Conspiracy Theorists Who’d First Popularized QAnon Now Accused of Financial Motives

QAnon “was first championed by a handful of people who worked together to stir discussion of the ‘Q’ posts, eventually pushing the theory on to bigger platforms and gaining followers — a strategy that proved to be the key to Qanon’s spread and the originators’ financial gain…” reports NBC News, in an article shared by long-time Slashdot reader AmiMoJo . “NBC…

The Few, the Tired, the Open Source Coders

Reader shanen shares a report (and offers this commentary): When the open source concept emerged in the ’90s, it was conceived as a bold new form of communal labor: digital barn raisings. If you made your code open source, dozens or even hundreds of programmers would chip in to improve it. Many hands would make light work. Everyone would feel ownership….

YouTube Apologises For Mocking Long Videos

YouTube has apologised and deleted a tweet from its official Twitter account in which it mocked content creators for making videos that were too long. From a report: Under its own rules, adverts can be placed in the middle of videos at least eight minutes long only – shortened in July 2020 from a 10-minute minimum. This means content creators can…

YouTubers Are Upscaling the Past To 4K. Historians Want Them To Stop

YouTubers are using AI to bring history to life. But historians argue the process is nonsense. From a report: The first time you see Denis Shiryaev’s videos, they feel pretty miraculous. You can walk through New York as it was in 1911, or ride on Wuppertal’s flying train at the turn of the 20th century, or witness the birth of the…

26% of US Adults Get Their News From YouTube, Study Finds

In a study the Pew Research Center released today, 26% of U.S. adults said they now get their news from YouTube. That includes 23% via videos posted by news organizations and 23% from independent YouTube channels. Researchers surveyed 12,638 U.S. adults for the report. VentureBeat reports: “The study finds a news landscape on YouTube in which established news organizations and independent…

The Gig Economy Is Failing. Say Hello to the Hustle Economy.

An anonymous reader shares a report: “We have nothing to sell besides physical touch.” The thought jarred Amber Briggle awake some nights. It kept her from eating in the first week of the Covid-19 shutdown when she lost six pounds fretting over the sudden collapse of the business she’d built up her “entire adult life.” For seven years, Briggle has owned…

As YouTube Traffic Soars, YouTubers Say Pay Is Plummeting

Newspapers, websites, and TV channels have all been decimated by the coronavirus. And YouTubers are also feeling the pinch. From a report: While boredom-inducing stay-at-home orders may be good for YouTube channel traffic, increasing by 15%, according to the New York Times, YouTubers say that the rates companies pay to advertise on their videos are dropping significantly. That means that despite…

YouTube Creators May Lose Verified Badges As Verification Process Becomes Stricter

YouTube is rolling out changes to its verification program for creators, making it tougher for growing channels to earn a checkmark beside their name and removing verification badges from people who don’t meet the heightened criteria. An anonymous Slashdot reader shares a report from The Verge: YouTube’s current system allows anyone with more than 100,000 subscribers to be verified. Now, YouTube…