I don't see it succeeding unless they get Riot Games to exclusively stream on YouTube. That amount of views League of Legends brings to Twitch is crazy.
As a YouTuber for six years I can't tell you how depressing its been to watch this shit happen.
I remember attending my first VidCon, I was 18 and just graduated on high school and my first YouTube channel basically got fucked due to the fact my Adsense getting disabled (RIGHT BEFORE MY FIRST PAYCHECK WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SENT).
When I went to talk to the YouTube staff attending the event they informed me that it was out of their hands and that there was nothing they could do which is bullshit considering the exact same thing happened to a bigger YouTuber and it was fixed within a day.
YouTube sees their big channels as the example to follow - if it works for them, it must work for everyone. They gave out the Playbooks at the last VidCon in physical form and re-reading them just make sick because its not about making great content, its about how to make the most money.
They encourage you to try to hook your audience in the first 15 seconds, use all caps in your video titles BECAUSE THIS GRABS THE AUDIENCE'S ATTENTION BY THE BALLS APPARENTLY, they want you to remember to make sure you remind them to always like comment and subscribe, and try to encourage discussion by posing questions to your audience.
I understand they want content creators making money but the least they could do is actually help us rather than just pat us on the back and lie to us "Yea, these changes are gonna help grow your channel" is what we hear every time there's a new YouTube layout implemented. My first VidCon was when they announced Cosmic Panda, with every update we get less and less. I think with Google+ we were all just kind of fed up with taking the crap Google fed us and actually got mad about it.
Everyone saw this as YouTubers being angsty and hostile for no reason when in reality friends of mine who make their livings off their YouTube were seeing their views drop at least 30% minimum. Some of my friends saw 50-60% drop in views which caused some of them to rethink what they were gonna do, a few quit because they just couldn't pay the bills anymore.
YouTube needs to understand that they're not just messing with a users experience but they're also messing with people's livelihoods. They don't seem to get that, they never have.
This is something I've actually wanted for awhile! Watching movies and TV is nice but whenever I watch it with an IRC chat it suddenly gets SO MUCH better.
I feel ya but when I meant quality content I should've been more specific. Hank and John Green have been making awesome quality content for YouTube whether it be the Lizzie Bennet Diaries or Crash Course or the Brain Scoop. This example also includes Philip Defranco who created SourceFed and many more content creators working on their shows.
Never thought I would see Hank Green on the front page of HN but hey there's a first time for everything!
Hank has a great point, YouTube is all about quality content! They need to invest in people that know how YouTube works not Hollywood. It takes a fresh and open perspective to understand a YouTube audience. I'm 19 and I've been making videos since the age of 15 and you learn so much about interaction and branding but you never forget that you're just some guy talking to a camera...WHICH IS PRETTY RELATABLE! I'm sorry I think I went on a random rant.
MY POINT: YouTube always should be supporting their original content creators, not trying to help all these new companies become big and successful. There is a reason I watch TV and a reason I watch YouTube. I don't need both on one platform. Alright, done.
I'm really not surprised, Formspring was around when I was in high school and to be honest I stopped using it after day 3 because it got boring and there was nothing too interesting about it.