(favorites, hate-watch, overrated, underrated)
I don’t really know the mechanics of it. The timing seems to be more in line with patreon becoming the dominant form of finance for youtube creators, rather than the algorithm change that focuses on long content (which was quite a while ago).
The algorithm also rewards steady uploads, which isn’t what’s happening at all. There are also several creators that have completely given up on youtube monetization because of DMCA hell.
If I had to hazard a guess, I’d guess that it mostly affects creators who actually want to publish longer videos with more time to research. Patreon is giving them the means to actually do this (good), but the subscribers need to feel like they’re getting their money’s worth if a video gets delayed for multiple months, which discourages editing it down to a shorter run length, because video length is far more visible than research quality.
I believe the timing has a shared root cause. Old youtube creator documents recommended regular uploads and this was the norm. A few years ago there were considerable drops in online advertising rates which caused youtube to make dramatic changes in it’s algorithm and also lead creators to seek alternative forms of income.
