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Every single video, without exception, that I've uploaded in the past few months has been demonetized within a day or two. Then I request manual review and they

Every single video, without exception, that I've uploaded in the past few months has been demonetized within a day or two. Then I request manual review and they're monetized again within another day or two. My content is clean and all of it is programming/tech related (programming tutorials and some Raspberry Pi stuff). So if there is an algorithm it's really naive at this stage or it doesn't apply until you request manual review.

RyanShook 9y ago
In my experience, Youtube demonetizes based on metadata. So any tags/descriptions with keywords that YT views as “controversial” the system will demonetize regardless of actual content in the video.
- wybiral 9y ago
  I uploaded a video yesterday that's already demonetized. It's part of a series to write an RSS feed reader in Python (specifically the part about adding static files to the server). Tags: python, rss, feedparser, feed reader, news aggregator, flask, css, static files It doesn't seem "controversial" to me.
  - ocdtrekkie 9y ago
    Try without the word "news", perhaps?
  - TheCoreh 9y ago
    Perhaps "news"?
  - lettergram 9y ago
    I'm wondering if "flask" is getting flagged (as in relation to alcohol. Or news, because you know - "fake news"
    - wybiral 9y ago
      Maybe, but the series before that had nothing to do with flask or news. For instance a video in a series about writing a Go web app had these tags: golang, http, server, redis, gorilla mux, go-redis, web, application, tutorial, howto And it was demonetized. Every single video I've uploaded seems to have been until I request manual review (which takes a couple of days).
      - londons_explore 9y ago
        gorilla is a racist term... The algorithm doesn't understand context.
  - kawsper 9y ago
    Do you know which excluded_ads labels it was tagged with?
    - wybiral 9y ago
      For the video I uploaded yesterday, in the source for the video I can see: "excluded_ads": "46=14_14; 59=14_14; 76=2_2_1,2_2_4; 102=1_1,1_3,2_1,2_3; 106=1_1,1_2_1,1_3,2_1,2_2_1,2_2_4,2_3,14_14,17_2_1,17_2_4" EDIT: This may just be the generic variable in their source code, I'm not sure how to get the value specific to my video.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
  - koolba 9y ago
    You should try making the same video with a parser written in Golang and see if that get's demonetized as well.
    - wybiral 9y ago
      The series before this one was about Golang and they all got demonetized too.
      - 1_2__4 9y ago
        I'm not sure which is funnier, his comment or your deadpan response.
  - superflyguy 9y ago
    Feedp arse r maybe?
  - burger_moon 9y ago
    What's a link to your channel? You've at least got me interested in checking it out.
    - wybiral 9y ago
      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6tqFmkqznYJTzidBerHA8g https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6tqFmkqznYJTzidBerHA8g The video from yesterday (08 - CSS and static files) is still demonetized. If that gives you any context.
  - nana_gb 9y ago
    I'm 99.9% sure it's nothing to do with your tags and everything to do with some sort of speech to text analysis google is doing on your video. In my case, I have a demonitized tutorial video on how to download and upgrade my software. I was a bit surprised since it was a basic boring screen share video. Nothing controversial either, until I looked at the auto generated close captioning. I said "Prosper202" but Google heard "pr0st!tut3" (I edited the actual word just in case HN also has auto block filters) But as you can see, it's obviously a not safe for brands keyword. I've manually fixed the closed captioning with the correct words, but as of now the video is still demonetized. So I think there's some sort of blacklist of words said in videos that will auto demonetize videos. In your