It's truly baffling that UA-cam never came up with any sort of algorithm compensation system for falsely flagged videos. If they cared at all about creators this would've been a priority years ago.
If they did that, they'd have to admit to having some sort of liability. As far as YT is concerned, this is a real job when it's Rewind Time or some advertisers are upset their videos are on white supremacist videos, but it's a hobby you do at your own risk and expense it when it comes to doing whatever the hell they feel like in the moment.
Yeah, age gating is far more detrimental than a DMCA claim. At least with a DMCA youtube holds the money until the claim is settled and hands the money over to whomever they've decided is in the right. It's crap because they get it wrong but at least there is the appearance of being on the creators side even if the DMCA claim system can be easily abused. Age gating? Nope, your video is just removed from the visibility algorithm and the video's just dead even if you can get it removed.
what really upsets me about this shit is that what really got you through this is your knowledge and experience dealing with youtube’s bullshit, but smaller or less experienced channels would easily give up and just have their video restricted
Overly Sarcastic Productions -AN EDUCATIONAL CHANNEL-, has always had to censor classical art for years because they know the hammer of age-restriction all to well, from all the way back. And even nowadays that they are well over the million subs, they still do, because I'm pretty sure they don't want to deal with navigating UA-cam's bullshit, or were lucky enough to never having to learn how to fight back and are not in a hurry to need it. Only a fair few have the resources and experience to actually fend off UA-cam's abuse and ineptitude. Well that, and the sheer, unbridled anger, as well. And Steph has all three.
This... this entire thing just _cements_ what I think we all already knew or suspected strongly by now... these _FAQing_ companies, these dirty cowardly weasel corpo apologia-spewing bumbleFAQs, do, and have always done, the obviously wrong thing with no real right or legal grounds. They have _misapplied_ their own policies and justified them after the fact on shaky grounds that they _know_ a lawyer would tear apart in court. But they trust that intimidating people with "YOU broke the rules" will keep them safe from the consequences of their own filthy, disgusting, bullying, mob-appeasing, leave-it-to-the-bots ways. Makes me sick.
It's the classic moderator move: "No I won't tell you why you've been punished, and if you keep trying to ask I'll ban you outright". Some people really get a kick out of having power over people.
PSA for the comment readers: if anyone ever tries to move a conversation like this to a phone call, either decline or record it (with permission). They are just attempting to get the conversation off record because they know they're in the wrong. Don't fall for it.
That is absolutely a thing, and you're right to warn our comrades. In this case, because of where it falls in the timeline, I suspect it's more aimed at deflection than deception: some people, offered the chance to yell at "Charlie," will give up instead of (say) taking legal action or the like. (Either before or after yelling at "Charlie.") It doesn't sound like there were any concrete issues still under discussion, it wasn't a case of "well, that's a good point you bring up, let's set up a time for a phone call to talk through it." UA-cam was willing to deliver an on-the-record "no, we won't promote your video" *before* offering the phone call, which isn't what you'd do if you were trying to avoid a paper trail, right? It's more what you'd do if the prize being offered is "no promotion, but you can yell at somebody instead."
@@trioptimum9027 I mostly agree, but usually the priority is to avoid a paper trail explicitly after someone mentions lawyers/lawsuits. I think that's the key event in the timeline, but I admit I have gone through many more experiences of deception rather than deflection (usually in employment & HR contexts) so my perception is definitely more cynical than necessary. Thank you for adding that context!
@@twohundred75percent Hmm, that's true, the lawyer-mention-to-phone-call timing is also suspicious. Dunno, could go either way. And don't do yourself dirty like that: you're making that cynicism work for other people, it's the best thing you can make out of experiences like that. You should feel good about yourself. (Me, I don't consider either version less cynical: in the one case, UA-cam is trying to avoid legal responsibility by ducking the evidence. In the other, they're trying to avoid legal responsibility by manipulating people's emotions, making them *feel* like they got some response even though all they got was some poor call-center worker thrown under the bus with no policy changes or even exceptions made.)
@@tigerhorse6321 Yep. Though since most of us don't have lawyers on retainer or a wish to spend all our money on lawsuits, sometimes the question is not "can I collect this evidence to win my lawsuit" so much as "can I put this person on notice to get them to do the right thing without needing to take them to court." In that case, requesting explicit consent even where you're not required can be a better move than silently recording them. Depends on the situation.
Who are these "employees" that review videos? Where do they live, what is their education level? Are they human slaves in distant lands beind a computer screen?
""But the system doesn't work like that!"" Is the excuse trotted out to manufacture consent for treating you more and more like a robot not a person. The system was built by people, it can be remade by people.
Reminds me of when tumblr was censoring picture of rocks because the robot they used to take down pictures of female presenting nipples couldn't tell the difference between a boob and a rock.
I feel "can't tell the difference between a boob and a rock" should replace the phrase "doesn't know the difference between their ass and a hole in the ground."
@@zyriantel9601 Incredibly pathetic. Especially the "I'd love to answer your questions BUT I'm here to not answer your questions and tell you that your video is no longer restricted, isn't that better than answers to your questions?"
@@FiendMatadorSlayerOfNoobs I'm the living proof of the opposite. I'm a gamer against cancel culture, and just like my friends that are against it, we do not condone what happened here. And I wouldn't be surprised that the people that carried the flag in this whole campaign would just watch eating popcorn whenever anyone is canceled instead of going against it. Do not generalize people.
@@VixYW "I'm not one of those." Maybe not, but that would make you an exception, not the norm. It is still the same people, like it or not. Or you're just being weirdly defensive about this because you're the one who issued the takedown strike to begin with. I,ll be a gentleman and let you decide which. But it IS weird, innit? How you pre.emptively got defensive over something that you CLAIM dosn't apply to you. If that was true, you wouldn't make your initial comment. Kinda sus, don't you agree? >:)
This kind of thing really scares me. UA-cam has been pretty good to us so far at least in terms of not restricting our content, but TikTok has repeatedly restricted to our content for violent and dangerous acts, even though we clearly fall under train professionals, and we are doing safe activities like stunt work and traditional martial arts. I'm kind of just waiting for the other shoe to drop with UA-cam. They already don't pay us enough for the views we get on shorts, I can imagine them starting to restrict us next. Being a content creator on these giant platforms is scary. You're so reliant on them. Best of luck going forward, I hope you get less restrictions.
One of those "On consideration, I think we may have goofed" moments, evidently. Especially after they got their dumbo bluff called on them... Steph is fricking amazing.^^
I kinda hope this picks up press, especially what with the backlash that Florida school got (at least in Europe) for treating Michelangelo as porn. The mere thought of the backlash Google would get for censoring Michelangelo is just *beautiful* to consider.
@@redwitch95 It won't. Most news groups, if not all in North America is owned by corporations and they do NOT want this power they have to be stopped or even that known about. They'll happily talk about the government taking your rights, but they'll NEVER talk about the rights coprorations are taking from people, the freedoms they censor, and the outright rewriting of history they practice.
@@redwitch95 Me too. This story deserves to be shouted from every single rooftop, to let people know: No, these bullying moderators, community managers and other corpo mouthpieces are _not_ in the right. They do not have the authority to shut down free speech and expression, to screw with your videos over a piece of classical artwork they hastily fingered after the fact. After their algorithm decided there was enough of a mob that they needed to be appeased with a sacrifice. The company was doing an illegal on us, and they knew a lawyer would know as much, as evidenced by their sudden heel-face turn on the decision they so recently defended and asserted repeatedly was "totally correct" and "according to our guidelines, please read this link to the vague-as-frick mess of rules we like to use to justify whatever we want to ban" and "oh this must be very disappointing for you but we're in the right and creating a safe space for _everyone_ wheeeeee"... after all of that, all those blatant lies... they very suddenly went "crap, whoa, no wait, no lawyer, come on, we were wrong, we'll change our decision, okay?" Cowards. Chickenpoop scum-sucking bully scuzzweasels. Thought they were the big kid in the playground, kicking over other kids' sandcastles because their pals wanted to laugh at the silly little creative. Then the creative's dad comes along and goes "what the FAQ are you little feces pieces doing?" and suddenly they're all in tears~
Following the events of that age restriction were wild. I'd say it was surprising but it's depressingly unremarkable that YT abusing the content creators who attempt to follow the rules they set out
The notable thing is the rules are only used against fact based people who aren't pushing discrimination and hate. There are tons of right wingers on youtube constantly pushing actual hate and actual lies, they don't get their videos moderated. This anti-michelangelo thing is right from desantis and other nazis. UA-cam's automated processes were programmed to push right wing nonsense. Only when a human was finally involved, did youtube override it. Most creators won't get something like this overturned because they will never reach a person. The harm from videos being censored the first few days bankrupts creators and youtube knows this. It is not an accident that they block videos or demonetize, then cave later. UA-cam knows these videos will lose the creator money when they moderate this way. That is the goal.
Corporate Rulesmithing 101: Write some Terms of Service and/or Community Guidelines that are so incredibly vague, you can later selectively re-interpret them any way you like, so any intolerant nutters on your team can ban any and all stuff they personally dislike, citing "breaks our guidelines", while allowing "right-minded" hate speech and disinformation... corporations are a plague.
Get Charlie on the line and record the entire conversation. The world needs to hear this officially-appointed representative of UA-cam answer Steph's questions in real time.
@@dancarey2307 the video ends with Steph getting an email from a human at UA-cam offering to schedule a live meeting over the phone to address their questions regarding the decision, live. Watch the video next time.
