May I present to you ArchieWhambulance the YouTube Partner who whines about YouTube Partners and makes a lot of money from angry fan boys.
His video of course was a response to TheWillOfDC's interview with admins of YouTube Partner Support
For those who are interested you can subscribe to TheWillOfDC here
Self Promotion FTW
Now lets go through this one by one. The overall summary of this video is that TheWillofDC was a corporate lap dog pitching softball questions. Of that I have no major disagreement. ArchieWhambulance is entitled to his opinions. I myself would have come prepared with examples and certainly would have addressed the click bombing issue. However he did ask some good questions as well. I just think he should have prepared some follow up questions. However, I do concede the fact that there was probably a pre-interview meeting that discussed what could and could not be discussed. The truth about non-disclosure is you can not discuss what you can not discuss.
Now on to ArchieWhambulance's video
1. At 02:53 seconds he asks for a single instance of a top level YouTube partner being disciplined. Well surely he knows that YouTube staff can not discuss the status of other accounts with anyone else except the account holders, However, here are some examples.
For those not familiar with that story she was told by YouTube that she had to clean up her act. You will notice that her newer videos parody the style of the original but do not exactly sync up with the original beat of the song she is spoofing.
Although it does date back to 2008 Sxephil and KevJumba did have a video taken down
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/08/youtubers-borro/
Hey even myself have had videos removed from YouTube due to flagging. I don't like it, I disagree with the flagging but I must follow the rules of this site if I wish to continue to be here. Even the #1 most subscribed on YouTube has had a video flagged just 3 months ago.
Here is a link to the page itself but you will need a TubeMogul account to view it
Below is a copy of the video
2. At 03:09 into his video he casts doubt on YouTube's claim that all flagged videos are reviewed by a live person. Again his cure for ignorance is simply a click away. Sadly the embed codes on BlipTV are not the best so here is the direct LINK if the video won't play
At 03:20 ArchieWhambulance that there is proof of some kind of false flagging yet fails to provide any evidence for it. Sorry but I do not believe that false flaggings exist, and this is from someone who was just flagged last month. There is a reason why a video is taken down. Most of us simply do not agree with that reason.
At 03:38 I almost busted a gut laughing at his statement that Shane Dawson has never been false flagged. Well, as you know I do not believe false flagging exists, but Shane Dawson has been flagged many times. Here is the LIST of videos.
ArchieWhambulance then goes on to claim that ShaneDawson is untouchable. I am sorry but the only explanation I have for that level of ignorance is he was too lazy to check his facts. Another theory is that he simply does not care about facts, this might explain his reputation for blocking people who dare to correct him. Now I will say that he is correct, to the best of my knowledge, that sxephil has not gotten flagged down for thumbnail abuse, however he has had videos taken down. Sxephil is abusing thumbnails and I fully support YouTube's crackdown on thumbnail abuse.
For those who do not know in order to flag a video for misleading thumbnail this is what you have to do. First hit the flag button, then select the spam option, then select misleading thumbnail and there you go.
At 04:50 ArchieWhambulance states that it is good business to protect the people on top. No, it is good business to protect the advertisers. Case in Point. People tried for years unsuccessfully to get DavidsFarm off YouTube. YouTube only cast him out when he became a financial liability after the show 16:9 talked to some of Youtube's advertisers. YouTube cares about YouTube, as soon as any of us become a liability, they will cast us out. Just look who was on top just two years ago, the ones on top now will not be there forever. There is no special protection given to anyone.
At 06:46 ArchieWhambulance unknowingly contradicts a previous statement. He maintains that ShaneDawson has two strikes on this account. Well first of all it is not up to TheWillofDC to keep himself updated on the topics discussed on the ArchieWhambulance channel. Secondly he has no way of proving that. All he can prove is that ShaneDawson has had two videos removed. Well the truth is not all Terms of Service violations result in a strike on your account.
This video of mine was flagged down last month
Yet as you can see there are no strikes on my account, even though a video was removed just one month ago.
Furthermore I can even document 4 videos that have been flagged down on my defeated nemesis's account (TheRealNickBravo) yet his channel remains. Four videos flagged down in less than six months. So is TheRealNickBravo part of YouTube's protected class? After all he does have over 700 subscribers. Here are the URLS to the videos to prove it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=volix6kO1LU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntobj8VW024
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6XFajUcch4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4fN_cejJF4
This of course can all be independently verified by anyone with a TUBEMOGUL. For those who do not know a TubeMogul Account can let you track anyone's channel performance. It preserves the upload history of a channel from the date someone adds a channel to their search database. Therefore anyone with a TubeMogul account can go in and independently verify that these four URLS are legit and not pulled out of random. In case ArchieWhambulance is reading, this is what proof and documentation look like.
At 06:56 ArchieWhambulance continues on with ShaneDawson detailing that has documented these strikes and that one of them was six or seven months ago. ArchieWhambulance, those strikes disappear after six months!
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=92486
ArchieWhambulance the reason ShaneDawson is still able to upload videos is because he does not have two active strikes on his account. Only copyright strikes last forever and there have been some adjustment to that youtube policy recently. As showcased in their YOUTUBE BLOG as well as their newly updated COPYRIGHT CENTER. So YouTube is being more flexible and more forgiving than it has in the past. There are certainly things I don't like about YouTube, such as it's lifetime bans, however this progress on the part of YouTube should be celebrated.
The rest of his video was just venom spewing and not really worth commenting on.
I would like to point out the one thing I did like discussed more than anything by TheWillOfDC and the admins from YouTube, and that is category gaming. For too long people have been putting their videos in less competitive categories such as PETS AND ANIMALS to bump down other videos so they can show on the top pages of YouTube. iJustine is famous for doing this. Thankfully YouTube has implemented a category cheating reporting tool. In my opinion it should be integrated into the flagging system but at least it is a start.
I would like to add one more thing. ArchieWhambulance again displays his ignorance with this comment reply on his video.
Sorry to correct you yet again ArchieWhambulance but this has nothing to do with them being a Top Level YouTube star. If it was then why are iJustine's vidoes, or Sxephil's videos still flagable. No the ability to disable flagging is the result of creating and YouTube approving your Show category. Currently this is only available to Networks and YouTube channels that are in networks. Now some YouTube partners such as my good friend iShatOnU have created their own network. You can see for yourself that flagging is disabled on many of his videos.
Now I do not know if Smosh runs their own network or if they are in the network of another company. I also know that not all YouTube networks can enable shows. Now to create a show you have to first set up the shows name, description, add graphic images, and add one video to the show and wait for YouTube's approval which of course is not automatic. I have had shows rejected. YouTube is very cautious in granting a show because they know that it can't be flagged. Of course the video can still be removed for copyright and a few other reasons.
Now do I agree that some people can disable flagging because they belong to the right network. Of course not, however I would be a fool not to take advantage of the protection as long as I have it.
Now in conclusion I would like to remind everyone that I have shown evidence that there is no special treatment given to the top YouTube Partners. Even people such as Shane Dawson and RayWilliamJohnson have been disciplined by YouTube. Sadly I don't think ArchieWhambulance is willing to cure his ignorance, but I hope I was able to highlight errors in his statements to those who read this blog.
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