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Debating on Taking Down the Solarpunk Video and some insights (Patreon)

Published:
2025-11-03 14:30:14
Imported:
2026-10

Content

Hey everyone,

Even before this last video I've been feeling pretty down and frustrated about the channel. My thoughts keep flipping back and forth between "make lower effort, but put out more frequent videos" and "make long, high effort videos that come out once every 1-2 months", and the end result is the worst of both worlds.

The Solarpunk video is the result of those two thoughts fighting each other. Originally that video was supposed to be a short quick one about how the aesthetics are not accurate, but then ballooned into what it currently is. The end result is a video that deeply frustrates and pains me. But between not releasing any video for awhile and to keep myself monetarily afloat I had to put something out.

I've been searching for a format of video that works well for awhile, but as you can tell I haven't ever found a rhythm/rhyme to continue in the video series and all of my videos are different because of that. So if you have any loose suggestions on how to switch to a more "lower-ish effort, but more frequent" upload schedule I'm all ears.

Also like I said I'm debating taking down the Solarpunk video, I know that it's not a good representation of the channel and it's obvious that it's actively pissed some people off. Plus the numbers down lie, people don't like it generally. So let me know if you have objections to me taking it down. Just know that my spirits about the channel and video making aren't the greatest at the moment. Especially since I've seen a decline over the last year here and with activity on the channel.

I want to continue doing this, but if more videos end up being like the Solarpunk video I might have to call it quits before I keep fighting for the channel to stay alive when it isn't worthy of my energy.

Apologies for the negativity, but this has been a rough week.

Alan

Comments

Kenneth Schlegel

It's you're channel, do what you need to do for your peace of mind. Personally I enjoyed the video, to me it's extremely frustrating knowing that there are grey urbanism solutions out there could have a large impact on the environment and our quality of life but they are being ignored or faught against for aesthetics.

Alex C

Don’t take it down. Truth can hurt sometimes and that video is pretty full of some hard truths. The degrowth and NIMBY folks don’t get a pass for having awful ideas.

Liam Hodgson

in terms of the vid quality, I think there is an opportunity for a "where i fell short" type of video, talking about how grey and green are attributes and not exclusive categories, talking about what actual solarpunk/regenerative/recomposition/indigenous anarchist/permaculture etc folks are looking to accomplish, speaking to one or more of those folks and/or looking at literature, going through data like the epic solar predictions vs reality graph that climate adam did a vid about recently, etc. The problem is that this is even more time on your end, and I am not sure that the "where i fell short" vid will be worth the time in terms of $. edited bc i had more but hit enter instead of return haha. In my opinion some of your most impactful vids have been about specific projects such as NHSL to KOP and analyzing criticism of CAHSR. There may be opportunities to salvage your points when discussing some actual projects and what they promised vs delivered, and consider life cycle carbon, nutrient recapture for SW, trips and pollution by trip, etc. I would start with e bikes being even more efficient than regular bikes based on peoples food source, trains offering very long term use of the steel and plastics compared to other modes, how green stormwater takes up space and that managed release concepts (MRC) can perform some of the denitrification in internal water storage even if they have no vegetated components, how net metering for solar installations isn't always available and thats why we still need grid scale generation and storage, peppered in with examples of where solarpunk type stuff works (such as the amish farms having solar to run their tools, community gardens, rain garden bumpouts serving dual purpose as PCSM and street safety). This would be even more work, but if you wanted to balance regaining the goodwill of YT watchers who enjoy solarpunk with producing interesting content, I think its worth considering this strategy

Adam St. Denis

I don't think it hurts to leave it up unless it is a personal point. I don't think it was a bad or out of place video by any means and you already spent the effort to put it out. You could always revisit the thought after another week as well to see if you feel better about it or have just moved on.

Jack Oswald

Hi Alan. I love you. we will be so happy with everything you accomplished with this channel no matter what you decide

Dr. G4

Personally, I loved it. I think it succinctly addresses some very important points that the world needs to hear. I think it provides a counter to the dry and lifeless Abundance Agenda, which is of a “build, build, build” mindset without ever actually stopping to think about *what* should be built. We need deregulation of building trains, but we need hyper-regulation of building roads, highways, and sprawling suburbs, making them as expensive and penalized as possible. Same thing with trans rights, who cares about appealing to the center if the center is anti-human-rights? I’ve had to struggle with this myself, going too big and making things too perfect. I’ve heard from other creators that things don’t have to be perfect, it’s better to get them out the door and move on to the next thing. Hell, I even had to deal with this while teaching: each lesson couldn’t be the most perfect, complete story of a topic. Students sometimes zone out, and the really important things should be said over multiple lessons. I view content in much the same way; it’s practically impossible to make *the* perfect episode in a human lifetime, and, instead of fretting the details, you should view your body of work as an anthology that speaks as a whole; no individual part has to be perfect. What matters most at the end of the day is if you enjoy it. If you’re feeling like you’re chasing trends and being inauthentic, pushing out content will make you unsatisfied and miserable. If, however, you’re doing things that you enjoy, what’s it matter if people dislike it? You’re an amazing person, Alan, and your content is a cornerstone of the good side of the internet. Whatever you choose, make it for yourself.

