I’ve been quietly putting the video version of Permanently Moved up on Youtube since 2021. As I’ve said multiple times, it’s not that much extra work to produce a video version than it is to make an audio version.

I’ve been treating my YT channel more like a repository or video hosting site than a social network, or ladder to climb. A few months ago I started making shorts and in the main none of them have particularly done very well. A 5min long podcast with no niche isn’t the most friendly of things to an algorithm driven by watch time.

Anyways, this week my channels speedometer clicked over 500 subscribers AND 50,000 views. Immediately after hitting the milestones this happened….

Look at that image I’ve been getting at least two of these emails a day! I’m not sure which milestone triggered it? Maybe both?

But as soon as I crossed the above thresholds, my contact inbox has flooded with Youtube SEO experts selling their services all week.

I wonder how big this highly motived economy of Youtube experts is? How many people are there under the surface receiving these emails?

I also know that these people aren’t all spam or bots as some of them have gone as far as to seek me out on LinkedIn. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I have found the whole experience deeply depressing.

I wonder what this experience is like for people who are trying ‘to play the Youtube game game’? YT is a soul crushing place for creators trying to build an audience for themselves. Uploading week after week, year after year with practically nobody watching.

All these emails must seem like some kind of validation at least? The fact they have all come in at once is, to be honest, a little disturbing. How many people desperate to grow their channels and live out their dreams as a Youtube creator shell out and work with these people?

I have actually read some of the emails I’ve received from these SEO people and I think I am going to make one concession. I think for the youtube versions of the podcast I’m going to remove the entire ‘well well well’ intro section. Just drop people right into the meat and potatoes as it were. It’s no extra effort on my part exporting a separate video so I think i’m going to give that ago.

Whilst I’m not trying to play the game per-say, I do have a seat at the table as it were. I’m half way to the magic number of 1k subscribers (the algorithm starts treating you differently apparently) and it would be nice to keep the momentum going.

So if you are reading this and so inclined, do head over to my Youtube and subscribe?

Permanently Moved

Worlds Resemble Other Worlds

Worlds resemble other worlds and we adopt world(view)s when we recognise them. Some worlds we have agency in, others we don’t. 

Full Show Notes: https://www.thejaymo.net/2023/10/20/301-2334-worlds-resemble-other-worlds/

Support the show! 
Subscribe to the zine
Watch on Youtube

Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded by @thejaymo

Support 💪

£5 MONTHLY

Includes Handmade Zine ✉️

Subscribe

Or wherever you get your podcasts

Photo 365

The Ministry Of My Own Labour

• Working on my talk for AW confrence.
• Discussions with folks about the Decentralised Narratives panel in Turkey
• Coffee with The Photographers’ Gallery team
• Tea with ex async.art guy
• Tutorial with worldbuilding students
• Catch up and gossip zoom with DH
• Writers Bloc with WA
• Worked on Alms Race Essay
• Started a big list of stuff I want to do, and to get done.
  • Need to now prioritise on several factors

Terminal Access

I really enjoyed this interview with Deb Chachra on Frontier Magazine on the occasion of the publication of her book How Infrastructure Works. The discussion goes deep on infrastructure as “care at scale” and our abundant-energy future. I haven’t spoken to Deb in *ages* but I’m really pleased for her that the book is being so well received. Can’t wait for it to come out in the UK so I can pick it up. A good month for friends with books!

Also this week big thanks to Doug Belshaw for subscribing to my zine and linking to that excellent post from Simon I linked to last week.

Dipping the Stacks

Dystonia plagues musicians and has no easy remedies | Aeon Essays

Music educators are rarely taught functional biomechanics, and often use their bodies to demonstrate correct positioning and stance, regardless of the physical particularities of a student. Orchestras and other professional musical settings rarely serve as a point of access to team-based care for an injured musician.

The Truth in Games | The MIT Press Reader

Games are conversations between players, designers, and the world — the empirical world, the old-fashioned, naturalistic, material world with its direct, stubborn, objective truth. The world on which we bang our heads and stub our toes. That world is a participant in these conversations.

The media are targeting the public for a war with China

Most of these developments are reported by the mainstream media in Australia as wholly positive, a rational response to what we are told is an increasingly belligerent China.

On the Accidental Art of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater – Electric Literature

Like skateboarding, all innovation within the closed system of THPS’s laws and physics is fair game.

Japan’s Silent Movie Culture Is Still Going Strong

Sasaki ascribes the longevity of the benshi culture to its similarity to traditional Japanese “talking arts” such as rakugo comic story-telling and, in particular, bunraku puppet theatre. Like the stars of the silent movies, the dumb wooden puppets need outside agency to give them speech.

Reading

A re-print of the first edition of Warhammer 40k arrived this week. What a zany piece of history. Super happy to own it. Who knew at the time what this tongue in cheek, grimdark amalgam, of pop culture references would go on to become?

The King Of Sudanese Jazz – Sharhabil Ahmed (Habibi Funk 013)

I came across this 2020 album collecting the work of Sharhabil Ahmed from the 1960’s. Speaking in 2004 he said this about this work:

I have absorbed different influences, from traditional Sudanese rhythms to calypso and jazz, and I hold them together in my music with no difficulty.”
Referring to its sonic apperance, Sudanese Jazz hasn’t too much in common with the western idea of Jazz. Sharhabil’s sound feels more like a unique combination of surf, rock n roll, funk, Congolese music and East African harmonies

I love coming across stuff like this. Like when I went though my zamrock deep dive. This whole album is full of wild moments, rhythmic and melodic choices.

There is something truly magical about hearing music that to ones ears is so fresh and new. New ideas, new cultures and others life experience reflected though familiar instruments and influence, that out the other side is wild and exciting.

Remember Kids: