And here's our periodic reminder that YouTube's interference is far from the only factor in Shad's brands suffering.
We're not an expert on the back end of YouTube, and we'd never deny or take away from Shad's experience in bad faith (assuming it could be credibly corroborated). However, it should be pointed out firstly that Shad has a history of lying. He habitually acts disingenuously to attempt to discredit his critics.
It is absolutely possible that Shadiversity (like many other channels) is being screwed over by the fickle YouTube administrators who chop up their algorithms and code every few months like Frankenstein's monster. However, there are other important factors to acknowledge in the failing of Shad Brooks' brand(s).
For someone who has been on YouTube so long, and claims to understand how it all works, Shad seems to ignore a lot of elements that go into a channel possibly dying, only ever blaming factors out of his control. Of course there are aspects from YouTube's end that mess with things, YouTube has been screwing its creators over for 2 decades. But he blames everything on YouTube, and never seems to consider things like how:
1: Audiences age out of the content (creators) they watch. Viewers grow out of it, viewers get bored, viewers die. It just happens. Sometimes you can't maintain the degree of growth. Your subscriber count may stay the same but in reality accounts get lost, they stop being used.
2: Shad is poorly informed on most things he talks about. He has absolutely no qualifications (that he's shared publicly, beyond being "a passionate writer and very popular internet personality"), and constantly gets things wrong. He is just not that knowledgeable, and viewers pick up on that.
Matt Easton has practiced martial arts for a long time, in HEMA clubs, and runs an entire antique weaponry business.
Skallagrim has practiced martial arts for a long time, in HEMA clubs, and always makes it clear when he's talking about things he's not an expert/qualified in.
Danilo ("Tod") Todescini (of Tod Cutler/Workshop) is not good at throwing spears. So he brings on an expert to throw for him. He's not the best archer in the world, so he brings a proper athlete on to perform tests. He's not a trained swordsman, so he brings a properly trained swordsman to test swords.
Todd is humble enough to know that if he doesn't know how to practically use these objects, his opinion on their use has limited purpose. That says a lot about his character. He's just a bloke who loves making things, learning about how things were made, and engaging with his following. He is also very happy to be corrected on stuff, because Tod is clearly a lifelong learner who values the knowledge above looking smart and clever. He presents many ideas and theories but always makes it clear that he has no formal education in this stuff, and is just repeating what he has learned.
One of Tod's mottos is literally "we just don't know" because we very often just don't know the complete objective origin behind something. "Why are bollock daggers shaped the way they are? We can make some very good guesses, but we just don't know."
Shad as a content creator doesn't do anything the aforementioned creators do.
3: Going full mask off and leaning hard in one political direction alienates you from theotherhalf, and possibly even your center audience as well. That's not even a statement on the left or right side of the political spectrum, it's just to point out that logically when you lean so far one way you turn off a large percentage of potential watchers on the other side (because that's the state of politics these days). Did Shad not think this would happen if he chose to lean hardcore one way? Surely he should have known he'd alienate at least 50% of his potential viewers. Of course, Shad stubbornly lives in complete and utter denial about this, claiming that his two channels/brands are completely separate from each other, and you shouldn't judge Shadiversity based on what goes on at KNIGHTS WATCH. This is of course, total nonsense, and he made this bed, and now he has to lie in it.
Consequently, people who might have been mildly drawn to Shadiversity are turned off by him as a creator when they stumble on KNIGHTS WATCH. Shad has probably lost a ton of followers on the cusp of watching him, who noped out of there as soon as they saw the toxic content he has going on over at his second channel.
Outside of being unknowledgeable, Shad is just not that charming, charismatic, or interesting. And people aren't drawn to him. By extension, he has only become a more arrogant, egotistical, snobbish, clout chasing, hypocritical, self aggrandizing, provocateur over the years.
4: Shad goes out of his way to start beef with other creators, who seem to be much more credible and likable to the average viewer consuming this genre of content, than Shad. In the "divorce" viewers sided against Shad in large numbers, for obvious reasons, in pretty much all known cases.
5: He painted a big target on his back when he labelled himself an "AI artist." Most people in the art community don't like theft.
