How YouTube's Year-In-Review 'Rewind' Video Set Off a Civil War (nytimes.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: You might guess that a surefire way to make a hit video on YouTube would be to gather a bunch of YouTube megastars, film them riffing on some of the year's most popular YouTube themes and release it as a year-in-review spectacular. You would be wrong. YouTube tested that theory this week, releasing its annual "YouTube Rewind" year-end retrospective. The eight-minute video was a jam-packed montage of YouTube meta-humor, featuring a who's-who of YouTube stars along with conventional celebrities. The video was slickly produced and wholesome, with lots of references to the popular video game Fortnite, shout-outs to popular video formats, and earnest paeans to YouTube's diversity and inclusiveness. It was meant to be a feel-good celebration of a year's worth of YouTube creativity, but the video started a firestorm, and led to a mass-downvoting campaign that became a meme of its own. Within 48 hours, the video had been "disliked" more than four million times. On Thursday, it became the most-disliked video in the history of the website, gathering more than 10 million dislikes and beating out the previous record-holder, the music video for Justin Bieber's "Baby."

The issue that upset so many YouTube fans, it turns out, was what the Rewind video did not show. Many of the most notable YouTube moments of the year -- such as the August boxing match between KSI and Logan Paul, two YouTube stars who fought in a highly publicized spectacle watched by millions -- went unmentioned. And some prominent YouTubers were absent, including Felix Kjellberg, a.k.a. "PewDiePie," one of the most popular creators in YouTube's history, who had appeared in the Rewind videos as recently as 2016. Some YouTubers enjoyed the video. But to many, it felt like evidence that YouTube the company was snubbing YouTube the community by featuring mainstream celebrities in addition to the platform's homegrown creators, and by glossing over major moments in favor of advertiser-friendly scenes. The Times says the Rewind controversy "is indicative of a larger issue at YouTube, which is trying to promote itself as a bastion of cool, inclusive creativity while being accused of radicalizing a generation of young people by pushing them toward increasingly extreme content, and allowing reactionary cranks and conspiracy theorists to dominate its platform."

"But people like Mr. Kjellberg and Mr. Paul -- stars who rose to prominence through YouTube, and still garner tens of millions of views every month -- remain in a kind of dysfunctional relationship with the platform. YouTube doesn't want to endorse their behavior in its official promotions, but it doesn't want to alienate their large, passionate audiences, either," reports the NYT. "And since no other platform can rival the large audiences and earning potential YouTube gives these creators, they are stuck in a kind of unhappy purgatory -- making aggrieved videos about how badly YouTube has wronged them, while also tiptoeing to avoid crossing any lines that might get them barred, or prevent them from making money from their videos." This tension is at the heart of the controversy over YouTube Rewind.

"A YouTube recap that includes only displays of tolerance and pluralism is a little like a Weather Channel highlight reel featuring only footage of sunny days -- it might be more pleasant to look at, but it doesn't reflect the actual weather..."

Comments

You have to use the word War

[Anonymous Coward]

Americans don't understand anything else, War on drugs, war on terror, war war war.

Shame they don't understand what winning is anymore

Re:You have to use the word War

[Red_Forman]

Maybe they should start a war on ignorance.
What a bunch of dumbasses.

Re: You have to use the word War

[novakyu]

If that's true, then it was a real injustice, anti-democratic (lower-case "d") move to ban Alex Jones.

If that's not true, then there was no real need to ban Alex Jones, and this was a capricious use of power.

For those who would silence^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hshape speech, there are few principled reasons for them to do what they would do.

Re: You have to use the word War

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, bullshit. Alex Jones is a lying idiot catering to dangerously stupid people. If he was wearing a sandwich board in front of my store, I'd kick him to the curb the same as Youtube. Dangerous morons are bad for business.

The free market sometimes works. Alex Jones is free to fuck right the fuck back to his momma's basement and record anything he wants and post it on Breitbart or anywhere idiocy is still in vogue.

Don't like it? Aww.

Re: You have to use the word War

[novakyu]

We are no better for having heard your profanity-laden opinion. And yet, I would never advocate that you should be silenced.

