What Is FranLab to YouTube??

<a href="https://www.marketplace.org/2018/11/28/tech/some-youtubes-biggest-stars-say-youtube-bad-their-health" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.marketplace.org/2018/11/28/tech/some-youtubes-biggest-stars-say-youtube-bad-their-health</a>

Daniel Pirone

Hi Fran, I think your analysis is way too negative. I think that the topics you were rising like YouTube monetization and gentrification affect and are interesting to a way wider audience. Let's face it: The Electronics community is a lot smaller than people suffering the problems you are rising. And as a sidenote: Videos that not just show a cool piece of tech but also you discussing it, are just more personal and I prefer them too.

JanM

Have you figured out the ratio yet? Face to tech? My fledgling theory is that Facebook sees all of this as self-indulgence - so if you are less self-indulgent - you are less profit- (or prophet)able maybe it's all the cult of personality. As for me I'll take either or both, remember they are all little kids in the schoolyard playing out their dramas, see past them.

Well, if it's any consolation I tried to get some funding for our software on Patreon... and it gained nothing. Not one red cent. This in spite of the fact that we get about 10GB of downloads a month. We do get some PayPal subs, but in general it just seems that people dont think software should cost anything to make. I suppose it IS only ones and zeros which notionally cost nothing.. but the cost is in the time spent figuring out what order to put them in! What makes it more annoying is when blatant junk like self filling water bottles or solar roadways get a gazillion dollars. I guess I should do a few electronics videos, see how that goes. BTW, have you seen this: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KSahAoOLdU" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KSahAoOLdU</a>

Yea Fran - You think you got problems? We don't need to hear you whining like a girl! Suck it up and entertain us already! Jeeez.

Fran Blanche

I don't think Youtube somehow determines whether your face is in the video or not. I think there's probably a gigantic load of ranting videos on Youtube in general, and when you make a ranting video, your video gets promoted to an audience that likes ranting videos which is possibly hundreds of times larger than the audience for electronics videos. The way you should see it (as far as I'm concerned) is that your electronics videos are the normal audience, and the rant videos are a bonus audience. Unfortunately that audience is probably also not really that interested in what you're ranting about. Don't get me wrong, I like all your videos regardless of contents (obviously I prefer the ones about electronics) and if 16000 views for an electronics video is not enough to sustain the channel, I would be sad to see it go. But I'm afraid you're facing a difficult choice: who are you going to make videos for, the electronics audience or the ranting video audience?

Jac Goudsmit

Do what you gotta do Fran. All my kids watch is Ashens, Nerd cubed, Laurenzsize and various other commentary based content providers. The subscribership for those channels is mind bogglingly interstellar. I have no qualms about you Fran-ranting if it keeps you doing cool stuff, as I am sure, are the majority of your Patrons.

I like how you’re both informing about your observations on how YouTube behaves, and testing it in the same video! I hope any compromises you need to make to keep the doors open, are ones that you’re comfortable with. Best of luck!

Ten Digits - Nate

Fran, I would suggest having your head and shoulders on the video thumbnails. The 1983 Teardown did not have your face. To me the Vibutron alignment and Tubescope thumbnails are pretty perfect. Personally, I'd prefer no large green text.

Nuts 'n' Proud

I always go back to 1971, just before starting my freshman year in high school, when the immortal Firesign Theatre album "I Think We're All Bozos on This Bus" came out. It's served me well as a life philosophy ever since. Being a Bozo, I'll either be ridiculed and laughed at, or laughed with. But at least I *know* I'm a Bozo! So many folks are clueless about their Bozo-ness, undoubtedly including YouTube decision makers, which is where the real humor of the situation resides. Regarding your face in the video: Your face is so full of earnestness and expression! Your voice, OTOH, without your face is fairly neutral. I think that's why EEVBlog Dave puts himself in a corner box while doing other things on the computer, where we can't feel him at the bench hovering over and reaching around the camera. So, I suggest an experiment: Do a 2-camera bench video, with your face edited into the corner. See if there's a middle road that does what both you and your viewers (and the world at large) want most.

BobC

Fran, I absolutely love your videos. Computers, vintage electronics, etc are my favorite subject. I think the rant videos are universally engaging and it may not be a bad idea to do a rant video once every week or two. Times are tough and even those viewers who are not particularly interested in electronics can relate to what is going on in the rant videos. How many people today are living paycheck to paycheck, facing difficulty getting the apartment or condo they want, etc. Look at the number of go fund me donations that came in. Most people wanted to support you and what you are doing but don’t you think some of the people who donated are also in there own way telling there land lord to stuff it?

Rants are engaging and that is all YouTube cares about: engagement. I mean, AvE and TubalCain have succeeded based on personality and hand &amp; bench videos. I know I was shook when you posted about the eviction and watched each video with baited breath. I would sit down and think long and hard and analyze what worked about the Nimo video if it is still your most popular one. It's got everything: a clickbait title that isn't misleading, a human face and weird electronics I don't understand in the thumbnail, and infectious enthusiasm for hardware that was weird when it was new.

If this goes up on YouTube, it will be interesting to see if the expected spike in viewership occurs and the video surpasses the popularity of the recent tech videos.

Wakky idea... can you do picture in picture to have your face in the vid? Would prob be more work to produce and voice tho.

Please stop ranting. It's very tedious.

I think, in some ways you give too much credit for algorithms' intelligence. The way I understand is that YouTube saw your rant video getting a lot of traction and simply picking similar (from machine's point of view) video to promote to the viewers that liked your rant video or viewer who tend to like similar videos. You can still wrap meaningful Franlab content inside similar package (more talking head time, etc.)

Hmmm. Interesting. I've come to the conclusion that all my videos have to start with Fran, to increase my views. Yeah, just do a weekly rant. Current events, Politics. Anything to get the comments flying! A rant to keep the funding up, and the rest of the videos that week, on the stuff we came here to see.

Youtube wants a particular type of content, and that's content that creates engagement according to their stats, regardless of whether it's positive or negative engagement. Youtube would rather have a channel that is nothing but hate filled flame wars in the comment section over a positive educational content.

Juan Nunez

Youtube is a mess right now.

AESFTW