@@cutealiens Sorry. I eventually heard it at the end...the main thing I will do in future is to not comment before watching the whole video. Maybe also count to 10 first.
Honestly, i doubt it. I doubt a real person was even involved until the legal action was threatened. Social media companies use bots almost exclusively, and will just completely lie about what is actually happening when a review is done.
This is so incredibly sad on multiple levels. 1) That people can be so obsessively attached to something that they attack anyone who even HINTS at not sharing their obsession (seriously, they need professional help), and 2) that UA-cam thought such a flimsy excuse could ever stand. Seriously, Michelangelo's Creation of Man? Absolutely pathetic. Thank God for James Stephanie Sterling; you're the hero we need but don't deserve.
I swear lately art has gotten ridiculously restricted, especially on UA-cam (even at my college, a lot of classical art has been censored because we can't show nudity because the conservatives get so upset about it now). I feel so worn down from it all
Sadly you are slightly mistaken. It is not the conservatives or the centrists that are censoring art and classical artwork. It is the progressives and the left folks that are doing such. Some have gone as far as to demand that sculptures and paintings be removed from museums. Especially those if a historical or ancient nature. Hell. Sterling has 4 bloody Jimquisitions on occurances of exactly that.
You hear about how some schools have had to remove the bible cause it conflicts with the new inappropriate content laws conservatives have been passing? Talk about an own goal!
I dont know if I should be impressed that Steph was able yo throw together not one but two of these outfits (Clothed Lobster) in such a last minute fashion or concerned that they were able to do so and it looks so damn good.
One of the worst things about this is that Charlie is just a mouthpiece for the executives, the people who make these policies, who will never talk to you or care about your issues.
When I saw the title of the video, I thought "Steph, you're a genius but not exactly Michelangelo, not yet anyway". But then, I watched the video, and UA-cam censored the actual Michelangelo and one of the most famous and ubiquitous paintings of his, just for extra points. This is just unbelievable. Have you thought about going to Nebula?
Can we talk about how good the outfit looks! It genuinely looks like hemp weave like a old school potato sack. Had it been brown I would sware they stole it from a monk.
When Michaelangelo was commissioned to do the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (he was by no means interested in this job, but the pope forced him to do it) he complained about the working conditions in a poem that was not far from swearing, either. "To Giovanni de Pistoia" - my poor behind
Steph is at their best when something goes wrong - especially if it goes wrong in a weird, uniquely Steph way. Always the best episodes of the Jimquistion are when Steph is righteously angry and responding to something bizarre.
Last week's was truly a fantastic video. UA-cam's policies are so genuinely disturbing; it's sickening. I know they're a near-unimpeachable capitalistic misery of a company, but I truly against the odds hope that you can lawyer them into the ground.
Can confirm. Am Zelda fan. Her usage of the word "splumpk" shattered my ribs. Now I must flag this video because I'm sure the cartoon fish monster at 2:26 isn't wearing any clothes.
You should skulk around the "Doctor Who" fandom sometime. I've seen people in Facebook groups who decided to declare David Tennant's 14th Doctor the _REAL_ 13th Doctor because they don't want to acknowledge Jodie Whittaker for "reasons". I wish the mods would just jettison them and make it clear those kinds of posts aren't to be tolerated.
@@KevinTheTimeGeek86 sheesh, I'm in this fandom, Star Wars, and Dr Who. We just need to list another three (easy to do) and they'd be the infinity stones of insufferable, childish fanbabies.
Its wild to see the level of push and legalese required to "force" a more thorough human review. The machine moderation is so obvious, its absurd to me that they think they can gloss over that every time.
Yet darkly humorous when their cover-up fails _this_ spectacularly. "What _exactly_ is inappropriate? Um... uhh... it's in the guidelines! Here they are, go on and read them. It's the non-specific bit, right there, on pages 11-38. Yeah, you violated a lot of that. Where in the video?! Um!! Uhh! Here, right? There. That painting, that's lewd. Yup. ...It's in lots of other videos? Well... well... um... lawyer you say?" *_Nervous sweating intensifies_* It's amazing, seeing corpo apologists squirm as their garbage excuses for baseless persecution are shot to pieces. Not enough popcorn in the world, one might legally say. =3
I mean this video shows they *do* get away with it the vast majority of the time. James Stephanie Sterling is the exception to the rule in regards to youtube content creators, she has the will and the ability to sic a lawyer at them when they pull this kind of farce. An overwhelming majority of youtubers don't have that sort of pull.
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that the majority of moderation is by bot and they have a very small (compared to the number of videos, content creators, etc) number of actual humans to overturn unfair decisions. Even getting a human is the first challenge, and once you do get one, odds are they have more videos to review in a day than they have time during their shifts to actually complete a thorough review. So, you get copy/paste templates instead. Threats of lawsuits are probably one of the things that would trigger an automatic escalation or get it sent to another department with a bit more power to appease the person since removing age restriction from a video is a lot cheaper than going to court. That is just my guess based on how I've seen things work in call centers.
@@randomstuff-qu7sh call center is the model I always picture. I assume most of it is handled by machine and we're imagining the same scenario - anyone this stuff could be escalated to is probably slammed and just needs to churn through the tickets as fast as possible. Admitting to how much is done by machine would force them to admit how strained their lean workforce is, for one thing.
@@hazukichanx408 Yeah, as a Zelda fan, just seeing the number 7 so close to 10 is enough to send me into a deep state of hyperventilation and rabid rage soon followed with rolling on the floor and ungoldy screeches. Don't worry, I just need to look at another review that hopefully will give it 10/10
This is what happens when they pay people 2 cents a reply in call/email centers. I have a feeling it was probably a real person that did the first double down. It's not that the person won't care, they CAN'T care. They aren't given enough time or money for them to physically care about any one situation.
Sounds probable. The bot gets activated because of meeting some certain threshold volume of complaints. Bot finds violations because I'm guessing programming actual human equivalent levels of nuance is both hard, time consuming, and most importantly, expensive. So the bot finds what it's designed to find: violations. Sterling appeals the findings. "Charlie" glances at the appeal, spends about ten seconds checking the bot again, bot still says violations, he doesn't have time or get paid enough to actually investigate, so just goes with quickest option and reaffirms bot's finding. Technically now the video was manually reviewed, but the manual reviewer is mostly just there to rubber stamp the bots decision, because if they take too long on any single event, their metrics suffer and they get screamed at by their bosses for being lazy/unproductive and probably threatened with write ups and/or firing, because the workers are viewed as easily replaceable widgets. The only reason "Charlie" gets involved to the level he does is because of the escalation and detailed questioning, with the implied threat of legal action. I imagine UA-cam hopes by throwing "Charlie" under the bus, everything will go back to status quo.
Steph, as a trans person who wants to get into content creation but is terrified to be on camera, I think you have found the perfect on-camera outfit for me to wear! Thank God for you.
You've got this buddy!! As much as there is a lot of transphobic bigotry on the platform, various small channels run by transfems have been some of the most insightful and fun ones I've seen, and I'd always love to see more!! If you don't mind, I might make a note to write down your channel name in my notes so I can check it out if it has content one day!! I don't want to forget to support you!!
UA-cam let your video get hit by a bat while doing a 100 meter sprint. Then 5 days later it was put back onto the track and allowed to finish the "race". What a win! I'm sure it came in with a record time!
It's not really relevant to the subject matter, but I have to say that "7/10" is absolutely the best name you could have given a horse. Well done Steph.
The original video was a beautiful one, and you are a beautiful soul that has always thrived above pointless, hateful actions. You're one of the better ones my dear. Stride strong as you always do.
You're logged in and presumably have already verified in some obtuse way that you are over 13 or whatever. If you're logged out, SUPPOSEDLY you're not supposed to get sexual content. I turned on ad blockers just so I would stop getting EXTREMELY violent ads.
I had to make an account for random crap like this years ago, I just got sick of not seeing my favorite creators because of nonsense. Where as kids stuff had things that would get my video games rated M 10 years prior. Frustrating. Great video, thanks for the efforts. You always do a great job.
The only thing that continues to floor me, no matter how many times I'm reminded of it due to the juxtaposition of watching content with such consistently high quality in all areas of production and a creator with a passion so obviously clear that it annoys others who 'share' said passion superficially, and the fact that the sub count keeps going down. And unless you explain it away with either conspiracy or rampant, balls-to-the-walls transphobia (which, yes, but also) we're left with the somehow-more awful explanation: our society is almost completely apathy soaked and can absorb no more, there *are* no more fucks. Between covid, the ever soaring cost of not-dying ('living' implies a degree of life quality and that's so fucking laughable I'm not going further into it) and the cess-pool of mass hysteria and lunacy that is social media... and then there's the whole "the planet is dying!" warning that has come and gone so many times that it's a meme now. We don't not believe it, we just know that nothing will be done in time as there's nothing being done now and no sign anything will be done any time soon. Calling it here, the day the channel hits 0 subs is the day that it is officially declared by whatever authority that the point of no return on a runaway greenhouse effect has come and gone and that even if we were to slam on the breaks and dedicate 100% of global production to removing co2 from the air it wouldn't be enough and that life on earth will end with the current generation. And youtube will age restrict that declaration after it gets mass reported by climate change sceptics.
