course.
Thanks for your input! :)
@iiidiy Yup, that’s correct in my experience (on a much lower level, of course). If you publish less videos, the YT algorithm punishes you kind of. Which makes sense in a way, because they want their "creators" to generate as many clicks as possible and generate ad revenue for them.
@janbeta On an even lower-lower-level, I only started making videos this past March. I took the summer off to focus on work and some pressing commitments. It completely killed any small momentum I had built.
For me, it's a fun hobby, so there are no stakes. I'm sure it's completely different when your mortgage depends on AdSense and Patreon though.
@iiidiy That‘s what YouTube does unfortunately. I had a couple of periods when I couldn’t release videos in the last couple of years and it always took ages to "recover" regarding clicks and revenue. YouTube is my main source of income since I lost my job in 2019, so it is genuinely worrying to make less at times, of course. Doing it as a hobby and making videos you love making is definitely much healthier than trying to please the algorithm. 😊 I feel like I found a good middle ground currently.
@janbeta OK, so we're a bit deep in the weeds here, but I wanted to take the opportunity to say: THANK YOU!
I didn't know that about you, so I'm glad that you've found a balance!
For what it's worth, I came super late to this YT party, so I found David, Adrian Black, and you all around the same time. You played a critical role in teaching me how to do things, and giving me the confidence to try fixing computers that I honestly thought were trash previously.
@janbeta I love your grounded, chill presentation style, and enjoy following your interests from computers into video games and vintage audio too (which I happen to share.
So, I wanted to extend a heartfelt thank-you for everything that you do. Knowing that the rollercoaster ride affects your main income makes me a little more worried for you :) But I super appreciate you sharing your interest and knowledge with us.
Just wanted to gush a little while I had your attention :) Thanks!
@iiidiy Hey, thank you! That genuinely means a lot. It always makes me happy to hear that people start tinkering (partially) because of my videos. I’m learning new things all the time myself (as is hopefully obvious from the videos) and it’s really fun to share the experiences I gain. :)
Losing my job was bad and it’s probably not the wisest idea to rely on YT but it also feels like a chance to do something I love for a living and I managed to make ends meet for the last couple of years. :)
@iiidiy Yeah, all fair points! It just seems like he doesn’t realize his extremely privileged position. With an audience that huge, he could do almost anything and still make a very comfortable living. It’s all a matter of perspective, obviously. :)
@janbeta I watched his video in its entirety yesterday. Admittedly it took me a couple of sittings to get through it because it was drier than Arizona, but I got through it and without reading any of the comments around it I decided to unsubscribe from his channel. There wasn't one thing I could put my finger on, it was just the vibe that motivated me.
@janbeta Hm, I understood the video less as a rant but as an explanation on how he is shifting around his time due to the fact that different revenue streams pay off differently now. Also I understood that the ad revenue per video was down, not only the overall ad revenue due to less videos published. 1/2
@janbeta Moreover I think US people live differently: They usually have higher savings and more cashflow as the taxes are lower, but also they have to pay for more stuff we here take for granted thanks to bigger public sector (health, housing, utilities, ...). I found the video quite interesting, showing some transparency and how he sees his channel evolve. 2/2
@root42 Fair point. In my experience, ad revenue goes down in general if you release fewer videos, even for the single videos. I guess it’s the algorithm that doesn’t recommend them as much. I just found it kind of odd that he is able to invest lots of money into new businesses while stating that his merch and YouTube revenue is down by so much. I don’t think he meant the video as a rant, I just perceived worries about his (probably comparatively large) revenue streams declining.
@janbeta yes, he is of course one of the highest grossing retro YouTubers just due to his sheer number of subscribers. From my experience US people usually have 5-6 figures of savings once they have a bit of a career going. There are always things like repairs and health incidents that require that much money in the bank. So putting money into businesses is quite possible.
@janbeta socialblade lists his monthly revenue at 233€-3.7k€. From my experience the true value lies somewhere in the middle. So I would guess 1.5k€ ad revenue before taxes.
@root42 I make around 200€-300€ in YouTube ad revenue a month currently, with a fraction of the views he gets, probably a tenth or likely less (taken into account that I release videos a lot more frequently than he does at the moment). I guess he makes similar money per click because it’s the same topics mostly, so he’s very likely at the higher end of the socialblade estimate.
