Do the people who invented the internet have political opinions about the internet and what would they be?

[David_24]

Should people get the internet for free? Is that one of the opinions they would have?

I've been upset cause my youtube channel is like dead and wont grow and I know its because youtube one of the only good publishing websites is run terribly by google. As an artist I can't grow my channel without buying adds somewhere. What would the founders of the internet think of my feelings on this?
Shouldn't there be many good options to grow an artists fan base and exposure. And shouldn't they work? I made good video's but I think google is killing art.

What are your own thoughts on this?

 

[Colif]

No one person/team made the internet, it was a series of steps made by different people. SO what they thought/believed didn't have much impact on what it became.
https://www.britannica.com/story/who-invented-the-internet
the team that thought up tc/pip are 78 & 83 respectively. Britannica doesn't mention what they think now.

YouTube got to stage it started to compete against other media and too popular, and now most of the things that used to exist on other media have to make YouTube channels to compete and may get more important on algorithm to home grown channels that were there before. The people who made YouTube big are being pushed out. That is how I see it.

 

[TerryLaze]

There was semi-widespread internet for at least 15 years before youtube even was a thing, do you know what artists had to do back then?! Rent server space to upload their own website, sit down and code it or spend money on somebody that could and then spend even more money on adds because they had no central platform and nobody would know their web address.

Even if you have the most romantic take about it that they made the internet for free exchange of information, well you have that, you can upload as many videos as you want and anybody who wants to can watch them.

Nobody that made the internet had a way in mind to force everybody to notice a certain piece of information, getting noticed is up to you, internet or not isn't even a difference there.

 

[sizzling]

I have followed several nieche YouTube channels over the years that started with a very small number of subscribers and have built up to bigger channels, however some died off. Those that survived and grew all had something in common, a unique approach to their specific topic and a constant flow of new videos. I’d guess they released a new video at least once or twice a month that was a new topic within their neiche. It also took years to grow. At least 3 of the channels offered its patrons the option to make donations in return for support from the creator or credits in the videos. I don’t believe any of these channels would have had any real advertising budgets in their early years.

 

[DSzymborski]

I'm a little confused by the basic thesis here. If the internet was "free" (whatever that means), there wouldn't be a Youtube or anything similar on which people can choose to watch your videos or not.

I make a good living as a journalist. I like my boss a lot, but he's not paying me to write out from any altruistic motivation, but because he'd rather have the money from ads and subscriptions that my writing brings in rather than the money he'd save from not employing me. And I'm making a similar choice: I rather have the money that my boss gives me to write for him than either the money I'd make from ads and subscriptions going solo or having the free time from not writing at all.

 

[Colif]

Could be they think "Free" like in air, it doesn't cost anything to produce. Sure, thats not reality but it is what he might mean.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I've been upset cause my youtube channel is like dead and wont grow and I know its because youtube one of the only good publishing websites is run terribly by google. As an artist I can't grow my channel without buying adds somewhere. What would the founders of the internet think of my feelings on this?
Shouldn't there be many good options to grow an artists fan base and exposure. And shouldn't they work? I made good video's but I think google is killing art.

What are your own thoughts on this?

Honestly this is the downfall of many aspiring YouTubers, Twitch Streamers, or anyone else looking to get popular on some online multimedia format. And heck, this may extend to anything in general.

At this point in time, YouTube and the like is incredibly competitive. For example, if you start a tech channel, what are you going to provide that LTT, Gamer's Nexus, Jay's Two Cents, Hardware Unboxed, Digital Foundry, or a myriad of other tech YouTubers haven't provided? What makes you stand out from the others? Why should I spend 5-10 minutes or whatever watching your content over someone else's? You don't have to answer to me specifically, but these are the kind of questions you have to answer when making your content. Or you could make content because you like making content, and the passion for making that content will show through your videos. And all you have to do is keep making content that's of decent enough quality.

I've followed a few channels on YouTube that went from being relatively niche or unknown, to getting their gold plaques. A lot of them didn't even have sponsorships or any other sort of support for a while. And the defining trait they all have: they do their own things and they're passionate about it. And almost all of them did YouTube simply as a hobby; it didn't become their primary job until several years down the road when they felt they had attracted enough of an audience to be supported entirely on that. Even then, a lot of them still had doubts it would pan out. However, that's not to say that this is the road to guaranteed success, but it's a common trait that successful independent YouTubers have.

So no, Google is not killing art. The problem is there's too much freaking stuff.