Updated: September 13, 2024
Recently, I uploaded a new video to my Youtube channel. When I tried to add a description to the clip, Youtube wouldn't let me proceed to the next step. First, it told me I cannot use angled brackets, which is fine. Then, it told me that if I wanted to use URLs (to my own blog no less), I needed to verify myself. What.
And so I explored this venue a bit more, decided not to play ball with this nonsense, and removed the links from the description. But I also decided to write an article about this pointless experience, about this tiered reward conditioning mechanism. It highlights oh-so many things wrong with the whole modern media industry, and I want to express myself. Here we go.
I am already verified
The sad thing about this whole dangle-the-carrot-in-front-of-hungry-influencer-masses is that I am already a verified human in the Google systems. On so many levels. I've had Adsense and Analytics accounts for almost two decades. These included their own rounds of verifications. I went through a manual verification process for Google Search "claim this panel" thing a few years back. Google has seen a whole bunch of documents associated to my person, including a government-issued ID.
Now, we have Youtube asking for a fresh humiliation ritual, because, why not. Lots of people will want to get famous on Youtube, and so they will jump through the hoops to get their cherished channel powers. I would not have a real issue with the process, except:
- My website URL has been featured in my channel description since day one.
- Pretty much of all my video clips already publicly visible on Youtube have URLs in the description.
Therefore, the insistence on this new "round" of verification is meaningless. The only way my brain can rationalize this is a) to stop the flood of idiots trying to spam the platforms b) to condition people into giving more data to Google c) bad design all over the place, which does not take into account existing mechanisms.
Finally, the cynic in me says: any link leading to an external website is a dangerous opportunity for a person viewing Youtube clips to leave Youtube and go elsewhere. And we don't want that, do we? We want people to be hooked into the platform, and never leave. The modern Web 2.0 experience dystopia.
Complicated, messy, ugly workflow
How you go about doing this whole eligibility humiliation ritual says a lot about the UI design of Youtube, and the over-complexity of the whole thing. You can see its multiple layers of completely unrelated things bolted one on top of another, more and more layers of "ads" and "monetization", which have turned a simple viewing platform into this quintessential corporate catalyst of despair.
To get here, you need to know how to get here. There's Youtube, Youtube Studio, Channel, etc. You need to click on the hamburger menu, then go to Settings, then Channel, then Feature eligibility. There are three levels, and as you can see, I'm "enabled" for the first two, and eligible for the third: Advanced features.
If you expand this third tier, it tells you what you can do. For example, you cannot appeal content ID claims without it. What. I clearly remember this being an option. External links. What. I have external links in all my past videos. Monetization. What. I have had Adsense for ages now, and have had the option to create Youtube ads, cross-link accounts, and more (I never did, but that's not the point). In essence, lots of things that I had and was eligible for in the past have been moved behind a new "wall", so to speak.
Gray fonts, complicated, inconsistent usage flow, pixels from point 2. peeking out. Horrible.
So what we have is typical corporate bullshit. Take existing options and "lock" them being the next tier. Make people hungry. Make them desperate. Typical MBA nonsense. And as I said, I have been verified multiple times by Google, including a valid ID card. My channel has a long history. All of these show a complete lack of imagination.
On top of that, from a purely user perspective, look at the popup window above. Notice that when you expand the third section, and scroll all the way down, bits of text from the second section show in the frame. Not much, maybe a couple of pixels. But that also shows you that whoever designed this "window" hasn't taken into account the basics of aesthetics and ergonomics into account. Pale gray fonts. Failure after failure of thought and beauty. How about some color! Why not use Youtube's own reddish palette! Why not make things fun, exciting and easily readable!
But even if you want to "play" along, look at how this whole thing is framed. For example, Channel history. This is the text you see after you click on the question mark:
Follow our Community Guidelines to build channel history. For most creators, this usually takes up to 2 months. If you used your ID or video verification to access advanced features, we’ll delete it from your Google Account after history is established.
History? I've had channel history longer than your "community" exists! If you read more on what they mean by community guidelines, then there are two sections. The first addresses misuse, and that's totally fine. The second section made me chuckle.
Your channel history data is used to determine whether your content and activity has
consistently followed YouTube’s Community Guidelines.
Your channel history is a record of your:
- Channel activity (like video uploads, live streams, and audience engagement.)
