UPDATE: State of the Channel, YouTube Algorithm, Podcast Tomorrow, etc

Hi everyone, Grace here!

I've got a lot of things to talk about today:

1. First things first, we're recording the podcast tomorrow at ✨💀2pm PT 💀✨on the discord! So if you're part of the live podcast tier, but aren't on Discord, hit me up and I'll get you on there! Everyone else let us know below👇🏻 if there's anything you'd like us to talk about this month!

2. Convention stuff! Derek and I will both be at Portland Retro Gaming Expo on October 18-20th this month and we'll be doing a panel! If you're in the area, come see us and say hi!!

3. Second thing, a couple of years ago we experimented by making some exclusive streams and videos for the patreon. One of these videos was on Kenji Eno (D, Enemy Zero, D2) that we're proud of, but has been exclusive to the Patreon for a while. We've decided to update it, reproduce it, and release it to everyone on YouTube because the idea of more people knowing about Kenji Eno makes me happy. Also it'd be a fun video for Halloween. We won't be charging the Patreon for it since it's been in the Patreon for so long (here's the link if you haven't seen it), but we're planning on giving you guys extra time to watch the new version before it goes live for everyone else. 

4. (This one is long, sorry. TLDR is at the bottom in bold) Ok, if you follow @stopskeletons on twitter, you might have seen us freaking out about our recent HD DVD Past Mortem video. So that video, was longer than most videos, but it also had a really lengthy production time and some editing hiccups. But, we worked really hard on it because we believed in the project and also thought it would be successful... Well, when we finally got it onto YouTube, we noticed that it wasn't performing well. Not as well as we hoped. And then when we pulled out our analytics we saw this:

There are a couple of things that are unusual about this chart (the gray area represents our average range of performance and the number underneath represents days since publishing):

• 1. the amount of views isn't proportional to the amount of minutes watched (red line)
• 2. the views dip down just a few hours after posting (circled area)
• 3. the line is much more janky than normal
• 4. the amount of views in general goes against everything we think our audience wants (long, in depth videos about weird and unusual video game peripherals) 

Here's what the views/engagement looked like on the Netflix Disc video, which performed pretty well and had similar subject matter:

And here's what the analytics look like on a not-so-successful video, like our recent one on Link's Awakening: 

As you can see, usually Views and Engagement are roughly correlated to each other and this relationship is usually expressed in a smooth curve, no matter the length of the video and no matter the success of the video. 

That's what made the HD DVD video so unusual. Now, there are a couple of possibilities Derek and I have considered to explain this: 

• 1. We got unlucky and posted during a service outage and this is a weird fluke. YouTube has not acknowledged one, but lots of other 'Tubers were seeing weird things in their analytics at that time. 
• 2. YouTube is devaluing watch time, meaning that the algorithm no longer uses watch time as a key factor in showing our video to people on YouTube.
• 3. YouTube doesn't like us!! Specifically us!! AND OUR CHANNEL IS DOOOOOMED

The views of a video matter to us for a few reasons.

• More views = more people watched our stuff (and hopefully enjoyed it!)
• More views = more ads watched = more stable revenue
• More views = I can negotiate more money and opportunities from sponsors 

We usually can predict how well a video can do and we plan our budget around that. Earlier this year, when we left our MCN, our status in the algorithm tanked. Less people were watching our stuff (ie: were being given the opportunity to watch our stuff!), and we would not have been able to continue the channel if we didn't have the Patreon and some sponsorship deals. Even with these deals and your support, we were planning on putting SSFF on hiatus in July while we found other jobs because the amount of money we were making was no longer sustainable. We ended up not needing to do after the GBA Link Cable video did as well as it did (we also posted 4 total videos in June as a hail mary to save the channel). 

So, we've been through a lot of stress this year in relation to the almighty and unknowable algorithm. That might be why we've taken the weirdness of the HD DVD video extremely to heart. The end of the year is when YouTubers make the bulk of their money, and is when we were counting on making enough money to sustain us through a majority of next year.

We even had a meeting scheduled with a YouTube representative after we uploaded HD DVD posting. We asked him about it, and he told us that yes, the numbers look really unusual to him, but was unable to explain why, or what we could do in the future to prevent something like this. His most concrete suggestion was to build a larger following outside of YouTube so that we could counteract YouTube deciding to kill our video. 😅On top of that, YouTube announced recently that they are going to tweak the algorithm in January in order to comply with FTC regulations and also are in general devaluing original YouTuber content in favor of Talk Shows and Music Videos. Things are unstable on the platform right now, and YouTube doesn't have a lot of incentives to help independent creators. 

Derek and I take our budget very seriously, in part because we see your support as an investment in us, and we feel honor-bound to use that investment wisely. We save about 25% of everything we make for taxes, but rarely have much left beyond that for general savings. We don't have a car, we live in a 650 sqft one-bedroom apartment, we only go out to eat about once a month, and we don't buy new games or clothes we don't need for the show. I'm not complaining, I love what we do and feel very lucky that we're able to make our channel function. I just want to give you guys an idea of the conditions we're living under. When our channel fell off the deep end in January, we were able to keep going for about six months, because of the way that we budget our money. 

Patreon is the backbone of our channel. We didn't make money on YouTube for YEARS, didn't get sponsorships for YEARS. Patreon is the reason we were able to keep making videos, and once we stop making money on YouTube, your support will allow us to keep making videos for our patrons. 

I've only been fulltime on the channel for one year, in part because I needed to supplement our income from the channel. Me going fulltime was based on the performance we saw on our channel in 2018. It's heartbreaking to see that affected by circumstances outside of our control, and it's something I worry about. Sorry for the long text dump, I guess it's still pretty raw for me!

TLDR; we're scared about the future viability of the channel, but we love what we do and will continue Stopping the Skeletons From Fighting for as long as we can, and we can thank the Patreon for that!!

Thanks for your support~

Grace