#got youtube recommended a video essay

[planefood]

Mine (like everyone elses) youtube recommended has been so shit lately i've been getting those art commentary videos with like a twitter drama screenshot in the thumbnail and titles like: "woke liberal mob forcibly transgenders baby yoda" or "artist draws a white anime twink, gets disembowled live on camera by lefties (real)" and it feels like i've been teleported back in time to the worst era possible but all the videos were made in the past 6 months or so and its so fucking... jarring. Draw a crudely drawn fat my hero academia character and these motherfuckers will make videos about you for the next 2 years

[heartshapedcreaturefromcriptoon]

The only thing "insufferable" here is some shit ass muppit danny phantom v-tuber making a two hour long video calling vivziepops female characters "insufferable" and then having the goddamn audacity to lump goddamn fucking Star Butterfly in with the likes of Katara and Naruto as if those two insufferable weeb shits are even remotely on my girls level...

Oh and the fact that we as fans need to subjected to perceiving the existence of some insufferable attempt at a video essay on "Problematic Media" now in the related videos, every single fucking time we click on a vivziepop video or literally right after one ends....

Oh. and then sometimes just being jump scared by this insufferable leprechaun's asshole:

Your neo nazi gamer simping, crusty misogynistic arse has no place here, man! Let the girlypops make fanart if they want to! It's for them and not you!

[lemonaficionado]

For those wondering why Brennan Lee Mulligan rightfully makes modern-day capitalism the true villain of his campaigns, here's a 25 minute-long video essay on the 2005-released Blue Sky Studios film Robots.

[snow-and-saltea]

yesterday i spent 45 minutes of my life watching a video essay criticising the use of cheap shock values and crossing of taboos for a video game and i went from "he has a point even if he's explaining it in a really inflammatory way" to "oh umm... i can see how he thinks that way even if i don't agree" to "oh this guy's just straight up using people on tumblr as material for an audience to get mad at like other outdated people on the internet. nvm he's just an asshole"

[nickbutnodick]

is it just me or is the youtube algorithim getting worse

[listen-to-the-inner-walrus]

That's very fair. I'm just forever haunted by pop psychology.

had a dream all of my friends were telling me to date a guy and then he turned out to be like a very fucked up scary arsonist. which could mean nothing (it means nothing, that's how dreams work)

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

Silent Hill 2 is the greatest game I don't think I can unconditionally recommend to people. Because it is amazing, but its also about trauma, guilt, abuse (of adults and children) and how unhealed, festering harm perpetuates itself onto innocent bystanders. A play-through of it is a rough ride emotionally.

It also features this adorable little scamp with the excellent points.

Now, if you're at all familiar with Silent Hill 2 you're probably very well informed on what this particular meme relates to. But if you're not, and you want a primer - Dead Domain has created a video pointing out the absurdity of this particular fiasco.

This was, of course, followed up when trailer seasons came around and Naughty Dog released a trailer than seemed to depict a woman who didn't care for gender conformity, and CD Projekt trailer that indicates, let me check my notes... Ciri's appearance has changed slightly as she's grown older - also she's probably going to be the protagonist of the next game, as all variations of The Witcher always build to. This has lead to some truly amazing fan art, and also the greatest possible observation by @dyingnome

And this isn't a surprise to anyone who follows these conversations, I think it's worth talking about because certain events globally have emboldened these types (who always seem to be gulible enough to pay for a blue tick on X nee Twitter) - leading to them trying to shout out all other conversation on the medium. We are, in fact, at the point where they're admitting they are Nazis who don't play games.

Truly we have never had more confirmation that the people who aggressively campaign for a standard of cartoonishly over-sexualized as the baseline for female characters do so not out of a love of gaming, but rather because of overwhelming indifference to a medium they don't participate in.

@verilybitchie has recently just released an essay that focuses initially on disappointment with current trans, particularly non-binary, options in games, but also covers how we got there in terms of certain genres of games having been historically unwilling to to let go the male gaze.

This, of course, is not an excuse for the self-identifying Nazis etc, but goes a long way in explaining why your more normal friends might have a confused reaction, and highlights the kinds of issues in the industry that are still unaddressed.