Nick D'Errico

I wouldn't worry about it pissing people off, what you are saying is valid. And even though I thought the video was good, I do think that a different, deeper dive into green vs grey urbanism could be more informative. It's ok to aspire to a prettier green future, but it will not always be pretty, and we need stuff like battery storage, wind farms, and transmission lines yesterday. All these things are distributive and have a small environmental impact, but it's about the long term and bigger picture. TL;DR: if you do take the video down, I'd love to see a separate grey vs green video.

Carl Levitt

Three thoughts: 1. The structure and style of a "normal" armchair urbanist video doesn't lend itself to broader political aesthetic critique. I think this is by and large a very good thing. It allows policy to be at the forefront and centered in the real world very quickly. To me, the solar punk video section on California was strongest when dealing with the real world consequences of making construction and growth impossible and weakest when tied back to the solarpunk aesthetic movement. I think there is a lot of room for you to talk about aesthetics and politics (more broadly than policy) but your channel's house style doesn't lend itself to kind of work. 2. As I am sure you know more intimately, content outlets (i.e youtube) are very very siloed and prioritize more videos for the sake of more videos. Try something different? No reach. Take a month off for any or no reason? Algo death. In this respect the solar punk video *was* a a sort of failure. It was different and the content machines punished it. I think that there is space in your mandate for this kind of content even if the set up of your current channel doesn't like it. 3. Finally, a suggestion for "low effort" content, I don't have the time or inclination to watch you stream but I would watch a 2-10 minute clips /videos of interesting discussion edited out of a stream. It certainly isn't flagship mainline produced content but it is low effort.

jman117

I’m sorry you are feeling down! Times are tough these days and YouTube is always difficult. I like your content and hope you keep things going— we need more voices pushing for positive change. But I’d support whatever choice you make, you gotta do what’s right for you. In terms of lower effort video format ideas- Have you considered something more like an interview or even podcast format? Casually chatting with someone about transit/urbanism news or topics is relatively low effort and gets you an hour or two of content that doesn’t need graphics or much editing. Or you could try doing livestreams and then editing down the highlight clips into videos too. That might help buy you some wiggle room to support longer more researched videos.

Saidwiththe G

I think you’re doing fine! Do you have any collab opportunities with the guys over at WTYproblem again? Maybe join them as a guest and if you’re wanting to shape a mission out of this channel, keep the external experts coming and include all the links to pages and actions you want people to take or explore at various points in the video, not just the notes and end page. Good luck!

B Yang

My family is all in this field and quite frankly it is refreshing to see someone try to push back against the more popular forms of urban development that might end up making our adaptation goals harder. Even the Solarpunk aesthetic's main contention, greener spaces, hides just how much damage plants do to the constructed world, and how much more mitigation we need to bake into everything just to accommodate the aesthetics. City trees are great but "green towers" and "green on walls" are not. It might be worth qualifying with a follow-up on concepts that might bridge the gap, such as "sponge cities."

Zack Bowden

I totally understand if you want to take it down, honestly

Coe Titus

If the video was about degrowth and NIMBYism then I'd agree, but the video was about solarpunk and the critiques from some comments was that solarpunk is just an aesthetic and not being used to make policy decisions. There are some good ideas in the video mixed in with some bad ideas (for example, implying california is communist when it is an over-regulated capitalist state).

Coe Titus

Interviews are 100% the answer for low effort content. Would be cool to see some interviews with publicly elected officials talking about some of the challenges they face with community pushback on projects (how to combat NIMBYism 101), officials or advocacy groups that have reformed regulations/permitting processes (suggestion - CM Ryan Alter from Austin), and maybe even some case studies of recent projects discussed with someone that was involved

Michael Imbesi

I watched the second version and I liked it a lot. If you want to take it down, feel free, but I thought it was good and conveyed a message that really needed to be said. Too much of the “environmentalist” movement thinks that green living is when you still bulldoze a forest to build a house with a giant lawn, but you put a dreamcatcher in the window to show you’re in touch with the spirits of the animals whose habitat you just destroyed. I’d suggest maybe doing long-form stuff as a bunch of shorter videos that form a larger coherent series. That allows you to get stuff out more often to keep engagement up but still take the time to cover stuff in depth.

RefinedUrsine

Do what you gotta do for your channel, but fwiw I liked it alot.

Kevin M

It's on my list to watch. If you do choose to take it down, I would prefer if it remains available for Patrons, either unlisted or directly on here. I don't know what Solarpunk *is*, which is why i haven't immediately watched the video, but I'm always interested in what you have to say.