For me there’s far too much content out there to keep up with all of it. I used to have quite a few Infinity podcasts I regularly listened to but I’ve trimmed it back to two now. One of those I cherry pick episodes. Many of the other podcasts I listened to out of a false sense of a duty to support the game’s community. Likewise with youtube I just get a big list of content from creators I’ve subscribed to and watch the episodes that catch my eye. The stuff I do watch I frequently skip parts. I have no problem with this.

I may have misunderstood your point. Do you feel that you’re not helping some content creators get started by not sticking with them?

I can sympathise with you there, while I won’t begrudge anybody from producing videos on Youtube or Podcasts on Podbean, Soundcloud, etc. I do draw the line if quality/content doesn’t improve over time, especially if they are gaining financially. With that said, those with a genuine passion for it do generally put in the effort.

There aren’t many I regularly follow as most seem to miss the mark on what I’m looking for, or more often than not they only cover GW which I only dip a toe in occasionally, so creates a filter all of it’s own.

Personally I believe it’s a requirement to be picky, otherwise standards would never improve. Eventually those that are only in it for the money will soon realise that the gaming community is far too passionate to appease with third rate content.

I don’t think you’re being too picky @sundancer. I watch a lot of painting videos but I’ve drawn the line at Twitch. Much of the time seems to be spent talking to subscribers as much as painting despite the artist often being very capable. Whatever works for you.

The thing with YouTube (and modern technology) is that the threshold to produce is practically zero, but it hasn’t reduced the skill needed to make something worth watching.

Add to this that whenever there is money to be made the content will shift towards what makes money as opposed to what makes good content.

We’ve seen this with Steam after Valve removed the barrier to entry.
We’ve seen this in app stores for mobile phones.
And we’re seeing this on any social media platform.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the good channels/youtubers have become ridiculously good.
They are on par with tv channels.

So the barrier to entry may be low, but the bar set by the top end is the same as that of a national tv channel.

Given the gazillion channels available I think we can and should be picky.
I don’t have time to waste on content that lacks basic quality control of output.
Never mind the content itself.

I must say that I haven’t dared to watch Dutch youtubers, because I just know that they will try to speak English with the most horrible accent you can think of.
And as for how horrible ? Think of an English person trying to speak German  …

Oh … and then there’s the native English speakers who like .. speak like … *eh* … you guys know like … *eh* what that is like, right you guys ?

So @sundancer I wouldn’t call it being picky.
I don’t even care if they monetize it or not.
Crappy content is crappy content.

This is what is possible when people make an effort :

The trouble is, “quality” is such a subjective metric to measure content by. There are some people who produce videos with really good audio and video quality, fancy graphics, fades and wipes etc. but the actual content is a bit…. meh. There are also a few people whose editing skills and even camera quality could do with sharpening up, but their videos are watchable because of the actual content.

Some people just have infectious personalities that make you want to watch (yes, Mel The Terrain Tutor, I’m looking at you). Even if  – in the early days – the performances weren’t very “polished” their personality and love of the subject shines through. Then I find there are some ‘tubers who produce really good visuals, impart loads of imformation, get light and audio levels just right – but are really difficult to watch, just because I can’t connect with them as a person (cough, cough, Kenny Butcher from Next Level Painting).

So with “quality” being so subjective – and the reason some of us find a ‘tuber fascinating to watch the very reason why so many other viewers switch off – it’s tricky to address; I guess we all like what we like. There is a lot of dross and a lot of amazing content out there. It’s quite possible that of the channels you say you find “low quality” some of us would love them!

Maybe, as a community, we could start a thread with favourite channels (if there isn’t one already) *and why* (a thread on haters would be infinity long, as we’d all probably have reasons to dislike something that someone else loves!)