Re: You have to use the word War

[DogDude]

Nobody silenced that crazy sack of shit. A business told him to get the hell off of their property. He can say whatever he wants from his own property.

Re: You have to use the word War

[Anonymous Coward]

"Nobody silenced him"

Same breath, "he was silenced by YouTube."

I never listened to Alex Jones, but I wonder what he says that gets fragile fascists like you all hot and bothered?

Re:You have to use the word War

[Opportunist]

Considering the success of America's "War on ...", we should start a war on intelligence. We sure need more, and all the various "wars on" something have accomplished is that today we have actually more of the thing that we wage war on.

People don't lie knowingly being told.

[Mal-2]

People don't like knowingly being told what is cool and what isn't. I mean when it's a friend or even a complete stranger saying "check this out, it's cool", that's all well and good (provided it actually is, and not a rickroll). A friend knows your tastes to some degree. A stranger can assume some things about you by where you are and how you're dressed and such. YouTube can't do any of these things, because they're only making one video, aimed at billions of people.

And that would be a best case scenario, where YouTube really does just want to promote what's cool. However, it is incredibly obvious that what they really want to promote is advertiser-friendly content, much of which is quite good, while silently glossing over the parts they don't like. Unfortunately for them, the parts they don't like are the parts their various viewing populations do like. This is why television could only be cool in small batches, the world is simply too big to all have the same tastes.

Re:People don't lie knowingly being told.

[Red_Forman]

Check this out, it's cool.

Re:People don't lie knowingly being told.

[AmiMoJo]

Most of the stuff they left out isn't really cool, it's just edgy bullshit for edgy teens.

Most of the popular stuff on YouTube is that kind of rubbish, or stuff for very young kids, or music videos, or meta-outrage. Would be nice if they included some really cool and interesting stuff, like some of the more niche channels. Show us some wood/metalworking stuff instead of 50 different Fortnight clips.

Re:People don't lie knowingly being told.

[Mashiki]

Would be nice if they included some really cool and interesting stuff, like some of the more niche channels. Show us some wood/metalworking stuff instead of 50 different Fortnight clips.

Those metal and woodworking is advertiser unfriendly so those channels got demonitized beside channels for gear heads, hobby shooters(of everything from BB guns to high power pistols and rifles), center and right wing political commentators first and so on.

So you'll take your fortnight clips and like it.

Re:People don't lie knowingly being told.

[Bengie]

because they're only making one video, aimed at billions of people

Ahh yes. The one-size-fits-all that fits no one. The "the average airman didn't exist" paradox.

Re:People don't lie knowingly being told.

[Mashiki]

Yeah bullshit. There is nothing advertiser unfriendly about This Old Tony, ABom79 and so on.

You should let youtube know, obviously your understanding of what's "advertiser friendly" is far more reaching.

The ones that are advertiser unfriendly are not because of the shop stuff, it's because of what they say. In fact it seems a good guess that AvE intantionally says things to demonetise his videos given what he's said about in the past.

So how about clive's channel? Oh...right, it must be because he's critical of shitty product design right, and the companies file copyright strikes against him.

So take your endless stream of paranoid drivel elsewhere.

Maybe it's time for you simply to grow up, and stop jamming your head into your ass?

Liks Alex Jones, that wll known centrist.

You mean like Styxhexenhammer666? Or Razorfist? Or Tim Pool? Chris Ray Gun? Mans1ay3r? Kadokawa? Laci Green?

Yes, I think it is time for you to take your head out of your ass.

Mired in Controversy

[Luthair]

Interesting how the summary doesn't mention (though the article does) that both Logan & PewDiePie have been mired in controvesy for a few years. Hardly surprising that Youtube wasn't interested in showcasing them.

Re:Mired in Controversy

[Kohath]

Interesting how the summary doesn't mention (though the article does) that both Logan & PewDiePie have been mired in controvesy for a few years. Hardly surprising that Youtube wasn't interested in showcasing them.

"Mired in controversy", as used here, means a bunch of officious jerks complained. When a special set of jerks complains about you, you become "controversial", regardless of what the overwhelming majority of people think.

Google does their bidding to avoid being "controversial".

Re:Mired in Controversy

[Luthair]

I think the overwhelming number of people would consider the n-word and showing the bodies of suicides in videos convroversal.

