Michaël | HouseStationLive.com<p>CREATING ON YOUTUBE MEANS PAYING TO WORK</p><p>YouTube is like Uber. Uber asks you to own, in your garage, a black sedan with less than 100,000 km on it—one you’re not using—and claims you can start making money from it. “It doesn’t cost you anything,” Uber says, since the car is just sitting there anyway. But in reality, it’s the most financially vulnerable people who see it as an opportunity. They take out a loan to buy a car. And when that car hits 100,000 km and the loan isn’t paid off, they get a second one—and now they’re stuck with two loans. Uber “earns” you €5/hour, but the cost of maintaining your setup is €7.50/hour. The more you work, the more your tool degrades. You earn 25% more, but spend 25% more. The vehicle is repurposed for an economic model that only benefits Uber.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>YOUTUBE IS NO DIFFERENT</p><p>When you become a YouTuber, they make you believe that “anyone can stream with a smartphone.” That all you need is an idea, a bit of courage, and some basic gear. That you can compete with MrBeast—who spends a million per video—on a shoestring budget. That’s a lie.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>THE REAL COST OF A SETUP</p><p>I spent five years, from 2018 to 2023, saving up to buy a €5,000 PC solely for production. Because streaming isn’t just “playing a game.” Your PC becomes a 4K broadcasting server. You need two graphics cards—or even two separate machines:</p><p>- One to run the software or the game</p><p>- The other to encode, stream, and record</p><p>You also need:</p><p>- A second monitor (for video return and replay)</p><p>- A replay buffer (to capture instant replays)</p><p>- A Stream Deck for seamless transitions</p><p>- A Wave XLR for professional audio quality</p><p>- Audio interfaces, mixers, USB cameras, XLR microphones</p><p>All these high-end peripherals constantly tax your system. You need two USB hubs capable of handling 15 devices at once with no signal loss. A single weak link can ruin everything. And that’s not all. To stream a Nintendo Switch, you need a capture card—and you can’t rely on your streaming software’s preview because of input lag. You have to play directly on the other screen already in place.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>ONGOING TECHNICAL LEARNING</p><p>Streaming requires broad technical expertise:</p><p>- Lighting, audio, capture devices, networking</p><p>- Compression, codecs, editing, formatting</p><p>- Live direction, visual/audio transitions, real-time coordination</p><p>And you’re doing all this with zero support from YouTube.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>STORAGE AND ENERGY COSTS</p><p>Your PC isn’t enough anymore. You’ll need a NAS—a network-attached storage system—cheaper than the cloud in the long run, but which demands:</p><p>- Two 20 TB drives (mirrored) → 40 TB</p><p>- A dedicated server, which adds another €1,000</p><p>It’s become a mini television studio. Which brings with it:</p><p>- Planned obsolescence</p><p>- Frequent breakdowns</p><p>- Hardware wear and tear</p><p>- Electricity costs of a 1,000-watt PC plus a 24/7 server</p><p>Altogether, the setup costs more than a car.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>AND YOUTUBE PAYS NOTHING</p><p>And yet, it’s YouTube that cashes in. It runs ads on your videos—even if you’re not monetized. It hijacks your gear, your energy, your skills. And if your content doesn’t “perform,” it simply ignores you. A PC, cameras, capture cards, hubs, microphones, lights—tens of thousands of euros invested just to exist. And the platform invests nothing in return. No visibility. No value sharing. Not even a word of encouragement.<br>¯</p><p>_<br>||<a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/HSLdiary" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HSLdiary</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/HSLmichael" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HSLmichael</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/InvisibleLabor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>InvisibleLabor</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/PlatformCapitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>PlatformCapitalism</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/CreatorEconomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CreatorEconomy</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/DigitalPrecarity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DigitalPrecarity</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/FreeLabor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FreeLabor</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/YouTubeProblems" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>YouTubeProblems</span></a> <a href="https://hear-me.social/tags/Shadowban" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Shadowban</span></a></p>
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#freelabor
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Jens Oliver Meiert<p>My 18-Months Rule for Open-Source Contributions:</p><p>You make a good-faith contribution to an open-source project. There’s never a response. What do you do? On a rule I’ve established for my own open-source work, and the reasons behind it.</p><p><a href="https://meiert.com/en/blog/an-open-source-rule/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">meiert.com/en/blog/an-open-sou</span><span class="invisible">rce-rule/</span></a></p><p><a href="https://mas.to/tags/opensource" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>opensource</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/foss" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>foss</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/freelabor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>freelabor</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/community" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>community</span></a></p>
MineEyesDazzle<p>I am not a fan of folks "donating" their free labor to LinkedIn's Expert Answers feature. Do this for a non-profit or the common good, but why do it for LinkedIn aka Microsoft Corp??? (Looking at you, folks in <a href="https://mas.to/tags/Libraries" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Libraries</span></a> ) <a href="https://mas.to/tags/FreeLabor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FreeLabor</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/UnpaidLabor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UnpaidLabor</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/ExtractiveBusinessModels" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ExtractiveBusinessModels</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/UserReliance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UserReliance</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/CorporateDependence" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>CorporateDependence</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/Commodification" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Commodification</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/DigitalLabor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DigitalLabor</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/IntellectualLabor" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>IntellectualLabor</span></a> <a href="https://mas.to/tags/UserbaseExploitation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>UserbaseExploitation</span></a></p>
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