Also, in case you're the sort of person who needs to hear it from a middle-aged or older white man:

-wincenworks

DeadDomain's YouTube | All dyingnome's links | VerilyBitchie's YouTube

[nyancrimew]

since this is currently kind of topical i feel like i should really recommend this Extremely good queer media analysis video essay by a small trans youtuber that i fortunately just got recommended to me by youtube! very well made and extremely thoughtful

go give it a watch!!!

[ohnoitstbskyen]

PINNED POST, FAQ, INFORMATION

Hi, I'm TBSkyen. I make videos on YouTube sometimes. This is my main tumblr blog, the "brand" blog as it were, where I maintain my Social Media Presence™ on this site.

I use the ironic ™ to signal my personal discomfort with the work of being a minor media personality even while I still do that work and make a living off it.

I have a sideblog called @tbposting, mostly for shitposts and reblogs, and in my opinion I have pretty darn good taste in reblogs, so you can follow that if you want. It's also where I'll do random personal posting, microblogging, etc.

This main blog is primarily for 1) answering asks, and 2) posting my Original Content™, usually my main channel videos, as well as the occasional longer essay or critique. Sometimes I'll reblog an interesting or useful thing, or boost a friend's work, but I try to keep the spam to a minimum.

---

About Me

I am a thirtysomething content creator whose primary expertise is character design.

I have a bachelor's degree in English, never finished my master's, did most of a bachelor's degree in history, and that's it. These are my academic qualifications, no more and no less.

My professional experience is primarily being a freelancer and self-employed creator. I spent the better part of a decade working as a commission artist, running webcomics, drawing fanart, and the occasional animation work and not safe for work commissions, and I have at this point a decade of experience and self-study in the subjects I cover. I have also done online community management for, god help me, almost twenty years, so that's a part of my skillset I'll never escape.

I do not have any particular professional creative industry experience, although given what I hear from my professional friends, sometimes that seems like a blessing.

Please maintain a critical distance when engaging with my work. I am a critic. My work is very rarely meant to be taken as authoritative or didactic, and when it is, I will make it clear in my writing. Just because I speak with confidence doesn't mean I am trying to assert objective truth.

---

TAGS (to follow, or filter)

#tbanswers is the tag for every single ask I answer on this blog

#tb reblog is the tag for reblogs

#tb essay is for the occasional longer essay or critical writing

#tbvideos is for my videos and Content™

#tb recommends is for the occasional recommendation of a video essay or other creator

Yes, I know the spaces are inconsistent. It's not on purpose, I just typed them in haphazardly when I started using them and it's stuck.

---

FAQ (before you ask)

Q: Will you ever do a video about ____ ? A: The answer to this question is almost universally "maybe someday, if I have time, and if I feel I have anything worthwhile to say." And the more realistic answer is "no, because I already have far too much on my plate and I have burned myself out too many times." In general, please don't ask me this question, I will most likely not answer it because I have given the same answer a thousand times, but I still feel guilty about not answering them.

Q: Will you continue your series of videos about ____ ? A: Yes! I will continue the let's plays I started, I will finish the Boss Designs series, I will do another What's the Deal With, I will do more shorts about the subjects I've got going on. The main obstacle is, again, my tendency to overload myself.

Q: Do you have a PO box? Can I send you something? A: Not yet, but I'm looking into it. It may be a while before I get it set up.

Q: Do you have merchandise? A: A little bit, yes, at tbskyen.redbubble.com.

Q: What's your opinion on [game/movie/comic/book/etc]? A: I struggle to answer very open, broad questions like this. Most things I have opinions about, I have multiple opinions, and different ones depending on the perspective and specific element in question. I'm much more likely to answer specific, bounded questions.

Q: Can I send you fanart? A: PLEASE. Askbox, tag me on bluesky, send it to my email! I love seeing every piece of it!

Q: Why do you never appear on camera? A: A forest witch cursed me to look not quite but ALMOST like Paul Giamatti in all photos and videos ever taken of me, and his laywers sent me a cease-and-desist.

Q: Are you gay/straight/bi/other? A: The decision I've made for myself, at least for this period of my life, is that privacy is precious, and once given up can never be reclaimed on the internet. I am open about being aromantic (not asexual), because it's a sometimes invisible and underdiscussed identity, and I know it would have helped me a lot to see someone speak about it when I was younger.