Re:Mired in Controversy

[war4peace]

You know what stops you from being labeled because of such things? By not actually doing something that the overwhelming majority of people dislike.

A great way to stop any sort of progress.
The majority of people disliked the Eiffel Tower project at the time. Same goes for the car, trains, electricity, abolition of slavery, science (remember the Dark Ages?), many forms of art and so on.

Now, in this particular case, the (in)famous PewDiePie is as much of a shallow creator” as any other so-called creators” featured in the Youtube Video. They're all a bunch of clowns figuratively eating shit for the enjoyment of huge crowds of retards. That's modern society, and that was pretty much any society in the past, with one exception: Average Joes were never a good source of income until now, so they were largely ignored by celebrities. They had to entertain each other for pennies. But in today's society, Average Joes are wealthy enough to produce vast amounts of money if they are entertained with relatively insignificant costs. Film yourself absurdly and exaggeratedly reacting to other people's stupid videos, make millions of dollars a year. Get rich being retards' servant. Hurrah for contemporary entertainment!

Re:Mired in Controversy

[Luthair]

Hey, we're talking controversy not idiocy here :P

Gee Sus.

[furiousgeorge]

A bunch of kids downvoting a video to be trolls is not a 'civil war'. This is firmly "things that don't matter to anybody".

A dose of perspective would be healthy.

Re:Gee Sus.

[c]

This. "Pissing match" is the same number of words as "civil war" and is ten times more accurate.

Re:Gee Sus.

[thegarbz]

A bunch of kids

the most-disliked video in the history of the website

Dismissing a movement that made a professionally prepared video the most disliked video in the history of the second most popular service on the internet as "a bunch of kids" is precisely the brain-dead response that causes this mismatch between creators and consumers in the first place. You realise that this represents a fundamental disconnect between a platform and their viewers right?

A dose of perspective would be healthy.

That's my line.

Do you by any chance work in marketing? I mean we've had a killer year for marketing.
Blizz.con's Diablo Immortal Announcement.
The NVIDIA RTX release debacle.
and now a celebration of Youtube being the most disliked video in history.

Great stuff produced by people who desperately lack perspective, specifically that of their user base.

How can it be about creativity...

[SuperKendall]

It was meant to be a feel-good celebration of a year's worth of YouTube creativity

How can that be true when it doesn't feature most of the CREATORS that make YouTube so popular?

A parade of B-List celebs doing Fortnite dances is not a "celebration of creativity".

I don't really follow YouTube much at all, but this seemed like a big tone-deaf misstep on the part of YouTube that is trying to pretend like some people do not exist. Absurd. Celebrate what you are, all of it, or say nothing at all.

Re:How can it be about creativity...

[Kohath]

...this seemed like a big tone-deaf misstep on the part of YouTube that is trying to pretend like some people do not exist.

Google doesn't respect users or content creators.

Re:How can it be about creativity...

[quantaman]

It was meant to be a feel-good celebration of a year's worth of YouTube creativity

How can that be true when it doesn't feature most of the CREATORS that make YouTube so popular?

A parade of B-List celebs doing Fortnite dances is not a "celebration of creativity".

I don't really follow YouTube much at all, but this seemed like a big tone-deaf misstep on the part of YouTube that is trying to pretend like some people do not exist. Absurd. Celebrate what you are, all of it, or say nothing at all.

How is it supposed to be feel-good if the big creators you're referring to are extremely controversial due to repeated racist statements and making fun of dead bodies?

There's always been two ways to approach fame, you can be mainstream, and your audience will probably be very small, but if you do make it big then virtually everybody will be happy to associate with you.

Or you can be controversial, and you'll get a big audience just from the notoriety, but you'll piss off a bunch of people who aren't your audience and make yourself toxic to mainstream venues. Like the videos that YouTube chooses to showcase itself.

Logan Paul and PewDiePie made their choice, they went for controversy and got a boatload of cash and fame at the cost of mainstream acceptance. Everyone needs to deal with the consequences of their choices, I don't see why YouTube stars should be immune.

