This year, YouTube is doing some odd and damaging things to my channel in the background.
Instance #1) On the eve of Halloween, October 30th, 2023 YouTube admins decide to delete my absolute strongest performing video without warning. My video labelled "Cyberpunk 2077 - tank love scene with Panam (RTX 3070, patch 1.05)" was deleted. It was my fastest rising video clip that I created back in 2020. Last year in 2022 it had over 7000 views and just recently last week (October 23, 2023) had over 35,000+ views and now it's completely gone. YouTube just hamstringed me yet again. It feels like they purposely damaged my view count and continue to do so.
It felt like a very targeted attack from YouTube as the clip was over three years old before they finally decided to take action on it. Why wasn't it removed when I uploaded it in 2020 if it was that harmful?! Is it really that harmful? I tried to appeal the removal decision begged that it be reinstated as a private video so that I could censor it and tag it as 18+ rather than losing my only copy since I did not have a backup copy. It was promptly refused. This leads me to think that someone or some troll viewer had something to do with it and maybe flagged my video as inappropriate to YouTube as it went undetected for over three whole freaking years. It doesn't feel random at all.
Through some effort, and know-how I did manage to recover the absolute lowest 360p resolution version of it, but completely lost access to the better quality high-definition and 4K Ultra HD versions. I'm going to repost a private link to this low-res video to give you an idea what it was.
https://bit.ly/cp2077-panam-love
What do you think? Should this have been removed? It seems pretty tame to me and I don't think it should have been removed. I'm going to remake a newer and better version of the same clip but I don't think it will ever get the attention that the original one did, since the YouTube algorithm has pretty much put Phresh Ninja into a black hole abyss already.
Why are many other channels still allowed to post the same or similar clip without penalty? Why the preferential treatment for them YouTube?
Here's the same clip but on much more popular channels and still LIVE.
https://youtu.be/V2Vtb9Xpu3Q?t=1701
https://youtu.be/ixMBtVcxr2M?t=592
https://youtu.be/karslmc0Wzc?t=157
https://youtu.be/AHVz2e74zzM
https://youtu.be/CZ8PJsS1l_g?t=467
There is definitely something wrong here and I feel like my issue has similarities that user CoryxKenshin brought up in 2022.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/gaming/youtube-accused-of-racism-and-favouritism/news-story/a2eb8d162fe91a68d5bb7798a62a5e30
https://youtu.be/GaHcnPDcUOE
When I said they hamstringed or hamstrung me again, I'll give you a little more context and some examples.
Instance #2) Back in August 3rd, 2023 I received this stupid little notice as well.
I managed to reinstate advanced features back to my channel but wasn't given any indication what caused this problem.
Instance #3)
On July 30th, 2023 I had lost temporary access to my account but was
able to access it later. The timing of this one is also suspicious as it
came right after I announced that I was bringing Ninjai The Little
Ninja, back from the internet deletion abyss. Yet, that video was never
even posted on my channel at all since I knew what the consequences
would bring... bans and channel deletion.
Check out my post on that one:
http://phreshdigitalarts.blogspot.com/2023/07/ninjai-back-from-internet-deletion-abyss.html
Instance #4) On July 1st, 2023 my video clip labelled "Metal Gear Rising: Phresh Ninja - Enhanced Graphics in 2023 [RTX 4070, Core i9, 4K, 60 FPS]" had views removed. The view counts were reduced from 60 down to 8 in a matter of one week. It currently has 29 views but should be at least over double that amount.
https://youtu.be/RPPWeTbuj5o?list=PLkWEvbkl6ZX7b-rxqtqAm54tQV3JoroJr
Instance #5) On June 1st, 2023 YouTube search results for "Phresh Ninja" were completely removed. I
investigated with YouTube why they pulled my search results
temporarily. It turns out there had been multiple attempts at scammers
trying to steal my identity or post fake "Fresh Ninja" and similar account names. That
lined up with recent Facebook scam attempts too. Within a week, Phresh Ninja search results were reinstated.
https://www.youtube.com/@phreshninja
All of this leaves a bitter taste in my mouth but I'm going to counter all of that by giving some helpful tips on how to bypass certain annoyances of YouTube.
#1 Get rid of YouTube Ads on PC. (Don't pay for YouTube Premium!!)
On a Mac, Windows PC, or Linux PC and not a mobile device like a phone or tablet, install this plugin for Firefox.
- Download and install AdBlocker Ultimate - FireFox version
- then test it on this YouTube video that contains over 1,000 ads on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjiqIcIIvGc
#2 Alternate Way to Get rid of YouTube Ads on PC. (Don't pay for YouTube Premium!!)
Another great alternative plugin to use is SponsorBlock. On a Mac, Windows PC, or Linux PC and not a mobile device like a phone or tablet, install this plugin for Firefox.
- Download and install SponsorBlock - Firefox version
- then test it on this YouTube video that contains over 1,000 ads on it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjiqIcIIvGc
#3 Get rid of YouTube Ads on Android. (Don't pay for YouTube Premium!!)
On
an Android mobile device
then NewPipe is the best ad-free alternative for YouTube content. It
uses the YouTube API,
which essentially means that it is actually YouTube, but without
commercial advertisements and interference. If you have NewPipe, you
won't need to pay for YouTube Premium to get rid of ads. NewPipe also
has some awesome features like
'Background Play" which allows you to continue to listen to just the
audio portion of videos, while you press the power button on your phone
to turn off the screen and save battery life. It is
absolutely amazing for music playlists from YouTube. Unfortunately Apple
iPad and iPhone users are out of luck here.
- NewPipe (note: You will need to enable the option "Install from Unknown Sources" in your mobile browser.)
- Whenever NewPipe stops working, there is usually a version update
that you will need to install to make it usable and start playing videos
again. This can happen quite frequently.
#4 Save YouTube videos in lower HD resolutions quickly.
- This one is relatively easy. When you are at the video you want to save, add just the two letters "pp" after the word "Youtube" and before the ".com" in the address bar and then hit enter and then it will bring you to a new page with options to save the video.