case, after watching your video with closed captioning I notice you use the word "explicit" a lot in your video. Once again given the context, it's totally safe. But there's also a very unsafe context that I doubt google is willing to automatically monetize without some sort of manual review. (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en) You can request a manual review of the affected videos, but only if your video has 1000 views in the past 7 days. For most small channels wrongly flagged, there's no real fix (for the old video). The only real suggestion to test out is to not say explicit in your next video. I'm also interested in hearing from others with demonetized videos, that may be suffering from the same auto captioning and blacklisted words issue.
    - wybiral 9y ago
      That's a good point. I've seen my captioning be WAY off from what I actually said. But when I request a manual review the videos do seem to get monetized again within a few days... Even with less than 1000 views.
    - londons_explore 9y ago
      This is correct. Videos are demonetized mostly on a blacklist of bad words. Run text to speech on the video before upload (preferably upload the audio only on a test channel and download the captions), and edit out all words which have any negative connotation whatsoever. Beware - the blacklist contains a lot of words which are only bad in a certain language or a certain region or slang you might be unaware of. Use urban dictionary to find the bad words... It seems you can let a few slip through, but if a bad word appears too many times, it causes demonetization.
  - siruncledrew 9y ago
    With "flask", "python", and "feed" the NLP is assuming you are some kind of alcoholic snake wrangler?
vbernat 9y ago
Some users are publishing the video as a private video first, get demonetized, ask for the review, the video is monetized again and user can publish it as a public video.
- falcolas 9y ago
  This doesn't help people posting time-sensitive content such as news or reviews. Those who used to fill this niche who have been targeted by the algorithms are seeing upwards of 90% loss in revenue despite having all videos re-monitized after manual review.
- delecti 9y ago
  Are you sure that's possible? I've heard that a video needs to be averaging a certain number of videos (something like 1000/week) before they'll do the manual review.
  - vbernat 9y ago
    My source is this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-gFU74UzA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-gFU74UzA. This could possibly be false.
benawad 9y ago
I make programming videos too, and a similar thing happens to me. The first day I release a video it's demonetized, and even if I don't request a manual review the video will be remonetized a couple days later.
- wybiral 9y ago
  Interesting. Maybe YouTube needs to adjust their algorithm for that category or something.
  - mitchty 9y ago
    I'd bet this behavior is their algorithm "working as intended". Aka, advertisers saying they don't want to waste ad spend on worthless programming videos. So they get demonetized for the first few days to reduce the impact of any ad spend on the times that would be most likely to get views, then turn it on so the drip of ad spend can treat the videos like problem children.
    - wybiral 9y ago
      I'm more inclined to think that the algorithms are just a bit naive at this point. Surely some advertisers out there do want to target that market. The notice on my videos is: Limited or no ads due to content identified as not suitable for most advertisers[1]. Your video remains fully playable and is eligible to earn subscription revenue from YouTube Red. [1] https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en
      - mitchty 9y ago
        Sure, just curious that the videos would be monetized after the first few days. From what I've heard the first few days of a video basically makes/breaks a lot of videos as far as monetization goes.
        mintplant 9y ago