YouTube Stars

[PopeRatzo]

Nobody cares. Not even their immediate family cares. The most-viewed videos of 2018 were all music videos of bad records. You could literally show videos of goats being hypnotized instead of every single "YouTube Star" and YouTube would make just as much money. If you can name five of these YouTube Stars you should be ashamed of being such a giant loser.

Get over yourselves. Pewdiepie spouting racist shit isn't that interesting and the people that watch him don't buy shit anyway. Advertisers are starting to realize they're better off targeting their parents. The only good YouTube videos are the ones that show you how to de-bone a chicken or unclog a toilet.

Re:YouTube Stars

[DNS-and-BIND]

Hey grandpa, YouTube stars have bigger audiences than prime time TV or the network news.

Re:YouTube Stars

[PopeRatzo]

Hey grandpa, YouTube stars have bigger audiences than prime time TV or the network news.

YouTube stars don't even have the biggest audiences on YouTube. Check for yourself. Go see the list of the most-watched videos on YT for any year, including 2018. Not a single YouTube "star" on the list.

Re:who the fuck are those people...

[Trimaz]

It was chock full of those cringe-inducing vloggers. Not an ounce of creativity or talent in anyone except the animation person that threw in all the PewDiePie references.

It's the SJWs stupid

[DNS-and-BIND]

All these words and all The Times can come up with is people are downvoting because they fear YouTube for the same reason The Times does, because YouTubers get more views than them and present alternative viewpoints? That's it? That's the best their intellects could come up with? How parochial, narrow-minded and most of all self-serving. It's because the video was widely perceived as nodding to SJWs, the plague of our age. Weird that never occurred to them as a possibility when it's right in front of your face.

Re:It's the SJWs stupid

[guruevi]

This is exactly the problem. The media is deep at the whims of the left, as it requires government handouts for its survival. All the classic media outlets from paper to cable are dying and taken over by YouTube-like systems where people can pick and choose what viewpoints they want to hear, even *gasp* multiple opposing ones.

YouTube and Facebook itself however is in an echo chamber amongst its own decision maker community and continues to pander to an evil yet very vocal minority and thinks that this is a popular, majority opinion amongst their consumers. In the meantime, people are flocking away from even these modern media platforms as more and more content gets censored or hidden or subliminally mislabeled as wrongthink.

Bigger "wrongthink" media producers are now setting up their own "YouTube" not through any major platform but simply by replicating YouTube functionality which is not nearly as costly or even going as far as "the dark web" - really, a place with protocols where the consumers own the content. The pendulum will once again swing from centralization on YouTube to decentralization into Napster-style content networks such as IPFS so people can have civil discourse without interference.

Re: It's the SJWs stupid

[phantomfive]

I don't really want to hear viewpoints, they're all garbage. As much as possible, I'd like to hear the facts, please

Re:It's the SJWs stupid

[apoc.famine]

...because the video was widely perceived as nodding to SJWs, the plague of our age.

Are you a conservative 12 year old? Why not get out of your parents' basement once in awhile and check out the real world? Every time I see some asshat like yourself moaning about SJWs and self-flagellating themselves I have to laugh. What happened to you that your precious snowflake of a self needs a boogie man to fear at all times? Could you please grow some balls and stop pissing and moaning about "SJWs"?

I live in a very liberal college town, and I never run into "SJWs". Maybe they exist on the college campus? I walk through pretty often, and I never see any signs of them.

I spend a lot of time on the internet. And the only time I hear a peep about the scary "SJWs" is from asshats like yourself, here. What shitty parts of the internet do you go to to get all riled up, so you can piss and moan in other places? Here's a pro-tip: Don't go there, if it pisses you off.

Seriously. Do you not have anything better to do with your time than being a victim of your imaginary "SJWs"?

Re:It's the SJWs stupid

[AmiMoJo]

Here's what TFA actually says, since apparently you can't be bothered to click on the link:

The issue that upset so many YouTube fans, it turns out, was what the Rewind video did not show. Many of the most notable YouTube moments of the year â" such as the August boxing match between KSI and Logan Paul, two YouTube stars who fought in a highly publicized spectacle watched by millions â" went unmentioned. And some prominent YouTubers were absent, including Felix Kjellberg, a.k.a. âoePewDiePie,â one of the most popular creators in YouTubeâ(TM)s history, who had appeared in the Rewind videos as recently as 2016.

