RealLifeLore

Just wanted to provide an update: YouTube has finally restored the monetization status and the age-restriction that had been put in place on the most recent Darfur video. It took over 2 days to get there but we finally were able to prove that the thumbnail did not, in fact, show anything graphic. Thank you to everyone who helped out on this! It's very appreciated.

5 months ago | [YT] | 17,108

RealLifeLore

YouTube has demonetized and age-restricted my most recent video that's covering the events in Darfur. YouTube gave me no information or timestamps about what was wrong with the video, other than it vaguely involving "violence". I appealed the decision, and a "human" reviewer confirmed it was not suitable for advertisers. This decision by YouTube is final, and only then do they tell you what was wrong with the video but give you no possible opportunity to fix it.

So what was wrong? The thumbnail depicted "graphic violence". The thumbnail shows a satellite image of a watering hole in Darfur surrounded by cattle that was taken by Google Earth in 2024. This image was widely circulated around the internet as evidence of massacres in Darfur, but it was quickly debunked as nothing but a watering hole surrounded by a herd of cattle drinking out of it. This is the image I placed in the thumbnail, because it is explicitly not violent and shows nothing actually harmful. YouTube, in its infinite grace however, has decided that that was worth nuking the whole video over, and has now given me no opportunity to even swap the thumbnail out for something different. All of the work put into the video is now making zero income for futurue projects.

I expected this to happen with this subject honestly, but I felt it was still important to release due to the seriousness of the situation. If you'd like to help, the best way to do so would be by signing up to Nebula here go.nebula.tv/reallifelore, and watching my Mad Kings series there.

Thank you for reading through my venting on this situation. YouTube is extremely frustrating and opaque to work with at times like this.

5 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 29,260

RealLifeLore

If you're wanting to understand the current missile and aerial attacks going on between Israel and Iran, I have multiple videos you can watch to catch you up to speed below:

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oytfh...

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzSRM...

11 months ago | [YT] | 781

RealLifeLore

I've been mulling for hours over the interaction yesterday between Trump and Zelensky in the White House. In my entire life as a proud American, I don't think I've ever experienced something in all my life that has filled me with as much rage, shame, and disgust as that entire conversation did. At about the same time as Trump and Vance were trying to force Zelensky to grovel on his knees, Ukraine hosted a funeral service in Kyiv for a young US marine named Ethan Hertweck. Ethan was only 21 years old, and he died on the frontlines alongside his Ukrainian comrades fighting for what I believe most Americans truly believe in. Dozens of Americans like Ethan have sacrificed their lives to the defense of Ukraine since the Russian invasion began more than 3 years ago, and to have our President so publicly side against them and what they died for is just so abhorrent, I can still barely believe it.

I mostly wanted to write this to my Ukrainian friends to say that you are not alone, and that millions of Americans profoundly identify with your titanic struggle against authoritarianism and reject our President's treatment of yours. Instead of Trump and Vance, I want to remember the legacy of young American volunteers like Ethan Hertweck, and the dozens of others who so strongly believed in your cause that they gave their lives for it. Слава Укріані!

1 year ago | [YT] | 50,844

RealLifeLore

Hey everyone! I hope that y'all are having a wonderful holiday season, and if you're thinking about what gifts to give someone this Christmas, I just wanted to put forward that Nebula is now offering you the ability to gift a friend or loved one a membership! You can choose to gift anyone you want a 1-year Nebula membership for 40% off here: go.nebula.tv/gift?ref=reallifelore

Thank you, and happy holidays!

1 year ago | [YT] | 3,973

RealLifeLore

I hate consistently posting here about YouTube demonetizing my most recent videos, but it just keeps happening over, and over, and over again. My most recent video I posted about North Korea's war preparations has been demonetized by YouTube within 3 hours of me setting it to live, despite it being set to private for nearly 24 hours beforehand with no restrictions detected by YouTube's automated detection. This now marks 4 out of the last 8 videos I have posted to YouTube that have been demonetized - half of all the videos I've posted to this site in the last three months. It's becoming increasingly clear that YouTube no longer wants me or my style of content on this platform, and it's becoming increasingly difficult to justify posting long, expensive, time-consuming pieces to this website when half the videos are getting demonetized.

If you'd like to help and support what I'm still trying to do here, please consider supporting me by signing up for a Nebula subscription. I don't run a Patreon and I never will - signing up for Nebula is the best way to support what I do on RealLifeLore instead, and you'll also get access to more than 30 other exclusive videos I've posted to Nebula that would be immediately demonetized and age-restricted on YouTube anyway.

You can sign up for a Nebula subscription here: go.nebula.tv/reallifelore

Thank you so much, and I hope that I can stop ranting about YouTube's ever changing and opaque monetization policies soon.

