InRange TV's New Partnership

[barnbwt]

So they appear to be giving up on Youtube at last and will be hosting at least some videos on PornHub. Maybe not the Youtube alternative we need, but perhaps the one we deserve.

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it." --John Gilmore

Evidently the service has offered hosting to a number of non-explicit but nonetheless controversial content makers over the years. In a sense, it makes sense, and is actually fitting (Operation Chokepoint lumped gun industry businesses in with strip clubs & the like). These guys are truly at the forefront of video hosting, if you consider the volume of data they deal in and the number of customers, and the fact they clearly have no hangups hosting controversial topics against social pressure makes them highly unlikely to play the censorship games that 'legitimate' Big Data firms have begun to indulge in at an increasing rate. I believe they even own their own server farms, so there is no chance of them being shut down by that avenue save by government action (the infamous 'storm front' neo-nazi-ish website was abruptly shut down & deleted by the company that owned the servers hosting their content)

*A little background for the unaware; Facebook and Youtube have recently been more or less purging very prolific and popular gun-related pages, as their front on the 'culture war' against gunowners. It started with 'demonetization' where content creators who make videos for a living were denied the revenue for their work that was previously agreed upon, simply because it was gun related. Now it has progressed to outright censorship, with videos being deleted and video channels being shut down & all past videos deleted under a rapidly broadening criteria. Facebook has effectively just put out rules that could ban anything that even depicts 'assault weapons' or high capacity magazines. Needless to say, the rules will be unequally enforced, and just as politically motivated as they have been.

I'm still hoping this is an early April Fools' joke, or some kind of prank, but it is logical enough that it makes more sense than trying to continue using Youtube/etc to promote our interests under ever tighter controls. Satire is truly impossible, my fellow 'ammosexuals.'


From the InRange Facebook;

"Ask YouTube for clarification..."

"Contact YouTube and work with them on..."

This, and other comments like it, have been bouncing around in regards to the "new" YouTube firearms related content policies.

Clearly a lot of the audience doesn't understand how our relationship with YouTube works.

Here's a breakdown from a content creator's perspective:

You make content we hope people will like.
You initially put it on YouTube alternatives. No one comes.
You give up and put it on YouTube and start having success.
YouTube decides to start flagging content and demonetizing content as a control tool.
You again put content on YouTube alternative sites except now you let the viewers know that they should go there instead.
No one goes. In fact, you get angry messages about it telling you to stop promoting other sites.
YouTube starts blocking content, deleting content, eradicating entire channels.
You again promote alternative locations for content distribution.
No one goes.
YouTube puts out a new policy that is so broad in scope that it could be used to ban any firearms related content entirely and people suggest that we "contact YouTube".

I'm not sure if that's funny or sad, but here's the reality about YouTube:
*************************************************
YOU ARE NOT THEIR CUSTOMER.
The corporate old media oligarchy pulls the strings and the companies purchasing ads are their customer.

You're just there so they can plug advertising into your brain and content creators are the "bait".

*************************************************
CULTURE WAR.
The people who control the distribution of information control the narrative and thus shape the culture - globally.

We, as in *all of us*, have given a small number of nation state sized corporations control over the general narrative and control over the conversation.

The internet provides the tools for decentralization...if we're willing to use them...which we apparently are not.

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THE INTERNET IS THE PUBLIC SPACE.
In the olde days, communities were small. The public space was the open square wherein you could truly stand on a soap box and make a point.

The community now is global. It is the whole planet. We are all citizens of this digital world, even if you try (or want) to wilfilly ignore that reality.

Private corporations own all of the "public land" on the internet that the average population aggregates in.

They dictate the rules and thus we abide because we're leveraging old concepts of private ownership over a place that doesn't coexist with that reality in a positive nor productive way for our future, our freedom our anyone's intellectual property.

*************************************************
SUMMARY.
There is no contacting YouTube, regardless of being a creator or not.
There is no negotiating with this oligarchy, they have made their goals *very clear*.

The answer is crowd based funding and decentralization of content distribution in tandem with a consumer base that is willing to wrestle that control back.

It is possible, but we have to do it. It is not on the content creators alone, we need the audience to come along.

~Karl

Hopefully we can keep this discussion classy & not act like a bunch of 12 year olds (even if some of us are 12 year olds). It's a serious topic, and of serious importance; access to gun content via social media is why we're all here, after all, and is the primary driving force behind the resurgence of the gun hobby/movement since the Assault Weapons Ban of '94 (well, that & video games)

 

[Caliper_Mi]

How was I not already following their Facebook?

Philosophically, YouTube is a private site and free to censor their content as they wish. We can call them hypocrites, but I hate to start making arguments that we should compel someone to host content that they do not agree with. It is, after all, their web site.

While InRange hosting on PH will reduce the number of sites I visit, I fear it will limit my ability to watch their videos in certain venues. Whatever happened to Full30? No app for that site yet, although more of the "Guntubers" have been posting videos recently. I'd provide more traffic to Full30 and get further away from anything Google if possible.

 

[Equestrian]

Karl and Ian both seem to be pretty smart guys. YouTube is quickly getting into some sticky territory playing censor lately. While I don't think moving content to pornogrphy serves as a viable means of distribution it certainly opens up some interesting thought questions. This is capitalism trying to function, these guys produce a good product (video content) that people want and are getting squeezed a bit trying to distribute it. With sites like patreon Google ad money isn't tying people to YouTube anymore. It just becomes a question of weather easy - the ubiquitous YouTube or good quality content that's harder to find wins out

 

[barnbwt]

If they get enough content & traffic, I could see them opening a parallel non-explicit marketing arm that would basically fill the void Youtube is creating. Obviously right now the ads are, well, Porn ads, so there is no such segregation.

The problem with Full30 is they aren't a multibillion dollar marketing giant, with a decade of connections & experience. Full30 has few advertisers and little rep, which in the ad game means content makers don't get much buck for their bang (which is why Ian/etc have to supplement using Patreon to keep their channels alive). Unlike cat videos and Worldstar, gun content is rather expensive to produce, which makes the low-paying Youtube practices increasingly difficult to work under.

 

[1KPerDay]

So they appear to be giving up on Youtube at last and will be hosting at least some videos on PornHub.

seriously? Is this for real??

 

[barnbwt]

Appears to be

 

[1KPerDay]

What a sad state of affairs.

 

[Deanimator]

YouTube has the right to control their content.

They have NO right to anyone's patronage.

 

[Robert]

This isn't really that on topic. A private site can limit whatever they want, within the law, and we can choose not to visit them.