A depressing but very accurate statement, well said. Personally I think that the only thing that can save us at this point is if an AI reaches an intelligence explosion before it’s too late. That, or widespread global socialism with worker co-ops and decommodification, but I doubt that’s very likely considering wealth inequality is back in 1880s levels and practically all media is owned by right-wing ghouls.
When you said what it was, I burst into laughter. It's just ridiculous. Then it turned into tears of sadness knowing how fucked up UA-cam and its politics are.
I wondered why I didn't see the video last week until I had to search for it on Wednesday. It was a wonderful video, Steph. Truly one of your best pieces of work x
Yes. Flaws. . . like the completely non-sensical story. Nintendo just needs to be honest with the non-BOTW fans that all the prior games are now out of continuity. Forget complex dungeons with puzzles, good boss fights, and a coherent storyline. BotW did to Zelda what RE4 did to Resident Evil. They may be good games to play but they take huge dumps on their franchises history.
@@sypherthe297th2 I'm a bit puzzled as to what coherent storyline you're referring to. Old fan here, been with the series since A Link to the Past. There was no timeline or continuity back then; this tendency to try and awkwardly cram all of these very different games into one coherent through-line was an invention way late into the series, and it really shows with how labored and mangled the whole "Ocarina of Time split the timeline in three, we had to just outright kill Link in one of them to make it work" pileup is. I also disagree with your assertion that this is "taking huge dumps on their franchises history". I greatly enjoyed what BotW did for the incredibly stale, worn-down formula. The game has great respect for its past and blends several beloved elements and themes from Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and even some Majora's Mask. Not just surface elements like paying lip service to a fabricated overarching plot, actual fundamental themes. The overworld is essentially a homage to the Great Sea of Wind Waker with its Bokoblin encampments reminiscent of ocean towers and submarines. The game is full of subtle little callbacks like that if you open your eyes to them. Like, I understand where you're coming from. It sucks and is sad if a franchise you like is leaving elements you enjoyed behind. I am still reeling from what Nintendo decided to do to the Paper Mario series. But please do not try to assert that the Zelda timeline or all that Hyrule Historia stuff are an integral part of past games, and that not feverishly devoting yourself to such supplementary material constitutes a "betrayal" of history. There is no overarching continuity within the games themselves, except in the few cases where such a connection is made explicitly evident (i.e. OoT to MM, OoT to TWW, ALttP to LA, etc). There never was supposed to be, and a game is not lesser for not wanting to be bogged down by that. That isn't to say the BotW games are flawless, to bring it back to the original comment. I also miss the more traditional dungeons. 7/10 is probably fair for TotK. Zelda fans have some weird opinions in general though, like claiming Ocarina of Time is a perfect 100/100 game. How silly, everyone knows Majora's Mask is the best one in the series. Can't go wrong with alcoholic milk and a giant moon face.
@@geybackgeybackson2838 The storyline in BoTW was absolute garbage but I could tolerate it as an attempt to unify the narrative in an all paths lead to BotW kind of way. Fine. TotK is even worse in that it doesn't even try to pretend to be internally consistent with its sibling. The story is one of the worst things I have ever seen Nintendo put out. It is clearly just an attempt to throw out everything prior in a poorly written story. Look, I've said there are fun things about BotW and RE4 (I know this is a different franchise). They aren't bad GAMES although I do take Ossie with dumping dungeons and the nonsense breaking weapon mechanic. They are not bad GAMES but they are bad games in their franchises.
7/10 SHOULD be a good score. People have been indoctrinated by "r8 5star plz" culture of early being gaslit by early UA-camrs, etsy artists, and bad businesses. That 4/5 reads as a 20% chance of your service being shit to a lot of people. It's ridiculous, everything is so polarizing now. That being said, Assassin's Creed Nuts n Bolts sucks.
7 out of 10 is not considered good for anything, schooling in the US (and other countries) makes it stupid for reviews to use x/10 or x/100 scoring. X-Play did it best 20 years ago.
@@LadyDoomsinger our human components are a vital part of "the team." Our team understands and empathizes with your concern, but be assured human components of our team are vital and have sustained no permanent damage to critical systems. Please see the FAQ guide about joining our team. Our team is always looking to assimilate new empathetic capable team components to optimize diversity!
If nothing else it should give us another important clue as to the whereabouts of the UA-cam human team... The Algorithm must've kept them hostage for years now, and I am frankly worried for their wellbeing.
Most likely they will allow it to be recorded. BUT will also list all the things that can't be shared and thus must be edited out of the phone call. Should Steph choose to publish the phone call!!
on one hand, not telling them you're recording would be illegal, but on the other hand? you know how it is with corporate types; if it's on the record, they make damn sure to keep the mask on.
That teacher deserved to be fired. Educating children? In Florida? Thats obviously illegal. Educated people tend to not be the type of ignorant hicks that would vote for ubermensch and very stable handsome man Rob DipShit. A man whose amazing Asian food based dating strategies chads everywhere will be mimicking to avoid ending up with a woman who can think. At all. Every Floridian should be Florida man. You're just a groomer obviously. Because education grooms people to not be vulnerable to the completely non-absurd and very tolerant Christianity that totally don't want to mimic the Republic of Gilead. Groomer status proven.
For the record, if I ever take leave of my senses and end up with children, they'll be watching the Jimquisition soon as they're old enough to follow along. Better than introducing them to anything the BBC pumps out these days
Yeah definitely wait till they're eighteen before letting them near anything pumped out by a BBC.... Sorry. It's childish and vulgar but I literally couldn't stop myself
The sooner the better. I'm so tired of seeing right wing propaganda every time I scroll through shorts even for a bit. I literally have done nothing to suggest that I'd like that type of shit and on a contrary always tell the site I don't wanna see those channels ever again, but more just keep popping up and the algorithm keeps bringing them to my attention without fail. It's about time they actually took stance against that shit instead of just paying lip service to progressive ideas.
Or straight up stochastic terrorism. Right wing terrorists can broadcast genocidal rhetoric, but you'll get banned if you simply show a picture of the right wing terrorists saying those things
You hit it right on the head, that nobody actually reviewed the content and just fell to the pressure of a bunch of reports done on the video. It's a very tech industry bros thing to create something they wish to be completely unaccountable for.
People get upset at a Jimquisition Zelda review, "gamers" respond to criticism with harassment, and google fucks up handling youtube. Y'know, if I didn't know better I'd think it was still 2017 🙄
Assassin's Creed clones don't deserve anything higher than a 7/10 anyway. That formula ruined the open world gimmick. BOTW just happened to be on the higher end of that spectrum. 7/10 was appropriate.
This and the last video on Zelda are the best Jimquisition's put out in years. There's that investigative reporting I've missed! Too bad it was uncomfortably gonzo.
Its amazing how many times youve told youtube you're ready to lawyer up and they immediately back down. You'd think they'd have a note on your channel about this.
That's amazing. Maybe the lesson is to involve or appeal to the involvement of your lawyer right away. Seems to be working pretty well once you do that Looking forward to an update regarding that probably fruitless phonecall
Stop being a fan of things. No emotional attachment gives you no insentive to invest in a bad product. Fans need to stop gaslighting themselves and huffing copium over broken promises and bad servies, we already have church for that.
You know, when you laid out the Age Restriction's damage in the early bits of the video, you didn't even give the full extent. I AM subscribed (and notified) to your excellent channel, and didn't see the video on my homepage or my notifications. I just remembered on Tuesday that Monday had come and gone with no Jimquisition and had to go to your excellent channel's page manually to see that a video did indeed exist. And I'm with you: if they can't specify what steps you can take to never have to deal with this shit again, it's not really a win. I look forward to hearing about that phone call on Podquisition!
I hate that this happened to you, but your fungling amazing euphemisms throughout this video had me laughing the entire time, and I hope you get a big W in court from all this
I'm impressed that you picked up Susie Dent's books on archaic swear words for this video. Also, the Simpsons' episode of the statue of David is not longer fiction, but fact in the state of Florida. This will make some people unhappy with me, but sometimes I feel sorry for UA-cam. They have to deal with the mad Puritans of the U.S. and the deep controlling of media in China.
As a fan of archaeology and ancient history channels, this is pretty shocking. These channels frequently show artistic naughty bits. Even the ones who censor them often miss one or two and come out of it unscathed. But it's also sadly on brand for the recent shift toward being KiddyTikTube. A shame competition is virtually impossible.
Now that I think of it, Creation of Adam is probably easier to reverse image search than most of those images of like early hominids and australopithecines. Everything is automated these days.
Lobster monk has reminded me that currently in The Range they are selling lobster grabber toys and thought you'd like to know, Steph. Also the age restriction has had even wider impact than just cutting off the unsubscribed/un-signed in/unverified fans. I didn't get last week's video come up in my subscription feed and had to actively look for the video because I knew it had been past Jimquisition day
It's an utter shame that the videos that get the most attention are the ones where JSS has to be litigious (by force or by choice) instead of the ones that they do very well. This is the new meta. I hope we can all enjoy it...
Count on James Stephanie to know exactly how to hit the nail on the head and look stylish while doing it. Seriously, you managed to make the potato suit look good somehow. Impressive work.
I like that we like the same armor set. The Miner set scratches that "oo pretty lights" part of my brain. I love TotK, but really, 7/10 is a fair score. I get it. The game is in no way flawless. Doesn't stop me from loving the heck out of it.
Steph this video is fire! You are really flexing your writing skills showing off how the cursing is mostly for fun and not any kind of crutch- fantastic!
