Blog notes re: Youtube and video clips / movies

Unless you've been living under a rock but right now Youtube is a complete mess. The Wall Street Journal recently published two articles targeting the popular social media website. Because of these articles, Youtube is cracking down on anything that might be deemed offensive, which basically covers everything, including my PEPLUM TV channel.

I first noticed problems when I uploaded SAPPHO - THE VENUS OF LESBOS and got a warning from Youtube claiming that monetizing the film was removed because the upload was not 'advertiser friendly.' The words 'Sappho,' 'Venus' and 'Lesbos' were probably picked up by their algorithm system as being pornographic, even though there's nothing pornographic about the legendary Greek poetess Sappho. Advertiser Friendly apparently means anything not for kids is suspect and ads from companies like Coca-Cola or McDonalds have been pulled until Youtube finds a solution for them to control the content of creators and what they upload better than they do right now.

As in what happened with SAPPHO, many of my uploads from my previous versions of my PEPLUM TV channel have been barred, for a number of reasons. This is limiting the number of clips and movies I can upload there. I recently uploaded SADKO, a Russian film. It also came with a warning. I'm fine with this particular film since its appeal is limited but clips that I've been sharing for years, which are now barred and I cannot share with my followers, well, I'm not happy about this. This is just one annoying aspect of the current Youtube.

The second annoying aspect of Youtube is this : my channel, like so many channels from other Youtubers, is nonexistent under Restricted Mode. If you're not familiar with this, Youtube has two modes : Restricted Mode on or off. If a channel is viewable set under 'on,' it's deemed kid and family friendly, i.e. videos about cats. When a channel is considered adult, like mine, it's only viewable to visitors if Restricted Mode is turned off at their account. Most people are not aware of this. If you visit my Youtube channel with Restricted Mode turned on, no videos at my channel will show up. I assume that most of my new subscribers know this and they have Restricted Mode turned off in their accounts. What exactly does this mean in the grand scheme of things? It means that anyone who's under 18 cannot view my channel because it can only be viewed with Restricted Mode off and Youtubers 18 years and under are not able to do this. This even if all these clips and movies I upload were made 50 years ago and kids could see them no problems back in da day.

It's one of the reasons why I resurrected my old Dailymotion channel which I let go for a couple of years. Since Youtube is being so problematic, I might upload clips and films there that Youtube have blocked at my PEPLUM TV channel. Not everything. Just those blocked at Youtube. Personally speaking, I would rather have everything under one channel but during these existential moments  Youtube is currently experiencing. which is affecting so many people, that this might be a good, if temporary, solution for now. So expect a few clips and maybe movies at Dailymotion (until they too get the same treatment as Youtube).

I don't make any money from this blog. I do this purely for my dedicated to the PEPLUM genre, which I love. The blog gets over 1000 up to 1500 hits a day. It's the most visited blog on the internet covering the PEPLUM genre. I love doing this but these continual strikes against my work at the Youtube channel is getting to me. I started my first PEPLUM channel at Youtube back in 2007. I lost 5 channels with their constant meddling. The current one is going strong and I try not to upload anything that might get it closed again but at the moment, like so may other Youtubers caught in this situation, I'm thinking of starting a Patreon crowdfunding page, to help keep this blog going strong, and keep PEPLUM TV running smoothly. More about this in upcoming posts.