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As many of you know, there'll be some major changes here on YouTube in the next couple of days.
Now let's take a quick look at what YouTube has done so far to phase out the smaller channels over the last year.
First, they've hidden the 'Top Rated' and 'Most Discussed' categories on their website.
Now, it used to be in plain sight - is now invisible
unless you mouse over the 'More' tab.
Now, this is the second time they've done this.
Also, notice how the Rating system has been almost completely removed from YouTube.
This would be the equivalent of removing the Feedback from eBay.
Now, when you go to the 'Popular' and 'Most Viewed' pages, there's no Rating showing AT ALL,
and this is to prevent blatant corporate commercials for being one-starred to death
and ignored by the YouTube community.
More importantly, notice how the 'Most Viewed' page is no longer the default page when you open YouTube when you're logged in.
Now the default tab is the one called 'Popular'.
This is another way of promoting partners in copyright-infringing videos
as shown HERE in this screenshot.
This process filters the majority of YouTube's partners, helping build them into megachannels, like 'Fred'.
This channel is like the Macarena of YouTube, except it *won't* go away.
And that's why this channel grew so fast and why YOURS does not.
Now, if you're on the front page of YouTube almost non-stop,
your channel will grow like this, too.
UNLESS you actually believe that it grew to this size because of sheer talent.
Also, YouTube has hidden the boldness feature, and even messed the view counters as well,
and it's crippled the views of the smaller channels. And yet, the large ones seem to be completely unaffected by these changes.
I know smaller partners on YouTube whose revenue has gone down dramatically since these changes took place.
Now we've come to these new changes that are happening this week.
It got leaked to the public that YouTube will now be cutting the original site
down from it's normal size to only 25% of what it is now.
So, in essence, this will do to the YouTube section of the site, what they've already done to the 'Top Rated' category.
Your total views will be cut in half, if not more.
So what does this mean?
Well, the first tab will now be 'Movies', the next tab will be 'TV Shows',
and the third tab will be 'Music', and the final (and last) tab will be 'Videos'.
That 'Videos' tab will represent the entire YouTube website as we know it.
So that means that all of YouTube will be stuck in that last tab as an afterthought.
Just like 'Top Rated' was, as a category.
So why is this being done?
It's because of bringing on the big boys like Disney.
Companies like Disney want ALL of the traffic pointing towards THEM.
And that's increasing THEIR revenue, at YOUR expense.
They have television networks, TV shows, and theme parks, but THAT is not enough.
These companies want to dominate YouTube as well.
One of the few places that a small independent channel could make their own market.
So how will this affect YOU?
It will utterly destroy your visibility on this website and make you almost nonexistent.
And if you follow the rate at which YouTube's been slowing down the growth of independent channels,
while promoting their megapartners, it won't be long before we go from THIS...
...to THIS....
They appear to want you off this website as a creator,
and they seem to only want you here as a consumer.
And THAT is why they STILL haven't fixed the DMCA problems here on YouTube.
It's been over seven months since this video was made,
and nothing has been changed yet, to my knowledge.
In the last twelve to eighteen months, YouTube has made change after change,
to reduce the independent channels' exposure here on YouTube.
And now with this next step, it will almost be complete.
So what do we do about it?
First, we need to come together and *demand* that this site remains lke it has been, with a few exceptions:
If they want to add movies, TV shows and music to YouTube,
they need to be ADDITIONS, and not take priority over the ENTIRE YouTube website.
Second: we want the ratings visible again, so we know what's crap and what's worth watching.
Third: we want the old, successful format back, where the 'Top Rated', 'Most Discussed', and 'Top Favorites' are visible again.
Like THIS.
Forth: we want you to drop the 'Popular' and 'Rising' pages from this website,
because they're worthless pages that you manipulate to grow channels like Fred.
Let the COMMUNITY decides what's popular,
because we're tired of YOU trying to tell US what's popular.
We also want the default page to be 'Top Rated', 'Most Discussed', or even the 'Most Viewed'.
Nothing else!
We want there to be five-hundred videos per section and not one-hundred anymore.
YouTube is *way* too big to wanna do a 'Top 100' now.
And finally: make the views count EQUALLY, and no demotion or censoring of videos,
like you've already done with several of my videos.