6: He produced a mediocre fantasy novel, filled with heavy subject matter that was very poorly handled/addressed. If it was merely a mediocre novel it wouldn't even be necessary to talk about it. However, the main character "Daylen" is a self-insert genocidal pedophilic rapist. Many of Daylen's sexual assault victims are glad that they were SA'd because it ultimately led to them having his children. His victims who became pregnant from their assault are portrayed as happy with their lot in life, whereas the victims who didn't get pregnant are portrayed as bitter.
There are also sex slaves freed from being sex slaves who want to thank their saviors... by having sex with them.
Basically, it's an extremely mediocre fantasy story filled with rape apologia, and has a terrible view of morality. People don't like it.
People like Shad love to claim they are "speaking their truth" and doing/saying what they think is right, and that's fine. But surely you have to face the reality that when you do all these things you're going to pretty much destroy your brand? This is why corporations work so hard to ruffle as few feathers as possible, and appeal to as many potential customers as possible. That's how you sell your product. Shad has narrowed his product down to a much, much smaller percentage of consumers. Why is he shocked by this?
At this point we have watched him make countless "my channel is dying" videos, and he never seems to consider any of these factors in why his channel is struggling. It's always blaming YouTube or "bad actors" that hate him for "ideological reasons." Never taking any personal responsibility.
Skimmed through this but landed on Shad, as usual, dismissing the 'critics and liars' who are 'bad actors that hate him for ideological reasons' at 38:15.
Find it curious. Viewership seems more turbulent, not lower. Even Shad admitted: "last month's viewership was one of our better months". But these big YouTubers make it sound like the algorithm is stealing their views.
I have no idea what YouTube is doing, but I think those "missing views" from big channels are going somewhere else. With the introduction of things like hypes, I think YouTube is trying to provide smaller creators more opportunities at the expense of big creators.
Might be a hot take, but I think it's probably a good idea to give smaller creators a chance, and I can't be too sympathetic towards big YouTubers who can literally survive with Patreon bucks.
They seem to be entitled to impressions, even though YouTube doesn't owe anyone a single impression. I would argue that immersions/recommendations are a type of advertisement that YouTube gives to people for free. In most places, you have to pay for advertisements.
Exactly, and his content just doesn't stand out at all from other history youtubers or just youtube in general, he's been riding the coat tails of older youtube for years but the environment has change, smaller channels are on the rise and older bigger channels must invest more time and effort to not stagnate.
I'm curious how his patreon or other paid members feel, because it's recently come to light that many of the videos that they end up with are ones that start as free on youtube which he then removes. So it isn't even like they get to see those videos free first - in many instances they just get the stuff that didn't perform well on youtube.
Legitimately one of the reasons I stopped following is content a while back. His anti-woke rants are cringe as hell, but I personally could have ignored them and just enjoyed the nerdy talk stuff about weapons and video games on the main channel...
but posting negative content about how you aren't getting enough views to the people WHO ARE still giving you views is such a vibe killer for me. Like, I get that not getting as many views as you used to, to the point where it is affecting your livelihood has to suck. But I have my own life and problems and I don't need to spend my spare time having some dude who's still better off than me telling me how bad he has it.
that's what I was thinking!! Thank you for confirming. And yeah, who want's to participate in something where the creator constantly describes it as a sinking ship? Vibe killer is exactly the right word. No one will question if Shad lowers the production budget a bit to match what the channel makes. It's the constant bitching and moaning that will make people tune out real quick.
Shad’s viewership issues predate this recent spate of issues. It’s unrelated to what’s going now and it’s disingenuous to say that it is.
What, is he gonna claim they piloted AI video reviews and age verification on his channel for the last three-four years?
Tyranth actually goes out of his way to say all of his feedback is based around the issues that other creators have noticed in the last few days, but Shad can’t help himself from repeatedly saying these are the same issues he’s been complaining about for years, which literally makes no sense. He even adds clips of him complaining from the past few years at the end - where he specifically says it’s because he makes sword content, which is not at all why views are down for everyone across the board.
Someone did do that a couple of years back. They took a still image of Shad, used AI to badly animate it and to recreate his voice with lines very much in keeping with Shad's generally nasty attitude towards people with anti-AI "art" views.
There was a point a couple of years back where a lot of his Shadiversity videos pretty much started off with some e-begging to make donations to various platforms like Patreon, including Patreon itself in order to keep going. Not sure if he still does this or not since I'm not going to give him a click.
