YouTube vs Grey: A Ballad of Accidental Suspension

‘Twas a Sunday morning when I woke up, happy and ready for the day, when suddenly… [alarm sounding]

(as YouTube bot) Your access to YouTube has been suspended.

(as Grey) Wha… why?

(as YouTube bot) Because of a perceived violation of the terms of service.

(as Grey) Really? What could I have possibly done?

(as YouTube bot) Irrelevant! “YouTube reserves the right to terminate your account at any time, for any reason." Was this helpful? Yes / No

(as Grey) This messenger from Olympus had reminded me that we are all but homunculi at the whims of a capricious algorithmic god. Which is useful to keep in mind. So… yes? Technically? But I wasn’t happy with the gods. So, I did what any brave hero would do. Towards Olympus, I tweeted.

[birds chirping] Alas, it was the weekend. And there was no one to hear my chirping. All was despair.

Now, you’re able to watch this video because I did, when the work week started, eventually make it through the system to discover YouTube had suspended my account for impersonation -- of me. Which was a bit… wut? Maybe the YouTube bots thought my verified channel was acting a bit too ‘bot-like.’ Which is ridiculous. So they shut it down. But I may never know.

Anyway, I'm here reciting this hero's ballad as a reminder to everyone who makes things on a platform: that the gods are arbitrary and their rules of who can speak from Olympus are but words of whimsy on the wind. And follow them or not, you may be knocked off at any time. For any reason.

There is only one of the ancient, sleepy titans left from the pre-web days whose indifference to all allows all upon his mountain: Email. Though his son, Gmail sure is trying to dethrone him. But, the titan still holds on… for now at least.

What I'm saying is if you're a creator, I strongly suggest you get yourself an email list. And if you're a viewer who likes the videos I make, consider signing up for my email list. There's about a hundred thousand of you already there, which is amazing, but also far short of the millions of you here that YouTube says it very diligently and very reliably notifies about my videos.

So before you watch the newest one, (which I'm sure you got notified for) please consider clicking here and joining my email list. While you’re doing that, I’m going to work on my next video. And also prepare a sacrifice to the gods to pray they don’t smite me again before it’s done.

[music fading]