RyanShook 9y ago

In my experience, Youtube demonetizes based on metadata. So any tags/descriptions with keywords that YT views as “controversial” the system will demonetize regardless of actual content in the video.

wybiral 9y ago
I uploaded a video yesterday that's already demonetized. It's part of a series to write an RSS feed reader in Python (specifically the part about adding static files to the server). Tags: python, rss, feedparser, feed reader, news aggregator, flask, css, static files It doesn't seem "controversial" to me.
- ocdtrekkie 9y ago
  Try without the word "news", perhaps?
- TheCoreh 9y ago
  Perhaps "news"?
- lettergram 9y ago
  I'm wondering if "flask" is getting flagged (as in relation to alcohol. Or news, because you know - "fake news"
  - wybiral 9y ago
    Maybe, but the series before that had nothing to do with flask or news. For instance a video in a series about writing a Go web app had these tags: golang, http, server, redis, gorilla mux, go-redis, web, application, tutorial, howto And it was demonetized. Every single video I've uploaded seems to have been until I request manual review (which takes a couple of days).
    - londons_explore 9y ago
      gorilla is a racist term... The algorithm doesn't understand context.
- kawsper 9y ago
  Do you know which excluded_ads labels it was tagged with?
  - wybiral 9y ago
    For the video I uploaded yesterday, in the source for the video I can see: "excluded_ads": "46=14_14; 59=14_14; 76=2_2_1,2_2_4; 102=1_1,1_3,2_1,2_3; 106=1_1,1_2_1,1_3,2_1,2_2_1,2_2_4,2_3,14_14,17_2_1,17_2_4" EDIT: This may just be the generic variable in their source code, I'm not sure how to get the value specific to my video.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- koolba 9y ago
  You should try making the same video with a parser written in Golang and see if that get's demonetized as well.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    The series before this one was about Golang and they all got demonetized too.
    - 1_2__4 9y ago
      I'm not sure which is funnier, his comment or your deadpan response.
- superflyguy 9y ago
  Feedp arse r maybe?
- burger_moon 9y ago
  What's a link to your channel? You've at least got me interested in checking it out.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6tqFmkqznYJTzidBerHA8g https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6tqFmkqznYJTzidBerHA8g The video from yesterday (08 - CSS and static files) is still demonetized. If that gives you any context.
- nana_gb 9y ago
  I'm 99.9% sure it's nothing to do with your tags and everything to do with some sort of speech to text analysis google is doing on your video. In my case, I have a demonitized tutorial video on how to download and upgrade my software. I was a bit surprised since it was a basic boring screen share video. Nothing controversial either, until I looked at the auto generated close captioning. I said "Prosper202" but Google heard "pr0st!tut3" (I edited the actual word just in case HN also has auto block filters) But as you can see, it's obviously a not safe for brands keyword. I've manually fixed the closed captioning with the correct words, but as of now the video is still demonetized. So I think there's some sort of blacklist of words said in videos that will auto demonetize videos. In your case, after watching your video with closed captioning I notice you use the word "explicit" a lot in your video. Once again given the context, it's totally safe. But there's also a very unsafe context that I doubt google is willing to automatically monetize without some sort of manual review. (https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en) You can request a manual review of the affected videos, but only if your video has 1000 views in the past 7 days. For most small channels wrongly flagged, there's no real fix (for the old video). The only real suggestion to test out is to not say explicit in your next video. I'm also interested in hearing from others with demonetized videos, that may be suffering from the same auto captioning and blacklisted words issue.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    That's a good point. I've seen my captioning be WAY off from what I actually said. But when I request a manual review the videos do seem to get monetized again within a few days... Even with less than 1000 views.
  - londons_explore 9y ago
    This is correct. Videos are demonetized mostly on a blacklist of bad words. Run text to speech on the video before upload (preferably upload the audio only on a test channel and download the captions), and edit out all words which have any negative connotation whatsoever. Beware - the blacklist contains a lot of words which are only bad in a certain language or a certain region or slang you might be unaware of. Use urban dictionary to find the bad words... It seems you can let a few slip through, but if a bad word appears too many times, it causes demonetization.
- siruncledrew 9y ago
  With "flask", "python", and "feed" the NLP is assuming you are some kind of alcoholic snake wrangler?

vbernat 9y ago

Some users are publishing the video as a private video first, get demonetized, ask for the review, the video is monetized again and user can publish it as a public video.

falcolas 9y ago
This doesn't help people posting time-sensitive content such as news or reviews. Those who used to fill this niche who have been targeted by the algorithms are seeing upwards of 90% loss in revenue despite having all videos re-monitized after manual review.
delecti 9y ago
Are you sure that's possible? I've heard that a video needs to be averaging a certain number of videos (something like 1000/week) before they'll do the manual review.
- vbernat 9y ago
  My source is this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-gFU74UzA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM-gFU74UzA. This could possibly be false.

benawad 9y ago

I make programming videos too, and a similar thing happens to me. The first day I release a video it's demonetized, and even if I don't request a manual review the video will be remonetized a couple days later.

wybiral 9y ago
Interesting. Maybe YouTube needs to adjust their algorithm for that category or something.
- mitchty 9y ago
  I'd bet this behavior is their algorithm "working as intended". Aka, advertisers saying they don't want to waste ad spend on worthless programming videos. So they get demonetized for the first few days to reduce the impact of any ad spend on the times that would be most likely to get views, then turn it on so the drip of ad spend can treat the videos like problem children.
  - wybiral 9y ago
    I'm more inclined to think that the algorithms are just a bit naive at this point. Surely some advertisers out there do want to target that market. The notice on my videos is: Limited or no ads due to content identified as not suitable for most advertisers[1]. Your video remains fully playable and is eligible to earn subscription revenue from YouTube Red. [1] https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en
    - mitchty 9y ago
      Sure, just curious that the videos would be monetized after the first few days. From what I've heard the first few days of a video basically makes/breaks a lot of videos as far as monetization goes.
      - mintplant 9y ago