Some YouTubers enjoyed the video. But to many, it felt like evidence that YouTube the company was snubbing YouTube the community by featuring mainstream celebrities in addition to the platformâ(TM)s homegrown creators, and by glossing over major moments in favor of advertiser-friendly scenes.

What part of that counts as "people dissatisfied that YouTube isn't doing more to suppress speech that The Times itself fears"?

Re: It's the SJWs stupid

[grep -v '.*' *]

I'd like to hear the facts, please

One man's garbage is another man's ... fact? Is THAT how it goes?

Then again (and where DID this come from?) you "have to" be considerate and look at ALL ideas EVERWHERE.

Fine, but we're all not 4yos arguing 1+1=11. Having a discussion on Calculus or Interplanetary Orbits does NOT need to include that.

You can argue limits are stupid (beginning Calculus) or the Earth is Flat (beginning Geology -- then again, if it's not Australians who live at the "bottom of the world" then who is it? (Oh, sorry, I got underneath and bottom confused. Can we also have a discussion on how some words don't mean what I want them to mean and we should all change to suit me?)

Just like old school Primary and Secondary Schools, and College, some concepts and approximation details are better kept for later until people can understand them. But that doesn't mean the advanced classes are still stuck in the gross approximations the noobs and neophytes are.

Re:It's the SJWs stupid

[DNS-and-BIND]

If your town is liberal, it's no wonder you're unfamiliar with SJWs. Liberals believe in free speech. They might disagree with what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it. SJWs are leftists, not liberals. They agree with Google that being able to speak your mind is a great blight and must be done away with.

Re:It's the SJWs stupid

[DNS-and-BIND]

It's right next to that. Much like The Times, you totally missed it.

The Times says the Rewind controversy "is indicative of a larger issue at YouTube, which is trying to promote itself as a bastion of cool, inclusive creativity while being accused of radicalizing a generation of young people by pushing them toward increasingly extreme content, and allowing reactionary cranks and conspiracy theorists to dominate its platform."

Thats why they think the downvoting is occurring. There's not enough censorship.

Re:It's the SJWs stupid

[Rockoon]

Do you even have the capacity to step back and look at yourself?

I've stepped back and looked at both of you.

To be very clear. You are on the ugly side of this, supporting, defending, and propagating malevolence.

Re:It's the SJWs stupid

[AmiMoJo]

Sigh. Relevant part from your own quote:

pushing them toward

What about that says censorship? No, they are talking about the crappy YouTube recommendation system that gives you flat earth bullshit and conspiracy theories when you are looking for NASA videos.

Is not recommending something censorship? Does free speech depend on your ability to game the ranking algorithm now? Are people who block spam fascists?

Whitewashing

[argStyopa]

There's no other word for it, and it's why people found this so repellent.

Let's not forget that it took bieber what, 9 years to get to that many dislikes, this virtue-signaling shitshow got there in a week?

Get a fucking life

[DogDude]

If you're upset about what Youtube said were the most popular videos of the year, then you really need to get a fucking life. It's just stupid fucking entertainment.

Re:Get a fucking life

[thegarbz]

If you're upset about what Youtube said were the most popular videos of the year, then you really need to get a fucking life. It's just stupid fucking entertainment.

Indeed that is the perspective of the users, but that is not why this is "news". This is news because it shows that a platform fundamentally has no idea what makes its community tick. Remember this is "we know everything about everyone" Google showing that they don't have the slightest clue about people.

The kids complaining need to get a life, but Google, ... oh there is some real meat in the fact that this is the news today.

People are resisting political correctness

[Anonymous Coward]

Inclusion has become code for exclusion. It’s a bit like saying direct action when what someone really means is violence. Inclusion is simply another way of saying progressive or politically correct. As has been shown time and again these values are very exclusionary.

It also means that the winners will be determined based on their politics, gender and skin tone. No consideration will be given to merit. Why bother watching when you can predict the results based on whether or not they support progressive values?