- Personal data related to your Google Account.
-- When and how the account was created.
--
How often it's used.
-- Your method of connecting to Google services.
Most active channels already have sufficient channel history to unlock advanced features without
any further action required. But, we understand that we sometimes make mistakes, which is why we also
offer other verification options for quicker access.
I bolded out the sentence above. Because the cynic in me says: ah, it's not enough that I have ALREADY UPLOADED MY GOVERNMENT-ISSUED ID TO GOOGLE IN THE PAST, my channel "usage" (whatever that means) is part of the equation! At the very least, Youtube is aware that this "method" may disqualify quite a lot of people, but then, we go down the other verification route, which makes things even sadder.
I know it's not about ME
I am 100% aware this is nothing personal. The Google giant couldn't care less about a dinosaur peasant like me. But when you create a platform that is dedicated to making money and ads, of course you're going to get flooded by scammers and idiots and people trying to rig the system. If Youtube had no ads, then there would be no revenue in making videos, and 99% of crap would simply disappear, because why would anyone make content then, unless they're truly passionate about it!
An ad-less Youtube would be a platform for artists and creators, people who REALLY care about artistic expression, about making something fun for the community. But no. Profit, profit, greed, greed. Well, reap what you sow. Enjoy your ad-enabled "community".
And of course, if you look at it from a commercial perspective, I'm not useful to Youtube: I don't post often, I don't comment (ever since the Google Plus stupidity), I don't do any pointless open-mouth expression on my thumbnails, I don't do any cutesy activities that influencers are supposed to do like hashtags or emojis, I don't do ads, I don't do brands or sponsors or partners, I don't engage in low-IQ activities. But I'm supposed to be active, and "maintain" my activity, because if I'm not active, then I'm not profitable enough, hey!
So what do I do now, delete the channel?
The thought has crossed my mind. Earlier in 2023, I removed all ads from Dedoimedo, because Google Adsense decided not to recognize an approved content management platform (from their own list, no less). Instead of adding a second cookie banner, i.e., being an obedient monkey, I removed the ads. Now, I lose some of the revenue, but Google loses way more. A Pyrrhic victory.
Now, I have an option of deleting my channel. It only has 40-odd videos, and I can upload them somewhere else (that on its own is another issue, as the Internet is all crap). The only "problem" with nuking my channel is that some of these clips are quite entertaining, and removing them would rob my viewers what little fun and joy they had consuming them. Since the vast majority of content on the Web is pure filth, removing excellent stuff like mine would make the Web fractionally worse. But then, I don't want to feed more energy into the Youtube machine. This is a pretty hefty dilemma.
The logical thing would be to delete the channel. But some people enjoy my videos, as stupid as they are. Those people would suffer, ever so slightly, while the corporate giant would keep making its billions through sensationalism and pointless ads (which I never enabled on my Youtube channel, on purpose). Since I'm not quite sure what to do, for now, I'm doing nothing. Well, there's this article, and it gives me a nice, fuzzy feeling.
Conclusion
Here we are. There are three main conclusions to this article. One, I hate the cookie cutter corpo-greed "influencer" culture with a passion. But this culture is a direct outcome of the commercialization of online streaming platforms, because they purposefully allowed (and enabled) the worst of humanity to float to the top and make money off gullible poor sods out there. That's not directly related to Youtube, and yet it's 100% related to Youtube. Ads ruin everything. Everything.
Two, I hate inconsistency, sloppy design and "tiered" approach to platform usage. If Google wants to verify me, fine, but then do it in a consistent manner. You've done it before, there's no reason to do it seven more times, each time slightly more differently. Build a consistent system, and use it consistently. Simple. Furthermore, the fact I could spot half a dozen visual issues and bugs in just that one UI window tells me a great deal about Youtube's approach to UI design. Typical modern nonsense.
Three, what I do next. The sad part is, there's no good alternative to Youtube. There are some, but they are merely trying to be the next Youtube. At the end of the day, it's the same MBA-flavored model of greed, just with different wording and style. I can't blame them for trying to make money, but from a user perspective, at the end of the day, it comes down to the same thing. A nice new platform will be born, users will flock to it, it will get bought (acquired in corpo parlance), ruined by the corpo-drones, and repeat. And so, for the time being, I'll leave my videos on Youtube. If people watch them and enjoy them, great. Peace out.
Cheers.