that they had captured lighting in a jar. I enjoyed their analysis and reporting. They seemed serious and on the right track, UNTIL... they hit 1-million subscribers, things changed. Then 2-million and things changed again (for the worse).
The reporting and analysis changed. The content was shoddy. The headlines and thumbnails were pure clickbait. Bold IMPACT font, yellow arrows and red circles ("look here, yes here, what's this?... click now and we'll tell you... maybe.'')
It became clear to me that their priority was more-more-MORE subscribers and clicks. Their videos started to become repetitive (throughout the day... but within the SAME video!!) He would read or talk about the details and in 5 minutes, we had the gist of it. Then for the next 10-15 minutes he would just find different ways to repeat what he'd already told us.
I presume that this is for financial gain through mid-roll ads. Videos over eight minutes long are eligible for mid-roll ads, which YouTube can place at multiple points throughout the content. This gives creators an opportunity to earn significantly more ad revenue from a single video compared to a shorter one, where ads can only appear at the beginning or end.
Also, "watch time" (the total minutes viewers spend watching a channel's videos) is a key metric for the YouTube algorithm. Videos with longer watch time are favored and promoted more often in search results and recommendations. Apparently, by stretching content, creators can drive up this metric, even if it leads to lower viewer engagement toward the end of the video.
This, in combination with their flirting with Betteridge's Law of Headlines (as Thom Hartmann does) makes their channels tedious and worthless to me.
I know it's competitive and that eyes, views, clicks, subscribers, memberships, patreon and interaction mean the world to these creators... but somewhere along the journey, they lost their way.
It ends up being a vicious cycle. They lose viewers and supporters by turning them off with these manipulative tactics... which causes them to need to engage in manipulative tactics even more. I've unsubscribed and "blocked" them in my personal youtube account/login... but they still show up here... wasting space, but not getting any clicks from me.
Sad.
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