1 year ago | [YT] | 23,205

RealLifeLore

Cue the Curb Your Enthusiasm theme...

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 25,198

RealLifeLore

Update. YouTube has now demonetized my second-most recent video about Ukraine's attack into Russia as well! This time, they told me that the problem was for showing "violence" between the timestamps of 0:43 and 4:38, and between 15:00 and 15:06. Let's break this down

The timestamp between 0:43 and 4:38, in my opinion, shows absolutely no violence whatsoever. Throughout this section, violent themes are discussed (the war in Ukraine), but no violence is shown on screen at all. It's a combination of map graphics and videos of destroyed buildings and vehicles, but no acts of violence are displayed on screen at any point.

The timestamp between 15:00 and 15:06 shows a more credible claim of violence, because it shows a grainy black and white video feed from a drone of some vehicles exploding. I can understand the issue with this clip, but my issue with YouTube is that they give you ZERO ability to fix the problem. Once some unknown person at YouTube views your video and decides that a part of it is problematic and demonetizes the whole thing, the decision is final. This means that even if you go into YouTube's built-in editor and cut the problematic clip out or blur it out, YouTube will not review it again and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it other than deleting or privating the video and re-uploading it all over again. And re-uploading it is a terrible idea, because nobody will watch it all over again and YouTube's algorithm will decide that you just uploaded an unwatchable bomb and will instantly stop promoting it in the feed. And all of this over a 10-second clip in a 40-minute video.

This is getting increasingly frustrating for me, because I know YouTube updated their content ID guidelines only a few months ago to be more strict than they have ever been before for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me. They have gotten so strict that 1 in 4 of the videos I have posted over the past 3 months have gotten demonetized or age-restricted, and the videos I produce are each expensive and time-consuming projects. I have a team who I need to pay salaries and benefits to that help me with everything from editing to motion graphics to research, and suffering so many demonetizations these past 3 months have dealt a pretty big blow to adsense revenue.

So once again, if you'd like to support what I do on RealLifeLore and get access to dozens of extra videos I've created that would be demonetized and age-restricted on YouTube anyway, please consider signing up for a Nebula account go.nebula.tv/reallifelore

I don't run a Patreon, and I never will, because I strongly believe in giving back a lot of content in exchange for financial support and I don't like how most Patreon's give basically nothing but early access to videos or something. On Nebula, you get nearly 40 exclusive videos I've created in my Modern Conflicts series over the past 3 years, and you'll keep getting new videos from me over there every single month. It's the best way to support what I do and even if you're not in the position to do so, I want to be clear that I'll continue posting freely available content to YouTube for you as well. But again, if you'd like to support the channel in any extra way, Nebula is the best way to do so go.nebula.tv/reallifelore. Thanks

1 year ago | [YT] | 25,753

RealLifeLore

YouTube has once again demonetized my most recent video about the Amazon Rainforest for allegedly containing "Adult content - sexual behavior, language, or expressions", and the most frustrating part is that the video is nearly 50 minutes long and they don't tell you WHERE exactly in the video the problem supposedly is to allow you to even try to fix it with a cut or blur. The video contains no adult content whatsoever and talks about (and shows) the Indigenous people of the Amazon Rainforest, and I was very careful combing through the video's edit to make sure that no nudity was shown on screen at all. But that's still not good enough for YouTube's byzantine bureaucracy who refuses to even tell its creators what, precisely, is wrong in the video and how to fix it.

It gets harder and harder to justify making these kinds of videos on YouTube when the site just keeps slapping you with demonetization and age-restrictions, so if you'd like to support the continuation of my work, please consider subscribing to Nebula go.nebula.tv/reallifelore. I don't run a Patreon or anything else, so signing up to Nebula is the best way to support what I'm doing. Thank you

1 year ago | [YT] | 37,151

RealLifeLore

Just a heads up, Nebula will be raising their prices on September 1st

The new pricing will be $6/month, or $60/year
With a creator code (like "reallifelore") an annual subscription will be 40% cheaper ($36/year).

However, this will ONLY impact new subscribers.

Which means, if you're on the fence about getting Nebula, it might be a good idea to sign up for an annual plan now in August, so that you can take advantage of the old pricing.
If you use a creator code this month, the current annual price is just $30/year - saving you $6 if you wait until September or later. go.nebula.tv/reallifelore

You can also still sign up for a lifetime subscription for $300 if you do it before September 1st!

You can follow this link to sign up to Nebula go.nebula.tv/reallifelore
And you can learn more information about the price increase here: blog.nebula.tv/pricing-updates/

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 2,756