walkinginlothlorien

[walkinginlothlorien]

you came back wrong and i am racked with guilt because i cannot bear to see you like this and i should have let you rest. i loved you so much that i defied death itself but i do not think either of us are happy

[walkinginlothlorien]

men in Japanese bl leaning on their hands admiringly is my new thing

[walkinginlothlorien]

[walkinginlothlorien]

do you all remember in the early 2010s where people were talking about freeing the nipple and that mixed-gender sports should become a thing and the removal of period tax and all of that and then some people realised that would mean trans people too ans they instantly decided to revert to bioessentialism 101 and now i have to see grating sentences like Well maybe jeopardy should be gender-segregated because males have a biological advantage in pressing a button

[walkinginlothlorien]

wild few days to be a casual watcher fan

[walkinginlothlorien]

You know what you REALLY can’t kill in a way that matters? Mint.

[walkinginlothlorien]

“well, maybe shane was outvoted” “this is steven’s fault” “i think ryan-” these are all grown men with dick and balls

[walkinginlothlorien]

i've seen the odd post in defence of watcher and i get that you wanna support your fav indie creators, but. listen. this is a stupid, potentially financially disastrous move by them.

'but they want to be free to make their own content and not be beholden to youtube!'

yes, that's totally fair. what's Not fair is locking future seasons of previously free series behind a paywall, and Any future content at all behind said paywall, all without warning, or even asking the community what they think would work. there are many different ways to go about making exclusive content, and having more control over what you make, and this was probably the worst way to go about it.

'but they're a small group that doesn't make that much money!'

they have a patreon that gets about 100k per month. that is on top of ad revenue, merch sales, ticket sales for live audiences, and sponsorship deals. they're also asking for a subscription that's MORE than what a dropout (another subscription based group that does various shows) subscription costs, while having LESS content and at a lower frequency.

and, ultimately, this was something they hyped up, presented in a weirdly guilt trippy but trying to be inspiring tone, all without warning and in one fell swoop. while also being unclear in their over produced announcement video about whether or not old, existing episodes will still stay up for free, requiring them to clarify after the fact.

it was so, so poorly thought out. there are many other ways they could have handled this- using their patreon or even youtube membership to trial paid for exclusive content for example, or even just. putting up a poll to ask if people would like that kind of thing, and for how much.

they didn't. they just did it and expected everyone to cheer for them. utterly bizarre, deeply disappointing, morbidly hilarious.

[walkinginlothlorien]

"they should teach media literacy in schools" english class "they should teach students how to spot misinformation" it's english class "they should teach kids critical thinking" it's called english class

[walkinginlothlorien]

I watched the whole video, which was hard because it was cringe, took forever to get to the point, and had more ads than I thought youtube could put in a 14 minute video, and as a casual watcher of Watcher I think their biggest problem is people like me; I have no emotional reaction to this news except second hand embarrassment. The question of how to make money on YouTube when ads won’t pay the bills is not a new one and people have found many successful answers like merch, Patreon, live shows, making one very high quality product and having it be exclusively available on a real streaming platform while other content remains free to grow your brand, and most importantly spend less on videos.

This video was an obituary notice. So much of the video was ‘our income doesn’t match the quality of videos we want to make’. You’re spending too much on videos then. Adjust your budget. This is a self-made problem.

[walkinginlothlorien]

not now kitten, daddy's about to have a mental breakdown from seeing the prices at the grocery store

[walkinginlothlorien]

Long Rant about the Watcher Thing

The thing about what's happening with Watcher is that I'm a musician. I understand deeply the difficulties that come with an artist making their art and needing money and the relationship with the people that art is for. So I understand that Watcher needs money to pay their employees and maintain their business.

That said, they revealed that they have 25 employees (half of which are nepotism hires and friends from BuzzFeed) and that one episode of Ghost Files costs "hundreds of thousands of dollars." (Ghost Files being their most expensive show by bar, not their average spending habits per Watcher episode)

I understand from a few people I've seen who are in their Patreon that they make at least 100k per month from the patreon. And then there's the money they get from youtube itself from the views. And then there's the money they get from the ads.

Now I understand that Ryan said this decision came down to primarily 2 things: the ad companies were making them feel stifled with what they could do (which they don't explain how), and they want more money to be able to keep up a higher production quality.

I'm going to skip past the thing about the ads. They never specified how the ad companies were making them change their content in a way that made them feel unsatisfied. I can't speak or provide any opinions on why they want so badly to escape needing ad deals.

But I can talk about the higher production quality they speak of and that's specifically because Ryan said that they wanted to pay for a higher production quality FOR US. "For you guys."

We... we didn't ask for higher production. This is NOT a decision they need to make on our account. I understand and respect if they aren't creating on they level they want. But it's odd that they're speaking towards not being able to afford their current spending habits, as if this is something we asked them to do.

I've read a lot of comments about this and I agree with a lot of you that it's odd that this decision to switch to streaming coincides with the return of Worth It, a show that when produced by Steven, seems like it could easily cost just as much as Ghost Files to produce.

I understand why it feels like this is all Steven's fault. His vibes in the video today, compared to Ryan and Shane, made it seem like he was the most excited about it. It's Steven that has been highlighted multiple times as the business man, the one who makes the financial decisions. It's Steven's shows on Watcher that get canceled after one or two seasons, meanwhile Ryan and Shane's shows just keep going to 5 seasons and beyond.

Shane even said it explicitly, that there are "shows that didn't do as well on youtube, that might do better on a streaming service."

But most of the fans DO watch Watcher for Ryan and Shane, they always have. Steven's shows don't do as well. When Watcher brings in a new host and makes a new show for them, those shows do even worse.

I know this upsets Ryan, he's been very vocal about wanting Watcher to expand beyond himself and Shane. He wants his company to be successful regardless of whether he's in front of the camera or not.

But I feel like this step is trying to force it. Right now, this is still Ryan and Shane's channel. This is why we're here. The people haven't latched onto Steven as much, and the attempts to bring in new hosts have been unsuccessful.

There are lots of comments floating around about why Watcher didn't do what Rhett and Link did and open up youtube membership. Or why didn't they host more live events. Or why didn't they do more livestreams. These all could have been fantastic ideas that wouldn't betray the fans.

Because I do think they forgot that their fanbase is largely women in their 20s. People are right in bringing up the cost of living crisis, in bringing up how many subscription services we're already subscribed to. And my heart goes out to the international viewers who can't access the website at all in their country and the ones who can't afford it because Watcher forgot to consider the currency difference.

I feel that they have betrayed their fanbase. I remember when Watcher started and Ryan admitted he was scared no one would watch. And then we showed up for them because we loved them and what they did.

But now most of the fans can't or won't follow them where they're going. And I think Ryan might know this too from the way he said If this is goodbye, it's been fun.

I wish they would have tried other things before hard launching a streaming service. I wish they would have had a long game plan to get to the place they wanted to be as a company and as creatives.

I feel betrayed but I also don't want this company going bankrupt. If they go bankrupt, then we truly have lost them forever. I hope they take a look at the overwhelming backlash, at their falling subscriber numbers, and I hope they reconsider doing this.

[walkinginlothlorien]

[walkinginlothlorien]

this comment section is brutal 😭😭

[walkinginlothlorien]

y'know how in some areas like south asia, the caribbean, and so on, feral dogs are a serious pest issue, and some people kill them, eat them, etc? and yknow how that fact absolutely horrifies people in countries like the US? i wonder how many of those dog defenders fucking hate pigeons.

[walkinginlothlorien]

Oh damn the Catholics have joined in on the war against AI "art".

[walkinginlothlorien]