I have proof that YOU censor my channel and videos multiple times.
With screenshots AND full video.
So don't even TRY to deny it!
And assuming you don't believe me, check out THESE two videos on my channel.
They were both allowed to be flagged by YouTube.
[We review flagged videos twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
And in most cases, they're reviewed and acted on in under an hour.]
And they had NOTHING offensive in them whatsoever!
And take a look at the comments.
Many of them ask why these were even flagged in the first place.
And THIS video was removed *completely*.
So, if you just want to push us aside for companies like Disney,
we can start treating you like we did Viacom.
Because we all know that YOU were the real problem all along.
And stop using products like Google Chrome, the G1, or Google Earth,
literally, anything your name is on.
And I like FireFox 3 much better anyways.
Or better yet, we can start e-mailing companies that advertise with your website.
That's going to stop advertising with a company that promotes censorship in it's hypocritical business practices.
You say you're for free speech...
[We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view.]
...and yet, you've clearly censored my own videos as well as many others.
And we'll start by focusing on companies like Disney and Burger King to begin with.
I don't know who's been handling the business negotiations between YouTube and it's potential business partners,
but with how bad things went between Viacom, Warner Music Group,
and now they're blocking all the music to the UK, it's *clear* that because of your inability to handle your business properly,
we've had to pay for all your incompetence with business negotiations.
And now you're selling the YouTube users out to big companies like Disney.
And you think we're just gonna lie down and take it...
I don't think so!
Many of us have been on here for YEARS.
And a small piece of the site does belong to us.
We've *earned* it.
And we've helped make this site successful.
Early on, we all thought that Viacom was the problem.
Now we all know that YOU were the cause of most of these problems all along,
and now it's coming home to roost.
Large companies are taking their content somewhere else,
and now you're stabbing your most loyal users in the back with this next move.
For the ones that defend YouTube when they see this video,
keep in mind that we ALL loved this site at one time,
and that's why we're still here right now.
But the 'YouTube' that we all liked is gone,
and this site is the same in NAME ONLY.
'YouTube 2009' has NOTHING in common with 'YouTube 2006'.
If you agree with this video and want to support it,
download and re-upload it to YOUR channel,
and make sure you post it HERE as a Video Response.
Now if you want to feature this video on this channel, be my guest.
But we also have a petition that you can sign, along with a newsletter to keep you posted on the news regarding this change.
So if you want to try and help, throw a comment on this video,
even if it's something small like the word "SUPPORT" or "AGREE".
Also, rate and favour this video, and share with your friends.
And for you YouTube partners that think these changes won't affect you, you need to think again!
Even if you're in the top 50 'Most Subscribed (All Time)',
you think you're so big and successful that you can't be made irrelevant here on YouTube, then I have three letters for you:
M-T-V
They used to play music videos, and now look at what's it's become.
And many of you will also become afterthoughts when companies like Disney take over this website.
And you'd be a fool to think that you could compete with *that* type of content.
So, if you don't want to help and speak out and try to keep YouTube for the users, fine.
but DON'T say you weren't warned.
Your revenue's going to be cut drastically,
then in six months to a year, you're going to be thinking
"I wish I'd spoke up back then."
But then it's going to be too late.
So, my question to the large YouTube partners is...
"Are you going to join with the rest of the community
or sell us out, thinking that you're only coming along for the ride?"
Because they're gonna dump YOU and your channel in a heartbeat and make a full replacement in a matter of months,
if your videos don't sell advertisements well.
It's all about ad revenue.
And if you don't sell ads, then you'll be gone.
just like on TV, because that's what YouTube is trying to become.
Hell, these are the same types of people that almost cancelled 'Seinfeld' and 'Cheers' after their first season
and they actually DID cancel 'Family Guy'.
So if you think your channel is better than *those* shows, then you have nothing to worry about.
But if you don't, then your future here is in doubt, too.
And if you don't think that you can be replaced
it only took them twenty-six days after Fred's first video to get him one-hundred-thousand subscribers.
Now imagine how fast major TV shows will get to that same number.
And it probably took most of you TWO YEARS to reach said number, even if you're even THERE yet.
So don't let them fool you.
YOU have no future in this new HuluTube
So it's up to YOU to do something about it.