Since altering gender expression in videos James Stephanie (Jim) Sterling has lost many YouTube subscribers [READ STAFF POST]

[Pop-O-Matic]

OH Easy Allies... that makes more sense, I kept thinking the videogame company and was very confused about what this "EA thread" was >_<

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No, people were talking about this thread.

EA Is Evil, Actually (The Jimquisition)

Electronic Arts wants you to give it all of your money as its business model shifts more and more to microtransactions and gambling. It's not above being positively vile in this endeavor. EA is doing all it can to funnel its FIFA players toward one single mode - FIFA Ultimate Team, the mode...

www.resetera.com

 

[vrcsix]

On a positive note, views* don't appear to have been affected. Something happened back in September 2020 though. Did they slow down production cadence or was this some algorithm or DMCA bullshit?

*by which I'm referring to "Weekly Video Views Gained" on the same page as that other graph.

Not trying to make light of the problematic nature of the situation of course.

I'm really surprised this was the case. James has been an obvious lefitst for years and it's absolutely dripping from their content, so how come they lost so many subscribers from coming out as non-binary? How can you be a leftist and be anti-LGBT?

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If views haven't been affected, it could suggest that the lost subscribers were by and large people who weren't watching their content anyway. And then the coming out made those people actively unsubscribe. All just speculation of course.

But I can see it working like that, practically speaking. I'm subscribed to a bunch of channels. Some of them I just stopped watching, and then YouTube stopped putting them in my feed. For instance, Easy Allies. I'm still subscribed, but I would barely know it. Instead I get a lot of videos from channels I do watch but am not subscribed to.

 

[Kaiser Swayze]

I don't know, just based on the videos I've seen posted here, they seemed to cater to the "angry gamer" crowd. They're not known to be the most erudite group.

 

[anexanhume]

I am somewhat surprised by the magnitude of the change. Jim had some major personal growth regarding the treatment of women in games over the years. I guess a good part of the subscriber base was ignorant of that and just liked "EA BAD" without any deeper thought.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

It could be both, not an either this or that question. I have no doubt, however, people stopped watching and this is more than just correlation, because of the coming out and it is, sadly, not surprising: Shitting on the industry is cool and okay as long as the person fits into my backwards world views.

 

[Socivol]

This upsets me especially since the content hadn't changed much. I can't say I'm surprised but I'm just so tired of people treating our trans brothers and sisters as less than. Really upsetting topic to start the day with. I will continue to watch and support their content.

 

[Wetalo]

Frankly I stopped watching the show during covid because of how pessimistic it was. I was suffering a depression and to hear someone ranting about the industry just wasn't what I needed. I know Sterling means well in an effort to change the industry's bad habits, but frankly I feel this sort of continuously negative attitude does somewhat contribute to the Angry Gamer™️ culture.

I'm queer, couldn't care less if they're wearing a wig. I was watching their content less frequently before they threw the wig on, didn't need to expose myself to such pessimism.

 

[DyslexicAlucard]

On a positive note, views* don't appear to have been affected. Something happened back in September 2020 though. Did they slow down production cadence or was this some algorithm or DMCA bullshit?

*by which I'm referring to "Weekly Video Views Gained" on the same page as that other graph.

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I considered including that graph as well. IMO, it's both a positive and negative that views were steady while subs declined. On the one hand, it's great that their videos are still reaching people. On the other hand, if views are steadily increasing but subs are decreasing, that means people aren't subscribing even when the algorithm recommends their channel.

It's harder to pin this down to being strictly transphobia, but it's hard not to draw similar conclusions here as well.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

I'm still subscribed to the Jimquisition. It's good content. But I really just haven't been in the mood to watch strong industry critiques lately. The points brought up on the show are typically quite valid. But gaming has been awesome lately and I'm just generally trying to consume more positive video content lately.

Frankly I stopped watching the show during covid because of how pessimistic it was. I was suffering a depression and to hear someone ranting about the industry just wasn't what I needed. I know Sterling means well in an effort to change the industry's bad habits, but frankly I feel this sort of continuously negative attitude does somewhat contribute to the Angry Gamer™️ culture.

I'm queer, couldn't care less if they're wearing a wig. I was watching their content less frequently before they threw the wig on, didn't need to expose myself to such pessimism.

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Agreed here. I get a lot of game news from Twitter and unfortunately it's just so toxic. Whining, insults, "lazy devs", and etc. it's super negative and pessimistic there. So I just have no appetite for more of it.
Im trying to re center my gaming consumption to be more positive for my own mental inner peace.

 

[Deleted member 45130]

It's interesting because I watched some of their videos previously because they came up on my feed on the YouTube app but I haven't seen a videos of theirs come up for probably about a year. My viewing habits haven't really changed much either so I suspect the algorithm is hard at work.

