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A BIG SHIFT And I want your input (Patreon)

Published:
2018-08-08 02:07:08
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hey folks,

I have been following some of the latest youtube developments, and taking a looong look at my channel and I'm thinking of making some major changes to my channel's output and I want your input before I even think about doing these.

So, the latest large longitudinal data has shown that since I started going weekly about a year ago, the algorithm has changed a lot. It now uses empirical data rather than metadata to suggest videos, which means that videos have much longer tails than they used to. This is an explicit thing saying that quality over quantity might be the way to go, which is pretty great tbh.

I also have been less than enthusiastic about the stuff I'm putting out at of late. I had to make a lot of changes for the sake of efficiency, and I am not sure that's a direction I want to go, nor is it the niche I should get into if I want to talk about educational subjects. In an ideal world, I would work on every video as long as it needs, and it'd be done when it's ready. I'm not a perfectionist, but I think I could do these important subjects more justice if I gave them the time they deserve.

I also recently got a job working for the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, and I've learned a lot about the power of a strategic release over a fast one.

So, here's my idea:

Over the next month or two, as long as you are all cool with it, I will transition my content to a slower schedule:

1. I will retire Quick Step. I know that to many viewers, Quick Step is a favourite, but hear me out. I believe that Step Back videos should be on the subject of how the past relates to today, and often Quick Step Videos, and the pressure to have hot takes hurts this. I do think that what people like out of it is the audience feedback, and discussion of the madness of the world today. So, in place of Quick Step, I am going to schedule a regular, weekly, Prime-time stream for a couple hours (on top of the countdown streams). I will also start a Discord to open up more access for the viewers.

2. Step Back will slow down its production cycle favouring longer, higher quality videos. I am tired of making my content with an eye for speeding up the process rather than making a better video. I am not sure what this will look like, but I am thinking I might aim for two or one a month, depending on what you all think about this. I will try to make something closer to an Hbomberguy, Folding Ideas, or Contrapoints video, rather than a quick thing.

I want to say that this is huge, and really scary for me. I am only even thinking about it because I have so many of you in this audience who believe in the work I'm doing. I think that the subjects I cover on Step Back are found nowhere else on the platform, and I want to give it the best treatment it can. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Comments

Bastien Nocera

The main reason the Quick Steps were interesting weren't so much the "hot take" part of it, but rather the "how did we get here" part. I remember my parents buying a 20th century history compendium in the 90's so they could explain the Yugoslavian war to my brother and I, and it's the sort of thing that I'm looking for in your videos, getting a better understanding of the intricacies of geopolitics.

Step Back
>>14505072

Well, my hope is that that's what Step Back videos should be like, and I will keep it in mind for things like prepping for streams. Hopefully I can do this better with the time to do more research and think more, and you'll get more of what you're looking for

Soliloquy

Some points: You need to work towards making the channel that you want to run. If you're unhappy with the quality of what you are releasing, and keeping up with the schedule is stressing you out you need to think of ways to adjust your channel to make it sustainable long term. Long-term, both in term of financial stability as well as having a sustainable workload. I never felt that the quickstep videos worked as a ‘hot take’. To me, they always felt a few days late when they came up in my subscription feed to actually be a ‘hot take’. The power of a ‘hot take’ is jumping on that trending news topic to get your channel in front of new people, but because you released them a few days early to patrons you missed out on that. They were however reasonably successful, so if they were not ‘hot takes’ then what were they? I think they functioned more as ‘historical retrospectives on current events’, which were valuable but could be incorporated into your normal videos. Covering more current events in the quicksteps I think shifted your channel, you became less of a History YouTuber and more of a Political Leftist YouTuber. There is nothing wrong with either of those but they do function slightly differently. A Leftist channel will reach fewer people, by virtue of alienating viewers with differing views, however, those that are sympathetic to your views will likely engage more strongly. So this will result in a smaller but more engaged audience, one capable of punching above its weight in terms of direct support such as Patreon. On the other hand, a History Channel will appeal more broadly and so have larger view and subscriber numbers, but those viewers won’t be energised to support the channel by their political ideologies, however, the larger view numbers can be leveraged with advertising to support the channel. Build the channel you want to run.

Step Back
>>14514680

Thanks Jon! I really feel like this will make my videos more of what I want them to be. I won't hold back who I am or what I feel needs to be said, but I want to double down on the history work that this channel is about and this platform is so lacking in.