There has been a change in the YouTube algorithm lately. It is slowly killing my channel, and many other channels like mine. This is going to be a rant about this whole situation, and the impact that it has on individual creators' lives and mental health. /1

Being a YouTuber is a really cool, crazy, exciting job, but at the end of the day, it is still a job. This is how I pay my rent, this is how I put food on the table. My job security is entirely contingent on an unstable algorithm that neither I, nor YouTube understand. /2

Over the last 3 months, my average watchtime has plummeted from being generally around ~5-6k hours per day to ~3k. There's been dips before, but it's never flatlined so consistently. And this isn't just new videos, the views on my back catalogue are also beginning to evaporate./3

When views start dropping, the first thing that I do is blame myself and my content. I tear myself apart trying to do better stuff, but the anxiety I feel around this makes it harder and harder to work, so it's harder to put out good content. /4

Then there comes a period of trying to game the algorithm. This is akin to playing chess against a grandmaster while blindfolded. I can change thumbnails, change titles, try to fix the back catalogue, but at the end of the day I don't even know what the board looks like. /5

As the views evaporate, it also puts tension on my sponsor relationships. I don't make nearly enough to live off of YouTube thanks to their broken copyright system, so sponsors pay my bills. But sponsor conversion relies on eyes on my videos, and that relies on the algorithm. /6

My sponsor rate drops and my relationship with my sponsors is strained. Once again, all of this is from something that I have zero control over. It is intensely stressful, and throws huge wrenches in my personal life plans, saving goals, and that sort of thing. /7

So currently, despite the fact that I have 840,000+ subscribers, I am hanging on by a thread. I don't know what's going to happen to my channel next. I think there's a good chance my channel could no longer be financially viable within a few months. /8

All that YouTube has to offer from this is brilliant insights like"Your video isn't doing as well because not as many people are clicking on it as usual."
... well fucking thanks, tips.
I can and will try to change things, but again I have no idea what I'm supposed to change /9

The upshot of all of this is that I am a nervous wreck and find it incredibly difficult to make videos, which feeds right back into the slow death of my channel. This is the reality of having your living depend on an algorithm. And it fucking sucks. /10

Anyways there's worse jobs in the world and I don't want to complain too much, but I wanted to give you a peek into the not-so-glamorous parts of my job. Never believe for one minute that YouTube cares about the mental health of their creators. They do not. /11

All of this is to say if you have a creator you like, it means the world to us if you support us financially. The dream is that @WatchNebula will help creators have some control over their livelihoods and not be slaves to a cold, uncaring algorithm and a terrible company. /12

And for all I know, maybe tomorrow a video of mine will suddenly pick up again and this will all be moot. Sigh. It's an exhausting way to make a living. Thanks for letting me rant. /end