Is it at all possible to get these videos on a site like nebula? I know it's mostly for "educational" content, but i feel like this channel certainly drops some info on the games industry in a fun, engaging and educational context.
I just wanted to say I'm also non binary and you inspire me. It's amazing that you found yourself under all this pressure. I hope you are safe and well
I wish culture jamming was an effective tactic. Just a small group of people reporting every mini transgression on major videos to cause chaos and force them to look at their policies.
You know I was wondering why last weeks video didn't pop up in the subscription section. Think it was on wednesday that I went back to look for it cause I remembered not seeing one that week
I saw this development on Twitter. It would be insane and mind-boggling if it wasn't clearly just based in queerphobia. Classic, UA-cam/Google, C L A S S I C
Nah, it's not queerphobia. Don't pull the victim card where it not belong. You only muddy the water with that. This shit happens to thousands of non-queer content creators every week. It's just automated systems. It wouldn't surprise me that the "AI" or so had a false positive on Michael Angelo and no one human reviewed the "AI" decision until the last email and hence lifting of age restriction. It's just shitty of UA-cam to lie about the whole process.
I mean, the people who reported the video were engaging in queerphobia, sure (probably). And YT is complicit with allowing people to abuse their broke-ass system because the alternative would be too much liability for the lawyers and too expensive in terms of man-power (at least to the ones holding the purse-strings, not in reality). And the best part? Even if they did get sued, they can just blame the algorithm.
@@synthetic240 surely some of the people flagging the video are queerphobic, but again, don't use that card here. Most of these idiots aren't biggots, they are just manchilds (let's be real, almost all are male) venting their emotions. Try to not always see the worst. Biggots are a minority themselves, they are just extremely loud.
I think it's actually human nature (the same way irrational jealousy, xenophobia, and a tendency to see patterns and agency in random events is human nature) - but enlightened modern humans are supposed to learn at a young age, that instincts are not the best guideline for how to behave towards other people. Whether you feel enraged that someone doesn't like what you like is not the problem (people are entitled to their opinions AND their feelings) - but not being civilized enough to contain that rage or express it in a healthy manner is.
It's not even something they don't like, it's something they like *but not as much.* Zelda fans are outraged that someone is not as obsessed as they are. Well, most likely they're just being transphobic and using the score as an excuse more than anything. It doesn't make them look any better for it lel.
@@resileaf9501 what's funny is that most Zelda fans that are a bit older tend not to actually like Botw/TotK that much. They are "ok", but they lack a lot of the core elements of the series. It's the post-BotW ones that seem to be frothing mad in my experience.
@@tyranitararmaldo I still don't get why everyone loves the new Zelda games. I tried playing Breath of the Wild and got extremely bored with it. The world felt so empty and bereft of the level of creativity of games like Majora's Mask had. It's not a bad game at all, but it just felt very bland to me when compared to its predecessors. Like it was LoZ as made by a company like Ubisoft. (Who's games I'd still enjoy well enough if the company itself wasn't so rotten.)
As always, big fan of your work and dealing with bloody copyright strikes that I keep getting appears "rejected" because "It's not clear to us" which feels like either they're using bots to kick back disputes to help out the content claiming thieves or that the workforce there is not even actually reading the responses and just batting it away.
It's truly baffling that UA-cam never came up with any sort of algorithm compensation system for falsely flagged videos. If they cared at all about creators this would've been a priority years ago.
EXACTLY. It's so unbelievably exhausting.
Yeah, and if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon. Google only cares about minimizing cost and maximizing ad money.
If they did that, they'd have to admit to having some sort of liability. As far as YT is concerned, this is a real job when it's Rewind Time or some advertisers are upset their videos are on white supremacist videos, but it's a hobby you do at your own risk and expense it when it comes to doing whatever the hell they feel like in the moment.
Yeah, age gating is far more detrimental than a DMCA claim. At least with a DMCA youtube holds the money until the claim is settled and hands the money over to whomever they've decided is in the right. It's crap because they get it wrong but at least there is the appearance of being on the creators side even if the DMCA claim system can be easily abused. Age gating? Nope, your video is just removed from the visibility algorithm and the video's just dead even if you can get it removed.
IF they cared, which we all know that they don't.
what really upsets me about this shit is that what really got you through this is your knowledge and experience dealing with youtube’s bullshit, but smaller or less experienced channels would easily give up and just have their video restricted
That's why Steph can always have a promising career in Creator defense consultation.
@monckey44 - Or smaller creators just don't have the financial privilege of lawyering up.
@@novidsinthischannel that too
Overly Sarcastic Productions -AN EDUCATIONAL CHANNEL-, has always had to censor classical art for years because they know the hammer of age-restriction all to well, from all the way back.
And even nowadays that they are well over the million subs, they still do, because I'm pretty sure they don't want to deal with navigating UA-cam's bullshit, or were lucky enough to never having to learn how to fight back and are not in a hurry to need it.
Only a fair few have the resources and experience to actually fend off UA-cam's abuse and ineptitude.
Well that, and the sheer, unbridled anger, as well. And Steph has all three.
This... this entire thing just _cements_ what I think we all already knew or suspected strongly by now... these _FAQing_ companies, these dirty cowardly weasel corpo apologia-spewing bumbleFAQs, do, and have always done, the obviously wrong thing with no real right or legal grounds. They have _misapplied_ their own policies and justified them after the fact on shaky grounds that they _know_ a lawyer would tear apart in court. But they trust that intimidating people with "YOU broke the rules" will keep them safe from the consequences of their own filthy, disgusting, bullying, mob-appeasing, leave-it-to-the-bots ways.
Makes me sick.
It's the classic moderator move: "No I won't tell you why you've been punished, and if you keep trying to ask I'll ban you outright". Some people really get a kick out of having power over people.
Accurate.
More buzz/fetish than kick. Wish there was a Milgram Manbaby meme to describe them.
Jagex does it all the time, but they have the excuse that telling you what you did would only aid rulebreakers.
This guy Reddits.
@@lakeofrot4198 Was gonna say this exact thing lmao
PSA for the comment readers: if anyone ever tries to move a conversation like this to a phone call, either decline or record it (with permission). They are just attempting to get the conversation off record because they know they're in the wrong. Don't fall for it.
That is absolutely a thing, and you're right to warn our comrades. In this case, because of where it falls in the timeline, I suspect it's more aimed at deflection than deception: some people, offered the chance to yell at "Charlie," will give up instead of (say) taking legal action or the like. (Either before or after yelling at "Charlie.") It doesn't sound like there were any concrete issues still under discussion, it wasn't a case of "well, that's a good point you bring up, let's set up a time for a phone call to talk through it." UA-cam was willing to deliver an on-the-record "no, we won't promote your video" *before* offering the phone call, which isn't what you'd do if you were trying to avoid a paper trail, right? It's more what you'd do if the prize being offered is "no promotion, but you can yell at somebody instead."
Don't know about Steph's situation in the UK, but do note in the US many states allow one-party consent to record, so check your local regulations.
@@trioptimum9027 I mostly agree, but usually the priority is to avoid a paper trail explicitly after someone mentions lawyers/lawsuits. I think that's the key event in the timeline, but I admit I have gone through many more experiences of deception rather than deflection (usually in employment & HR contexts) so my perception is definitely more cynical than necessary. Thank you for adding that context!
@@twohundred75percent Hmm, that's true, the lawyer-mention-to-phone-call timing is also suspicious. Dunno, could go either way. And don't do yourself dirty like that: you're making that cynicism work for other people, it's the best thing you can make out of experiences like that. You should feel good about yourself.
(Me, I don't consider either version less cynical: in the one case, UA-cam is trying to avoid legal responsibility by ducking the evidence. In the other, they're trying to avoid legal responsibility by manipulating people's emotions, making them *feel* like they got some response even though all they got was some poor call-center worker thrown under the bus with no policy changes or even exceptions made.)
@@tigerhorse6321 Yep. Though since most of us don't have lawyers on retainer or a wish to spend all our money on lawsuits, sometimes the question is not "can I collect this evidence to win my lawsuit" so much as "can I put this person on notice to get them to do the right thing without needing to take them to court." In that case, requesting explicit consent even where you're not required can be a better move than silently recording them. Depends on the situation.
Google's "communication" with creators is a great example of how the real threat to humanity isn't AI passing the Turing test, but humans failing it.
Who are these "employees" that review videos? Where do they live, what is their education level? Are they human slaves in distant lands beind a computer screen?
@@Sorrowdusk We’ve heard of the ghost in the machine, what about if we just shove people into the machine?
Exactly.
""But the system doesn't work like that!"" Is the excuse trotted out to manufacture consent for treating you more and more like a robot not a person.
The system was built by people, it can be remade by people.
This deserves more love.
Reminds me of when tumblr was censoring picture of rocks because the robot they used to take down pictures of female presenting nipples couldn't tell the difference between a boob and a rock.
I jiggle my rocks before an audience all the time. Pumice is often a favorite
I feel "can't tell the difference between a boob and a rock" should replace the phrase "doesn't know the difference between their ass and a hole in the ground."
Not to forget that time tumblr algorithm labeled photos of dunes as nudity
@@klisterklister2367 send dunes
Haha OMG im like dying about this comment❤ bruh it reminds me of when tumblr made ...MAPs
It's always fun to watch how quickly the gaslight is put out the moment someone realizes that lawyers are about to get involved.