The rest of it is for me to know, and for you to speculate about, although preferably somewhere I can't see it. I accept that this is a part of being a Personality, but it still feels weird, y'know?

Q: Is it weird if I find your voice kinda hot? A: I've put a lot of work into developing this voice and making it nice to listen to, so that's not weird at all and I find it quite complimentary, thank you.

I generally don't mind people doing flirty/thirsty posting about or at me, just so long as we all understand that 1) you should never give a stranger like me information which could be used to harm you. Nicer-seeming YouTubers than me have turned out to be monsters.

And 2) it will never go beyond playful online flirtiness. I like to fluster my live chat, I'll flirt back in an ask or a post maybe, but I am not flirting with you, or inviting any kind of closer intimacy with you, the person I responded to.

Think of me like a comedian doing crowd-work at a show - you can chat to me in the bar after the show, but when I asked you what you do for work I wasn't looking for a personal connection, I was doing my work as an entertainer. Please no sending me nudes, or propositions, or confession letters in my email inbox. We are strangers, and I am always performing a persona in public.

[read-marx-and-lenin]

Do you have any video essay recommendations? I find them more accessible for my brain than books but I haven’t found many good commie ones to dive into more theory. Tysm!!

I'm not a huge video essay person, but I do spend a lot of time on YouTube, so here are some of the communist creators I know about. While there are a lot of "leftist" creators out there, I'll be focusing on creators who are on the Marxist side of things.

Hakim is probably one of the bigger explicitly communist creators out there, and while I haven't seen every one of his videos, the ones I've watched have been pretty good.

Fellow Traveller is an underrated one, and while the quality of his videos is a bit scattershot IMO, he does some good deep dives into the history of various socialist nations.

revolutionaryth0t is a newer channel that I found out about recently, and so far her videos have been pretty high-quality for a channel that's less than a year old.

Luna Oi is a Vietnamese Youtuber who primarily focuses on presenting information about Vietnam for a Western audience. She's also got an ongoing translation project for translating Vietnamese dialectical materialism textbooks into English, with the first book already available for purchase or free digital download.

azureScapegoat isn't very active these days, but his videos on Cuba in particular were very informative for me when I was first "unlearning" capitalist propaganda.

Even less active, DPRK News Room is the channel that produced the documentary "Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul" that you will see me recommending all the time, and while they have on average maybe one video a year, they have made some very good ones.

And on the subject of the DPRK, while this channel isn't explicitly communist and tends to avoid politics, DPRK Explained is a high-quality source for general information about the DPRK that avoids a lot of the anti-DPRK bias that a lot of Western sources tend to have. If you simply want to learn basic facts about DPRK history and DPRK culture without the sensationalism, you should check them out.

If anyone else has any suggestions or wants to criticize any of the channels I've mentioned, feel free to leave a note.

[fatliterature]

The Streamer

Something was happening to Carlos. 

Before it began, he was an early 20s hoodie-wearing streamer boy. See his tub of protein powder on the shelf behind him, his laundry basket in the corner, his gym bottle reflecting the blue LED lights of his room. He had all the gear, the lights, the mic, a good brb animation, his subscriber count wasn’t crazy but he was happy with his progress. What is uppp guys uhhhhhh I’m gonna stream some Fortnite tonight guys… but I also wanna watch some stupid videos on YouTube maybe? See his face framed by his hood. He’s cute, he has big dark eyes and thick eyebrows, lots of potential. This is the night he makes a mistake. Okay okay okay lemme get up my YouTube okay I have uhhhh. He shares his screen with the viewers. There is a kind of guilty pleasure in seeing a streamer’s screen shared for a few seconds, a weird wallpaper, a messy desktop, how many notifications? He opens the browser and brings up YouTube. It’s the usual recommended videos, they look like yours, games, video essays, meme compilations. But what’s that? The bottom right hand corner. There is a recommended video. It’s on his ‘watch again’ list. The screen changes but it’s too late. The chat starts to react. Uhhhhh what are you all talking about? There’s a long pause. Belly play video. Belly play video. Bro…. Belly play video? WTF LMAOOOOOOOOO. Bro is watching belly play videos whatttt. OMG. No. No, no, no, no. Chill. Someone uhhhh somebody sent that to me as a joke chat literally chill. It’s fine. They’ll move on. They’ll forget it. Jesus why would the algorithm do him dirty like this. Last time he ever shares his screen on his YouTube homepage. Plus, it was TRUE, somebody had sent him it as a joke, and he had loved it, he’d laughed and watched it again, and again, and again. Each time laughing less, each time getting a little quieter, totally perplexed, and… curious. OKAY guys, we’re gonna go to Fortnite. He thinks the moment is forgotten. But someone watching him won’t forget. 