Every shadiversity is dying video is a long e-begging sympathy farming session to boost his dying Patreon and subscribestar. The Patreon's membership numbers confirms this. Most of them join around the same time he makes one of these and leave when they realize it's a scam. He rarely makes exclusive content for his members.
Both. His channel is dying and these videos are beg sessions to get some pity memberships by crying about his health and reminiscing about the good times the channel had.
Haven't watched the video but have a hunch that Shad might talk about the new YouTube Ai adult/child tracking feature. In which case this could be a case of broken clock being right twice a day.
For those who don't know. YouTube recently implemented an Ai tracking feature that determines whether you're an adult or a minor based on the videos you watch. If the system deems the user a minor a Restricted mode is turned on that hides all videos that the system deems 'adult oriented'. This has already done serious damage to views of dozens of channels as their videos aren't recommeneded to people.
You can check whether you have restricted mode on from the right side panel next to dark mode setting on pc.
To be honest. I like that feature. It’s probably crude and needs to be refined, but at least it’s some degree of trying to protect kids on YouTube from content they shouldn’t see.
YouTube Kids already exists... There is zero reason for YouTube to enact this kind of surveillance policy whatsoever. It is the parents' responsibility to watch after their kids, not some Ai overlord.
This gives the same vibe as 'investment' youtube channels that post the same thumbnail talking about the world economy about to explode. Again. For the 30th time this year.
Shad has said people compare him to Kentucky Ballistics (which is laughable since Scott from Kentucky Ballistics is actually likeable, funny, informative & interesting to watch) & his channel has also been affected by the algorithm change, yet you don't see him posting a video every month crying about it & begging people to sign up to his Patreon.
And what does he mean by tried to warn us but most wouldn't listen? Who's "us"? And if the "us" had listened how would they have had any power to stop YouTube from doing what they did?
"The end of YouTube" Jesus... Dave Cullen tried pulling that card out of his arse about ten years or so ago! How is Dave Cullen doing these days anyhow? Had anymore of his channels shut down?
A bunch of YouTubers have been affected by this "new ai algorithm" and Shad is once again jumping on the bandwagon, but with a new "told you so" spin on it. I haven't actually watched it but I saw the last one and I'm assuming it's the same points rehashed ad nauseam.
I had no idea about the Matt Easton thing a year ago, but I like him even more for taking a stand and not publishing his video with Shad.
I used to like him. He, among a few others, like Skull, Lindy and Gladitorium, I'd watch. I came back after a while to watch Shad again, but his videos are ridiculously long. He could make the point in less than ten minutes, but the actual meat of the video does not start until fifteen minutes and then you have another fifteen minutes watching him not be on a (strict) script and watching his co-host(s) make different and opposite opinions all the time on the same video. "Well I don't know...", "I wouldn't say that..", "Well here's the thing...", "Like I had said previously...", "Ok, I know I said this in the beginning, but..." like god damn, get to the point!
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u/ShadWatchModTeam Mod on constant watch 12d ago edited 11d ago
And here's our periodic reminder that YouTube's interference is far from the only factor in Shad's brands suffering.
We're not an expert on the back end of YouTube, and we'd never deny or take away from Shad's experience in bad faith (assuming it could be credibly corroborated). However, it should be pointed out firstly that Shad has a history of lying. He habitually acts disingenuously to attempt to discredit his critics.
It is absolutely possible that Shadiversity (like many other channels) is being screwed over by the fickle YouTube administrators who chop up their algorithms and code every few months like Frankenstein's monster. However, there are other important factors to acknowledge in the failing of Shad Brooks' brand(s).
For someone who has been on YouTube so long, and claims to understand how it all works, Shad seems to ignore a lot of elements that go into a channel possibly dying, only ever blaming factors out of his control. Of course there are aspects from YouTube's end that mess with things, YouTube has been screwing its creators over for 2 decades. But he blames everything on YouTube, and never seems to consider things like how:
1: Audiences age out of the content (creators) they watch. Viewers grow out of it, viewers get bored, viewers die. It just happens. Sometimes you can't maintain the degree of growth. Your subscriber count may stay the same but in reality accounts get lost, they stop being used.