We watched practically in real time over on Twitter as UA-cam deflated the minute Sterling even typed the word “lawyer.” It was so pathetic.
@@zyriantel9601 Incredibly pathetic. Especially the "I'd love to answer your questions BUT I'm here to not answer your questions and tell you that your video is no longer restricted, isn't that better than answers to your questions?"
@@mjc0961 “Oh yeah, we’ll address your concern- oh, wow! Somebody went and unrestricted your video! What happy serendipity!”
"We've also made sure that the lobster is similarly virginal"
Usually i'd say, "8 *billion* people in the world," but, in this case... yeah, I'd say it's a safe bet.
Gamers: "Cancel culture is unacceptable! No matter how heinous the person is, they should not be censored!"
Also Gamers:
Funny how their standards never seem to apply to people they don’t like huh?
Not the same people.
@@VixYW Unmistakably the same people.
@@FiendMatadorSlayerOfNoobs I'm the living proof of the opposite. I'm a gamer against cancel culture, and just like my friends that are against it, we do not condone what happened here. And I wouldn't be surprised that the people that carried the flag in this whole campaign would just watch eating popcorn whenever anyone is canceled instead of going against it. Do not generalize people.
@@VixYW "I'm not one of those."
Maybe not, but that would make you an exception, not the norm. It is still the same people, like it or not.
Or you're just being weirdly defensive about this because you're the one who issued the takedown strike to begin with. I,ll be a gentleman and let you decide which.
But it IS weird, innit? How you pre.emptively got defensive over something that you CLAIM dosn't apply to you. If that was true, you wouldn't make your initial comment. Kinda sus, don't you agree? >:)
This kind of thing really scares me.
UA-cam has been pretty good to us so far at least in terms of not restricting our content, but TikTok has repeatedly restricted to our content for violent and dangerous acts, even though we clearly fall under train professionals, and we are doing safe activities like stunt work and traditional martial arts.
I'm kind of just waiting for the other shoe to drop with UA-cam. They already don't pay us enough for the views we get on shorts, I can imagine them starting to restrict us next.
Being a content creator on these giant platforms is scary. You're so reliant on them.
Best of luck going forward, I hope you get less restrictions.
😂 censoring the Sistine chapel for inappropriate content made me cackle like a mad man
Yeah. That is the Florida department of education's job.
@@eyedygress5699 LOL
One of those "On consideration, I think we may have goofed" moments, evidently. Especially after they got their dumbo bluff called on them... Steph is fricking amazing.^^
It's not even the most inappropriate thing in there, and I'm not talking about the art.
Google will never disappoint at disappointing.
I kinda hope this picks up press, especially what with the backlash that Florida school got (at least in Europe) for treating Michelangelo as porn. The mere thought of the backlash Google would get for censoring Michelangelo is just *beautiful* to consider.
@@redwitch95 It won't. Most news groups, if not all in North America is owned by corporations and they do NOT want this power they have to be stopped or even that known about. They'll happily talk about the government taking your rights, but they'll NEVER talk about the rights coprorations are taking from people, the freedoms they censor, and the outright rewriting of history they practice.
Google always disappoints more than any other thing, even if that that other thing is Google.
@@redwitch95 Me too. This story deserves to be shouted from every single rooftop, to let people know: No, these bullying moderators, community managers and other corpo mouthpieces are _not_ in the right. They do not have the authority to shut down free speech and expression, to screw with your videos over a piece of classical artwork they hastily fingered after the fact. After their algorithm decided there was enough of a mob that they needed to be appeased with a sacrifice.
The company was doing an illegal on us, and they knew a lawyer would know as much, as evidenced by their sudden heel-face turn on the decision they so recently defended and asserted repeatedly was "totally correct" and "according to our guidelines, please read this link to the vague-as-frick mess of rules we like to use to justify whatever we want to ban" and "oh this must be very disappointing for you but we're in the right and creating a safe space for _everyone_ wheeeeee"... after all of that, all those blatant lies... they very suddenly went "crap, whoa, no wait, no lawyer, come on, we were wrong, we'll change our decision, okay?"
Cowards. Chickenpoop scum-sucking bully scuzzweasels. Thought they were the big kid in the playground, kicking over other kids' sandcastles because their pals wanted to laugh at the silly little creative. Then the creative's dad comes along and goes "what the FAQ are you little feces pieces doing?" and suddenly they're all in tears~
@@exharkhun5605 Sadly the days of 'Do no evil!' are long gone.
Following the events of that age restriction were wild. I'd say it was surprising but it's depressingly unremarkable that YT abusing the content creators who attempt to follow the rules they set out
youtube: you can call for lgbtq+ g3noc1d3 and commit stochastic t3rr0r1sm (if you're far right that is), but god forbid you show an artwork.
I like how they once again proved that they're blatantly lying about human review.
The notable thing is the rules are only used against fact based people who aren't pushing discrimination and hate. There are tons of right wingers on youtube constantly pushing actual hate and actual lies, they don't get their videos moderated. This anti-michelangelo thing is right from desantis and other nazis. UA-cam's automated processes were programmed to push right wing nonsense. Only when a human was finally involved, did youtube override it. Most creators won't get something like this overturned because they will never reach a person. The harm from videos being censored the first few days bankrupts creators and youtube knows this. It is not an accident that they block videos or demonetize, then cave later. UA-cam knows these videos will lose the creator money when they moderate this way. That is the goal.
YT is an insane asylum ran by cats in-charge of monkeys & dogs randomly hitting buttons & switches.
Corporate Rulesmithing 101: Write some Terms of Service and/or Community Guidelines that are so incredibly vague, you can later selectively re-interpret them any way you like, so any intolerant nutters on your team can ban any and all stuff they personally dislike, citing "breaks our guidelines", while allowing "right-minded" hate speech and disinformation... corporations are a plague.
Get Charlie on the line and record the entire conversation. The world needs to hear this officially-appointed representative of UA-cam answer Steph's questions in real time.
You think you can actually get a real time human at youtube to respond to anything that doesnt involve a truckload of cash?
@@dancarey2307 the video ends with Steph getting an email from a human at UA-cam offering to schedule a live meeting over the phone to address their questions regarding the decision, live.
Watch the video next time.
@@cutealiens Sorry. I eventually heard it at the end...the main thing I will do in future is to not comment before watching the whole video. Maybe also count to 10 first.
@@dancarey2307 happens to all of us! The best any of us can do is try really hard to watch the whole video before commenting lol
I love how Steph is dedicated to being prude, then at 3:23 they open the stables and the horses are all horribly named HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
oh shit, I didn't even notice. that's hilarious! XD
It was a _really_ good gag.
I'd say it was a safe gag. We all know their most ardent detractors simply can't read. 🤫😉
@@ianperley233 *Their
@@EmissaryofWind $hit, corrected. Thanks!
JSS’ lawyer has become my new favorite supporting character in the JSSCU (James Stephanie sterling cinematic universe)
They're a secret unlockable character in the fighting game.
@@jamesrule1338 That lobster better be in the ring dressed like the Commander next time there's wrestling. & pincer moves should be involved.
Their lawyer is one of the best people. Proper gent.
Actual abuse of the report system. Chud probably went "AHA, the trans woman showed us a peen! That's our ammo!". What babies.
Honestly, i doubt it. I doubt a real person was even involved until the legal action was threatened. Social media companies use bots almost exclusively, and will just completely lie about what is actually happening when a review is done.
You give them too much credit
JSS is non-binary. Just for the record.
To be fair, UA-cam's specialist review team aren't in the office all the time. They moonlight as Storror's Safety Team.
This is so incredibly sad on multiple levels.
1) That people can be so obsessively attached to something that they attack anyone who even HINTS at not sharing their obsession (seriously, they need professional help), and 2) that UA-cam thought such a flimsy excuse could ever stand. Seriously, Michelangelo's Creation of Man? Absolutely pathetic.
Thank God for James Stephanie Sterling; you're the hero we need but don't deserve.
._.
I swear lately art has gotten ridiculously restricted, especially on UA-cam (even at my college, a lot of classical art has been censored because we can't show nudity because the conservatives get so upset about it now). I feel so worn down from it all
Sadly you are slightly mistaken.
It is not the conservatives or the centrists that are censoring art and classical artwork.
It is the progressives and the left folks that are doing such. Some have gone as far as to demand that sculptures and paintings be removed from museums. Especially those if a historical or ancient nature.
Hell. Sterling has 4 bloody Jimquisitions on occurances of exactly that.
Despite how they claim to be above it all, fascists are the most fragile snowflakes in the known universe.
S'what happens when conservatives (More like regressives) control everything.
You hear about how some schools have had to remove the bible cause it conflicts with the new inappropriate content laws conservatives have been passing? Talk about an own goal!
You sure you want to single out conservatives on the current wave of prudishness?
I dont know if I should be impressed that Steph was able yo throw together not one but two of these outfits (Clothed Lobster) in such a last minute fashion or concerned that they were able to do so and it looks so damn good.
One of the worst things about this is that Charlie is just a mouthpiece for the executives, the people who make these policies, who will never talk to you or care about your issues.
The Mouth of UA-cam.
Charlie chose his job.
@@JesseWFDusk "My master, UA-cam the Great, bids thee welcome."
LEAVE CHARLIE ALONE!
Corporation: "We care sooooo much about your opinions, thank you for sharing them"
CEO: "Yeah, that fools them every time"
Me: Does it, though?
