What's the plan for coming back?

Hey guys,

For the past year, I've thought occasionally that it may be complicated to be running a network of channel when I come back.

My personal channels will be scheduled as if they were all one daily-upload channel. AIM will remain the way it is for the foreseeable future, with Ihasnotomato and myself balancing the workload evenly so that each of us uploads 3-4 videos per week. Seriously, with an additional person it would be easier to deal with.

So, potentially I'd be uploading 9 videos a week on all of my channels. That's not including Pickle-shaped Peanuts. Peanuts is a demo, as I've explained before, which may not last until the end of this year. It depends on how things go. If Peanuts succeeds, and we decide to run the channel for an indefinite amount of time, I would only be uploading one more video per week. I would be reaching roughly 10 videos per week. That's if I had an equal portion of the video uploads on AIM Industries. The maximum is 11 videos per week if Tomato maintains a healthy portion of the uploads.

So, I would be uploading a lot of videos each week. MrMabeanie is the most difficult channel to prepare videos for. I have a handful of history videos. Half of them need updating, but ChimneySwift11 is the one I finished today. Mickell Pickell and Ihasnochille (now known as Ihasnotomato) need updating a lot. I've started editing some Mabeanie Talks videos. One of them is about all of my Minecraft series on TheMabeanie, so I will upload that one onto that channel. The other is about me, so it will just go on MrMabeanie. Old MrMabeanie stuff will go up at some point. Minecraft Seedscribers is one of my proudest series because of all of the things I talk about. That will definitely go up on MrMabeanie. I don't know what to do about Cities without Skylines. I'm not that interested in playing the game, so there isn't much motivation for me to make the series. Of course, Friday Night Fun will be uploaded every Friday that I can manage to record on. So far the videos for MrMabeanie are quite a good list. The concern is where to fit everything.

TheMabeanie is easy. There are a bunch of Let's Play episodes which, because of the way the videos are edited, will all have to be uploaded in the same week. E.g. Assassin's Creed 2 episode two will go up in the same week as Bioshock episode two and Mine Craft Building Stuff: Colossal Conclusion episode two. It's a mess to explain, but it makes each series advertise the others. That is except for MCBS:CC.

Mabeanie2 will, as always, be a bonus content and raw footage channel where things will be uploaded when there is something to upload. I do not intend for it to have programmed shows like the other channels.

So, I do have a plan. It's not entirely thought out, but I think it will be enjoyable content when I come back. I've had the time to make sure of that. It's not like I make money out of YouTube, so quality can come first.

Thanks for reading and See Ya!

Pickle-shaped Peanuts is a demo YouTube Channel

We will upload a new video every Saturday until the 1-month anniversary of our first video.

At that point, we will decide whether or not to continue the channel. If we decide to continue, we continue longer.

We will upload a new video every Saturday until 3 months have lapsed since the first decision.

Then, we will decide to continue running the channel. If we decide to continue, we continue for 6 months.

By the end of this, we will have been running the channel for 10 months. At that point, we will have to decide whether or not to continue the channel for an indefinite amount of time. Because it is a three-man channel, we can discuss other methods of dealing with this situation. We may want to run the channel for another year, but seriously, 10 months says a lot about where your channel is going. A year is not much to compare.

So that's what's up with Pickle-shaped Peanuts.

Thanks for reading!

Things I was doing on my YouTube anniversaries

I'm an anniversary man, ladies. *wink*

I like to be doing something special when that special day comes around. I've recognised that some things I've done are worth noting, so I'm about to run through the stuff I did on my YouTube anniversary. If there was another anniversary to be happy about, I would probably be talking about it as well. Unfortunately, there is not.

17th of April 2011 - One year of YouTube anniversary
It was a Sunday, so I couldn't use the computer. Off to a great start. Later that year I remember comparing my success to Chuggaaconroy's when he reached his one-year anniversary that year. I thought it wasn't a big deal. That isn't to say that I disagree with that now.