Conservative, anti-abortion, white, male, Christian, straight? All of these things are grounds to exclude you. Especially if you belong to a group that is supposed to be progressive. Black and conservative? Progressive but anti-abortion? Your life will be ruined and you will be treated as a traitor.

People are seeing through the charade that is political correctness. Political correctness is nothing more than fascism with good manners. The intolerance of the politically correct is becoming known by the masses.

DGAF

[sound vision]

Fortnite, PewDiePie, Hollywood celebs... I don't give a shit about any of it to tell you the truth. I don't even care enough to open up and down vote it... That'll put bullshit in my recommendations.

The real travesty here is not what they left out of the video... It's that the alt-celeb internet culture is as useless as the traditional one. It's that there is a market, and marketers, for this video to even be conceived.

Different worlds

[ruddk]

I watch YouTube all the time and have no interest in the people in this rewind thing because I am an old fart. :D
My favorite channel at the moment are a about a guy sailing up and down the canals in England in his narrowboat. Very relaxing. :D https://www.youtube.com/channe...

"I used to be with it, but then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me, and it'll happen to you, too"

But my point is that there's plenty of stuff on YouTube that seems to (thankfully?) be off the hype radar and lives it own quiet happy life. A lot of people my age don't seem to know that, maybe because they are not logged in to google/YouTube when they get the front page. I tried that once, it's awful.
Cheers.

Re:Different worlds

[coastwalker]

I Agree that the most interesting entertainment youtube channels are often about quite everyday things but it often helps if their presenters are a little eccentric or unusual. I follow a few on wild camping, one on nail polish (seriously, they just gave $10k to a cat cafe from sales of teeshirts so they must have something about them), some insane Ukranians playing about with very high voltages from microwave oven transformers, a housewife teaching how to cook chinese food, a senior Ham in Florida testing cheap radios and another explaining how mains or battery six tube radios work and how to restore them. Most of them are not making big bucks from their channels but they all have a passion for their subject. Maybe it is just me but most of the people who realy get my respect in this world are enthusiasts of some kind or another, not "Celebrity" entrepreneurs manufacturing random entertainment or doing bollocks like giveaways at subscriber number increments in order to increase "engagement" - a real turn off in fact.

On the other hand all this stuff is the entertainment side of things and my real interest in YouTube are the university talks, lectures and colloquia on various science subjects. You would be suprised just how interesting Dengue fever actually is. I have learned a lot about microbiology for example even though my background is in engineering. The knowledge available on YouTube is absolutely amazing and is actually the strongest reason for hoping the "cat videos" continue to pay for this side of its existence. I have saved playlists of videos I have watched by subject on a dedicated channel - the content out there is just mindblowing. Level ranges from Public to near graduate, (there are some exceptional teachers like Leonard Susskind who can get the guts of the idea over even if you could not repeat the math.)
https://www.youtube.com/channe...

There are also historically important things on there like the first video of an actual rocket taking off and going into orbit to meet up with the ISS - as seen from the ISS. The first time in history that most of the planet can see for themselves what it looks like for an actual real rocket to take off and power up into orbit to join you. Not a "Star Wars" Hollywood movie or a cartoon. The real thing, and I saw it on YouTube. Ace.

This is the value of growing up

[Millennium]

Paul and PewDiePie earned their ostracism fair and square. Maybe if they started acting like people, they'd gain an audience outside basement-dwellers, sockpuppets, and dead accounts.

Nothing to do with celebs left out

[esperto]

The number of down votes doesn't have much to do with youtube pseudo-celebreties being left out, but everithing to do with being a HORRIBLE video.

Truly, it is really that bad, they poured huge amounts of money into it and they've got something simply unwatchable, i've seen (or tried to see it) on the first day, before any of those news about it being the must disliked video on the site, or the analysis said that so and so are missing and some other random guy that only stream on twitch is there, and I still could get to half of it.

The video is the most disliked because it was pushed to everybody that visits the site and it was writen by a committee that has no idea of what it is doing.

Re:Nothing to do with celebs left out

[djinn6]

Hit the nail on the head.

For the 2018 rewind:

There's no music for the first 30 seconds, just talking. The music finally starts, people jump out a flying bus. Fast forward to 0:55, music stops, it's more talking time, followed by some obvious CG. At 1:10, cut to more people talking, this time around a campfire. The topic is what should be in the video. At 1:30, there's finally some decent music and dancing.

