YouTube deleting accounts older than 2 years.

IceFord345

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattno...l-and-youtube-accounts-not-used-in-two-years/

YouTube Is Dying. Accounts with no activity for >2 years are going to be purged.
This is sad, there are so many old accounts which have cool videos and they haven't uploaded in a long time, and I guess they will disappear.
YouTube willingly destroying the library of alexandria to try to make a few dollars by selling the shelves the books were sitting on. They simply will not rest until every trace of the promise of the internet as a free repository of human knowledge is dead and the internet is just the thing you use to access shitty streaming services on. Someone should start archiving.
This is just sad.
 

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WKYK

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Yeah wow this sucks. Some of the best parts of youtube will probably be wiped out. It's weird, I used to love youtube for it's community back in 2016, and after youtube sanitized the fun out of that one of the only nice things left about the site is that it's a huge repository of human creation. If there was a band or artist who was active on youtube only in 2010, their work would still be up now, a decade later. But apparently even that is too much of a liability to yt, sucks to watch such a unique place become so soulless.
 
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pronoundisrespecter

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This sucks. I have so many cool older channels bookmarked that have been inactive for years, though their content is still informative for forbidden topics. I'll have to take some time to download all that good material and put it on the internet archive.

YouTube keeps getting more and more lame. It all started with the awful interface redesign
 
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SomaSpice

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This is infuriating. What I love, or maybe I should say loved, about Youtube was that it was sort of a repository of all human experience. Weird, inane, artistic, scammy, personal, corporate. It is all there, laid bare shoulder to shoulder. The works of deceased artists will be washed away, silly highschool video projects will be washed away, kids playing around and getting creative with video will be washed away. What will be protected? Institutional garbage? Fuck that.
 
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h00

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Trying to tell me that one of the largest corporations in the world can't afford to keep a (relative) handful of <=480p videos?
Yeah this is not at all about cutting costs or "security". It's about deleting the past.

Even on youtube, we used to be a real internet. An internet with soul.

I'm going to have to go through my old playlists and archive some channels. Sucks that everything is so ephemeral.
I understand MySpace's accident, or imageshacks or imgurs deletion of old images (thats the business model). But when even the colossals purge their past, nothing is safe.

Self-host or bust, share over torrent.
 
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i see. "this was always the case", deleting the past WE long for. "you are delusional".
 
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Pseudiom

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Always back up your material, always have a copy of your favorites, and always remember Google-Alphabet has been performing lingchi since they hard blocked Pirate Bay from Google Search results.

Alphabet-Google has already scrambled to clarify they "won't be deleting YouTube videos", but that seems fundamentally contrary to other statements they've put out. Rolling Stone said, "A representative from Google clarified to Rolling Stone that the policy update does not include plans to delete accounts with YouTube videos." The YouTube "Creator Liaison" is already saying YouTube (no idea about Google overall) has no plans to delete YouTube content. Notice the weasel words of "we may delete the accounts and content" in this statement and any other I've seen so far. There seems to be no clear idea about what will actually be deleted outside dummy accounts that were created and used once—which, I personally believe, have just as much right to exist.

Under this policy, it is possible Me at the zoo could be removed. How is activity measured and content weighed against the sword of deletion?
jawed.png

This could just be conflict between the heads of the hydra though. I've never seen Alphabet-Google pull off any YouTube overhaul well. Outside the issues with YouTube, the policy is also fundamentally bad if you don't believe outright malicious. There are plenty of legitimate reasons someone would not be able to access their account for far longer than two years. At sea or doing charity work in some distance place? Better have a connection because Alphabet-Google (and you should really call this modern chimera Alphabet-Google because it was subsumed) says screw you! In a coma or simply unreachable? You're going to need to assign an executor for your Google account. YouTube's entire purpose is as an archive with a small upper current of recent content that sinks down into the archive.

Present Social Media is ultimately interested in the construction of the "eternal present" that is always malleable. The only objective is a slurry of content that coheres to the current vogue. Twitter and Instagram both purposefully destroyed chronological feeds for that reason. There are of course many reasons for that, but it is ultimately easier for a website to manicure their reputation and userbase if they are just a feed of ephemeral content. Anything on it can be removed and quickly replaced before anyone can make note of it. The purpose is to eliminate any historical buildup that might produce a digital cultural bubble or community. Remember when you could PM people directly on YouTube? Remember channel backgrounds? Remember reply videos? You can now no longer sort by oldest videos because, as Alphabet-Google seems to believe, you only need the NOW videos on TRENDING (also, as everyone knows, heavily moderated and curated).

I remember Rusty Cage, I believe, once joked that, if they could get away with it, Alphabet-Google would just replace YouTube with a feed of flashing colors with ads on it. If they could, they would.

Darkling Down all the way: "For the fun or for the money / For the fuck of it or just because"
 
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Pink Fluffy Cat

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andreixyz

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you'll probably be able to find some of it on vidlii. the site seems to be aiming for that older YouTube vibe and the users have more or less gone with it.
you're replacing a for-profit company with another for-profit company.

self host, archive, teach others to self host.
 

IceFord345

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YouTube has had this long obsession with self destruction and cultural erasure, it can't get enough of sawing off its own limbs. Ever since the first ad-pocalypse YouTube has been not a space for creators but instead for constant advertisements. If you can't get 40 bajillion views doing toy unboxings, then you have to plug a patreon or VPN or shitty mobile gatcha game for gambling addicts. The only reason that YouTube is staying afloat in any way is because of it's clout and the abusive relationship it's formed with its creators.
 
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SolidStateSurvivor

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Where's Nasim Aghdam when you need her?

you're replacing a for-profit company with another for-profit company.

self host, archive, teach others to self host.
VidLii is essentially a passion project by the site's owner, they don't even have ads on the site. But yes having local backups is always recommended.
 
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Brapuccino

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you're replacing a for-profit company with another for-profit company.

self host, archive, teach others to self host.
I'm not replacing anything with anything. I'm saying I've seen some old videos from YouTube posted on vidlii so if there's something you can't find on YouTube it's worth having a look in there.
 

Orlando Smooth

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Assuming that Google is being truthful in saying that not a single video will be deleted, just old accounts that have no activity for >2 years, think about the extent to which this will crater the subscriber counts of some channels. Especially channels that have been around for a long time. I never use socialblade because frankly I don't give a shit about anyone's numbers, but once this happens it would be interesting to see who the biggest losers are. I've heard some YouTubers moan over the years that only X% of their subscribers actually watch their videos. They'll cope and blame the algorithm, notification settings, censorship, etc., but I've always assumed it was just because they had bloated sub counts from inactive users like this. Guess we'll find out.
 
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Boxerdog

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you're replacing a for-profit company with another for-profit company.

self host, archive, teach others to self host.
I'm not replacing anything with anything. I'm saying I've seen some old videos from YouTube posted on vidlii so if there's something you can't find on YouTube it's worth having a look in there.

Reminder that vidlii its owned by kuz (yes that kuz).

On topic:

Youtube had its day, i would actually prefer they do that and that people realize that their own nothing that its posted there. If they wanted to they could delete any mildly popular youtuber and leave them without income after they spend possibly thousands in equipment.
 
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