Extra Credits - leftie gaming channel that had two of its members accused of "misconduct" in only 2 months

[A Pale Shadow]

That doesn't stop Youtube from trying to find ways to make more money off the platform which they're currently doing by making ads as obnoxious as possible to encourage users to pay to not have them.

"What is adblock" for $500 Alex.

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Who knew calling your core audience Nazis and abandoning them to chase inaccurate historical content would cause them to leave.

 

[Chilson]

They could be forcibly broken up for a while (a la Standard Oil, AT&T or similar), like politicians have been teasing for years.

The issue is "a while" and there is little difference between one monopoly and an oligopoly to the consumer (as we have learned with ISP's). The core problem is how the government won't allow these companies to fail through bailing them out and putting up so much red tape that no competitors can realistically enter the same market without either sustaining massive losses in investment and legal battles. Ironically, Google also learned this lesson when it tried to push google fiber (and Amazon is learning it trying to get into big pharma/health insurance).

As with most things that are terrible about the world we live in, getting governments over reaching thumbs out of Google's asshole and letting a truly competitive market do its thing is the only real long term solution.

 

[Hannibalistique]

The issue is "a while" and there is little difference between one monopoly and an oligopoly to the consumer (as we have learned with ISP's). The core problem is how the government won't allow these companies to fail through bailing them out and putting up so much red tape that no competitors can realistically enter the same market without either sustaining massive losses in investment and legal battles. Ironically, Google also learned this lesson when it tried to push google fiber (and Amazon is learning it trying to get into big pharma/health insurance).

I think I agree with your general point, but is your argument really that the only reason Google/Amazon don't have bigger monopoly positions is red tape, implying increased red tape is positive?

To be clear, I'm arguing that Google should be broken up to allow for competition, an advertising firm should not control both some of the biggest media platforms (youtube), as well as the underlying platform (via Chrome they are now essentially in control of web standards, just look at jxl or EME/Widevine).

It's a pretty extraordinary situation where I think government intervention is appropriate.

 

[Chilson]

I think I agree with your general point, but is your argument really that the only reason Google/Amazon don't have bigger monopoly positions is red tape, implying increased red tape is positive?

No, merely pointing out how even the largest companies on the planet struggle and fail to break through the very red tape they benefit from when trying to get into different markets, which shows that its impossible for smaller businesses to enter those markets.

To be clear, I'm arguing that Google should be broken up to allow for competition, an advertising firm should not control both some of the biggest media platforms (youtube), as well as the underlying platform (via Chrome they are now essentially in control of web standards, just look at jxl or EME/Widevine).

I know, I am pointing this out as a temporary solution at best that still leaves consumers with either a future monopoly or, more likely, an oligopoly. Both are just as bad for the consumer.

It's a pretty extraordinary situation where I think government intervention is appropriate.

Government intervention caused the problem in the first place. The answer is to strip away regulation and get the government OUT of that market so competitors can enter and provide a better product/service than the lumbering monopolies who dominate their markets BECAUSE the regulations exist. There is a reason all these companies lobby so hard to have the government INCREASE regulations rather than repeal them.

These monoliths will either be forced to provide better services or lose their market shares to leaner/better businesses which is a win win for the consumer.

 

[Hannibalistique]

Government intervention caused the problem in the first place. The answer is to strip away regulation and get the government OUT of that market so competitors can enter and provide a better product/service than the lumbering monopolies who dominate their markets BECAUSE the regulations exist. There is a reason all these companies lobby so hard to have the government INCREASE regulations rather than repeal them.

Which regulation(s) do you think is currently propping up Google?

Again, I think I agree with you in general, especially when it comes to e. g. ISPs, I just think the situation with Google is extraordinary.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

Like VSauce hasn't had a video in 2 years not break above 1.6 million views.

are we in the same universe man?

 

[Watcher]

They could be forcibly broken up for a while (a la Standard Oil, AT&T or similar), like politicians have been teasing for years.

I don't foresee it happening to Google specifically for a bunch of reasons.

When Bell was broken up the reason why it happened is nobody could've conceivably competed with it because they laid down phone cables and it's not like you can just lay down your own rival phone cables and expect to make a profit off of it. It was either deal with Bell or just don't have phones.

