Anyone else hate zxspectrumgames4 ?

[equinox]

I know, nobody likes a complainer, but this guy really keeps popping up where he isn't wanted.
Who is "zxspectrumgames4"? Whenever you look up a Speccy game, there will be a YouTube video by this person, usually about 60 seconds long, where the game is played incorrectly and uselessly -- sometimes he doesn't even get off the title screen -- with no skill, love, or interest.

So what's the story? Is it somebody who realised that they could "monetise" the "long tail" of old game titles...
I really don't appreciate spam, or pollution of search results.

[Waldroid]

zxspectrumgames4
@zxspectrumgames44.99K subscribers43K videos

43,000 videos!!!1

[Pobulous]

They have almost 5000 subs, but vids only getting a couple of views - presumably bought subs to enable monetisation.

Also, same game has thousands of videos - eg Chaos.

Presumably there's a gameplan to make money somehow

It's annoying that you can't block channels from appearing in your results or feed.

[Pobulous]

Many of the videos on here can be also seen on: www.rzxarchive.co.uk

Wonder if it's using automation to generate and upload videos from RZX files.

[patters]

Looks suspiciously like it might be some sort of AI training experiment.

[PeteProdge]

Unfortunately, the YouTube algorithms are engineered to reward frequent uploaders. And that's been ramped up since the introduction of those dreaded portrait-formatted 'Shorts' thing which is Google's desperate answer to TikTok (just like Meta's Reels for Instagram/Facebook - another TikTok clone!).

I have a slow upload rate, like a game review every year, but it's a multiformat review with a carefully researched story for it and some comedy bits here and there. As such, I've gained just over 200 subscribers in the five years Reheated Pixels has been on YouTube. I could make my life so much easier by just doing single format reviews with a simple voice-over, I definitely have the kit to do that (all live, if I wanted to), but I'm happier being very creative.

I guess zxspectrumgames4 appeals to the nostalgia drones who pollute a lot of Facebook groups, particularly the one for That Other Place, where you'll have 6-10 posts a day and most of them are "hey remember Bomb Jack?" and "hey remember Chuckie Egg", also riddled with folk who have totally forgotten what Google is. "how do i play spectrum games on my computer can ne1 help me????" Tsk, retrogaming becomes tedious when you come across these Member Berries.

[PeteProdge]

It's annoying that you can't block channels from appearing in your results or feed.

You can if you add this term into your search:

Code: Select all

-spectrumgames4

...which eliminates those cheap cruddy videos. Try

Code: Select all

ZX Spectrum Chaos -zxspectrumgames4

as an example.

[hitm4n]

"hey remember Chuckie Egg"

"Yeahhhh, i member Chuckie Egg!!"

"Do you member Chewbacca?"

[SteveSmith]

If the video titles are to be believed (and no reason why not) they're now up to 1,773 videos on just Chaos, and about 20+ uploads in the last 24 hours. Some videos are 4+ hours long. Surely even Youtube must be worrying about the disk space that he's using, and only getting <10 views for the majority.

Edit: I just clicked on a random Chaos video. 3h 50m long, and all but 10 minutes is just a static screen showing the winners.

[Pobulous]

There's some exciting ten hour long Archon videos, too.

[Pobulous]

It does look like the older videos were more genuine, although I still don't get the appeal of a gameplay video without commentary.
Even with walkthrough videos, it's useful to have some tips and explanations of the gameplay.

Ryan Baumann uploads their Woz a Day videos with and without commentary for the widest appeal, and it's notable that the No Commentary videos get substantially less views.

[Wall_Axe]

Is He an avid gamer or nicking footage from rzx channel?

Judging by that bloke who was obsessed with the sam coupe...either is possible.

[SteveSmith]

Is He an avid gamer or nicking footage from rzx channel?

I think the 3h 40 mins video of just the end screen of Chaos or the 2h+ of the Archon cursor just moving from left to right negates both of those options. I think they set up an AI game that needs no human interaction, and then come back after a few hours.

[WhatHoSnorkers]

They inspired me to start my channel. I saw that they did a video on Usborne's Island of Secrets. I thought "I think I could do better".

It's nice to realise that there really IS no barrier to entry on YouTube. No gatekeeping people going "You're not good enough to be on our website". But if you're after hints for a game, and the only channel is zxspectrumgames4... then you're out of luck!

[patters]

Hey, remember Chuckie Egg?

[1024MAK]

Hey, remember Cassette 50?

[firelord]

I'm thinking of asking his do seperate videos for all games in
thttps://csscgc23.blogspot.com/2023/02/m ... d.html?m=1

[SteveSmith]

Actually, despite everything, they seem to be the only person who has a gameplay video of The Mad Crusher (#10 in Stuart Campbell's 16K Top 100). And Sentinel.

