Ants Canada (Mikey Bustos) is the largest "Ant YouTuber" and now and then someone finds out I like ants and says "oh you should watch Ants Canada." (which is kind of like suggesting that serious foodie "check out Iron Chef") -- If you go into the "online ant-keeping community" you'll find a surprising amount of antipathy for Bustos, is it jealousy? Serious professional disagreements? It always seemed odd to me but I think I know why this is happening. It's three main factors: 1/
Ants Canada is a youTube channel first and about antkeeping second. This is true of anyone who finds huge success on the platform, from ads, to giveaways, to a breathless "you won't believe what happened next" narration style these aren't really videos made "for people who like ants" they are videos for everyone. Which isn't a terrible thing.
Bustos almost never mentions others doing similar work. Not Ants Australia, not any of the others making quality high effort videos. 2/
cont. I don't know if acting like he is the only one making such content is about hoarding an audience, or if it's just harder to do than it seems. But, I think there are sour grapes over a lack of a rising tide lifting all boats. There is an "Ant Canada Community" but it's very insular.
A few people really are upset about the fire ants, and I can respect that. It's not great to promote them as pets, but I never bought that this was the whole reason.
In the end it's better that he's out there than not IMO. He's found a way to make a living doing something he loves and introduced many more people to ants. Maybe, if some of the people in popular ant forums and discords reached out about the 2nd issue there could be some growth?
But even if not I can't complain if ants are popular, even if there are vine booms and click bait involved.
@futurebird last year I joined an Ant-themed German Discord server and over there they have the same overall opinion. Most pointed out that his target audience is clearly kids (that’s why everything is so exaggerated or dramatic and he always asks for help at the end), so it helps bring young people to the hobby.
For me, his videos got old/boring super fast, it’s kinda the same pattern over and over again, so what they said makes sense now.
@futurebird I love, love, love Mastodon. Only here could I have found out that there’s an online ant community and that they’re having issues and also that there are people that would keep red ants as pets.
Mastodon is endlessly fascinating because of people like you :Clap: #ants
I initially started this post with "Controversy has rocked the online ant-keeping community..." because to me that's an amusing sentence, but I decided that was over-dramatic.
That said "the online ant-keeping community" is very real and mostly pretty cool.
When you look at the content of the best performing youTube channels it doesn't really say good things about how youTube is using their algorithms to shape the work of creators.
Giveaways, Cliff-hangers, content that basically exploits the poor judgement of children, extreme titles and thumbnails that all look the same. It feels like a fairground midway crossed with a used car lot and a casino.
It's sad content that otherwise has some value gets infected by "the YouTube Style"
If you can help it don’t make YouTube your job and primary source of income. The only way that can work is if you do all the silly degrading things they recommend “smash that like button!” when it comes to engagement those things work.
I think it’s silly that YouTube uses likes to determine if videos will be seen but then asks their employees “creators” to fill videos with calls to press the like button. It seems circular.
@FullQueueDeveloper@apophis Someday someone will make the “perfect” YouTube video. Sponsored content, with ads for other products— every moment that isn’t a thinly veiled advertisement will be a call to like and subscribe— A thumbnail that hints at lewedness, body injury, or something impossible or illegal— Every second will build anticipation for a payoff that never happens. Then maybe we can all go home and turn off the whole internet.
You're mixing two different things here : making it your job and making youtube (rather than your videos) your primary source of income.
It's perfectly fine to have making videos (and diffusing them on youtube for reach, as long as you put a copy on Peertube) be your job or source of income, it's hard but congrats to those who succeed with quality work.
What is crucial is the ability to fund it by revenue sources that do not depend on Youtube itself.
We really need to bring back the regulations on advertising on children's programming AND apply them to online content.
Some of the biggest channels are shameless box openings and product plugs aimed at 5 year olds... and it makes the toy advertisements disguised as TV shows I grew up with seem wholesome by comparison.
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