Hey guys this is Zed again.
This is honestly a video that none of us were really looking forward to posting.
I do a good chunk of the animating on SFS...
and I'm the animation director for the group.
If something absolutely needs to get done and get done quick,
I'm usually the one who does it.
Upkeeping SFS has always been my number one priority...
But things on YouTube have been shifting in such a sour direction lately that...
...it's affecting our ability to run this channel.
This is going to get a little on the long side, so bear with me.
YouTube's changes had been getting more notable as far back as last year...
...and have gradually been affecting our channel.
However, sometimes even the smallest tweaks point at having drastic effects.
Back in February, about 50 - 70% of our recurring viewership just vanished overnight...
...for what looked like no reason.
It's not a small number, for the record.
You've likely heard as well that YouTube expects near constant content output...
such as weekly to daily videos...
...especially ones that are at least 10 minutes long.
A few years back, YouTube switched from views counting to a channel CPM...
...to watch time, which resulting in it catering more to these absurd requirements.
They were under the false impression that length equals quality.
It's also why you've seen so many Let's Play channels crop up in the past few years
We kept animating anyway, because it's something we like to do...
and in spite of this we actually managed to succeed for a while.
Then, the metric started getting tighter and tighter, little by little.
And sometimes, small changes would lead to big consequences, such as the 60% viewership drop.
YouTube simply decided that several of our videos were no longer relevant and...
weren't worth being in the suggested spots on other videos anymore.
So we started losing viewership.
So we tried to play YouTube's game instead.
We tried making more regular uploads, including doing comic dubs...
...trying things like podcasts, doing shorter, easier, lower quality videos...
...just in hopes that it woulds sustain us enough so we can make something bigger.
But nothing we did worked.
Most viewership winds up coming from the Home tab of YouTube.
If you don't watch one or two of the videos from a channel that get posted to your home tab...
...you gradually will stop seeing uploads from that channel as a whole...
...because YouTube assumes that even though you're subscribed,
you don't want to see their content.
If you don't upload stuff for a long time,
subscribers still won't see it because
they've watched a bunch of other channels which wind up taking priority on the Home tab...
...since YouTube thinks that's what they want to watch.
This has led to niche channels being way more prioritized by YouTube.
For instance, you only make Undertale content, or only MLP content or...
...only Pokemon content.
Or your personality that people latch onto, which is something outside the focus of this channel...
since we're a group of people and not any one individual.
Plus, we're also a team of diverse interests and we don't want to...
be locked into making content for a single fandom.
The way around this as a viewer is of course to check the subscriptions tab...
...which many of you probably do.
But, those of you who use this tab are still in a minority.
I'd imagine most of you seeing this now are probably from that tab as well...
...or were brought here by an email notification.
However, all in all, that doesn't account for most of our subscriber base.
We have almost 240,000 subscribers...
...but a lot of you aren't going to wind up seeing this...
...and that's what really kind of sucks.
On a lot of our recent releases its taken over a month...
before they reach even 10,000 views,
and a good chunk of our viewers don't even know when we've posted something new.
YouTube simply doesn't care about sub-counts anymore.
It would also appear that YouTube suddenly cares significantly about...
...engagement to the point where actually takes priority over subscriptions.
So, you're going to see a lot more channels now begging for likes and comments,
as well as begging for people to hit the bell notification and...
basically opt to receive all notifications.
Tags are now super important as well evidently, which is...
coming on the heels of the improper tags potentially getting a video blacklisted by advertisers.
So, people are understandably hesitant to use them.
But, exploits of this is also led to literal adult content worming its way...
into the trending tab on YouTube.
So... yeah, good job YouTube.
The only way you can get by this as an animator on YouTube is...
if you make something that you know for certain is going to be viral...
...or most of your following views comes from off of YouTube.
It's rare to be able to predict what will be viral and we're...
still have to have the capability and desire to work on it.
Otherwise I can promise you you would see a lot more Undertale...
Sans fight animations on the Internet.
As such, it's just not possible for us to focus on animating for this channel...
...at this point when YouTube is so cripplingly unpredictable.
Animation is a lot of hard work and a single short video...
...can take anywhere between 60 to 600 collective hours of work among...
everybody who works on it.
To spend all that time working on something just to barely get any views isn't sustainable.
The paltry viewership isn't going to...
...compensate anyone who works on the video appropriately.
There will be a few who say that animation should...
...only be done for the love and passion of it.
And I'd love to be able to agree but...
...expenses kind of take priority over all of that.
Time spent working on labors of love is time not spent working on...
...commissions to pay rent and doing freelance work.
Animation on YouTube used to be a compromise where we could do...
...both at the same time where we could work on what we wanted to make and...
...not have to worry about our expenses in the meanwhile.
Those times are just gone.
We had been working on multiple projects such as an animal crossing music video
that there's just no way for me to get out on time.
And Star Sign, which was a big passion project for us for literal years now.
It doesn't feel good to be in the situation at all and I don't know...
...what's going to happen to either of those projects.
YouTube has also been saying "We haven't changed the algorithm".
This is entirely untrue since the algorithm is actually adaptive.
They don't change it, it actually changes itself.
But YouTube continues to pass the buck and not acknowledge that relying strictly on...
an A.I.-run algorithm is harmful to the creators.
So, what do we do from here?
I really wish that I knew for certain...
...but YouTube has never felt less so.
We've looked into a lot of alternatives so...
...bear in mind we're not really looking for suggestions here.
Patreon was viable for a short while but...
...it's dropped so far that it can't cover the animation expenses either.
One of Patreon's big goals was also to lighten the workload as well...
...but upkeeping the Patreon winded up being more work in of itself.
We have since changed our model for Patreon extensively...
...to make it a little bit lighter on us.
But by that time it had already seen a big fall off and it's no longer sustainable.
We've looked into other sites as well and we've actually...
...joined up with vid.me which you might know about if...
...you saw the last video we posted.
This might be a solution in the future but for now,
it's just an alternate way to watch our videos.
And of course, there's also just waiting to see...
...if YouTube actually responds and tries to change some of the things for the better.
To be honest I can't say I'm hopeful.
December's supposed to be one of the most productive months for creators...
...and you can see what's happened right here.
A lot of us still make our own content outside of SFS as well and...
...we've thought about maybe putting up occasional little digest videos and...
...plugs about stuff that we've been working on,
just to show that there's still content out there...
...just from other members of the team on their own...
...personal channels and stuff like that.
Maybe you'd be able to get to know some of us a bit better as well...
...because I'm not going to lie.
Making content in SFS kind of keeps your identity hidden to most viewers.
So... yeah.
It's probably around on for a bit long...
...might be TL;DR to just say YouTube's kinda screwed us over and...
...we can't really animate much anymore.
But we felt you guys deserved a little bit of an explanation.
We're eternally grateful to all of you who've stuck with us throughout the years...
...and are proud of how far we've all gotten.
We'll hopefully see you guys around.