This isn't the case with Google as for every Google centric technology there is a competitor somewhere. Like Gmail for example isn't unique neither is Youtube. Being a monopoly isn't strictly illegal in the eyes of the law it's having a business that doesn't allow for any competition or alternatives to flourish. It's pretty clear Google is keenly aware of this as they reportedly spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make Google the default search engine in Firefox. The only logical reason why they would do this is because it allows them to avoid being classified as a monopoly in the web browser space as there is a valid competitor to Chromium even though it makes substantially less money and only exists because of Google.

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are we in the same universe man?

Maybe I shouldn't have used a double negative but I said he hasn't had a video not break above 1.6 million. Meaning all of his videos are above that amount. My point is that Extra Credits isn't getting shitty views because of Youtube it's because nobody likes their shitty videos.

 

[JT Marlin]

Meanwhile, almost all the other ""meaningful"" channels constantly have to beg for people to donate to them or watch their streams.

This is how its always been. And always will be. People love red meat.

Did you know that when Jerry Springer was first on TV, he was a more boring version of Phil Donahue? It was only when he adopted the trash tabloid theme that he became a success.

Same thing here. Only difference is the youtube algo pours gasoline on the trashfire.

 

[Fields Of Rye]

This is an extremely common thing that happens to all Youtube channels after a certain point, it's actually somewhat well documented. Essentially Youtube channels steadily grow popular but after a few years they peak in viewers and continuously go down as viewers get bored of their format. This happens a lot to video game youtubers.

I'm convinced it's a throttling. I know it's a bit schizo to say it but a few years back when Warhammer blew the fuck up, a sperg dude called "Arch Warhammer" was on peak, and a bunch of new channels popped up. And I got them constantly and constantly and never him.

People might say "arch is political and retarded". Very well. I also watched these videos of some farm dude in Korea who had a bunch of cats that the would chill out and fish with and just record their antics. Popped up everyday and then suddenly gone from the feed. In it's place Borzoi videos from channels with subscribers in the low thousands.

When you think of it from a creator harvesting perspective, algorithmic manipulating the system so people have a soft cap where they can make revenue and have new, different creators coexist. I mean think about it? What's the benefit of sending Bob's "How fat is a space marines cock" video to the feed over Arch's? Well Arch is already making videos and is dependent on making more for income. Bob isn't. Bob is still able to leave.

 

[Bruce Springsteen]

I'm convinced it's a throttling. I know it's a bit schizo to say it but a few years back when Warhammer blew the fuck up, a sperg dude called "Arch Warhammer" was on peak, and a bunch of new channels popped up. And I got them constantly and constantly and never him.

People might say "arch is political and retarded". Very well. I also watched these videos of some farm dude in Korea who had a bunch of cats that the would chill out and fish with and just record their antics. Popped up everyday and then suddenly gone from the feed. In it's place Borzoi videos from channels with subscribers in the low thousands.

When you think of it from a creator harvesting perspective, algorithmic manipulating the system so people have a soft cap where they can make revenue and have new, different creators coexist. I mean think about it? What's the benefit of sending Bob's "How fat is a space marines cock" video to the feed over Arch's? Well Arch is already making videos and is dependent on making more for income. Bob isn't. Bob is still able to leave.

I buy it. It's as credible as anything else when talking about a huge, opaque company like Google. Nobody knows what the fuck is going on, probably not even internally, where I imagine people have compartmentalized into bizarre goon factions who work out of sync. YouTube is just Dr. Frankenstein's latest experiment and the idea you propose is so soulless and corporate it's almost certain someone at Google will try it later if they're not doing it now.

 

[Watcher]

I'm convinced it's a throttling. I know it's a bit schizo to say it but a few years back when Warhammer blew the fuck up, a sperg dude called "Arch Warhammer" was on peak, and a bunch of new channels popped up. And I got them constantly and constantly and never him.

People might say "arch is political and retarded". Very well. I also watched these videos of some farm dude in Korea who had a bunch of cats that the would chill out and fish with and just record their antics. Popped up everyday and then suddenly gone from the feed. In it's place Borzoi videos from channels with subscribers in the low thousands.

When you think of it from a creator harvesting perspective, algorithmic manipulating the system so people have a soft cap where they can make revenue and have new, different creators coexist. I mean think about it? What's the benefit of sending Bob's "How fat is a space marines cock" video to the feed over Arch's? Well Arch is already making videos and is dependent on making more for income. Bob isn't. Bob is still able to leave.