The good lasts just 20 seconds, and then back to the campfire with someone speaking a foreign language. Now finally we have a funny moment with a woman marrying a cartoon cat. Then they go back to the campfire and now more talking. The train wreck continues from there. And just when I think it's over, they start talking social change and politics. Sigh.

Now compare this to the one from 2012:

We start with a band of 5 people playing Gangnam Style on one guitar. 10 seconds later, just as the they finish the intro, Psy shows up and smashes the guitar. "Rewind YouTube style" he says, and the music continues with full accompaniment. Fake Obama shows up doing the dance in a stable, with a fake horse watching from the side, followed by Kassem dry humping on top of Grace Helbig in an elevator. More people show up dancing, including many I know. Music keeps playing all the while.

Eventually they switch to playing Call me Maybe. A girl washing a car flirts with a guy wearing some ridiculous boots. Some food YouTubers start throwing bacon at the girl, who falls off the car. Now more dancing in a bus. As they finish a stanza, the music seamlessly transitions to a mix of Gangnam Style and Call me Maybe and we see everyone dancing together on a big stage all the way until the end.

Now, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. But it's got several things going for it.

First, I can listen and enjoy the music. Both tunes are pretty catchy and they're not cut up into so many pieces that it breaks the flow. Second, it's got all of this ridiculous stuff going on that makes it interesting even on a rewatch. Then it's got all of these familiar faces that makes me go, "hey, it's that guy / girl". And finally, it's not long enough for me to get bored.

The 2018 video has none of that. The music is broken and impossible to enjoy. There's some visually interesting stuff happening, but most of it is unfunny. I recognize almost no one besides Will Smith and a few TV personalities. Everyone is terrible during the talking scenes. The only thing it's got going for it is the part where the animated characters forget the lyrics, which is pretty funny. And then there's the politics. Would it kill them to leave that out?

If they want to make it good, they need separate videos for all of the non-English YouTubers, then stitch the music together so it all flows. Now throw in random funny scenes in between the dancing and don't virtue signal. It really isn't that hard.

Re:That means Youtube has won

[Powercntrl]

Payment processors and other similar organisations simply get massively lobbied by this well connected and loud group of crazies that are very skilled in using platforms like twitter to organise their hate mob.

If fringe group nationalists really gave a shit, they'd drop checks in the mail if they had to. Funny thing about conservatives is they're perfectly happy to expect others to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, but when it's their turn, suddenly the whole world is fucking them over. Oh, the irony.

Re:Slashdot's 2018 Year In Review

[Stomper_Stoddard]

This was the year Slashdot ignored Q Anon for the entire year.

wtg

That is because covering a practical joke perpetrated against idiots is not funny, news worthy or interesting, it is just sad.

I'm not even talking about Pew

[SuperKendall]

Logan Paul and PewDiePie made their choice

I can sort of understand leaving out Pew as punishment for gaffes (he''s not actually racist though, try not to spread lies m'kay?).

But there are a world of other very popular creators on YouTube, as as I said it had none of them. It was not a reflection of YouTube, or what people saw through the years. I don't even have a beef with sugar-coating it and presenting only nice moments... just don't make things up that do not reflect the YouTube people know and use through the year.

They would have been better off just having the crazy Russian dude make stuff that science every day guy could explain as it exploded.

Re: I'm not even talking about Pew

[c6gunner]

Don't forget that he's a heretic and a blasphemer also. YouTube should excommunicate him.

Re:I'm not even talking about Pew

[quantaman]

Logan Paul and PewDiePie made their choice

I can sort of understand leaving out Pew as punishment for gaffes (he''s not actually racist though, try not to spread lies m'kay?).

I was very careful to be accurate. I didn't say he was racist, I said he made "repeated racist statements".

Now is he actually racist? I'm not sure, I don't really follow him well enough to make a judgment.

I do know that "oh I'm not actually being racist, I just said X as a joke" is a deliberate tactic used by racists in order to normalize racist views while keeping some deniability. I'm not claiming that PewDiePie does that, but there are real consequences to jokingly using racist language.