It’s a few months later. And chat is driving him crazy. He had started eating on stream, just snacks and whatever. But someone in the chat was making it into a thing. 600 calories! The first time they did it he barely noticed. But the next time he ate… 450 calories! Was that the same person in the chat? 1800 calories!!! OMG yesss! Okay, so every time he ate something, they were gonna comment the amount of calories it had, kind of a weird joke. Also, what the fuck, this meal has 1800 calories? He finished his soda. 400 more calories! Keep it up king! Fuck. Something about this was making his brain feel funny. Chat why is everyone calorie counting me? Let me live! He looked away from his game for a second and read the chat. We love it king. You should eat more. Everyone spam 5000 CALORIE GOAL in the chat right NOW. 5000 calorie goal!! 5000 calorie goal king Carlos!! You can do it! BANG! He looked back at his game. Game over. You placed #80th. Fuck! How long had he been staring at those words? Alright guys, clearly I suck at this game tonight. His heart beat a little faster. You wanna see me reach 5000 calories by the end of the stream? Get me to 5000 subscribers! Then maybe I’ll think about it you fucking weirdos. 

It’s a few months later again. This is where it’s safe to say, something was happening to Carlos. He tried not to think about it too much. His audience of subscribers had grown, a lot. And they seemed to be in on the joke. It was a joke by the way, the calorie counter at the top of the screen, which had made the chat go WILD when he first put it up to make them laugh. Carlos found that the more he leaned into the joke, the more his subscribers grew. The more he did what they wanted, the more they came back for more. The more he ate, the bigger he got. And he had definitely gotten bigger. I mean chat, look at me, you’ve made me blow up it’s not even funny, I don’t move off this chair and you want me to RAISE the daily calorie goal are you insane? He jiggled a little when he laughed. His brain felt funny a lot of the time now, it made him feel kind of foggy, to play along with this. But what was he doing? He had actually gained weight… and he had yes, gained a lot of subscribers too. And they loved it, they loved it more than the games he was streaming. His breathing got a little faster. What if my subscriber count just kept getting bigger? What if I kept it up? Could this be like, my gimmick? I just let my chat decide how big…. His breathing got a lot faster. Up until this point, he had denied the semi erection that happened every time he started thinking like this. He tried not to think about it too much. But he wanted those subscribers, he wanted his platform to grow… he wanted…to grow. What? Chat I think you guys are messing with my head. A long pause. We just want you to be who you truly are - Calorie Carlos! Omg yes. Calorie Carlos… our fat streamer boy. Carlos felt dizzy. Calorie Carlos! Our growing streamer pig lmaoooo. Okay, his erection wasn’t going away. What the fuck was happening. He tried not to think about it, as he reached for the keyboard. He tried not to think about it, as he raised the daily calorie counter to 6000 a day, he tried not to think about it, as he lifted his hoodie, jiggled his belly for the camera, and changed his name to Calorie_Carlos. 

It’s a year later. The games Carlos plays are almost irrelevant. The calorie counter glows in the corner of the screen, it makes sounds and animates as it tracks his every meal, and every time it updates the chat goes wild. The more he gave in, the more he shared his growing belly and showed himself eating, the more every stream filled with responses. Encouragement. Looking good Calorie Carlos! Looking BIG. Keep growing! This changed the landscape of his chat. It…. turned him on, it KEPT him turned on. And eventually it began to change the landscape of his brain. Good streamer. Good piggy. Never stop. He couldn’t get away from it. The hazy brain fog that happened when he read these things, it became how he spent most of his days. Show your belly in the next 1000 calories king. Good fat boy! Eat more for us. What effect did this have on Carlos? He stopped worrying about why this turned him on, the validation he received from so many subscribers meant his mind was filled with encouragement and gluttony, it struggled to find space for anything else. His personality began to change. See his tubs of ice cream on the desks around him, his neglected gym gear pushed into the corner and hidden under empty pizza boxes, his 2 litre bottles of soda reflecting the pink LED lights of his room. He is Calorie Carlos. What is upppp guys uhhhh URPP tonight I’m getting a HUGE fast food order and I’m gonna rate it all as I eat it, I know you all wanna see this massive belly when it’s full ha! Well, you’ll just have to keep watching.