I doubt Arch Warhammer was throttled I remember I stopped watching his videos after the rebrand because I just felt he ran out of interesting topics to talk about. I don't think I've watched a video of his in a long time actually come to think of it.

Animal videos historically always make more just because of the fact they're animal videos and that's never going to change.

 

[Hannibalistique]

This isn't the case with Google as for every Google centric technology there is a competitor somewhere. Like Gmail for example isn't unique neither is Youtube. Being a monopoly isn't strictly illegal in the eyes of the law it's having a business that doesn't allow for any competition or alternatives to flourish. It's pretty clear Google is keenly aware of this as they reportedly spend hundreds of millions of dollars to make Google the default search engine in Firefox. The only logical reason why they would do this is because it allows them to avoid being classified as a monopoly in the web browser space as there is a valid competitor to Chromium even though it makes substantially less money and only exists because of Google.

Yeah, it's quite common knowledge that Mozilla (and Firefox) has survived only on their search engine deals for a long while now.

But EME (i. e. required support for Google subsidiary Widevine's API in all browsers), dropping jpeg-xl (in favor of 100% google controlled formats) and now neutering ad blockers with Mv3 I think shows that their anti-competitive behavior is not limited by Mozilla's now abysmal market share.

I think the fact that a advertising company can overnight neuter ad blocking effectively in the entire market (including in "privacy friendly" browsers like Brave) shows clear monopolistic anti-competitive behavior that should lead to intervention.

 

[Path Wanderer]

EC is definitely trend chasing the E-historian thing to create a channel cartel. The only difference is that Time Ghost Productions and Kings & Generals actually have enough quality content/creators to pull this off.

 

[Administrator Flotsam]

It seems they've branched out into nebula tv: https://nebula.tv/extrahistory
And from the looks of it, Nebula is a soy alternative to youtube. Understandable since Odysee or however its spelt is populated mostly by either punished youtubers (not woke ones, gamers) or the so called alt-right.

Good history tubers limit themselves to a narrow scope (like a war or a single battle or a small subtopic of a civilization) and make long vids (15+ minutes). EC does either and would rather claim themselves to be ''educators'' by stretching themselves thin over short videos on basic-bitch topics all from an soy-drinking American perspective. In addition to Extra Credits they now have Extra History, Extra Mythology, Extra Sci-fi and So You Haven't Read: https://twitter.com/ExtraCreditz

 

[Toolbox]

It seems they've branched out into nebula tv: https://nebula.tv/extrahistory
And from the looks of it, Nebula is a soy alternative to youtube. Understandable since Odysee or however its spelt is populated mostly by either punished youtubers (not woke ones, gamers) or the so called alt-right.
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Good history tubers limit themselves to a narrow scope (like a war or a single battle or a small subtopic of a civilization) and make long vids (15+ minutes). EC does either and would rather claim themselves to be ''educators'' by stretching themselves thin over short videos on basic-bitch topics all from an soy-drinking American perspective. In addition to Extra Credits they now have Extra History, Extra Mythology, Extra Sci-fi and So You Haven't Read: https://twitter.com/ExtraCreditz

I can't even see viewcounts on there so there's no way to determine how they're doing, I'm sure an intentional choice by Nebula because they likely aren't doing that well in general by making a paywalled version of a free service. I also don't notice a comments section on ECs videos there so there may not be one in general or it's users only. Soy version of Youtube is right, impressive how you can make it even worse.

 

[Clorox Cowboy]

It seems they've branched out into nebula tv: https://nebula.tv/extrahistory
And from the looks of it, Nebula is a soy alternative to youtube. Understandable since Odysee or however its spelt is populated mostly by either punished youtubers (not woke ones, gamers) or the so called alt-right.

Good history tubers limit themselves to a narrow scope (like a war or a single battle or a small subtopic of a civilization) and make long vids (15+ minutes). EC does either and would rather claim themselves to be ''educators'' by stretching themselves thin over short videos on basic-bitch topics all from an soy-drinking American perspective. In addition to Extra Credits they now have Extra History, Extra Mythology, Extra Sci-fi and So You Haven't Read: https://twitter.com/ExtraCreditz

I can't even see viewcounts on there so there's no way to determine how they're doing, I'm sure an intentional choice by Nebula because they likely aren't doing that well in general by making a paywalled version of a free service. I also don't notice a comments section on ECs videos there so there may not be one in general or it's users only. Soy version of Youtube is right, impressive how you can make it even worse.