It's real strange how people would unsubscribe just because they have come out as non-binary. I'm not sure how that would affect any of the content being produced outside of their appearance.

 

[Good4Squat]

Haven't watched their videos in a long time, think I just got my fill of the same topics being discussed ad nauseum. Maybe I should give their videos a look again.

 

[Rayasab]

Or people are not that into regurgitated "Drama alert" clips anymore, their contents and clickbait articles were suitable for early 2010s teenagers (speaking as a previous fan since destructoid and early YT channel days)

 

[DyslexicAlucard]

Frankly I stopped watching the show during covid because of how pessimistic it was. I was suffering a depression and to hear someone ranting about the industry just wasn't what I needed. I know Sterling means well in an effort to change the industry's bad habits, but frankly I feel this sort of continuously negative attitude does somewhat contribute to the Angry Gamer™️ culture.

I'm queer, couldn't care less if they're wearing a wig. I was watching their content less frequently before they threw the wig on, didn't need to expose myself to such pessimism.

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I'm still subscribed to the Jimquisition. It's good content. But I really just haven't been in the mood to watch strong industry critiques lately. The points brought up on the show are typically quite valid. But gaming has been awesome lately and I'm just generally trying to consume more positive video content lately.


Agreed here. I get a lot of game news from Twitter and unfortunately it's just so toxic. Whining, insults, "lazy devs", and etc. it's super negative and pessimistic there. So I just have no appetite for more of it.
Im trying to re center my gaming consumption to be more positive for my own mental inner peace.

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Or people are not that into regurgitated "Drama alert" clips anymore, their contents and clickbait articles were suitable for early 2010s teenagers (speaking as a previous fan since destructoid and early YT channel days)

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For future reference, you may want to read Official Staff Communications before posting in a thread. Especially in a sensitive topic like this one.

 

[Katmeister]

Because now it cant be ignored. I remember seeing some comments about Giant Bomb, may have been Twitter or Youtube where people were rationalizing watching them as "they live in Cali so of course they are liberal". I am paraphrasing since it was a while ago that I had seen it. but even with in Giant Bomb that line of thinking only extended to the white guys as its no coincidence that Austin (had a person come up to him at pax to tell him he is ruining a site he loves), Abby ("how dare she have GOTY opinions") and Ben (who people constantly speculate about his sexuality) received more hate the the rest and had the same Drive by people that Steph does.

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Wow, thanks for the insight. Imagine being such a pathetic loser you get upset at a woman for having opinions. Especially when it's her job to have opinions.

 

[BassForever]

It's real strange how people would unsubscribe just because they have come out as non-binary. I'm not sure how that would affect any of the content being produced outside of their appearance.

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It's a lot easier for some people to claim they support the lgbtq community then it is to actually consume content created by them or donate to causes to support their struggles. I'm sure if youtube subscribers had exit polls a lot of them would include some variation of the phase "I'm not transphobic but..." behind why they unsubbed from Jim in the past several months.

 

[Sacul64]

Wow, thanks for the insight. Imagine being such a pathetic loser you get upset at a woman for having opinions. Especially when it's her job to have opinions.

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It did not help that the game she was pushing was IIRC Dream Daddy a game that would make those people mad so it feeds their forced progressiveness narrative that they can more easily ignore or let slide when coming from a man. Thats why Steph is now getting the same treatment since the chuds cant ignore it now.

 

[Melhadf]

It doesn't help that the Youtube algorithm is hiding their new videos every week. I'm subbed and have notications turned on but they just don't show up in my feed.

 

[Aether]

It doesn't help that the Youtube algorithm is hiding their new videos every week. I'm subbed and have notications turned on but they just don't show up in my feed.

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I really would like how the youtube algorythm works in that regard, i never had that
problem but a lot of people seme to have problems with channels getting hidden,
did somebody find out if it has something to do with the amount of channels one has subscribed to?

 

[touchfuzzy]

Personally I lost interest when they stopped doing reviews and focused solely on controversy and shitty industry practices. Those can be interesting now and then but it's just not the type of discourse I'm overly interested in engaging with.

 

[Arkhanor]

I used to watch them a lot but eventually I stopped. Sometimes I get back and watch the new ones but I never unsubscribed. Even if I stop watching completely I don't need to unsubscribe.

 

[Sacul64]

I really would like how the youtube algorythm works in that regard, i never had that
problem but a lot of people seme to have problems with channels getting hidden,
did somebody find out if it has something to do with the amount of channels one has subscribed to?

