I don't think those filters are even real, I think it's just mass-hysteria. I call these kinds of behaviours "traditions", but I'm not sure if there's a better term for it.

Basically someone comes up with something which is nonsensical, but plausible. Like believing that their videos are unpopular because they said the word "rape" and the algorithm magically got them, rather than because their videos suck. Then someone else sees that and starts thinking it is true. It silently spreads across the population.

I've seen this in organisations, where new recruits haven't been properly trained. Someone has come up with a method which is wildly incorrect and illegal, but plausible. The other new people around them have copied them. They've become slightly more experienced people, they've taught the next round of new people.

Before you know it, half of the organisation is doing something hilariously wrong, and they all sincerely believe it is the right way of doing it, because everyone does it. It's just self-reinforcing at that point.

▲

thaumasiotes a day ago | parent | next [-]

> I call these kinds of behaviours "traditions", but I'm not sure if there's a better term for it.

In psychology that kind of thing is referred to as "superstition".

More specifically, "superstition" in this sense refers to the phenomenon of copying someone else's successful approach to a problem you have. (In your example, getting views on youtube.) Since you don't know what parts of their approach matter, you copy the effective parts and the ineffective parts equally.

	▲	tombert 21 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I always associated the term “cargo culting” with that but I think that term has largely fallen out of fashion (probably for the best).
	▲	thaumasiotes 19 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Actually, I was a little too specific here - superstition also refers to copying your own successful approach.

▲

IslandRebel 20 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

No it isn't mass hysteria. YouTube has a set advertiser friendly guideline. It will scan uploads and streams automatically.

YouTube used to demonetise profanity unless it was mild. YouTube would demonetise profanity in the first X number of seconds of the video. These rules change and have been relaxed of April last year, but generally these rules still exist.

There isn't a hard filter if you say "suicide" you automatically get it. However it increases the likely hood of demonetisation. So people avoid it to be safe. So you end up with people using stupid euphemisms all the time.

▲

ashdksnndck 17 hours ago | parent [-]

But do we have any evidence that “suicide” counts as a negative signal and “unalive” doesn’t?

	▲	IslandRebel 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The Suicide stuff is about protecting them from people who were promoting self harm. The unalive stuff is because of threats of violence. You can reference murder if it is say part of a news story or referencing something historical. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en#Harm... Creators are being careful don't want their video demonetised because once it gets the yellow flag, even if it is removed later they've lost the majority of monetisation. The problem with providing direct proof of this is that YouTube moves the goalposts quite often and their auto moderation system is very inconsistent.

▲

efilife a day ago | parent | prev [-]

I am sure they are bullshit. Like when they mute cursing and "risky" speech, but when you enable autogenerated subtitles they show up there. Youtube knows what thay said regardless if it's censored or not. It's so fucking stupid