To Drama or Not To Drama. That is the question ... and stomach ache.

[Jack Decker]

Maybe I'm an idiot. Maybe I just don't want to succeed as a YouTuber. Maybe I ride too high of a horse. BUT...

I have NO desire to do YouTube drama on my channel. What I mean by "YouTube drama" is purposely stirring up drama with another YouTuber or jumping on a current YouTube drama bandwagon as a way to get views and subscribers. In fact, I just posted a "Progress Report" video on my channel where I tell my subscribers that my channel will never do any YouTube drama and why I'm not. As I won't be promoting this progress report video anywhere else, it is really meant for just my current subscribers. However...

I would like to hear from YTtalkers here is their position on doing YouTube drama on their channels. For it? Against it? How far is too far? What's acceptable? Am I making a really bad mistake by not doing it? If I am making a bad mistake, in what way bad?

Now I am not against YouTubers doing YouTube drama. I subscribe to some of them. One being Philip DeFranco who I enjoy watching. YouTube drama and all.

But the reason why I don't want to do YouTube drama videos is because I don't want those kind of subscribers. My channel is a libertarian react-to-breaking-news political vlog, Libertarian Party party-building, and philosophy channel. I want libertarians who are interested in those topics as my subscribers. Call me silly but I consider those quality subscribers for my channel. I will start up another thread about that though. This one is just about YouTube drama.

Now today I had a YouTube drama almost perfectly delivered on a silver platter by another YouTuber. We're both libertarian YouTubers. His channel has subscribers in the thousands. Yesterday, he did a video and I asked a single innocent question about it in the video's comment section. He took offense to the question and hostilely replied back. I replied back with asking why is he being so hostile and explained my position. He replied back even more hostile and started using abusive language. I replied back with, again, asking why is he hostile and now using abusive language. He replied back even more hostilely with even more abusive language and then ended it with "And I am now blocking you, [offensive term referring to part of the butt]!"

To say this exchange surprised and alarmed me would be an understatement. I mean I subscribed to his channel and even was one of his Patreon supporters. Note the past tense in that last sentence.

Then the marketer side of me whispered in my ear, "You could stir up some YouTube drama with this. If he does a retaliation video on his channel, it will drive some of his viewers to you. You're a small channel. You should do this. Come on! He did it publicly in his video's comment section. It is in the public domain. It is fair use. It is fair game. This is just ripe for the picking!"

But another side of me was sick of the idea of getting into that mud pit with him. Sick of the idea of personal attacks that he will very likely continue and increase. Sick of the idea of possibly sending my subscribers to him. Few as they may be now, I didn't want help his channel in that way. Now I don't want to ever help his channel. And I didn't want to get his subscribers in this way.

And that's why I have now publicly written off doing YouTube drama on my channel. What do you think?

 

[MechaJake]

Personally I would avoid Youtube drama simply because I see it as a quick, dirty, and lazy way of grabbing subs and views. Never been one for drama in highschool, college, relationships, jobs, and I don't plan on starting now.

 

[dreambridgelists]

Those YT drama channels are all getting popular because it mirrors modern day hollywood, so many people are out there looking for the next big exposure or gossip and it just turns into a massive mess of misinformation. YT drama is the new form of those magazines you see in line while buying groceries.

 

[Riderculous]

I looked at your channel an you are doing political vlogs, so I don't know how you don't end up caught in a lot of drama. Personally I don't mind it. Makes life interesting.

 

[ocslushie]

I agree with you that covering drama on your channel is a bad idea. Like you said, you talk about political libertarian things not drama. It would give you the wrong audience as they would not listen to the content you want to make. Also there is no point in making a drama channel, especially in 2016. You already have Philly D, KEEMSTAR, and Scarce, there's no point in having another. Many have tried and they have not succeeded.

Now, being involved in drama is different. Being involved could help you a lot. The question I guess is, "is it right/moral to do so?" That's for you to decide if it's worth it or not. Drama has helped a lot of channels and even ironically the drama channels. Scarce was half the size of KEEMSTAR earlier this year, now he is double his size at nearly 3 million subscribers due to drama. A lot of the time, drama cannot be avoided. Now you have the option of taking advantage of the situation or not. You can instigate the situation for your own benefit or let it go and build up your audience another way. But it could turn out bad if you decide to instigate the situation since he is a large channel that could have his fan-base destroy your channel.

So yeah, I'm basically saying is the drama worth it, hope this helps haha

 

[Jack Decker]

[DOUBLEPOST=1478218402,1478218158][/DOUBLEPOST]

I looked at your channel an you are doing political vlogs, so I don't know how you don't end up caught in a lot of drama.