[buskingalbatross]

AmazingPhil channel marathon musings

during a pre-show q&a back in november, in response to a question about what show someone should binge next, dan said they should watch all of the AmazingPhil channel from the start. I was not the person who asked this (nor was I at this show), but regardless I did decide I wanted to take dan’s suggestion seriously. just a few days ago, I finished watching all of AmazingPhil in chronological order. and now i really want to talk about what it was like and why I would recommend marathoning his channel to pretty much anyone—because it was a blast.

I watched all of the 369 currently public AmazingPhil videos over the course of 35 days, which is from my perspective a pretty casual marathon. 369/35 = roughly 11 videos a day, though due to algorithm and monetization policy stuff, phil’s videos became longer in duration around 2015-2016; for many years, most of his videos were around 4 minutes long or less, which for me meant that early on in this marathon I was watching more videos per day, and then later on my pace slowed. phil’s videos with dan are usually pretty long as well, so if I had something like a baking video or wdapteo up next to watch, I might have only watched one or two videos that day. 

unsurprisingly, watching all of phil’s videos in order in a relatively short span of time gave me a really cool perspective on how phil has grown as a person and as a YouTuber over the past eighteen years. surprising to me, though, was how I felt like watching his channel in such a linear way felt a bit like coming to know who phil is for the very first time, again. despite having watched his videos for over a decade, i feel like i understand his style and creativity and personality more fully, and in general better, than I did before. watching 2007 phil become 2009 phil become 2011 phil and so on in the span of a few days or a week meant seeing clearly how his sense of humor evolved, how his editing and creativity developed, how his perspectives on life and relationship with his audience shifted. much as when you binge an entire tv or book series and immediately afterwards feel like you’re brimming with information, and have all the context, that’s sort of how I felt. and it was new for me because I’d never done that with phil’s content before—I’d never followed the course of his life the way you might a fictional character’s. 

AmazingPhil is also an incredible capsule of 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s Western internet culture, obviously. it’s like an anthropologist from the future with a very hyperspecific thesis topic’s dream treasure horde. what a person can learn about one corner of the world, and one corner of society, from AmazingPhil’s videos is, well, a lot. I see so much cultural value in AmazingPhil, it’s insane. his videos are not sketches, essays, and commentaries on society and life like Dan’s, but I’d make the argument (as I’m sure most of you would) that they’re just as important and critical to helping people understand themselves and the world they live in. and the kind of people they want to be, too, perhaps.

there were also certain videos that stuck with me more than they had in the past. I discovered new favorite videos and videos that I considered more interesting than I previously had. (I tried just now to make a list of some of these but it rapidly got too long, so instead I’ll restrict myself to mentioning only one, a new favorite, from 2021: “I Got Catfished.” - which i think is a fantastic example of phil’s storytelling style). dnp have both said before that they view life as a performance – and phil is without a sliver of doubt a magical and incredible performer. he knows so well how to tell stories with words, pacing, structures, and effects that are hilarious and entertaining; he turns anecdotes from his life into these amazing whimsical pieces of art made in a way no other person has ever made things. YouTube has from the beginning presented him with the perfect way to be creative in a way that suits him. and more than that, i found that it was never even remotely unpleasant to watch his videos every day for over a month. there is simply not an AmazingPhil video that doesn’t bring me joy and make me sit there smiling like a fool. my cheek muscles are probably stronger than they were 35 days ago. 

so, to you I say, go: watch all of AmazingPhil, draw your own conclusions from his current oeuvre and deepen your parasocial relationship with Phil Lester in ways you cannot yet comprehend. I really recommend. 

(final notes: one side effect of watching all of phil’s videos was being unexpectedly yet thoroughly convinced he does indeed possess psychic talents. even though i don’t believe in magical anything, i do now believe phil lester inherited prescience from his grandmother.) 

(also dan is completely right that every time phil changes his hair, he regenerates into an entirely new man.)

