The Audacity Of "Kindly Wait"
You(Tube) Can't Handle The Truth
Just yesterday, I said I didn’t want to write about my ongoing YouTube channel strike.
But then a YouTube Creator Support experience team manager threatened me with even less support. As if that’s even possible.
All because I got so sick and tired of their arrogant and ignorant chatbots and bot-like humans telling me to “just wait” yesterday that I opened a can of virtual Whoop-Ass.
After a week of avoidance and ridiculousness, I’d had enough.
Dear YouTube Creator Support:
When you drop so many balls, some are are bound
to bounce back and knock you upside the head.
Solution? Stop dropping balls.
Clint
Regardless of how many F-bombs I dropped, here’s the truth: Despite corporate lip service, YouTube Creator Support has repeatedly demonstrated by its actions and inactions that it does not give a single fuck about supporting creators. It only cares about reinforcing the platform’s power and shutting down anyone who questions its lack of accountability and transparency.
Sorry to break it to you, YouTube Creator Support, but it’s way past time for a long, hard look in the mirror. I’m sure it’s hard for a bot-run company to do that, but that’s the problem: YouTube’s over-reliance on artificial unintelligence. Same for its parent company. Have you noticed how dumb Google Search has gotten? I have.
“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
For those just tuning in (including anyone from YouTube brave enough to walk a mile in the shoes of a “Partner” who rather be making videos than shit-posting about the platform’s inability/unwillingness to support creators), what had happened was:
CASE = 2-6059000036793
VIDEO = BRFH_mpTgc
CHANNEL = UCdEvtjKHUSkF9_PSg527auAA week ago today, on 07.19.24, I woke up early for a Live Premiere chat on my channel. I woke up to discover via an overnight email that the video to be premiered was removed and my channel struck for linking to art photography on Wikimedia Commons.
Upset, I immediately removed the link, appealed the decision, and contacted YouTube Creator Support. All before the Live Premiere scheduled for 6am Pacific.
I contacted YouTube Creator Support because the video was not removed and its Live Premiere was still showing. During the premiere’s countdown, the video was set to private (by YT bot), leaving several watchers to watch dead air.
The video still shows no restrictions in YouTube Studio and was never removed.
As of 07.26.24, a full week later, my appeal has yet to be reviewed. Based on repeated support chats, I am not confident it ever will be.
I've been unable to post on my channel for EIGHT DAYS (and counting) and YouTube Support continues to do nothing but be annoyed at me for calling them out for not doing their job and refusing to provide any timeline for resolution. Instead, they bully and threaten a frustrated creator instead of addressing their own internal team’s refusal to review a simple appeal.
ONE WEEK = 168 HOURS (BUT YOUTUBE’S NOT COUNTING)
GLOBAL + POPULAR ≠ BEST + WORLD-CLASS
In all my years as a web designer and as a web user, I have never seen a more unresponsive, unsupportive support team than YouTube Creator Support.
I’ve seen some truly shitty examples in the past 25 years. A few stellar ones too.
But I have never experienced the sheer amount of condescending indifference that YouTube demonstrates. No solutions…just automated replies, broken promises, and general who’s-on-first confusion.
To them, me and my bad attitude/behavior are the real problem. To me, their refusal to address problems is. Not even in a timely manner. They have yet to address my problem at all.
Escalating a problem that does not lead to resolution is not support. It’s just passing the buck. It’s just more broken promises and false hopes.
No, no one can/should challenge the great, all-powerful Wizards of YouTube.
Let’s be clear: YouTube may be the biggest, most popular video platform in the world. But best it is not.
Especially if you’re a creator needing support.
At YouTube, creators are SOL: Shit Outta Luck.
Based on chats and emails, I estimate YouTube’s support “team” is 80% artificial, unintelligent chatbots and 20% disinterested, overwhelmed humans.
Every time I’ve contacted them, it feels like Wheel Of Fortune: Will they actually pay attention and “get it”? Or will I get some random, scripted auto-reply that has little if any relevance to the problem at hand? Or, now, will they threaten to help me less?
About those scripts: They truly need work. The displays of artificial and human unintelligence are baffling. And frankly insulting as hell:
Example: In a support chat about my “community guidelines” strike, one agent responded with about a copyright claim issue on a completely different video.
My “best” chat interactions are to get links to FAQs even Google has trouble finding.
Maybe it’s just me, but if I can’t find the answers in a FAQ without contacting Support for a link, there’s a problem with the FAQs.
Despite knowing all this, with no other options to reach anyone, I have tried YouTube Creator Support chat over and over and over this past week.
I provide the same details. Sometimes they open a new case. Sometimes they link it to an existing one. (I think…who knows what, if anything, they do.)
Sometimes I’m nice. Sometimes I’m not so nice. Sometimes I’m completely bipolar. Because they and this unresolved probably have made me nuts. I’m unable to build my channel and am limited to responding to comments.
YouTube Creator Support continues to do nothing but waste more time, tell me to “just wait,” and talk about an elusive “internal team” that also seemingly does nothing but waste more time. They claim they’re not a court of law, all the while acting as Judge, Jury, Executioner, and Appeals Court.
YouTube refuses to provide any timelines or commit to doing anything.
“Just wait” is always the answer. And when things get heated? “Kindly wait.”
Seems fair, right? All the power. No checks or balances.
In the past week alone, YouTube has collectively wasted so much of my time (and money) that I feel it only fair to give them a taste of their own medicine, without the filter of scripted auto-replies.
Sadly, being an asshat in support chat and/or shit-posting the platform online seem to be the only way anything gets even looked at by YouTube. We’re all just cogs in their machine and only squeaky cogs get a passing glance.
I don’t like it, but I didn’t make the rules for this game.
