Wednesday 30 September 2009

YouTube pulled my account

All my nature videos have disappeared. I log in this morning to find my YouTube account has been permanently disabled. The only videos I had uploaded were the home made nature clips used on this blog. No music was used so there were no copyright issues. No sex, no violence apart from a few birds arguing. All filmed by me using my own equipment in my own back garden.


To say the least I am gutted and absolutely disgusted. No communication from YouTube just months of work vaporised.  Thanks a bunch YouTube for wrecking my blog for no good reason.


Just how does it look when each video now comes up with the caption 'removed for terms of use violation'? As far as I can see this casts a shadow on my reputation. What can one do though with large anonymous organisations which seems to have no route for questioning or appealing against their actions?


For the moment this has killed my enthusiasm in maintaining this blog. All that hard work down the drain. A blog which now looks a complete mess to any visitors. Quite honestly I could sit down and weep.


I have managed to get some of the latest on to Flickr but looking back there are another 85 to do to get my blog back as it was before YouTube behaved in such a high handed manner.  That will take quite a while!  Many will have to be reworked as Flickr has a 90 second limit on the length of video clips.





John.

24 comments:

  1. Hi John

    We are utterly shocked to see what has happened. What a disaster. We cannot imagine how you can have violated any terms by showing your wonderful home-made videos.

    Please, please, please keep up the blog - when you've recovered from the shock.

    To those of us who know you, it casts a shadow on YouTube, not on you. We are weeping with you.

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  2. Totally unbelievable. On the odd occasions I have looked at You Tube half the content wants deleting, if only for it's boredom.
    There must be a way to sort it assuming they have not been hacked. Best of luck and try and smile.

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  3. Thanks Twosie. I think I am still in shock. I can't really comprehend what has happened or why. I have only ever used the YouTube account for my nature videos.

    I am scouring the net at the moment to find another suitable host. Then it will be a long job uploading dozens of videos and replacing all the links in the blog to go to the new site.

    To say the least I am not best amused by the situation.

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  4. John, is Flickr any good, never used it for video but it does support it.

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  5. Hi Adrian. I know what you mean about a lot of the content on YouTube. Having looked through their help files and Q&A sections there seems to be no way out once they have pulled an account.

    Flickr has a restriction on the length (timewise) of video clips so I could get some of them on there. The last time I used it the quality was not as good as YouTube - but any port in a storm... I will also experiment with Photobucket to see what that is like.

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  6. I am so upset for you John, I don't really have the words....I think I am in shock on your behalf. Have you emailed them, there has to be some mistake, like you say maybe it could be a hacker and nothing to do with You Tube themselves...this is awful!

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  7. Oh no John. That's just appalling!! I'm so sorry this has happened to you. Perhaps we could all send e mails to YouTube protesting?? Don't know if it would help.

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  8. I have just googled the words 'You Tube account disabled for no reason' and find this seems to happen a lot, I haven't looked through it all yet but you might want to do the same.

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  9. Hi Jan. From what I have read emailing them can take months and then it is rare for them to do anything. It think it will be 'easier' to upload them elsewhere. I couldn't really rely on YouTube again anyway.

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  10. Thanks Pam. Not sure it would be worth the effort as YouTube seems to be pretty intransigent from what I have read. Many thanks for your support and offer.

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  11. That's terrible John. I can only begin to imagine how annoyed you must be feeling.
    Don't give up on the blog; there must be other sites out there to host video, however frustrating it is.

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  12. John,

    terrible news. Did you start to replace some of the links already? I just checked on your "Goldfinch Mayhem" post and the videos were there, although it looked you might have used Flickr for them. I did like how easy it was to make it full screen.

    Hang in there. You can't quit, you have too many people addicted to your blog and videos!

    best,
    Wilma

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  13. Thanks for your support Keith. It is turning out to be one of those day. A replacement camera for my Blue Tit box has just arrived - useless!! I think I'll go back to bed and start the day again.

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  14. You're very welcome John.
    Photobucket has just come to mind. I have only a few photos and graphics on there myself, and I think they host videos but I have no idea how good or reliable they are. Might be worth a look though. I do know though that a lot of people use them. Much luck.
    Would hate to see you leave blogland. :)

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  15. Yes Wilma. I have already started to put a few recent ones on Flickr. The only problem there is they have to be less than 90 seconds long so many will have to be shortened. I also tried Photobucket but that is so slow for uploading.
    Many thanks for your support.

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  16. Hi again Pam. I have just tried Photobucket. It is very slow for uploading. I should be able to get quite a few on Flickr over the next few days.

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  17. Just found this on google. No idea if it will be of any help to you.

    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_to_use_instead_of_youtube_for_videos

    Promise I won't comment again!!! hehe. At least not tonight anyway! ;o)

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  18. Great Pam. Many thanks for being so helpful. I will check out the two they mention.

    Comment as often as you like :)

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  19. Hi John, It is difficult to understand why YouTube has stopped your account. I have a YouTube account and after seeing what has happened to you, I am relunctant to use it. I would not worry about re-uploading video clips as far back as January, most of us who follow your blog look at your blog almost daily (I tend to view the blogs I follow everyday or when the blogs are updated) and any new people viewing your blog may not look far back as January. One option you could try and that is to create your own website which I believe you can do through Google.

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  20. Hi Lynmiranda. Things seem to be resolving themselves though not 100 percent as yet. That has left me even more confused as to what has been going on.

    I will not be trusting all my future video uploads to YouTube. Those which are short enough I will put on Flickr.

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  21. Hi John,

    We have exactly the same problem, account disabled due to breaching the ToS, but sure we did not violate copyright.

    You say that things seem to resolve themselves? That's great news, but can you be a bit more specific?

    Did YouTube staff get back to you? Did it magically fix itself? Are all your videos, comments and friends still there?

    Kind regards,
    Ann ( at heritage - key dot com )

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  22. Hi Ann,

    When I first logged on I just got the pink banner at the top telling me the account was permanently disabled. No explanation.

    I am not sure what exactly happened next.
    I had left a question on the YouTube site under 'How Do I' pointing out what had happened.
    Later in the day I had an email which seems to come from YouTube saying that an attempt had been made to change my password.
    I ignored the email but tried to access my account normally and it worked. All the videos are there but without the thumbnails. All the ratings are also restored along with the number of times each has been viewed.
    To be honest I am thoroughly confused. Attempted hack or YouTube glitch or something else?

    One user did reply to my question. He informed me that even a radio in the background on the sound is enough to upset YouTube as he found out. Considering how many ripped off pop videos are on there it makes no sense to me.

    I did have one video with the TV news quietly in the background which I have now replaced with a silent version - just in case.

    Comments seem to be there. Not sure about friends.

    Hope you manage to resolve your problem, John

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  23. Really sorry to hear about your misfortune John - please don't give up the blog though, I really enjoy it...

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  24. Thanks Phil. I think I'm too hooked on blogging to give up :)

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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