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Lets also not forget to mention how They also lost the protection the had from youtube for false claims after they came out. I think think Steph ever correlated the two things in a video but seems highly sus to me that right after coming out the Black tiger dev tried to take the channel down and youtube did nothing until Steph threatened to take it to court.

 

[Bufbaf]

God this thread is gonna be a graveyard :D

People, just READ the big, fat Staff communication.

 

[Phellps]

I guess this was to be expected. Even their "woke" followers possibly unsubscribed because, you know, performative wokeness. It's never not disappointing, though. Hopefully their Patreon is still alive and kicking, and they slowly recover their subscribers.

 

[ArgyleReptile]

It's pretty fucking clear that their coming out is the reason for the drop. James Steph has always brought up how the Youtube Algorithm has been screwing them for quite a while now, but it's never resulted in this substantial a loss.

However, the moment they came out as Trans and NB, the subscribers began to drop. Like, it's right in the video they released a while ago.

 

[Aether]

Lets also not forget to mention how They also lost the protection the had from youtube for false claims after they came out. I think think Steph ever correlated the two things in a video but seems highly sus to me that right after coming out the Black tiger dev tried to take the channel down and youtube did nothing until Steph threatened to take it to court.

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i was confused by a moment what you mean by false claims... copiright claims, got it.
I did not follow the last ones, since it kinda became normal that jimquisition gets copyright claimed by petty developers.
Could be that youtubes algorythm stops promoting the channel because of to many claims,
which would mean that false claiming stuff can effectively reduce exposure (which is kinda scarry)

 

[fixurheartordie]

The amount of people rushing in here to blame literally anything but transphobia is pretty telling that it is, in fact, transphobia.

 

[CaviarMeths]

10% sub drop is actually pretty massive in that period of time. I wonder if JonTron even lost that many when he went full on "immigrants are tainting the gene pool and rich blacks commit more crimes than poor whites" white supremacist.

Ah well then, gamers remain shit as always.

EDIT: Looking at the graph on the previous page, it's actually closer to around 2-3%, but still, the downward trend is worrying.

 

[Deleted member 7092]

Yeah, it's sad. Stephanie has been even sharper and funnier since coming out (hopefully because they feel freer/happier), so there's no doubt this is due to good old fashioned bigotry.

Though hopefully it hasn't impacted their bottom line much since they survive via patreon. I'd imagine those who were already financially supporting the channel would be considerably less likely to walk away from the table because of the transition (note: is transition an accurate word to use in Stephanie's case?), so hopefully the drop in subscribers isn't having a material impact on their livelihood🤞

 

[shaneo632]

Really sucks. I fell off their content recently because the negativity just wasn't what I needed to hear when I wasn't in a great place mentally earlier in the pandemic, but surprising to see such a steep drop when the videos have always been very progressive-themed anyway.

 

[Batatina]

Really sad for them, I really like Steph.

Their podcast is hard to listen to nowadays as it's a bit depressing, with the fine balance between criticism of capitalism (which I fully agree with) but also enjoyment of games not being quite nailed. It's all a bit grim since I still genuinely enjoy the hobby of playing games and sometimes I just want some fun discussions about them. Still, I'm a subcriber on youtube and watch all their Jimquisitions, those are still quite fun.

Edit: Didn't mean to derail from the problem which is unsubscribing due to transphobia, which I have no question is what happened here. I for one was very happy about the coming out news, and I hope they are able to regain some of those subscribers over time.

 

[Pelican]

I think I've unsubscribed from like five things in 10+ years. Certainly not unsubbing from Sterling, even if I'm not as regular a viewer as I used to be. I got a real chuckle in the weeks leading up to coming out. Jim was dropping all sorts of escalating hints and I think it made the coming out video even better. It was a fun series of videos to catch, and I was surprised how emotional I got seeing that freeing smile.

After all these years of watching Sterling, it is wild to think that *this* would be the line for people. I struggle to imagine any active user going "Wait a minute!..." but obviously that has happened. WIld.

 

[DyslexicAlucard]

God this thread is gonna be a graveyard :D

People, just READ the big, fat Staff communication.

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The clowns are digging their own graves like

 

[Joeyro]

I don't agree with the people saying that his videos didn't get hurt despite losing subscribers, you can definitely see a big decline in his videos from an average of 300k-400k to 100-200k views (obviously there are outliers).

I haven't seen his videos in ages, but just by looking at the titles i can tell that his content is similar to what it always was, so it's hard to deny the real reason for the decline.

 

[HazySaiyan]

As the staff post points out, a few anecdotes here and there about being bored of the Jimquisition can't account for such a drop. The drop literally started as soon as James came out, it's transphobia plain and simple.