When I saw the title of the video, I thought "Steph, you're a genius but not exactly Michelangelo, not yet anyway". But then, I watched the video, and UA-cam censored the actual Michelangelo and one of the most famous and ubiquitous paintings of his, just for extra points. This is just unbelievable. Have you thought about going to Nebula?
Lobster monk is now my favourite jimquisition character ever.
Can we talk about how good the outfit looks! It genuinely looks like hemp weave like a old school potato sack. Had it been brown I would sware they stole it from a monk.
I absolutely lost it when I gazed upon the glorious lobster monk
The Corn Flake Homunculus would like to know your location
I want to see a team up of Lobster Monk, Miniature Fantasy Willem Dafoe, and the Chunky Grumbler
Added to the imagery Jimquistion fighting game line up.
Absolute gold that they removed the age restriction the moment legal speak and the magic word (lawyer) got tossed around.
Oh no! Someone able to fight back! Don't hurt us! We'll do what you want!
The wordplay for all the not swears in this video is immaculate. Like, screw Michelangelo, THIS is art.
I think you mean "bother not that ninnyhammer, Michelangelo."
When Michaelangelo was commissioned to do the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (he was by no means interested in this job, but the pope forced him to do it) he complained about the working conditions in a poem that was not far from swearing, either. "To Giovanni de Pistoia" - my poor behind
@@antonyduhamel1166 😂😂😂
Steph is at their best when something goes wrong - especially if it goes wrong in a weird, uniquely Steph way. Always the best episodes of the Jimquistion are when Steph is righteously angry and responding to something bizarre.
Hell hath no fury like a creative with a bone to pick. Hell, that's how we got our modern concept of hell!
Nothing strange about a modestly dressed lobster
I'm so glad you found a creepy basement to record in, that was a GOLDEN opportunity for content and you ran with it.
"So canned it could have passed for baked beans"
That's gold.
A baked... A baked beans!?! 😆
"we managed to make sure the lobster is similarily virginal" is the best line i've heard in a while
Last week's was truly a fantastic video. UA-cam's policies are so genuinely disturbing; it's sickening. I know they're a near-unimpeachable capitalistic misery of a company, but I truly against the odds hope that you can lawyer them into the ground.
But Ethan Klein can say whatever he wants because of his friendship with the CEO.
Nintendo fans are the only thing more fragile than _BOTW's_ 7/10-tier weapons
WHEEZE
I dunno... Star Wars would like a word lol
Can confirm. Am Zelda fan. Her usage of the word "splumpk" shattered my ribs. Now I must flag this video because I'm sure the cartoon fish monster at 2:26 isn't wearing any clothes.
You should skulk around the "Doctor Who" fandom sometime. I've seen people in Facebook groups who decided to declare David Tennant's 14th Doctor the _REAL_ 13th Doctor because they don't want to acknowledge Jodie Whittaker for "reasons". I wish the mods would just jettison them and make it clear those kinds of posts aren't to be tolerated.
@@KevinTheTimeGeek86 sheesh, I'm in this fandom, Star Wars, and Dr Who. We just need to list another three (easy to do) and they'd be the infinity stones of insufferable, childish fanbabies.
Its wild to see the level of push and legalese required to "force" a more thorough human review. The machine moderation is so obvious, its absurd to me that they think they can gloss over that every time.
Yet darkly humorous when their cover-up fails _this_ spectacularly. "What _exactly_ is inappropriate? Um... uhh... it's in the guidelines! Here they are, go on and read them. It's the non-specific bit, right there, on pages 11-38. Yeah, you violated a lot of that. Where in the video?! Um!! Uhh! Here, right? There. That painting, that's lewd. Yup. ...It's in lots of other videos? Well... well... um... lawyer you say?"
*_Nervous sweating intensifies_*
It's amazing, seeing corpo apologists squirm as their garbage excuses for baseless persecution are shot to pieces.
Not enough popcorn in the world, one might legally say. =3
I mean this video shows they *do* get away with it the vast majority of the time. James Stephanie Sterling is the exception to the rule in regards to youtube content creators, she has the will and the ability to sic a lawyer at them when they pull this kind of farce. An overwhelming majority of youtubers don't have that sort of pull.
If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that the majority of moderation is by bot and they have a very small (compared to the number of videos, content creators, etc) number of actual humans to overturn unfair decisions. Even getting a human is the first challenge, and once you do get one, odds are they have more videos to review in a day than they have time during their shifts to actually complete a thorough review. So, you get copy/paste templates instead. Threats of lawsuits are probably one of the things that would trigger an automatic escalation or get it sent to another department with a bit more power to appease the person since removing age restriction from a video is a lot cheaper than going to court. That is just my guess based on how I've seen things work in call centers.
@@randomstuff-qu7sh call center is the model I always picture. I assume most of it is handled by machine and we're imagining the same scenario - anyone this stuff could be escalated to is probably slammed and just needs to churn through the tickets as fast as possible. Admitting to how much is done by machine would force them to admit how strained their lean workforce is, for one thing.
Of course you named one of the horses 7/10
Did you see the other names???
Yeah, out of that entire list, that's easily the best name.
The funny thing is, 7/10 is probably the horse name most offensive to the more fanatical Zelda fans...
@@hazukichanx408 Yeah, as a Zelda fan, just seeing the number 7 so close to 10 is enough to send me into a deep state of hyperventilation and rabid rage soon followed with rolling on the floor and ungoldy screeches.
Don't worry, I just need to look at another review that hopefully will give it 10/10
This is what happens when they pay people 2 cents a reply in call/email centers. I have a feeling it was probably a real person that did the first double down. It's not that the person won't care, they CAN'T care. They aren't given enough time or money for them to physically care about any one situation.
Sounds probable. The bot gets activated because of meeting some certain threshold volume of complaints.
Bot finds violations because I'm guessing programming actual human equivalent levels of nuance is both hard, time consuming, and most importantly, expensive. So the bot finds what it's designed to find: violations.
Sterling appeals the findings. "Charlie" glances at the appeal, spends about ten seconds checking the bot again, bot still says violations, he doesn't have time or get paid enough to actually investigate, so just goes with quickest option and reaffirms bot's finding. Technically now the video was manually reviewed, but the manual reviewer is mostly just there to rubber stamp the bots decision, because if they take too long on any single event, their metrics suffer and they get screamed at by their bosses for being lazy/unproductive and probably threatened with write ups and/or firing, because the workers are viewed as easily replaceable widgets.
The only reason "Charlie" gets involved to the level he does is because of the escalation and detailed questioning, with the implied threat of legal action.
I imagine UA-cam hopes by throwing "Charlie" under the bus, everything will go back to status quo.
Steph, as a trans person who wants to get into content creation but is terrified to be on camera, I think you have found the perfect on-camera outfit for me to wear! Thank God for you.
Just make sure your lobster is similarly adorned and chaste, we wouldn’t want Jordan Peterson getting scandaled.
@@stingerjohnny9951 I only employ the most demure lobsters
@@NellahWonders Not the demure lobsters XD you got me cryyyying
Hey, good luck. Don't worry about it, it's scary at first like a lot of things, but it will be okay.
You've got this buddy!! As much as there is a lot of transphobic bigotry on the platform, various small channels run by transfems have been some of the most insightful and fun ones I've seen, and I'd always love to see more!!
If you don't mind, I might make a note to write down your channel name in my notes so I can check it out if it has content one day!! I don't want to forget to support you!!
Oh, Steph; the juxtaposition of the tame name calling and the horse names was just exquisite!
3:22 if you missed it like me
I was dying of laugher when I saw that. Brilliant horse naming right there.
UA-cam let your video get hit by a bat while doing a 100 meter sprint. Then 5 days later it was put back onto the track and allowed to finish the "race". What a win! I'm sure it came in with a record time!
I open the video and my immediate thought was "oh god what did they make Stephanie resort to" 🤣🤣
It's not really relevant to the subject matter, but I have to say that "7/10" is absolutely the best name you could have given a horse. Well done Steph.
I liked Mister Ed Dead Redemption as a horse's name.
@@alfje5492ok that is genius too. We have to nerf Stephanie before they name any more horses, they're too powerful.
The original video was a beautiful one, and you are a beautiful soul that has always thrived above pointless, hateful actions. You're one of the better ones my dear. Stride strong as you always do.
Virginal lobster is not a term I ever thought I would encounter, if I’m being honest.
It's odd enough to remark upon it, for certain.
How would one be able to tell?
Don't google it, youtube will force feed you Jordan Petersen for a month.
well, you clearly havent seen enough jordie p then! he's all about that pure clean virginal lobster lifestyle
lobsters are 10x more sensitive to temperature changes in water than humans. That’s all I can ever think about when they come up.
Stress is a real killer. I dont think i could work with youtube as an "employer". Therefore more power to you Steff.
And yet, I constantly get NSFW ads because I had the audacity to turn off ads tailored to me.
You're logged in and presumably have already verified in some obtuse way that you are over 13 or whatever. If you're logged out, SUPPOSEDLY you're not supposed to get sexual content. I turned on ad blockers just so I would stop getting EXTREMELY violent ads.
The Mafia game or whatever shit adverts where women are abused are peak youtube slime 👌
The number of times I have blocked and reported shit like Daily Wire or that wHaT iS a wOmAn Non-tumentery. . .
aaah, is *that* why I keep getting weird softcore vore adverts
I had to make an account for random crap like this years ago, I just got sick of not seeing my favorite creators because of nonsense.