I think the idea of an education-focused video sharing site is great. I'd rather not have to wade through hundreds of WatchMojo videos and clickbait to find good long-form content on the topic I'm interested in. I wish Nebula had better assortment of creators, most of them seem to be Breadtubers, and political commentators. I'm not interested in paying 50 dollars a year for exclusive content from the 2 people I like on there, that money would be better invested in a patron if I cared so much.

Still, I can't fault anyone for trying to build a Youtube competitor even if it's a futile endeavor.

 

[Administrator Flotsam]

I can't even see viewcounts on there so there's no way to determine how they're doing, I'm sure an intentional choice by Nebula because they likely aren't doing that well in general by making a paywalled version of a free service. I also don't notice a comments section on ECs videos there so there may not be one in general or it's users only.

You seem to need an account to access most videos, or even all of them. Every vid I checked had no viewcounts, no comments, no likes / dislikes and couldn't be viewed without an account. It seems to be trying to follow the NordVPN model of influencer marketing / sponsorships though, since they seem to sponsor some creators and they offer Nebula as a part of the great courses plus or whatever its called these days. I think its majorly trashy to have US-centric Trump and Rowling-deranged breadtubers on a so called ''education platform''.

I'd rather not have to wade through hundreds of WatchMojo videos and clickbait to find good long-form content on the topic I'm interested in. I wish Nebula had better assortment of creators, most of them seem to be Breadtubers, and political commentators. I'm not interested in paying 50 dollars a year for exclusive content from the 2 people I like on there, that money would be better invested in a patron if I cared so much.

Still, I can't fault anyone for trying to build a Youtube competitor even if it's a futile endeavor.

Youtube's ''Dont recommend channel'' option works quite well now but it still does flood you with the most insufferable creators of a niche if you click on one video in that niche. Its easy to ignore them with that option but it gets tiresome if you want to go down rabbitholes like you can on wikipedia. Yeah I think they also realized no one's paying just to get the same free stuff for higher than what they get on yt, especially when the cost on yt is free. They do some kind of bundling thing with the great courses+ thing where you get a bunch of ''educational'' platforms in one sub. There's no other way people would pay for this since patreon is better as you said.

I think they wanted to mix youtube and udemy and ended up being worse than both.

 

[Lordfacer]

Well, it's been 6 months, and it's time to see the results of their branching off.

So far, they've put out 16 videos. Fairly good content rate.

However, the performance is a different matter. As of 6/16/2023, literally only one has broken 100k views.

Now, I'll admit that for a normal channel, say one that posts about yugioh or makes skits or whatever the fuck, that's decent, not bad.
The problem is that this is splitting off a channel that had over 2 million subs, and it fails to break 100k consistently.

Yes, youtube is full of alts, people who forgot their password, and a fuckload of bots, and since youtube is a shitter they're all counted as subs, resulting in most sub counts being false as fuck, but failing to break 100k consistently is not a good thing.
This goes double, when the only factor separating your top 100k+ video is not some shitpost gone viral, some labor of love, or a video that turned into a meme by the wider internet, is that simply it is older and this was a transition channel and it was the first uploaded.
There is zero meaningful difference between any of these videos, besides, perhaps, nostalgia.
For a example of a gap due to quality and gap due to meme, take these two random channels.

You can clearly see a large disparity between their usual content, and what is top. That is normal. What is not normal is what extra credits has, where it's just more of the same without even the grace of a "hot" topic.

Now, I will say, that they have around 85k subs at time of writing, and their more recent videos have around 37k, with that bioshock video you see in the screenshot above at 58k, and I don't think it's too optimistic to say it has a chance of breaking 50k, showing at least, they have loyal subs, or pull a good amount of people for a channel their size.

However, that size in of itself is an issue. Their main channel had over 2 mil at the time of split, and their sister channel (this one) can't even break 100k after half a year? That's not good.

Finally, to round things off, I'll display what is currently the lowest view videos on their channel.

Yeah, this is what happens to them when they try to branch off. Not looking so hot.

I really don't think they'll ever reach the heights they once went to.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

It would be easy to say that Extra Credits did it to themselves by trying to politicize their content when their own fans did not want it, but this would just be me acting like a broken record.

They should have stuck with their original goal of gaming content and not turn into a more unnecessarily ridiculous version of Game Grumps.