Sundance, you got that right. How rich did they get off everyone else's content. (But I wish I would have thought of it first - I'd be on a tropical beach right now). Sasha, I feel for you. But I am old and have no good tech advice to give.
Sasha, We love your stuff and really feel bad this happened. No company anywhere has anything that someone would call customer service -- it is just gone. All you get is phone trees and pandering emails. It really is awful and I feel your pain. But don't give up the ship -- your loyal audience loves you and you really make an important contribution.
Wouldn't you think a company in a given field would understand how revolted we are by the AI and establish a true customer service line which would hire people at a decent wage to do such work? I think they would quickly lap their competitors, and then some.
I have a new doctor whose stickability is questionable for me, but one thing overwhelming in his favor is that when his office places me on hold during a phone call, I don't hear painfully loud, idiotic pseudo music, I hear honest to goodness classical music.
You know I thought exactly the same thing when I wrote that...someone could own the world if they just took a regular business and put customer service back into it. But no one does. I don't get.
(Not to be that guy - but you should change your substack login ID / pw, as well as all your other accounts. Use a password manager, like Bitwarden. Let it generate impossible to hack meaningless passwords. It's a hassle, but once you do it for all your accounts, it's not hard to maintain. I've been there with hacked accounts, it's no fun!)
God that is just awful, Sasha...but I'm not surprised. On the left, there is this stinking, dead elephant & it just reeks of hate. And, the stench seems to have rotted the brains of many. Plus, now we've got a new stench from people like Carlson & Owens. WTH🤔 I was a devout leftist/activist in the 60's & much of the time, I felt out of balance mentally & emotionally. I was angry, tense, troubled....the list goes on. But Jesus, I GREW UP, ya know? I mean grownups accept the fact that they can't have everything their way, right? I've been on the Trump wagon since 2016 & I'm sad to say that I've lost close friends & a few relatives along the way...you know Sasha, I still can't believe the amount of infantilism out there. We are in our late 70's & not rich people, so we only subscribe to Amazon Prime, but I read your articles on Real Clear Politics & I try to catch all of your free substacks & I just love how you write. So please keep being the 'fierce-yet-deeply-wise' warrioress that you are....please continue gracing us with your fine brain & your wonderful talent for "telling it like it is"!!💓👵🏻👴🏻💓
Happened to me on X. It’s mostly hopeless. It’s set up like a Catch-22. “If you can verify your account we will restore it.” “If I could verify it, I would have it, and then you wouldn’t need to restore it.”
They genuinely don’t give a shit and they don’t care if you know it. Sorry this happened to you.
Please let me say this, as someone who's only recently learned of your work from a link on one of my daily online reads--and come to look forward to your emails:
The essays I've read in the past month are some of the smartest, most insightful commentaries on cultural and political issues I've ever read. And your backstory is compelling to me. Like you, I was on the left until I figured out that ideology completely misunderstood real life as lived by real people.
Hang in there, and get past this speed bump. Your contribution to the new media environment is special.
I can’t say I am surprised. I often wondered why it had not happened before given the number of videos you use, especially the music at the end. Not that I think you deserve it! Clearly, you pissed off one too many insane lefties. Not like you haven’t been at that game for 6 years. Welcome to the official “criminal” class. If it were back in the Al Capone days, misusing YouTube is what they would have got him on, not tax fraud, since the couldn’t make any violent crimes stick. Get elected to Congress then you can be a real criminal with absolute moral or criminal immunity. Luv ya, Shasta!
If I may suggest, one lesson all of us should take from your losing access to priceless irreplaceable personal videos is the need for backups in multiple locations that you completely control such as iCloud, Dropbox, and a personal drive.
We live in California. Given wildfires and earthquakes no one here should just trust local in-home personal storage. Your house in Topanga was too close to last year's Palisades fire for your comfort. So you really should avail yourself of cheap easy to use online cloud options.
I HATE being at the mercy of social media companies. In an instant, they can shadowban you, suspend you or permanently delete your account. And it’s impossible to reach someone’s who can actually help! No mercy. (Presently, I’m being shadowbanned by IG and FB, and maybe even Substack.)🤔
Sorry to hear this. Larry Schweikart just had his X account hijacked by a crypto spammer for a second time. I tried to report the issue but the X contact interface is limited and rigid and none of the options fit “This account is not mine but it has clearly been hijacked.”
I think YouTube, Reddit, and more are to some degree still stuck in the woke/DEI/USAID/Biden era, thinking they are fighting “misinformation” and “hate speech” by suppressing and silencing anyone opposed to the left. They don’t understand that everything changed with Trump’s reelection. The Biden-era funding and directing of censorship is over, never to return. The DOJ now (correctly) views such actions as civil rights violations. There haven't been indictments yet for past offenses, but there might well be. Some progressive/woke true believers are still be making decisions at YouTube etc., but without the government approval and backing they used to have. Their future power is questionable.
I follow several legendary comic book creators who livestream on YouTube. They’ve had trouble with their chat. Chats get deleted. YouTube thinks they’re spam or bots.
Wow. What a punch in the gut! Very sad this is the way our world works at the moment. Maybe someone who will actually help will read your post here. 🙏
So sorry this happened to you Sasha. Thank you for all the great work you do.
"I was accused of being a “spammer” who used other people’s videos to make a quick buck."
The irony is rich as the above pretty much sums up the YouTube business model doesn't it?