17th of April 2012 - Two years a YouTuber
Three videos were at least rendered. Each from different Minecraft series. One was about my custom maps. One was the Bathroom episode of Mine Craft Building Stuff. The third was the Minecraft Seedscribers episode in which I look at the seed "ihasnotomato", which is the alias of my best friend. I guess that more than makes up for 2011's day of nothing. It was a Tuesday, usually a day of great progress for me.

17th of April 2013 - Three years of Tubing
I did a recording session for my Let's Play of Assassin's Creed. The last episode of that recording session was also the last done on my previous computer, which slowed down and died.


17th of April 2014 - Four years of now-greatness
In February I left my channels to work only on AIM Industries. I did nothing on this anniversary on my blog, AIM's blog or even in making videos.

17th of April 2015 - Half a decade of looking to the stars
So this was a big one. I recorded some episodes of my yet-to-be-released Let's Play of Bioshock, there was an AIM Industries recording session of Sonic Adventure DX, and I rendered episode 24 of that series. I also took a picture of the recording setup on that day.

we is reerding som mor sanic advento today :DDDD pic.twitter.com/OPfXrdfWTk

— A.I.M. Industries (@AIMindustries) April 17, 2015

17th of April 2016 - Six years doing YouTube
On my six-year anniversary of making videos for YouTube, I announced to the world that I was discussing the creation of a new collaboration channel with Mickell Pickell and Angrove. This would become Pickle-shaped Peanuts, which has recently been launched.

Thinking about starting a group channel with @MickellPickell and @theangrove.

— Mabeanie Beanie (@MrMabeanie) April 17, 2016

I should remember to do something special this year on my seven years anniversary.

Fun facts about Pickle-Shaped Peanuts

Man, I've been working hard. I'll take it from Ihasnotomato. I don't need a job right now because of how much work I have to do. At least for now.

Anyway, onto the Peanuts!

• I started organising the unnamed project on my 6-year anniversary on YouTube. 17th of April 2016.

Thinking about starting a group channel with @MickellPickell and @theangrove.

— Mabeanie Beanie (@MrMabeanie) April 17, 2016

• The first video would have gone public the day after New Years, but Angrove didn't upload it.

First video on Pickle-Shaped Peanuts is about to go live! pic.twitter.com/WeBGP6RzuN

— Mabeanie Beanie (@MrMabeanie) January 3, 2017

• There were two attempts at a meeting before the channel was established the third time lucky. The first attempt was Friday the 2nd of December, but I couldn't do it because I had to drive someone around. The next attempt was for Thursday the 15th of December, but Mickell Pickell cancelled because he got sick.
• The actual meeting took place on Tuesday the 20th of December 2016. The channel was established that day and we recorded Crash Bandicoot. We also recorded Gran Turismo 3, but our voices didn't get recorded. 
• Mickell Pickell made the channel profile picture, channel art and thumbnails for the first two parts of Crash.

There. Now wasn't that fun?
Thanks for reading.
See Ya!

YouTubers I'll be watching out for in 2017

I don't know about you, but there are some channels that will probably be taking some turns this year for better or for worse and I think it's best to keep an eye out for what they do next.

KSic Games:
Struggling for the gain he'd drawn in 2014, KSic has started 2017 with a different approach to running a gaming channel. Since the 'I quit YouTube' video began the newly replenished KSic channel's year, KSic's videos are all connected as part of a big storyline about KSic being forced to play all sorts of virtual reality games by his nemesis, Patricia. At one point, KSic was my favourite YouTuber and, after years of helping others gain subscribers and views, he's focussing only on himself. He's being "the dick [he's] always wanted to be". It's a very emotional song at the end that delivers the message that he is going to be very committed this year so, if you're like me, ignore the click-baity titles and watch the videos because that's where it's counting.

