YouTube Opinion "Video Starts At" Rant

[Beanie Draws]

I'm going to go on a little bit of a rant, which is probably going to be very unpopular considering what I've read on Twitter about the topic of "video starts at" comments.

You'll often hear creators fluff each other's egos by saying "yeah that's so rude" "I delete those comments" "people "should" respect the creators time" etc, etc.

Here's my hot take.
If you get a comment saying "video starts at" it means you need to make better videos.
If someone has to skip forward to the actual point of the video that your title and thumbnail are alluding to... then it means your intro is too long and you're adding too much self inflating drivel that you think is important, but obviously ISN'T that important to your audience.
It's not your audience's job to watch your videos, it's YOUR job to make your video worth watching, so if you have comments saying "video started at" and others are thanking them... maybe you should be thankful that that person prevented some of your audience from leaving all together.
Did they kill some of your watch time by having people skip ahead? Yeah, maybe... but did you waste people's time by adding a story about your life, when your video was supposed to be answering how to quickly remove audio from a video or something along those lines?

I usually don't say this on Twitter because most creators egos are too fragile to take some honest criticism. Whenever ANYONE says something bad about our videos, we automatically brush it off as "hate", or we instinctively go into defensive mode to defend our hard work.
Instead, maybe ask yourself... is what I'm saying serving the video? or is it only serving myself and my own sense of importance? And if you bite back at someone saying this... do you ACTUALLY care about your audience retention, or do you just want your praises sung to you so you can feel good about yourself instead of taking a hard lesson, and learning to improve your craft, where the audience has given you DIRECT FEEDBACK of where you went wrong?

I think "video starts at" is the most pure form of critique to tell you, you need to lift your game and that you wasted too much of your audiences time. I've been guilty of it, so I try to make sharper snappier straight to the point starts. I have much to learn, but I very rarely get the "video starts at" complaint anymore. So if someone has something bad to say about your video, and they can do it without dropping any swear bombs or insults... then maybe listen. Not ALL negativity should be ignored... why else do we hand in assignments to our teachers for feedback, only to be told what we did wrong. It's all about learning and improving

End of rant

 

[Damon]

This is exactly why I have no intro. For me there no need to event explain what the video is about. The title and thumbnail did that. Since I'm trying to be more of a documentary filmmaker, jumping straight into the action is far more important.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

I agree with this... but it is a hot-button issue in my opinion and despite agreeing I am going to rant about the single time that it happened for me. We did a fishing video and the thumbnail and title were centered around this really big shark that we caught on a fishing trip. Naturally the shark had to come at the end of the video. Had a guy give me that 'video starts at...' nonsense referring to how the shark was caught at the end of the video. Now I understand that not everyone is a YouTube creator and not everyone understands the finer details in creating an interesting video from start to finish or what it takes to keep a person watching... but you could tell by the time stamp going in that this was going to be a twenty minute video. The comment was meant to be nothing short of an insult.

I'm ranting on my end... but other than this circumstance I do tend to agree. It's harsh criticism, but it does provide feedback into the viewers mentality.

 

[Damon]

@Stanley Orchard, exactly. Some of us are trying to be like Jacques Cousteau and Nat Geo. Sometimes guys like Jeremy Wade don't even catch the monster fish they're looking for. Still, they have built massive audiences and fans, yet no one complains about them not catching the fish or not seeing the big catch until the end. In fact catching the big fish at the end is the whole point of the episode.

Every story has a beginning, middle and end. While you are not obligated to tell that story chronologically, every story has these elements. However, the action starts from the moment they click the play button.

Those hater types you mentioned, Stanley, I seriously doubt that they are fishermen/outdoorsmen at all. My guess is that is someone the algorithm picked up outside your main audience.

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

@Stanley Orchard, exactly. Some of us are trying to be like Jacques Cousteau and Nat Geo. Sometimes guys like Jeremy Wade don't even catch the monster fish they're looking for. Still, they have built massive audiences and fans, yet no one complains about them not catching the fish or not seeing the big catch until the end. In fact catching the big fish at the end is the whole point of the episode.

Every story has a beginning, middle and end. While you are not obligated to tell that story chronologically, every story has these elements. However, the action starts from the moment they click the play button.

Those hater types you mentioned Stanley, I seriously doubt that they are fishermen/outdoorsmen at all. My guess is that is someone the algorithm picked up outside your main audience.

You absolutely nailed it. And that is the sticking point, that is why I get animated about that one. I might not be the best at it, but I am trying to tell a story. I am trying to immerse the viewer in the experience. I'm not just dumping a lucky clip I caught on a company fishing trip with a cell phone... I take time to walk through the viewer through the series of events that lead up to the peak moment. Whether it is a comedy or a drama I do try to tell the story well. And when that gets summed up with 'video begins at' it gets under my skin. That person is one of the prime examples for why so much poor content can succeed on platform.

But let me tell you how I really feel.

 

[Damon]

That person is one of the prime examples for why so much poor content can succeed on platform.

Yup, that's true. People expect to eat slop out of a pig trough. When well made beef Wellington is presented, they don't know what they're getting. While many do profit from such poorly made content, those who are not a part of your audience will eject themselves. It's just as Saint Peter said,

ΓÇ£The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.ΓÇ¥

 

[Tito Tim]

I think 'video starts at' means you might be rambling on too much before getting to the advertised content. For example, I was looking at an "interview" vid, but the channel creator was rambling on about all kinds of other things, and someone posted "interview starts at" (like 5 minutes of rambling). I, and many others, posted a thank you.

It really depends on the channel type as well. A travel vlog may be more about the story telling, not an exact scene. A 'how to' vid needs to get right to the point. I hear people complain about recipe blogs as well - no one should have to scroll 3 pages down for the recipe to start.

 

[tropicthunder]

I agree, also it depends on the channel niche too. But from my perspective as a viewer, I need to get straight to the point I was looking for. Some of the creator even said something like "if you like to get to the point, skip to X minutes", I think that kind of creator understand the situation. But then again, youtube now have timestamp options for people if they want to watch specific type of scene from their videos

 

[MiddleofKnowhere]

What I dislike are 3 min long intros asking for likes, subs, etc as well as describing other things not related to the video content. Either cut that down, make an intro video on your channel for that purpose, or something else. Either way, get to the content of the video, don't preface or even interrupt later on in the vid with all that non-important drivel. There's a way to nonchalantly insert "get subscribed" callouts within a video either via a graphic or if you're talking about something parallel to your video that you intend to make another video about later on, "I'll be making a video later on this, so get subscribed and turn on notifications so you don't miss out." that's like 5 seconds of a call while being more or less on topic.

But I agree, if someone is stating video starts at, then yeah there's dead space (not all instances as with the fishing example above since the payoff is supposed to be at the end).

 

[BensTechLab]

I completely agree! I have no musical/animated intro or life updates at the start of my videos. I try to get to the main focus of the video as fast as possible. And the creators who get offended by the "video starts at" comments are missing the feedback from their viewers...