Shadiversity is Under Attack from YouTube
Is YouTube intentionally killing channels? Shad M. Brooks recently made a video on his channel, Shadiversity, describing his lack of subscriber growth in the past few months, showing graphs charting the downturn, which he attributes to YouTube not showing his videos to potential new viewers via recommendations. His videos aren’t getting nearly as many views as they used to, with the odd exception, despite the quality of his content being the same or even increasing, the proof of which is “overwhelmingly positive” feedback in their comments sections. His most popular older videos also aren’t getting viewed much anymore. He’s getting likes in the 90% range vs. dislikes, and the channel’s click-through rate (the number of clicks a channel’s content receives divided by the number of times ads are shown – essentially, how successful and engaged with ads for the channel are) is actually higher than two years ago. And he hasn’t seen similar drops on other platforms, like Rumble, TikTok, Facebook, Bitchute, and Odyssey, on which he’s actually had growth. Brooks says this situation is “unsustainable,” as YouTube is the only real viable income source among the various video hosting platforms.
Why would YouTube hide Shadiversity? As Brooks says in the video, YouTube has admitted to favoring certain content creators with recommendations, and he uses MrBeast as an example. MrBeast has a massive channel with 248 million subscribers, but Shadiversity is no slouch, with 1.69 million subscribers, almost as much as The Critical Drinker. You’d think there would be lots of money for YouTube to make from Brooks’ work. Brooks posits that YouTube could also be de-emphasizing “sword-based content,” which is Shadiversity’s specialty. Then, there’s Brooks’ openness about being a conservative and a Christian, which YouTube (and its owner, Google) is likely not fond of despite his channel being apolitical. And he associates with people I’m sure YouTube doesn’t like, such as the aforementioned Drinker known for being critical, on whose channel Brooks has appeared; he’s also been a guest on Friday Night Tights on the Nerdrotic channel. And hey, guess what show had an episode removed by YouTube recently:
Last week's FNT was taken down by YouTube
Too hot or too stupid?
You decide#FridayNightTights pic.twitter.com/3C491rm2oc— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) April 1, 2024
Recall also that a recent episode of Side Scrollers stopped on YouTube but not on other platforms, and they happened to be discussing government influence in the gaming world when it happened. Ever read Goldfinger? “Mr. Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: ‘Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action.’” These are looking less like happenstance and more like YouTube taking action against content creators they don’t like who are talking about things YouTube doesn’t want discussed. Even a channel like Shadiversity, which is mostly about swords, armor, and fantasy subjects like dragons, isn’t immune because of its associations with other undesirables. And for Brooks, this isn’t a laughing matter; he and his wife are struggling over this, and he says this circumstance continuing is a “death sentence” for Shadiversity.
The good news is that there are options for people who want to support Shadiversity; the channel has Patreon, Subscribe Star, and PlayeUr accounts where people can donate or subscribe to Shadiversity. With enough income from these sources, Shadiversity could continue without needing ad revenue from YouTube. If you enjoy Shadiversity or just want to support a guy who’s getting screwed over, you can help at any one of those links. He’s also got a novel called Shadow of the Conqueror that you can buy on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Kobo. Brooks also has a few ideas he can try to rebuild if Shadiversity goes down, which you can hear about in the video, but I hope it doesn’t come to that.