DangyDood:
KSic's younger brother Shady has risen and fallen by the influence of his sibling, but because of KSic's new plan for the year, Shady will be striking out on his own for 2017. He'll be using all of the knowledge he's gained from his brother as well as his own experience to bring about the channel he thinks will best them all. This is a guy who has rebooted his YouTube career several times, but he's hoping for a fresh start this year. Whatever he produces will be interesting to see and will determine whether he makes it or not as a YouTuber. The content already on his channel shows promise that the content this time around will be different and perhaps higher quality than what he's done in the past.

ChimneySwift11:
I've always hoped that Chimney would find a way to make his channel more disconnected from its old Minecraft days and I think that time has come. He's faced a lot of decline in subscribers and views in recent years, but things may be lightening up. His 'Santa answers your questions' video suggests that things will be different this year and that he's ready to change. His 'annoying astronaut' video shows a lot of promise and I'm looking forward to seeing what he produces next. It's for his sake that everyone who's supported him for so long is hoping he'll restore the strength the channel used to have.

Game Theorists:
Has anyone else noticed that the videos MatPat has put out have been less thoughtful than in previous years? I've noticed videos have been uploaded covering topics that have already been touched upon on both Game Theorists and on Film Theorists. Maybe not as ambitious as my other watches, I think there will be some change in MatPat's YouTube Empire this year.

Ihasnotomato:
Maybe it's a bit obvious for me to support my best friend this year and claim that he's somebody to watch out for, but last year's end-year changes have shown that 2017 will be a big year for his revitalised YouTube career. Ihasnoleek on the Ihasnotomato blog has said that while some changes are not completely explained yet, there is much to look forward to in the ways of Let's Plays and series such as TF2 Update History and Ihasnotomato's story telling series. Because the channel hierarchy has changed, it will also be interesting to see what happens with IhasnotomatoMk2, as no videos have been released on that channel concerning the new changes. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Channels I didn't mention:
My own projects on YouTube maybe don't show as much excitement for 2017 as the YouTubers I've mentioned so far. AIM Industries is showing more vision of a foggy year, because for the first time we're striking out on our own, with no clear vision of where things are going to end up. This could be because we haven't recorded much for this year yet, but so far we can only make our own year.
Obviously my promises of returning to my personal channels in 2017 suggest that my return will be dramatic, but as the man behind the channels I have more skepticism about my own return. Will my return flop massively? Will I be able to reclaim what I had at the beginning of 2014? I don't know, but I can only hope that it will happen.
This year I have begun another group channel with Angrove and Mickell Pickell. It's very experimental and a careful venture because we don't know what will come of it. Mickell Pickell's dedicated audience and Angrove's absence for the best part of the previous year suggest that we're jumping into a rocky boat. Uploading our first video has proven a thing that Angrove is not very interested in. It's in publishing limbo.

I hope this list of YouTubers I'll be watching this year will peak your interest.
See Ya!

YouTube Email notifications aren't effective

I just watched John Green's video talking about 10 years on YouTube and he said to press the bell icon to be notified when new videos come out. This got me thinking about whether the email notification service is effective.

In my experience it is not.

When it started, I chose to be notified by a bunch of the channels I was subscribed to at the time and was interested in seeing their next videos. Over the months of having this enabled, I got sick of seeing the same people uploading new videos that I didn't want to watch. If a channel is so good that you might consider being notified by email, why would you need to be notified at all? If it's such a good channel, you would be checking that channel occasionally and looking at your subscription feed periodically for new videos.

The worst thing about the notification by email update service is that you end up not watching specific channels because you were notified so often of what sort of stuff they were uploading. If their content was often more of the same, you'd get bored of it and eventually disable the notifications. Then you wouldn't even know if their channel had improved or that the stuff you actually wanted to watch had started being uploaded to that channel again. Do you see what I mean?

It's just like when you subscribe to a newsletter and it gets sent frequently, you eventually get sick of it and unsubscribe. Maybe you lost interest in that newsletter's content. Maybe your reason for subscribing in the first place had changed. My point is that if the information keeps being force-fed to you, you will probably end up intentionally avoiding it just because it was streamlined to you for so long.

If it's really good and you love it to pieces, there's no reason to ask for updates because you update yourself.