Sundance, you got that right. How rich did they get off everyone else's content. (But I wish I would have thought of it first - I'd be on a tropical beach right now). Sasha, I feel for you. But I am old and have no good tech advice to give.
I look forward everyday to your thoughts! Please do not be deterred. 🙏
Terrible. The Left specializes in coodinated efforts to take people out and it's disgusting.
Sasha, We love your stuff and really feel bad this happened. No company anywhere has anything that someone would call customer service -- it is just gone. All you get is phone trees and pandering emails. It really is awful and I feel your pain. But don't give up the ship -- your loyal audience loves you and you really make an important contribution.
Wouldn't you think a company in a given field would understand how revolted we are by the AI and establish a true customer service line which would hire people at a decent wage to do such work? I think they would quickly lap their competitors, and then some.
I have a new doctor whose stickability is questionable for me, but one thing overwhelming in his favor is that when his office places me on hold during a phone call, I don't hear painfully loud, idiotic pseudo music, I hear honest to goodness classical music.
You know I thought exactly the same thing when I wrote that...someone could own the world if they just took a regular business and put customer service back into it. But no one does. I don't get.
Hang in there and thank goodness for Substack.
(Not to be that guy - but you should change your substack login ID / pw, as well as all your other accounts. Use a password manager, like Bitwarden. Let it generate impossible to hack meaningless passwords. It's a hassle, but once you do it for all your accounts, it's not hard to maintain. I've been there with hacked accounts, it's no fun!)
God that is just awful, Sasha...but I'm not surprised. On the left, there is this stinking, dead elephant & it just reeks of hate. And, the stench seems to have rotted the brains of many. Plus, now we've got a new stench from people like Carlson & Owens. WTH🤔 I was a devout leftist/activist in the 60's & much of the time, I felt out of balance mentally & emotionally. I was angry, tense, troubled....the list goes on. But Jesus, I GREW UP, ya know? I mean grownups accept the fact that they can't have everything their way, right? I've been on the Trump wagon since 2016 & I'm sad to say that I've lost close friends & a few relatives along the way...you know Sasha, I still can't believe the amount of infantilism out there. We are in our late 70's & not rich people, so we only subscribe to Amazon Prime, but I read your articles on Real Clear Politics & I try to catch all of your free substacks & I just love how you write. So please keep being the 'fierce-yet-deeply-wise' warrioress that you are....please continue gracing us with your fine brain & your wonderful talent for "telling it like it is"!!💓👵🏻👴🏻💓
💙
Happened to me on X. It’s mostly hopeless. It’s set up like a Catch-22. “If you can verify your account we will restore it.” “If I could verify it, I would have it, and then you wouldn’t need to restore it.”
They genuinely don’t give a shit and they don’t care if you know it. Sorry this happened to you.
Ouch! Sorry to hear of your misfortune.
Please let me say this, as someone who's only recently learned of your work from a link on one of my daily online reads--and come to look forward to your emails:
The essays I've read in the past month are some of the smartest, most insightful commentaries on cultural and political issues I've ever read. And your backstory is compelling to me. Like you, I was on the left until I figured out that ideology completely misunderstood real life as lived by real people.
Hang in there, and get past this speed bump. Your contribution to the new media environment is special.
I can’t say I am surprised. I often wondered why it had not happened before given the number of videos you use, especially the music at the end. Not that I think you deserve it! Clearly, you pissed off one too many insane lefties. Not like you haven’t been at that game for 6 years. Welcome to the official “criminal” class. If it were back in the Al Capone days, misusing YouTube is what they would have got him on, not tax fraud, since the couldn’t make any violent crimes stick. Get elected to Congress then you can be a real criminal with absolute moral or criminal immunity. Luv ya, Shasta!
Sasha,
If I may suggest, one lesson all of us should take from your losing access to priceless irreplaceable personal videos is the need for backups in multiple locations that you completely control such as iCloud, Dropbox, and a personal drive.
We live in California. Given wildfires and earthquakes no one here should just trust local in-home personal storage. Your house in Topanga was too close to last year's Palisades fire for your comfort. So you really should avail yourself of cheap easy to use online cloud options.
Bill
I HATE being at the mercy of social media companies. In an instant, they can shadowban you, suspend you or permanently delete your account. And it’s impossible to reach someone’s who can actually help! No mercy. (Presently, I’m being shadowbanned by IG and FB, and maybe even Substack.)🤔
Really sorry this happened to you.
Sorry to hear this. Larry Schweikart just had his X account hijacked by a crypto spammer for a second time. I tried to report the issue but the X contact interface is limited and rigid and none of the options fit “This account is not mine but it has clearly been hijacked.”
I think YouTube, Reddit, and more are to some degree still stuck in the woke/DEI/USAID/Biden era, thinking they are fighting “misinformation” and “hate speech” by suppressing and silencing anyone opposed to the left. They don’t understand that everything changed with Trump’s reelection. The Biden-era funding and directing of censorship is over, never to return. The DOJ now (correctly) views such actions as civil rights violations. There haven't been indictments yet for past offenses, but there might well be. Some progressive/woke true believers are still be making decisions at YouTube etc., but without the government approval and backing they used to have. Their future power is questionable.
I follow several legendary comic book creators who livestream on YouTube. They’ve had trouble with their chat. Chats get deleted. YouTube thinks they’re spam or bots.
During Covid Amazon deleted all my film reviews and banned me from posting there ever again. Fortunately I survived on IMDB.