[Lee Bee]

I agree that this channel is annoying and spammy, though it is sometimes the only channel with videos of certain games or demos, so it can be useful!

To make the channel less likely to appear in search results:

1. Search YouTube for zxspectrumgames4
2. Click on any video
3. Search the page for zxspectrumgames4 and keep scrolling down until one appears in the recommendations
4. Click the three dots next to it
5. Click "Don't recommend channel"

Now if only there were some way to block YouTube "shorts". Those things are SO unwelcome and ruin YouTube.

I have a slow upload rate, like a game review every year, but it's a multiformat review with a carefully researched story for it and some comedy bits here and there. As such, I've gained just over 200 subscribers in the five years Reheated Pixels has been on YouTube. I could make my life so much easier by just doing single format reviews with a simple voice-over, I definitely have the kit to do that (all live, if I wanted to), but I'm happier being very creative.

Good for you, Pete! It's quite criminal how so many talented YouTubers producing quality content often get overlooked in favour of the spammy, popularist creators constantly churning out garbage. Though one could argue it's a completely organic process: if you make more videos on a wide pool of topics then naturally you're going to get more traffic, which converts to subscriptions.

[ZXDunny]

if you make more videos on a wide pool of topics then naturally you're going to get more traffic, which converts to subscriptions.

Hmm, maybe I should do that to boost my numbers. 260 subs, 92 videos on my channel

[equinox]

... sometimes the only channel with videos of certain games or demos, so it can be useful!

Lee, I understand what you're trying to say here, but I don't agree. It's better to have NO material on a certain game, than to have a half-arsed meaningless bot version of it. And hey, when you see this bullsh*t, you should fill the gap by doing it yourself -- however, you don't have unlimited time.

Do not forgive or accept spambots. Ever.

[equinox]

You can if you add this term into your search:

Code: Select all

-spectrumgames4

...which eliminates those cheap cruddy videos. Try

Code: Select all

ZX Spectrum Chaos -zxspectrumgames4

as an example.

Yes, I know there are people who have ''-reddit'' in their address bar search, perhaps to avoid those nasty liberals.
I don't personally care what people want to see (THAT'S RETRO!! -- if someone wants to see conservative or Nazi stuff, I believe they should be able to do so. But I don't care about it myself.)
The problem is that, if you (as Pete above suggests) deal with this shizz by word-blocking, 1. you are probably gonna block some legitimate stuff (even in the previous week, I have been "edited" for using naughty words, purely because I like to swear a lot), and 2. -- work it out for yourself.
people who used to be able to have strong, important, interesting discussions on SC maybe can't any more because LA LA SPAM BLOCKER. some will come back (they will find the way around it, or provide whatever is required, like home street address) but some will go away.
don't let the spammers win.

end of the day i raised this thread ("who hates a spammer") and am glad that lots of people hate the spammer.

[PeterJ]

@equinox,

Your posts have not been edited! I'm not sure where this street address stuff comes from either.

We do make sure the site stays safe for work (this has always been the case). There is a word filter in the forum software which I and other admins may add words to (as I have done with a few of your recent posts). If admin edit posts then we add a comment at the bottom of the post.

If posts are deleted, then they are 'soft' deleted and the user contacted.

[equinox]

@equinox,
Your posts have not been edited! I'm not sure where this street address stuff comes from either.
We do make sure the site stays safe for work (this has always been the case). There is a word filter in the forum software which I and other admins may add words to (as I have done with a few of your recent posts). If admin edit posts then we add a comment at the bottom of the post.

Peter, I understand what you're saying. And I appreciate your message.
And I specifically understand the terror of being in some way "demoted", harmed or "cancelled" due to a space over which you have no particular control. I do personally think that's very stupid, but who else is going to run it? It's like going to someone's house -- you take off your shoes and you try to have good manners. (But I do still believe that someone with "less to lose", and more anti-censorship ideology, should perhaps be the one to run it. -- Haha, if they have enough money to drop on hosting it.)

On the other hand I think it's pretty stupid that I can't say "????face" without the asterisks coming in. That's my responsibility, not yours.

I guess that's all I wanted to say. I don't want to harm anybody but I also want a space where I can use the F-word, why not??

I'll try to swear less but I won't feel good about it, it's just like "we have to do this because the site owner is beholden to the Local Education Authority". Thank you for your honest message.

[PeterJ]

@equinox

I definitely don't want you to go anywhere else (and I stress this), but if it's very important to you, then WoS does not use filtering as far as I know.

Peter