What I'm talking about is drama between YouTubers. I view this as different from talking about political conflict. To me, political conflict between political YouTubers going after each other over politics is more YouTube drama. Where we YouTubers are the focus more than the politics. But that's just my opinion.[DOUBLEPOST=1478218742][/DOUBLEPOST]

I agree with you that covering drama on your channel is a bad idea. Like you said, you talk about political libertarian things not drama. It would give you the wrong audience as they would not listen to the content you want to make.

Yup, that's my position.

But it could turn out bad if you decide to instigate the situation since he is a large channel that could have his fan-base destroy your channel.

How could his fans destroy my channel?

 

[ocslushie]

[DOUBLEPOST=1478218402,1478218158][/DOUBLEPOST]

What I'm talking about is drama between YouTubers. I view this as different from talking about political conflict. To me, political conflict between political YouTubers going after each other over politics is more YouTube drama. Where we YouTubers are the focus more than the politics. But that's just my opinion.[DOUBLEPOST=1478218742][/DOUBLEPOST]

Yup, that's my position.



How could his fans destroy my channel?

It's just a possibility/assumption. But I've seen this happen many times before. For example, I don't know if you've heard of him, but there's this YouTuber named Leafyishere. He makes videos making fun of other Youtubers and his fans basically destroy their channels and send them hate. Youtubers he's made fun of like a year ago, still get hate on their videos to this day.

 

[Miss Medi]

They may not destroy your channel, but they certainly won't be loyal. I kind of feel like drama may bring in the views but by its nature - it's gossip, gossip is shallow and will only really interest people who watch it and then move on. I doubt such a move would see a sustained increase in views/retention/subs over time so I think you made a good decision.[DOUBLEPOST=1478219192,1478219148][/DOUBLEPOST]

It's just a possibility/assumption. But I've seen this happen many times before. For example, I don't know if you've heard of him, but there's this YouTuber named Leafyishere. He makes videos making fun of other Youtubers and his fans basically destroy their channels and send them hate. Youtubers he's made fun of like a year ago, still get hate on their videos to this day.

That guy is terrible... :S

 

[Jack Decker]

It's just a possibility/assumption. But I've seen this happen many times before. For example, I don't know if you've heard of him, but there's this YouTuber named Leafyishere. He makes videos making fun of other Youtubers and his fans basically destroy their channels and send them hate. Youtubers he's made fun of like a year ago, still get hate on their videos to this day.

But how can they destroy a channel?

For example, YouTube only cares about activity. If a viewer clicks the Like or Dislike button, it doesn't matter to YouTube. It only shows them activity on that channel and that is scored positively by it, regardless which was picked.

Or are you talking about these hostile fans coming to your channel and posting negative comments? If so, so what? As far as YouTube, that's activity and is scored as a positive. Or do you think they scare viewers away? Possibly. I think only a small percentage of viewers even look at the comment section of any video they watch.

I mean has Leafyishere ever actually caused a channel to shut down? Driven a YouTuber off of YouTube? If so, please give links to news articles where this has been verified and reported.

 

[ocslushie]

But how can they destroy a channel?

For example, YouTube only cares about activity. If a viewer clicks the Like or Dislike button, it doesn't matter to YouTube. It only shows them activity on that channel and that is scored positively by it, regardless which was picked.

Or are you talking about these hostile fans coming to your channel and posting negative comments? If so, so what? As far as YouTube, that's activity and is scored as a positive. Or do you think they scare viewers away? Possibly. I think only a small percentage of viewers even look at the comment section of any video they watch.

I mean has Leafyishere ever actually caused a channel to shut down? Driven a YouTuber off of YouTube? If so, please give links to news articles where this has been verified and reported.

I was talking about destroying growth. I really feel like it would scare many potential subscribers away if they see a high dislike count and negative comments, especially for a new channels like yours. If they see lots of dislikes and negative comments on your videos it would give an impression that your are not credible and bad ethos.

I don't know if Leafy has ever got a channel shut down, but I do know that he has driven people off Youtube. I can think of two good examples, but they both eventually came back. Also I don't have official articles, but I do have evidence. It can all be found on Youtube and Twitter btw.

KEEMSTAR: A big Youtuber with 1.6 million subscribers. The hate Keemstar got was so bad it drove him off Youtube and social media for a few weeks. He had high dislike ratios, negative comments, death threats, his address leaked, his past exposed, and they even went as far as threatening to rape his daughter and showing inappropriate images of them doing "things" to photos of his daughter.

lolitsthad: He came back a couple months ago, but left Youtube for around 5-6 months. Leafy made one video making fun of his content and you can see all the hate here:
youtube (.) com/user/derpthad/videos
You can see that there was a big gap between videos. Videos that were made 2 months ago, the video prior was made 7 months ago. That was when the hate started.