Content creators - value what you make
Don't go chasing waterfalls. Or likes.
A shorter post from me this time, inspired by an interaction I watched unfold on a Facebook group I’m part of.
As a self-proclaimed board game reviewer I’m involved with lots of groups and communities, one of which is a Facebook group that aims to connect people who make things about games (content creators, for want of a better term) and the people who make the games. If you’re looking for someone to talk about your new game, you could post there and see who’s interested - that sort of thing.
Recently, I saw a post in the group where someone was asking for video creators to share their videos with him, and he would feature them on his site. Initially, you’d be forgiven for thinking, “That’s pretty cool, I’m interested”. I guess a lot of people thought exactly that, because commenters were falling over themselves to reply saying “Here’s my channel, use anything you like”.
This is a problem.
Let me explain why.
Firstly, the person making the post isn’t a name well-known in the community. I’d never heard of them, in fact. A quick click or two and it was clear he’d never made a single post in the group. Okay, it’s a private group, he’d have answered questions to be allowed to join, but to the rest of us, we’ve no idea who this person is.
Secondly, and more importantly, the person posting the message didn’t state the name of his company/channel/organisation, or anything else that would ever indicate exactly where people’s videos would be posted.
I replied with words to that effect, and eventually the OP responded with a link. It turns out that they’re one of a group of people currently designing their own card game, and any video links would be buried in the blog posts sub-pages of their website.
Why does that matter, you curmudgeonly old git?
It matters because the person doing this isn’t doing it out of the kindness of their heart in order to highlight aspiring content creators. It’s not to shine a light on their videos and the hard work they put in. It’s because they want to make their own posts look better, and to improve the likelihood of their game’s pages being found. It’s to give them visibility, not you. Google likes websites that update regularly, that have relevant and authoritative content on them. What better way to do that than to have someone else do the work for you, and to then just point the world at it on your own site?
You might think I’m being harsh or unfair here, and maybe I am to some extent, but it’s worth talking about. Maybe they really do want to just shine a light on others’ work and put them in the spotlight, right?
So I gave them the benefit of the doubt, then went back to check their blog today, a week or so later, and guess what I found.
The same post that was there before, talking about different types of video that game designers can have made for them, but now the post has the commenters’ videos embedded in it. Embedded, but with no link to their channels or websites. Not even mentioning them by name, or suggesting why their videos would be good. Literally just an embedded video and nothing more. Unless your video’s thumbnail has your name it it, nobody knows who it’s from.
Take some pride in your work
If you’re the sort of content creator who would have blindly volunteered your channel to have its bones picked over for someone else’s benefit, here’s a question for you.
Why?
The desperate race for views, likes and subscriptions makes me really sad. It’s almost like there’s a feeling of “I don’t care WHO watches my videos, I just want a lot of views”, and while I appreciate that Youtube (and even blogs, from my perspective) has a machine which needs to be fed to stay relevant, just stop and think before doing something like this.
What if this person was trying to pass your videos off as something done under their organisation’s banner?
What if they had a plan to derive tons of ad-related revenue off the back of your work?
What if the person spoke about their standpoint on their site and was completely abhorrent? A misogynist. A racist. Someone whose political and social views were the polar opposite of yours. You’ve just given this person your blessing to use your work, your endorsement of them and their views. All because you were so desperate to be seen, you didn’t ask the most basic of questions.
Now obviously I’m stretching this a bit for dramatic effect, but the point remains valid. You might pour your heart and soul into everything you make, doing it just for the love of your hobby. So take some pride in what you’re producing. It’s your baby, your little thing you breathed life into, and you’re releasing it into the world, so be careful with it.
Love what you make, and look after it.