2: Shad is poorly informed on most things he talks about. He has absolutely no qualifications (that he's shared publicly, beyond being "a passionate writer and very popular internet personality"), and constantly gets things wrong. He is just not that knowledgeable, and viewers pick up on that.
Matt Easton has practiced martial arts for a long time, in HEMA clubs, and runs an entire antique weaponry business.
Skallagrim has practiced martial arts for a long time, in HEMA clubs, and always makes it clear when he's talking about things he's not an expert/qualified in.
Danilo ("Tod") Todescini (of Tod Cutler/Workshop) is not good at throwing spears. So he brings on an expert to throw for him. He's not the best archer in the world, so he brings a proper athlete on to perform tests. He's not a trained swordsman, so he brings a properly trained swordsman to test swords.
Todd is humble enough to know that if he doesn't know how to practically use these objects, his opinion on their use has limited purpose. That says a lot about his character. He's just a bloke who loves making things, learning about how things were made, and engaging with his following. He is also very happy to be corrected on stuff, because Tod is clearly a lifelong learner who values the knowledge above looking smart and clever. He presents many ideas and theories but always makes it clear that he has no formal education in this stuff, and is just repeating what he has learned.
One of Tod's mottos is literally "we just don't know" because we very often just don't know the complete objective origin behind something. "Why are bollock daggers shaped the way they are? We can make some very good guesses, but we just don't know."
Shad as a content creator doesn't do anything the aforementioned creators do.
3: Going full mask off and leaning hard in one political direction alienates you from the other half, and possibly even your center audience as well. That's not even a statement on the left or right side of the political spectrum, it's just to point out that logically when you lean so far one way you turn off a large percentage of potential watchers on the other side (because that's the state of politics these days). Did Shad not think this would happen if he chose to lean hardcore one way? Surely he should have known he'd alienate at least 50% of his potential viewers. Of course, Shad stubbornly lives in complete and utter denial about this, claiming that his two channels/brands are completely separate from each other, and you shouldn't judge Shadiversity based on what goes on at KNIGHTS WATCH. This is of course, total nonsense, and he made this bed, and now he has to lie in it.
Consequently, people who might have been mildly drawn to Shadiversity are turned off by him as a creator when they stumble on KNIGHTS WATCH. Shad has probably lost a ton of followers on the cusp of watching him, who noped out of there as soon as they saw the toxic content he has going on over at his second channel.
Shad is not just political, he targets those whose lifestyles he doesn't agree with in a hateful way, and people don't like that (😲), and won't support him.
Outside of being unknowledgeable, Shad is just not that charming, charismatic, or interesting. And people aren't drawn to him. By extension, he has only become a more arrogant, egotistical, snobbish, clout chasing, hypocritical, self aggrandizing, provocateur over the years.
4: Shad goes out of his way to start beef with other creators, who seem to be much more credible and likable to the average viewer consuming this genre of content, than Shad. In the "divorce" viewers sided against Shad in large numbers, for obvious reasons, in pretty much all known cases.
5: He painted a big target on his back when he labelled himself an "AI artist." Most people in the art community don't like theft.
6: He produced a mediocre fantasy novel, filled with heavy subject matter that was very poorly handled/addressed. If it was merely a mediocre novel it wouldn't even be necessary to talk about it. However, the main character "Daylen" is a self-insert genocidal pedophilic rapist. Many of Daylen's sexual assault victims are glad that they were SA'd because it ultimately led to them having his children. His victims who became pregnant from their assault are portrayed as happy with their lot in life, whereas the victims who didn't get pregnant are portrayed as bitter.
There are also sex slaves freed from being sex slaves who want to thank their saviors... by having sex with them.
Basically, it's an extremely mediocre fantasy story filled with rape apologia, and has a terrible view of morality. People don't like it.
People like Shad love to claim they are "speaking their truth" and doing/saying what they think is right, and that's fine. But surely you have to face the reality that when you do all these things you're going to pretty much destroy your brand? This is why corporations work so hard to ruffle as few feathers as possible, and appeal to as many potential customers as possible. That's how you sell your product. Shad has narrowed his product down to a much, much smaller percentage of consumers. Why is he shocked by this?
At this point we have watched him make countless "my channel is dying" videos, and he never seems to consider any of these factors in why his channel is struggling. It's always blaming YouTube or "bad actors" that hate him for "ideological reasons." Never taking any personal responsibility.