(also also I made an AmazingPhil spotify playlist that is highly specific to my music tastes but that anyone is welcome to listen to all the same) ✨🐗💙🥱

[gffa]

I don't usually watch pretty much any Star Wars YouTube video essays because I like myself far too much to put myself through that kind of torture, but I watched one from a YouTuber I regularly watch and suddenly my recommendations were full of videos about Why The Acolyte Was The Worst Star Wars Show Ever and, given my complicated feelings on the show, I couldn't resist my curiosity, so I watched a handful. It's been an interesting experience. I agree with some criticisms that were pretty universal (the characters did things because the plot demanded it, not because they felt like organic decisions) and disagreed with others (Mae's decision to prioritize Osha over the Sith made perfect sense to me), but it was a glimpse into an area of fandom I don't usually go into and the kind of arguments formulated and how they present their views. The feeling I was left with is that there's a lot of really salient points being made, but also that I really felt like a lot of people got swept up in how much they hated the show that they refused to admit that some stuff was actually fine, even beyond that the lightsaber fights were loved by the vast majority. It's just a constant search for more things to be mad about or say were dogshit when there's already plenty to work with. I didn't really feel the need to defend the show or jump on the hater bandwagon and I think that's the two biggest lessons for me: 1. Ultimately, there were things I liked and things I didn't like, but after a week out from the finale, I can't really muster up the energy to get into the cage match myself. 2. Star Wars YouTube essays make me feel nothing, I was so bored, where's the pizzazz, where's the passion for loving something even when you're mad about a disappointing show, where's the spark?

[chrisrin]

hi so i got diagnosed with adhd like 6 months ago after continuously insistently denying i had it to everyone who swore up and down that i did have it. then a psychiatrist was "yeah you have it bro" and i've been re-evaluating everything in my life. anyways. that's context, and with that re-evaluating i've realized something about my hyperfixations and i want to know if:

a) people with adhd relate to it. b) how do you. deal with this. because i think it's somewhat ruining how i interact with media.

anyways, under the read more ->

i've come to realize a pattern with media i consume that i get fixated on. typically this happens with longer media. so stuff like homestuck, and currently with one piece. stuff that i cant binge in an evening or two. (i am on chapter 170 of one piece at the moment of writing this, i read 40 chapters yesterday)

i obviously can't be consuming the new piece of media i'm into every second of my day, in fact, that sounds exhausting.

i have other things i need to get done and, in fact, i NEED to be doing other things because even with something i'm hyperfixated on, my brain will get bored and needs to bounce off other types content. however what this does mean is that every thought i have IS still hyperfixated on the piece of media which means i will still seek out that content even if it's not me reading the original source material.

what this MEANS is that i have all these video essays recommended to me about one piece because youtube has caught on that i am liking and enjoying ONE PIECE (same with twitter. my entire twitter for you page is completely consumed by one piece. i dont know who 2/3rds of these people are please im still in alabasta what is happening) and i Want to Watch them all but i'm in the stage rn where Everything Is A Spoiler so i CANT watch the video essays so ill instead watch them RIGHT UP UNTIL im in the danger zone of being spoiled (sometimes actually risking/getting spoiled) or watching random out of context one piece clips and my one piece friends are all telling me i am just like icarus and flying too close to the sun but i also feel like i can't help the compulsion in some ways? it also means i cannot help but talk about it in every conversation i have with everyone but that seems like, minorly connected to all this.

it's crazy because in my head this is the Worst Stage of the hyperfixation, where i can Only consume the media itself and not all the fan stuff around it. but that's Insane because this should be the best time because i'm literally experiencing the cool media i like for the first time. i feel insane. does anyone else relate to this. how do you deal with it?

[jlcardenas]

NaNoWriMo: Screw the Company, Keep Writing

Ever since NaNoWriMo made their statement on AI I knew I was most likely not going to be participating in their program this year. To clarify, I will still be participating in National Novel Writing  Month this year, but not through the NaNoWriMo website itself. Which I’m sure many people do in the first place because the website has been a mess for years. 

I have participated in NaNoWriMo through the website for a few years now, joining their community of writers and creatives. I’m sad that I will not have as easy of a place to make these connections, but I strongly believe anyone who still has an account on the website should delete it immediately. There are plenty of other places to make connections with writers that I will be looking into and I hope everyone else does too.