 

[basic_text]

On a similar note, I added an LBGTQ+ flag to my car in Rocket League a few months ago and man, did the invites for parties dry up.
(Promise it wasn't my skill!)

 

[DionardoLicaprio]

I unsubscribed before they changed their pronouns, it doesn't make a difference for me, the reason was their content was way too negative and I'm trying to actively change what type of media I consume otherwise it's not healthy for me.
But they are a great YouTube channel so hope they find success and get to the 1mill.

EDIT: Editing to clarify. I know I'm not the typical case of unsubscribing to them, and unfortunately I do believe most people that unsubscribed to them was because of their pronouns, and that sucks. I was just stating my particular case, which most likely isn't the most common reason.

 

[Sacul64]

i was confused by a moment what you mean by false claims... copiright claims, got it.
I did not follow the last ones, since it kinda became normal that jimquisition gets copyright claimed by petty developers.
Could be that youtubes algorythm stops promoting the channel because of to many claims,
which would mean that false claiming stuff can effectively reduce exposure (which is kinda scarry)

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Why Is YouTube Still Letting That Liar Attack My Channel? (The Jimquisition)

http://www.patreon.com/jimquisitionhttp://www.twitch.tv/jimsterlingIn our top segment today, Gilson B. Pontes tries to strike again. While he continues to fa...

www.youtube.com

This should be the video where they talk about the claims and all I can think of is that this attack has a different motive to it at this point.

I unsubscribed

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We dont care read the staff post.

 

[Ballerman]

gamers are assholes mainly, it's just how it is.

some are wondering why people stuck around despite Stephanie being pro-LGBT and all that even before the announcement. honestly, coming from a right-wing background some years ago, you just tend to ignore that stuff as long as the message isn't too strong. at this point Stephanie as an identity is exactly what they hate, so they're out.

 

[Sasari]

Still subscribed, and so happy for them following the <900k video where they say they are finally happy in their own skin. I too almost unsubscribed this year, like many other posters, due to the negativity.

That being said, still watch every video (even though they're not recommended by Youtube very often) and still a subscriber, and haven't seen the same level of negativity in recent episodes. If anything it feels more like Jim than it has in a while, almost like a big change in their life has them feeling more like themselves.

It's doubtless there will be the drop off from the right-wing and the like, but honestly, they're better without them, and thankfully with Patreon they have enough support to continue.

 

[Deleted member 198]

Why do threads like this always bring out people who feel compelled to let everyone know that they quit xyz for other reasons!

Like who gives a shit if you quit.

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It's borderline trolling

 

[theme park joe]

I wonder if it's a pushback from viewers or The Algorithm not driving new subs to replace old ones. I hope it's shitty YouTube and not people being shitty…

 

[Mobyduck]

One need only visit some of the less savories parts of the gaming community to see that Steph's coming out was a big reason why a lot of people decided to unsubscribe. We can discuss how big of an impact it had, but it's undeniable a lot of Gamers are bigots, and they might tolerate someone who is pro-LGBT as long as they enjoy the content, but as soon as the content creator comes out as queer (specially trans), Gamers will show their true colors and abandon that person.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

It's awful when talent is immediately dismissed because you can't look past someone freeing themselves to be who they are. I know James Stephanie will continue to build on their success but this shouldn't be the answer to their coming out

Why do threads like this always bring out people who feel compelled to let everyone know that they quit xyz for other reasons!

Like who gives a shit if you quit.

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Its literally so fucked how many morons have walked into this thread just to center themselves

 

[Weebos]

Disappointing, but not surprising.

 

[Dog Weissman]

Noted.

 

[Deleted member 13101]

I think the effects of consumption of negative content on one's health and well-being is an important topic - for another thread. Go make that thread and discuss there, you could have made it at any time.

I wish Jim well. I don't know what the algorithm is doing, since I get suggested all manner of crap even after clearing search/watch history and performing specific gaming searches. Driving traffic to your channel must be a constant headache to deal with.

But this drop couldn't be more clear. I hope they receive more support from the gaming enthusiast community.

 

[Pendas]

I unsubscribed because I got tired of the same topics over and over again.

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Edit NVM.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

This. I understand the topics Jim discusses are important, but the constant barrage of negative news is just depressing.

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And that's not what this thread is about

 

[Pendas]

And that's not what this thread is about

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The I will see my way out.

 

[ExoExplorer]

I unsubscribed before they changed their pronouns, it doesn't make a difference for me, the reason was their content was way too negative and I'm trying to actively change what type of media I consume otherwise it's not healthy for me.
But they are a great YouTube channel so hope they find success and get to the 1mill.

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I don't think you're being mean-spirited here but you might want to edit your post/ read the staff communication. Too many people posting this in bad faith for anyone to be sure about intentions.