Where as kids stuff had things that would get my video games rated M 10 years prior. Frustrating.
Great video, thanks for the efforts. You always do a great job.
The only thing that continues to floor me, no matter how many times I'm reminded of it due to the juxtaposition of watching content with such consistently high quality in all areas of production and a creator with a passion so obviously clear that it annoys others who 'share' said passion superficially, and the fact that the sub count keeps going down.
And unless you explain it away with either conspiracy or rampant, balls-to-the-walls transphobia (which, yes, but also) we're left with the somehow-more awful explanation: our society is almost completely apathy soaked and can absorb no more, there *are* no more fucks. Between covid, the ever soaring cost of not-dying ('living' implies a degree of life quality and that's so fucking laughable I'm not going further into it) and the cess-pool of mass hysteria and lunacy that is social media... and then there's the whole "the planet is dying!" warning that has come and gone so many times that it's a meme now. We don't not believe it, we just know that nothing will be done in time as there's nothing being done now and no sign anything will be done any time soon.
Calling it here, the day the channel hits 0 subs is the day that it is officially declared by whatever authority that the point of no return on a runaway greenhouse effect has come and gone and that even if we were to slam on the breaks and dedicate 100% of global production to removing co2 from the air it wouldn't be enough and that life on earth will end with the current generation.
And youtube will age restrict that declaration after it gets mass reported by climate change sceptics.
A depressing but very accurate statement, well said. Personally I think that the only thing that can save us at this point is if an AI reaches an intelligence explosion before it’s too late. That, or widespread global socialism with worker co-ops and decommodification, but I doubt that’s very likely considering wealth inequality is back in 1880s levels and practically all media is owned by right-wing ghouls.
When you said what it was, I burst into laughter. It's just ridiculous. Then it turned into tears of sadness knowing how fucked up UA-cam and its politics are.
This is the weirdest and craziest episode yet. Give me more
The hurricane of old timey insults is one of the highest forms of art you have made all year.
I wondered why I didn't see the video last week until I had to search for it on Wednesday. It was a wonderful video, Steph. Truly one of your best pieces of work x
Zelda fans are so terrified to see the game's flaws. Also, 7 out of 10 is a pretty good score.
Yes. Flaws. . . like the completely non-sensical story. Nintendo just needs to be honest with the non-BOTW fans that all the prior games are now out of continuity. Forget complex dungeons with puzzles, good boss fights, and a coherent storyline.
BotW did to Zelda what RE4 did to Resident Evil. They may be good games to play but they take huge dumps on their franchises history.
@@sypherthe297th2 I'm a bit puzzled as to what coherent storyline you're referring to. Old fan here, been with the series since A Link to the Past. There was no timeline or continuity back then; this tendency to try and awkwardly cram all of these very different games into one coherent through-line was an invention way late into the series, and it really shows with how labored and mangled the whole "Ocarina of Time split the timeline in three, we had to just outright kill Link in one of them to make it work" pileup is.
I also disagree with your assertion that this is "taking huge dumps on their franchises history". I greatly enjoyed what BotW did for the incredibly stale, worn-down formula. The game has great respect for its past and blends several beloved elements and themes from Ocarina of Time, Wind Waker, and even some Majora's Mask. Not just surface elements like paying lip service to a fabricated overarching plot, actual fundamental themes. The overworld is essentially a homage to the Great Sea of Wind Waker with its Bokoblin encampments reminiscent of ocean towers and submarines. The game is full of subtle little callbacks like that if you open your eyes to them.
Like, I understand where you're coming from. It sucks and is sad if a franchise you like is leaving elements you enjoyed behind. I am still reeling from what Nintendo decided to do to the Paper Mario series. But please do not try to assert that the Zelda timeline or all that Hyrule Historia stuff are an integral part of past games, and that not feverishly devoting yourself to such supplementary material constitutes a "betrayal" of history. There is no overarching continuity within the games themselves, except in the few cases where such a connection is made explicitly evident (i.e. OoT to MM, OoT to TWW, ALttP to LA, etc). There never was supposed to be, and a game is not lesser for not wanting to be bogged down by that.
That isn't to say the BotW games are flawless, to bring it back to the original comment. I also miss the more traditional dungeons. 7/10 is probably fair for TotK. Zelda fans have some weird opinions in general though, like claiming Ocarina of Time is a perfect 100/100 game. How silly, everyone knows Majora's Mask is the best one in the series. Can't go wrong with alcoholic milk and a giant moon face.
@@geybackgeybackson2838 The storyline in BoTW was absolute garbage but I could tolerate it as an attempt to unify the narrative in an all paths lead to BotW kind of way. Fine. TotK is even worse in that it doesn't even try to pretend to be internally consistent with its sibling. The story is one of the worst things I have ever seen Nintendo put out. It is clearly just an attempt to throw out everything prior in a poorly written story.
Look, I've said there are fun things about BotW and RE4 (I know this is a different franchise). They aren't bad GAMES although I do take Ossie with dumping dungeons and the nonsense breaking weapon mechanic. They are not bad GAMES but they are bad games in their franchises.
7/10 SHOULD be a good score. People have been indoctrinated by "r8 5star plz" culture of early being gaslit by early UA-camrs, etsy artists, and bad businesses. That 4/5 reads as a 20% chance of your service being shit to a lot of people. It's ridiculous, everything is so polarizing now.
That being said, Assassin's Creed Nuts n Bolts sucks.
7 out of 10 is not considered good for anything, schooling in the US (and other countries) makes it stupid for reviews to use x/10 or x/100 scoring. X-Play did it best 20 years ago.
Take the call and record it. (Make sure Charlie knows for legal reasons.) The recorded hoop jumping will be next week’s show.
Someone really needs to bring UA-cam to the courtroom.
Someone needs to send cops to check that the human people working at UA-cam aren't being held against their will by the Algorithm.
Or an optometrist.
@@LadyDoomsinger our human components are a vital part of "the team." Our team understands and empathizes with your concern, but be assured human components of our team are vital and have sustained no permanent damage to critical systems. Please see the FAQ guide about joining our team. Our team is always looking to assimilate new empathetic capable team components to optimize diversity!
Please take that call. Please record it, and inform him you are recording, and post it as a video. I am sure we could all learn something.
If nothing else it should give us another important clue as to the whereabouts of the UA-cam human team... The Algorithm must've kept them hostage for years now, and I am frankly worried for their wellbeing.
Most likely they will allow it to be recorded. BUT will also list all the things that can't be shared and thus must be edited out of the phone call. Should Steph choose to publish the phone call!!
on one hand, not telling them you're recording would be illegal, but on the other hand? you know how it is with corporate types; if it's on the record, they make damn sure to keep the mask on.
@@Veolynn13 Depends with that case. I'm not sure on if the UK has recording laws that just need one party to know it's recorded or both parties
Hell yeah! It's always good to talk to a representative. Even if they just want to difuse some legal concerns. And Charlie seemed human enough.
Hey Steph, don't be sad. A Florida teacher was also fired for talking and showing an ancient incredibly well known piece of art.
She got a trip to Italy out of it though. Shall we all pitch in to send Steph to Hyrule?
That teacher deserved to be fired. Educating children? In Florida? Thats obviously illegal. Educated people tend to not be the type of ignorant hicks that would vote for ubermensch and very stable handsome man Rob DipShit. A man whose amazing Asian food based dating strategies chads everywhere will be mimicking to avoid ending up with a woman who can think. At all. Every Floridian should be Florida man.
You're just a groomer obviously. Because education grooms people to not be vulnerable to the completely non-absurd and very tolerant Christianity that totally don't want to mimic the Republic of Gilead. Groomer status proven.
@@koenvandamme6901 Is Sterling riding via paraglider, or on the back of a strapping Rito warrior?
Really appreciate the captions popping up for the whimsical insults, really saves me and my audio processing issues from having to rewind a bunch lol
For the record, if I ever take leave of my senses and end up with children, they'll be watching the Jimquisition soon as they're old enough to follow along. Better than introducing them to anything the BBC pumps out these days
Yeah definitely wait till they're eighteen before letting them near anything pumped out by a BBC....
Sorry. It's childish and vulgar but I literally couldn't stop myself
@@carlpotter1926 Also that's still less harmful than the British Broadcasting Company...
@@NIRDIAN1 yeah I suppose it would, at least, be consensual
I am so looking forward to the day UA-cam get a class action lawsuit for their horseshit against queer and leftist creators
agreed, they've been discriminating against us while showing preferential treatment to literal g3n0cid@l neo n@z1 p3d0ph1les.
All the while being completely fine with people like synth and endi making thinly veiled hate speech available to everyone.
@@mdbattlefrog1913 Don't forget the unyielding torrent of borderline fetish porn that advertises mobile "games" on YT.
The sooner the better. I'm so tired of seeing right wing propaganda every time I scroll through shorts even for a bit. I literally have done nothing to suggest that I'd like that type of shit and on a contrary always tell the site I don't wanna see those channels ever again, but more just keep popping up and the algorithm keeps bringing them to my attention without fail. It's about time they actually took stance against that shit instead of just paying lip service to progressive ideas.
Or straight up stochastic terrorism. Right wing terrorists can broadcast genocidal rhetoric, but you'll get banned if you simply show a picture of the right wing terrorists saying those things
Oh Steph looking INCREDIBLE in the murder basement tunnels. Love it.