My decision to stay away from the website stemmed from their odd nonanswer statement about using AI as a writing tool. So I went on YouTube to see how many other people were going to be staying away from the website too, and what I found shocked me. NaNoWriMo, the organization, should have been shut down years ago and the leaders should have to answer for their crimes against humanity. And I’m only very slightly exaggerating here.

I found multiple videos and blogs talking about the NaNoWriMo controversies but none broke them all down as well as the YouTuber SAVY WRITES BOOKS. If you want to watch a long video essay that breaks it down phenomenally with interviews and insider knowledge I would recommend checking out their video on the subject it is where I got most of the information.

NaNoWriMo Cares More About Its Sponsors Than Its Writers

There are multiple instances where the company chose its wallet over its writers. 

During one of their contests, they promised a partnership with another website that also made their own promises to get the contest winner's book published. This was a complete scam. Not a single one of the winners got published through the sponsored website, and the website itself was the subject of scrutiny. 

It made promises that were impossible to keep. No website that promises to get your book published through a big publishing company actually has the power to achieve that. By accepting this sponsorship without vetting its credibility, NaNoWriMo proved it only cared about the dollar amount of the deal.

NaNoWriMo has another sponsorship that has caused a lot of controversies recently. This one is with ProWritingAid, a tool that promises to help cure your writer's block with the use of AI. This is what caused me to question NaNoWriMo in the first place.

How can this organization claim to care about its community of hardworking writers when it is being sponsored by an AI writing tool that cheats and writes for you? Short answer, they don’t care about you. And they almost said as much in their recent statement on AI which side steps actually making a stance on AI at all. 

They knew they had to make a statement on AI but also knew that if they said anything bad about AI they’d jeopardize their sponsorship. Putting the sponsorship before the community.

NaNoWriMo Mistreats its Volunteers

I did not know that most of the NaNoWriMo team members are volunteers. I have been complaining for a while about the messiness of the site and some of the disorganization. And a lot of the team members for certain areas have had to answer for this. No one ever told me they were volunteering with the organization.

Had I known this, I would have understood a bit of the disorganization and aimed my blame at the people who were truly at fault, the ones being paid! I have a full-time job and barely find time to write, I admire the volunteers who took time out of their day to help create this community for us. 

But only today did I find out that NaNoWriMo sent out a document to their area leaders to sign stating that they would take the blame if anything went wrong in their areas. If you’re a volunteer, you should never have to take the blame for a company when an issue is not your fault. I haven’t seen the document itself, but the fact that the organization asked so many of its volunteers without compensation is simply disgusting. 

In Savy’s video, they interview a few ex-volunteers, all of whom had disturbing stories to tell. 

If you didn’t agree with a policy, too bad. You’re the problem and you can be let go at any point. And if you talk about us we will drag you. That’s the general way those volunteers were treated.

NaNoWriMo Dismisses Child Endangerment

One of the most disturbing parts of the video essay was the subject of child endangerment. 

NaNoWriMo had a smaller community within the larger one dedicated to teen writers. You’d expect them to take every precaution necessary to keep those writers safe, right? They did the exact opposite. 

One of the moderators for that community was sending links to their own adult content websites to these teens! Did NaNoWriMo ban him once they received complaints about his conduct? Nope. They stated that he didn’t do anything bad enough to warrant a ban. It’s speculated in the video that they allowed the moderator to get away with this because he had written code for the website and they didn’t want their money maker to take a hit. 

Unforgivable!

Instead of apologizing and ensuring the safety of future teen writers in their community, NaNoWriMo shut down that community of teen writers without warning. Who knows how many teens lost valuable friendships they had made through this community because of this?

This was the last straw for me. If I had been on the fence about leaving NaNoWriMo before, this solidified it for me. 

Keep Writing

If you are a writer and you’re still considering writing for National Novel Writing Month, I highly recommend you still do it! No one is saying to stop writing in protest of this company, but instead, protest the company itself. They do not deserve to keep this month for themselves when it is the people within the community itself that made it grow.

Writers must take back the month of November for ourselves. 

Update your progress on Reddit, X, TikTok, and whatever social media you use. Just keep writing.

Please check out Savy Writes Books video as there is way more that the company did that can ever fit into one blog post. 