Trust me: Being this angry (at bots and bot-like humans) is exhausting.
Given their lack of response to me being relatively patient (“Nice Clint”) about the problem a week ago, I don’t care if I hurt anybody’s feelings now.
WHEN BOTS + BULLIES THREATEN
I got so mad/sad yesterday I let “Not-Nice Clint” come out and play, taking all my frustration out on the bots and bot-like humans.
F-bombs were dropped. Bots and bot-like humans were offended. Oh. Well.
Not my best day, but it took that display of actual outrage for me to get “escalated” to yet another “manager.” Seeing how the last one dropped the ball and ghosted me, I have little faith this one will doing anything more to end this nightmare.
I hope she proves me wrong. But based on her first/last email (and lack of follow-up since), my guess is she’s already blocked my messages and closed the case.
“If you continue with this behavior, we will block your ability to contact support for 30 days.”
Rox (“Manager”)
“Please note: Getting to even this level of support REQUIRED me being an unprofessional asshat. Please share that fact with your colleagues. If you think any of this is fun for me, you are wrong.”
Clint (“Karen”)
SPEAK NO EVIL + HEAR NO EVIL + SEE NO EVIL
From my perspective, YouTube Creator Support can’t handle a simple truth: Their systems and tools create problems their humans are unable/unwilling to fix.
YouTube can’t handle this truth because it’s easier to blame creators for getting upset when we’re the ones who suffer from these bot-created nightmares. And it’s easier to point the finger at creators for voicing their opposition to inconsistent enforcement of subjective policies and rules.
It’s also easier to create new toys than fix the old toys. It’s easier to focus on creators too scared to stand up to this kind of abusive relationship.
It’s typical gaslighting by a global monopoly that, if they don’t change course, is destined to be a cautionary tale.
Silicon Valley is littered with the fossils of other companies that died trying to take over the world. And forgetting with great power comes great responsibility.
Maybe, just maybe, if “Rox” and her team listened to my concerns the first, second, or even third time we wouldn’t be here, a week later, with nothing to show for it but a bunch of increasingly angry, frustrated chats, emails, and posts.
As “just wait” morphed into “kindly wait,” my frustration bubbled over and now I don’t care about their feelings or “internal team” issues. They continue to demonstrate they don’t care about me, my channel, or my community, so I can’t be bothered with caring about them either.
To YouTube, we’re all just data sets. So why can’t we stfu?
Simply put, if YouTube Creator Support had done its job and addressed the problem promptly, I wouldn’t have had to let Nasty Clint out to ruin everybody’s day.
DEETS + RECEIPTS
Here are a few screenshots from yesterday, for those easily amused by typos:
WTF NOW ?
As I’ve said, I’m not enjoying this. But if YouTube’s gonna cause my blood pressure to skyrocket, I’m gonna do my best to raise theirs too. If YouTube’s gonna treat creators like trash, I’m gonna give them a taste of their own medicine.
And if this post gets me blocked?
It’s only proves YouTube can’t handle the truth: Their systems, teams, and tools are broken and they are unwilling to address or even admit those problems.
YouTube Creator Support has had more than enough chances and time to fix my issue. A week to resolve a link to Wikimedia Commons? Come on!
But no, it’s always “internal team” delays, excuses, or lies.
Enough of the pass-the-buck routine.
It’s time for YouTube Creator Support to do their job and help creators without requiring an “escalation” to lift a single finger. It’s time for them to follow through on their commitments. And it’s way past time for them to stop treating creators like unwanted children who ask too many questions.
Creators ask questions because YouTube Creator Support has repeatedly betrayed our trust. Because YouTube Creator Support seems to think autoreplies are support.
I have little faith this will ever be resolved. But I’ve worked hard to build my channel and community, so I continue to fight.
FIGHTING IS HARD WORK
These unnecessary fights leave me exhausted and wanting to quit the platform.
Why? Because it’s always a fight to get any problem addressed. Because all my hard work is constantly in jeopardy due to bots making up problems where there are none.
Currently, my main channel has two strikes. One more and it gets removed. Both strike are for links to sites the bots think are porn. They are not. This is all dumb.
Whether the appeal gets eventually reviewed or not, a full week has been wasted. YouTube’s insincere apologies won’t make up for a minute of it. Just more hot air.
(NOTE: Last month, I received a strike for linking to a Tumblr blog I used as source. But, in a panic, I deleted the video before I realized that meant I couldn’t appeal the strike. It also meant YouTube couldn’t ignore that appeal too. Links…like they’re the biggest problem on YouTube. Gimme a fucking break. Spare me the censorship.)
CALGON, TAKE ME AWAY
It should not be this complicated to resolve a simple issue.
I should not have to waste days harassing support teams to do their jobs.
I should not have to annoy and bother my friends and subscribers with all this bs.
And yet…here we are. With currently no end in sight.
Fingers crossed someone follows through soon.
And if they don’t, I’ll push and prod until I do get blocked.
And then I’ll find another way to protest their abuse of power.
Thanks for reading,
Clint
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Maybe it's time to find another venue (here?) for your creativity and give YouTube a limited amount of time & energy for the battle of 'nudity is not pornography'? There's a christian social nudist channel called Mudwalkers. The owner, Chris, sort of has two aims: One is to make clear that there's nothing in the bible against social nudity and the other is to convince YouTube that there's no reason to censor the male body. He's struck a balance that works for him. His uncensored vids are on Vemeo. Maybe worth a look?
But seriously... while YT clearly has many lessons to learn, your work is way more important.
If you ask me, YT seems determined to make the same mistake Tumblr made. Rather than take responsibility for solving its problems, Tumblr banned chose to ban anything beyond PG rated. And we all know how that turned out.