The Verge is sending out copyright strikes to people who criticized their PC build
For those of you not in the loop, the Verge created a PC build guide back in September, and it was...bad, to put it lightly. They took down the original video after a storm of criticism, but this guy reuploaded it, if you want to see it.
Kyle (aka Bitwit) created a response video to it, which got copyright striked (which is more severe than a claim and has to be done by a human, unlike content ID claims), in addition to ReviewTechUSA. Ironically, the Verge published an article about abuse of the copyright system just 3 days ago (2 days when the videos were taken down yesterday).
The Verge should have taken more responsibility to begin with, now that the dust have settled they seem bent on reminding everyone how bad their video was.
Edit: Bauke pointed out Kyle's video is back up! This is not because the Verge retracted their claim, but because YouTube actually had a human review it and determine it was fair use (which usually isn't the case from what I've heard).
The video you linked from TheFatRat reminded me of a very similar situation with a guitar instructor on YouTube named Paul Davids, and it got a fair amount of press at the time, including an article on the BBC.
I think TheFatRat did a great job at really illustrating just how insane non-automated false copyright claims have gotten. There's been a lot of semi-related issues as well recently where strikes have been used to discourage criticism, though that is an area that becomes a little more murky when some of these content creators claim "fair use" even when it isn't and then damage the ability of those making legitimate grievances of abuse.
I hadn't noticed that, that's good to see! I'll update the OP. This incident really underscores how bad copyright claims are on YouTube. It's been bad for awhile, but it usually seems to be trolls who don't actually own the copyrights to content that cause trouble, not respected (or formerly respected) media outlets attempting to silence criticism and ignoring fair use laws.
I completely forgot about that video. Another great example of the Streisand effect.
That's blatant lies. YouTube didn't agree with them, they used the automated system to issue the strike, and then when Bitwit challenged it (which escalated it to a review process) YouTube agreed it was a misuse of the system and reverted it instantly.
And that last bit, as though they generously decided to cancel the strike.. no, YouTube did, and also sent them a written warning about misusing the strike system.
They're pathological liars.
https://twitter.com/bitwitkyle/status/1095941396039516160
Okay, official old-fart response:
<rant> I built my own boxen for 20+ years, and have never, ever seen such a farrago of bad advice in one place, that even a half-assed RTFM would have prevented.I'd say this was inconceivable, if I hadn't just been listening to a roomful of self-appointed infrastructure "engineers" spouting things about hardware and networking suggesting they know not of what they speak.
And the problem is, people who do know what they're talking about don't make videos, or occupy high-profile meetings. We're usually busy cleaning up the shitfullness left behind.
</rant>Good rant. I am definitely adding "farrago" to my lexicon. Sadly, it's going to get plenty of use at work.
Really? Seems like a good way to provide actual good advice to the populace that doesn't know any better.
Most of the people who are really good at doing something are generally busy doing that thing. "Those that can, do. Those that can't, teach". It's crass, but there's a truth there.
There's always exceptions, and there's plenty of incredibly talented and skilled people on YouTube, but they're hard to find under the absolute flood of utter crap being cranked out every second. It's way too easy for someone who doesn't know much about a topic to go to YouTube for guidance and land on Verge-style drivel than one of the truly knowledgeable content creators.
Throw in the profitability of clickbait and therefore the VC money those fud-makers have access to, and it's outright unfair for the legitimately educational channels, trying to get noticed over channels with entire teams pushing their fluff-for-clicks.
I am not YouTube-friendly material, and that's another part of the suite of problems which accompanies the kind of people who actually do the work to gain the knowledge.
It's difficult to accomplish popular education on topics so important to the modern society, when people passionate about the subjects see no incentive to provide it. How else would people learn?
I understand your position, and can't possibly blame you. I just wish there were better opportunities to make the world a place where you wouldn't want to rant as much.
The Verge is garbage. Their definition of fact checking is publishing a correction after someone in the comments points out the obvious problems - which it seems they don't always do. They have published many articles that were thinly veiled advertisements for products on Kickstarter and Indiegogo, which tend to be somewhere on the scale between "a little dishonest" to "outright scam".
I don't think I'd label the entire journalistic outfit as garbage—that's the kind of reflexive commentary that @Deimos has been discouraging lately. A lot of their articles are vapid, I'll give you that; but they publish many in-depth & insightful long forms that are worth sharing & discussing, in my opinion. It says a lot they're one of the more frequent submission domains on Tildes, actually.
my general rule of thumb about takes that label journalistic outlets garbage is that, unless it's labeling right wing grifter websites like infowars or "news outlets" which have a clear record of doing nothing but distorting the truth like james o'keefe's project veritas garbage, it's a reactionary take. there are almost no journalistic outlets which go out of their way to be vapid and pointless or survive on pumping out dogshit articles, and in any case journalism is in such a place where even if they wanted to do that as a strategy, they probably wouldn't be able to because of how much journalism is contracting right now.
Maybe I don't see those as often as you do. After all, I don't ever visit their homepage.
I do take issue with you calling my comment reflexive, though. Me thinking that The Verge is garbage is nothing new. The issue I have with them is their poor editing. The Verge frequently publishes things that they really should not have, and the PC build video is emblematic of that issue. Any news outlet is built on top of it's editors, and that is precisely where The Verge fails.
Garbage may have been too strong of a word, at least going by @alyaza's comment, but they are very low down the totem pole when it comes to overall quality.
I can't believe the video got created and nobody working on it told this guy to just use an actual screwdriver instead of a friggin' Swiss army knife.