[canmom]

Hello! I absolutely love your blog, everything from your festival recounts to animation analysis and programming (one of tumblr's recommended posts was the one where you made your own rasteriser, and I liked your attitude in what I've read so much that I'm gonna attempt to conquer my 3-year-long grudge against using opengl during college and do something similar now that I'm a bit older and have no deadlines :D).

But anyway, I have 2 questions (sorry if there's easily accessible answers, tumblr search is not helping): 1. During your animation nights, does the screen stay black while everyone watches their own video while you provide commentary? I haven't caught any yet but maybe someday! And 2. do you have any youtube channels or just one-off video essays that you like that also cover animation/directors? Or, even programming lol.

Sorry for the long ask have a nice day!

hiii! i'm very touched that you like my dorky eclectic blog <3

For the Animation Nights, I just stream the video over Twitch from local sources on my computer, typically by playing the video in mpv and recording it in OBS. This is obviously not ideal from a video quality perspective, but it's the easiest way to watch video in sync without making everyone download files in advance. Then we all chat in the Twitch chat box (in large part to crack stupid jokes, it's not that highbrow lmao). I've gotten away with it so far!

As for youtube channels, I can recommend...

anime production/history (i.e. sakuga fandom)

SteveM is likely the most sakuga-fan affiliated anituber. He makes long, well-researched and in-depth videos on anime history, usually themed around a particular director or studio.

Pyramid Inu might be my fave anituber - very thoughtful analysis of Gundam, obscure mecha anime and oldschool BL and similar topics. tremendously soothing voice too.

The Canipa Effect does excellent deep dives into the production of specific shows, both western and anime. I appreciate the respect he gives to the Korean animators of shows like AtlA in particular!

Sean Bires's 2013 presentation on sakuga is pretty foundational to this whole subcultural niche, and a great place to get an introduction to the major animator names to know and significant points in the history of anime. unfortunately a couple of the segments got slapped down by copyright but the rest holds up!

animation theory (for animators and aspirants)

I'm going to focus here on resources that are relevant to animation in general, and 2D animation. if I was going to list every Blender channel we'd be here all week :p

New Frame Plus is one of the best channels out there for game animation, describing in tightly edited videos how animation principles work in a game context and analysing the animation of various games. highly recommend

Videogame Animation Study is similar, examining the animation of specific games in detail

the 'twelve principles of animation' (defined by Disney's Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas) remain the standard approach to animation pedagogy; there are various videos on them, but Alan Becker (of Animator vs Animation) has quite a popular series. I haven't actually watched these but many people swear by them! Dermot O'Connor expands the list to 21. Note that some of the terminology can be a little inconsistent between different animators - c.f. 'secondary motion'...

Dong Chang is an animator at Studio NUT, who produces a lot of fantastic, succinct videos on standard techniques in the anime industry, timesheet notations, etc. etc. Studio Bulldog, a small anime studio, are a good complement; they focus more on douga than genga and are generally a bit more traditional.

programming

big topic here, I'm going to focus on game dev and tech art since that's my field. but also some general compsci stuff that's neat

SimonDev - graphics programmer with a bunch of AAA experience, fantastic explanations of advanced optimisations and some of the more counterintuitive aspects of rendering

Acerola - graphics programmer who makes very detailed guides to a variety of effects with a very rapid and funny 'guy that has seen monogatari' editing style. When he's good, he's really good. His video on water is probably the best one I've seen (though I can recommend a couple of others).

TodePond - the most charming, musical videos about recursion and cellular automata you've ever seen. less programming tutorial and more art in themselves.

Ben Eater - known for his breadboard computer series, a fantastic demonstration of how to go from logic gates up to the 6502 with actual hardware. worth watching just for how clean he puts the wires on his breadboards like goddamn man

Sebastian Lague, Useless Game Dev - both do 'coding adventure' style videos where they spend a few weeks on some project and then document it on Youtube, resulting in a huge library of videos about all sorts of fascinating techniques. great to dive into

Freya Holmér - creator of the 'shapes' library, makes videos on mathematical programming, with gorgeously animated vector graphics. Her video on splines is a particular treat.

There are definitely many more channels I can recommend on these subjects, but I'll need to dig into my history a bit - unfortunately I need to rush out right now, but hopefully that should be good to be getting going with!