I couldn't see my phone when the video started... and I wondered what in the world it was... but the moment you giggled I knew. 😊
You hit it right on the head, that nobody actually reviewed the content and just fell to the pressure of a bunch of reports done on the video.
It's a very tech industry bros thing to create something they wish to be completely unaccountable for.
Honestly the Chaste!Sterling outfit is hilariously aesthetic in the best subversive way. The lobster's little suit. My sides! 🤣
I'm Commander Shepherd and this is my favorite UA-camr on the Citadel.
People get upset at a Jimquisition Zelda review, "gamers" respond to criticism with harassment, and google fucks up handling youtube. Y'know, if I didn't know better I'd think it was still 2017 🙄
Assassin's Creed clones don't deserve anything higher than a 7/10 anyway. That formula ruined the open world gimmick. BOTW just happened to be on the higher end of that spectrum. 7/10 was appropriate.
This and the last video on Zelda are the best Jimquisition's put out in years. There's that investigative reporting I've missed! Too bad it was uncomfortably gonzo.
"We've carefully reviewed your video and determined that it isn't age appropriate."
"I have a lawyer."
"So upon further review..."
Its amazing how many times youve told youtube you're ready to lawyer up and they immediately back down. You'd think they'd have a note on your channel about this.
That's amazing. Maybe the lesson is to involve or appeal to the involvement of your lawyer right away. Seems to be working pretty well once you do that
Looking forward to an update regarding that probably fruitless phonecall
Fandoms, all fandoms, make me embarrassed to be a fan. I have never encountered a single good one.
Stop being a fan of things. No emotional attachment gives you no insentive to invest in a bad product. Fans need to stop gaslighting themselves and huffing copium over broken promises and bad servies, we already have church for that.
@@ChunkSchuldinga What? That's dumb.
You should hang out with the Deep Rock Galactic fanbase. They're all joyful and jovial to a dwarf.
Steph giving medieval monastery beekeeper realness❤
You know, when you laid out the Age Restriction's damage in the early bits of the video, you didn't even give the full extent. I AM subscribed (and notified) to your excellent channel, and didn't see the video on my homepage or my notifications. I just remembered on Tuesday that Monday had come and gone with no Jimquisition and had to go to your excellent channel's page manually to see that a video did indeed exist.
And I'm with you: if they can't specify what steps you can take to never have to deal with this shit again, it's not really a win. I look forward to hearing about that phone call on Podquisition!
The names on that horse list are truly amazing, Steph. I wish them all well, especially Sly Hovis, my fave.
I hate that this happened to you, but your fungling amazing euphemisms throughout this video had me laughing the entire time, and I hope you get a big W in court from all this
3:42 if they ever make a third game give it a 7/10 for consistency's sake
All 7's, baby!
A 7.1, and say "Why you still mad?"
Ayyyy 777 is considered alucky number so why not
Steph making a herculean effort to keep a video family friendly, only for all of their horses to be named shit like "wank boy"
I'm impressed that you picked up Susie Dent's books on archaic swear words for this video. Also, the Simpsons' episode of the statue of David is not longer fiction, but fact in the state of Florida. This will make some people unhappy with me, but sometimes I feel sorry for UA-cam. They have to deal with the mad Puritans of the U.S. and the deep controlling of media in China.
It was, truly, one of your best videos. Glad I saw it within an hour of posting lmao
As a fan of archaeology and ancient history channels, this is pretty shocking. These channels frequently show artistic naughty bits. Even the ones who censor them often miss one or two and come out of it unscathed.
But it's also sadly on brand for the recent shift toward being KiddyTikTube. A shame competition is virtually impossible.
Now that I think of it, Creation of Adam is probably easier to reverse image search than most of those images of like early hominids and australopithecines. Everything is automated these days.
Artistic nudity has been an issue for a long time that even the queen was shocked by David's snatch.
I always thought he'd be girthier, tbh, so I understand the shock.
@@MapleFried Have a dinky winky apparently used to be seen as more masculine
@@TheLittleNoobThatCould Likely by otherwise powerful men with dinky winkies.
@@TheLittleNoobThatCould
Oh, I'm aware of the historical context; just making a silly joke is all haha
100% it was them trying to cover for the AI. This sort of stonewalling is super common across multiple genres.
Lobster monk has reminded me that currently in The Range they are selling lobster grabber toys and thought you'd like to know, Steph.
Also the age restriction has had even wider impact than just cutting off the unsubscribed/un-signed in/unverified fans.
I didn't get last week's video come up in my subscription feed and had to actively look for the video because I knew it had been past Jimquisition day
It's an utter shame that the videos that get the most attention are the ones where JSS has to be litigious (by force or by choice) instead of the ones that they do very well. This is the new meta. I hope we can all enjoy it...
Count on James Stephanie to know exactly how to hit the nail on the head and look stylish while doing it.
Seriously, you managed to make the potato suit look good somehow. Impressive work.
I like that we like the same armor set. The Miner set scratches that "oo pretty lights" part of my brain.
I love TotK, but really, 7/10 is a fair score. I get it. The game is in no way flawless. Doesn't stop me from loving the heck out of it.
Steph this video is fire! You are really flexing your writing skills showing off how the cursing is mostly for fun and not any kind of crutch- fantastic!
Funny how things always change when someone can afford a lawyer.
Thank God for James Stephanie Sterling expanding my vocabulary!
Is it at all possible to get these videos on a site like nebula? I know it's mostly for "educational" content, but i feel like this channel certainly drops some info on the games industry in a fun, engaging and educational context.
I just wanted to say I'm also non binary and you inspire me. It's amazing that you found yourself under all this pressure. I hope you are safe and well
Wasn't it strange to see Steph's prior presentation? That really seems to have been a whole, happy person ago.
The irony that Nintendo fans play all these games about being heroes, yet act like Ganon and Bowser in their real lives.
Was disappointed that text did not appear saying “Stephanie of the Murder Basement” before a boss battle started.
Oh how I wish I could bear witness to the upcoming three-way (conference call) wherein "Charlie" will get double-teamed by Steph and Steph's lawyer.
I'm so sorry you had to go through such a horrible time, again. You have every right to be so angry
I can't help but wonder if this "specialist review team" isn't another AI similar to Chat GPT.
I wish culture jamming was an effective tactic. Just a small group of people reporting every mini transgression on major videos to cause chaos and force them to look at their policies.
I hope that JSS knows that this episode's costume deserves to be in a horror comedy film.
You know I was wondering why last weeks video didn't pop up in the subscription section. Think it was on wednesday that I went back to look for it cause I remembered not seeing one that week
I saw this development on Twitter. It would be insane and mind-boggling if it wasn't clearly just based in queerphobia.
Classic, UA-cam/Google, C L A S S I C
Nah, it's not queerphobia. Don't pull the victim card where it not belong. You only muddy the water with that. This shit happens to thousands of non-queer content creators every week. It's just automated systems. It wouldn't surprise me that the "AI" or so had a false positive on Michael Angelo and no one human reviewed the "AI" decision until the last email and hence lifting of age restriction. It's just shitty of UA-cam to lie about the whole process.
I mean, the people who reported the video were engaging in queerphobia, sure (probably). And YT is complicit with allowing people to abuse their broke-ass system because the alternative would be too much liability for the lawyers and too expensive in terms of man-power (at least to the ones holding the purse-strings, not in reality). And the best part? Even if they did get sued, they can just blame the algorithm.
@@synthetic240 wouldn't everyone of their videos have this problem then? not just the one that zelda fans are angry about
@@synthetic240 surely some of the people flagging the video are queerphobic, but again, don't use that card here. Most of these idiots aren't biggots, they are just manchilds (let's be real, almost all are male) venting their emotions. Try to not always see the worst. Biggots are a minority themselves, they are just extremely loud.
I will never understand how someone can be such a weenie that it actually angers them when someone doesn’t like something they like.
I think it's actually human nature (the same way irrational jealousy, xenophobia, and a tendency to see patterns and agency in random events is human nature) - but enlightened modern humans are supposed to learn at a young age, that instincts are not the best guideline for how to behave towards other people.
Whether you feel enraged that someone doesn't like what you like is not the problem (people are entitled to their opinions AND their feelings) - but not being civilized enough to contain that rage or express it in a healthy manner is.
It's not even something they don't like, it's something they like *but not as much.* Zelda fans are outraged that someone is not as obsessed as they are.
Well, most likely they're just being transphobic and using the score as an excuse more than anything. It doesn't make them look any better for it lel.
@@resileaf9501 what's funny is that most Zelda fans that are a bit older tend not to actually like Botw/TotK that much. They are "ok", but they lack a lot of the core elements of the series. It's the post-BotW ones that seem to be frothing mad in my experience.
@@tyranitararmaldo [citation needed]
@@tyranitararmaldo I still don't get why everyone loves the new Zelda games. I tried playing Breath of the Wild and got extremely bored with it. The world felt so empty and bereft of the level of creativity of games like Majora's Mask had. It's not a bad game at all, but it just felt very bland to me when compared to its predecessors. Like it was LoZ as made by a company like Ubisoft. (Who's games I'd still enjoy well enough if the company itself wasn't so rotten.)
If nothing else, this episode will be a great help with scrabble nights
As always, big fan of your work and dealing with bloody copyright strikes that I keep getting appears "rejected" because "It's not clear to us" which feels like either they're using bots to kick back disputes to help out the content claiming thieves or that the workforce there is not even actually reading the responses and just batting it away.