@janbeta wow. Didn‘t think that your revenue is that „high“! Good for you! I guess your viewers don’t skip ads that often. My revenue is 20-25€ so the midpoint rule holds.
@janbeta@root42 YouTube's virtual monopoly on video distribution needs to end. Or people just need to accept that quality content costs money to produce and chip into more Patreons.
@janbeta How is he that out of touch with reality still? I stopped watching him after the paperclip drama came out years ago, and the gun stuff also surfaced. It's a shame, because he made some good videos before then.
@lazerdude Maybe it’s been going too well for him for too long. I don’t really know. I still watch his documentary style videos quite a lot, even if I am really angry about the guns and am strongly opposed to his political views.
@davetansley Yeah, I guess he lost quite a few supporters because of the guns. Rightly so. That infamous paperclip episode didn’t help build trust, too, I guess. 😅
@_holger Yeah, I don’t appreciate that whole part of the story AT ALL. But apart from politics, he’s probably got not much to worry about in the foreseeable future.
(This is not to say I don’t appreciate his YouTube work and even his games. It just seems to be a bit detached from reality to "complain" on that level.)
@janbeta this person does not have a great reputation based on certain actions and views he has expressed in his videos from time to time.
I’m not aware of anything especially egregious that he has done or said, but he has certainly caused some controversy and he’s not someone I would like to meet or have dinener with.
Possibly you’re talking about a symptom of his character that relates to what others are already unhappy with.
@deepthaw@janbeta I agree. He has never been any of the particularly bad “…phobic” things that would immediately flag him as a complete jerk, but also if someone showed me a video of him doing something like that it wouldn’t come as a surprise.
@digitalstefan@deepthaw Oh, there’s quite a few gun related videos floating around starring David which are pretty malicious in my opinion. (He’s a proponent of the open carry laws in Texas and the videos show him wearing an assault rifle on his back in a grocery store and such things, not very pleasant to watch). :/
@janbeta I think that once you get to a certain level of success, anything outside of stellar performance feels like failure... and YT is specifically designed to always make creators feel bad... because if you're satisfied, then you don't produce as much (seemingly).
@janbeta Everytime I post a video I get a backhanded compliment from YouTube about how it's doing compared to other things I've done. It's the "You look great! Fat, but great!" treatment.
@RonsCompVids Yeah, kind of terrible. 😅 I try to avoid looking at the YouTube stats usually because of that behavior. It usually ends up making me feel depressed whenever I do, because my current video is not getting as many clicks as my best videos!!!11!! But then again, they just want you to produce clicks for ad revenue so it’s probably fair business on their end. 🙃
@RonsCompVids I try doing that as well. It’s hard at times to not look at the revenue (because it’s my main source of income by far currently). But making videos about things that genuinely interest you definitely is the way to go in the longer term. You end up being excited about what you do and I think that comes across in the videos and people can relate better and maybe even share the enthusiasm. I recently did a couple of hifi videos because I felt like it. Less clicks but happier Jan. :)
@datort@philpem I usually get around 10000 for a reasonably good video. And that already feels like a huge privilege to me. I mean… I sometimes imagine a small stadium of people watching. That’s a whole lot if you picture it in real life. Still amazes me. 😅
@janbeta@datort@philpem When I see the effect of not being subject to business algorithms on :mastodon: vs :deadbirb: it makes me think how important it is for people to switch away from YouTube.
Peertube is is still in its infancy but at least there are competition won’t decide to promote or muffle you based on their interests.
@janbeta@philpem I'm happy with 100 to 150 views within a week in recent time. And that's a success for me. In the end it makes you thinking: is it me because so few people are watching, is the topics or just the algorithm. I guess I have to find out by keeping on, as long as it's still fun...
@datort@philpem It’s mostly the algorithm I think. There’s so many great channels that barely get any views out there. But they are difficult to find because YouTube usually hides them very well until they gain a bit more traction (which in turn is difficult when they are not visible). It definitely took me a lot of patience plus equal amounts of work and sheer lucky coincidence to get to the point I am at currently.
@datort@philpem Yeah, I guess YouTube is not the best business plan in general (at least if you want to make genuine content that interests you and not just reaction videos or clickbait). Slow and steady sometimes wins the race, too, I hope. 😊
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