Some of you may notice that occasionally some of my vids on YT get set to 18+ only. They call it an “age restriction”.. This is becoming a increasingly big problem on YT. It happens when their system and/or rather strict manual human reviewers find “nudity” in a video. The reality is there’s a new policy and algorithm in play. Video’s are auto-checked and even if they pass that automated check they are routinely randomly manually reviewed. It’s a bit like putting videos up on a Nazi run website if I’m honest.
Granted I’m a smart cookie, I can figure out a work-around, such as drawing in a bikini or a little black dress on any nude figures on the cards. It has to be done because otherwise the readings will keep being dinged as age restricted each time one of the nude cards shows up and remains on the screen for more than 2 seconds. And YES as funny as it sounds the number 1 reason any video of mine gets made 18+ and restricted is because of the Star card in both the Rider Waite and the Witches, as well as the Devil card in the Rider deck and my little side titty girl in the 5 of cups in the witches deck.. Not my swearing, or use of the word “bang” in reference to sex. NOPE those nude figures on the cards trigger their system. In their defense their rules do technically say even pictures of naked people are grounds for an age restriction. But there’s a problem with the black or white rulings around this. What I mean is it’s not like they’re real pictures on the cards. Also a nude cartoon on a tarot card is NOT the same as pornography. Any child can purchase tarot cards at a store at any age and spank off all they want to the Star card if it turns them on. A tarot card is nothing like a nude magazine which can only be purchased by adults. So there’s a gray area there, and that’s the real issue here which I’ll cover in a moment.
But first let me say this. I find it most odd and almost amusing that rules on platforms all over the web are becoming more and more “moral” and prudish, just as our society is becoming more and more amoral and perverse. I mean let’s get real. This policy and YT’s community guidelines are all about protecting advertisers, not kids or viewers. It’s all about money.. When I loaded one of my videos to check it recently the ad that popped up was for erectile dysfunction and featured a giant blue dick getting hard. And this video of mine wasn’t age restricted at all by the way. All of these companies and advertisers are hypocrites to be kind and say the very least. YT ads are nasty on any video I watch. They claim it’s about protecting children, but those same kids can see those ads all day long.
So if it’s really all about protecting kids why are these ads not being banned or being age restricted.. So it’s all bullshit. It’s about MONEY!! And putting on a good phony moral show for the advertisers, who themselves are corporations in some cases run by morally corrupt people.. LOL. It’s all laughable on many levels. But very sad at the same time.
But come on seriously, these are tarot readings I and others do for god’s sake??? It’s all becoming a bit silly when my wife has to make a fun project out of drawing a sharpie little black dress on a naked chick on a TAROT CARD so it can be shown to the public on YT. A site/platform that seems to allow heretics to reign supreme all over the place. A platform that in fact is supposed to be and was originally created to be a place where creatives can be themselves.
All of this silliness in part is what happens when we let computers and systems make decisions. The human element is removed, and it’s humans who see the gray areas of things. Computers reduce all decisions to black or white. It’s very binary without any real leeway. If we ran our justice system this way prisons would be more than half populated with totally innocent people. So why do we run our online platforms this way? Some of the YT channel peeps count on their channel for their livelihood. Putting that in the hands of an algorithm is a recipe for disaster. At the very least it’s very unfair. Especially when a human review of the computer’s decision is upheld. That then begs the question what the hell kind of people are working over there exactly?? That’s a question I ask myself quite often when dealing with YT. The human element over there seems just as rigid as the algorithm.
So what’s to become of SLT? I mean speaking as Steve I have to be me to do the readings. And I’m a horny foul mouthed straight-shooter.. I tell it like it is, but I also have to do it that way because that’s how I read energy. And if I can’t be me the readings will suck… Or at the very least won’t be as accurate or deep because they won’t be honest, and honesty is rewarded by the universe not pretense. But equally they won’t be any fun for me to do either. And for me, that’s very important.
So sure I’ll try… I’ll shade in the nudity in case those cards come out.. But I won’t stop being me.. I mean from the moment I arrived on YT my ads have been what they call “Limited”.. This is because I swear a lot, so they ding me for it and always have. I was always okay with that. What I’m not okay with is nudity on a freakin’ card causing my video to be age restricted. That’s just total BS… And also I might add something that’s only recently begun to happen on a regular basis. I went 1 year and 10 months without it EVER happening in fact. So why now? Well like I said, there’s a new algorithm and policy in town. And it’s an asshole.
The February 2023 Sagittarius reading is a great example of this BS.. It features a Lovers Card from the Rider Waite, and me opening the video by calling Sagittarius, “Sexitarrius”.. (mild by my usual standards I’m sure you’ll agree) The combination of the mentioning of the word “sex” and the nudity on the Lovers card caused a manual review of the video and I kid you not, some real human asshole decided to make it an age restricted video. I then appealed it, and upon appeal they decided to KEEP the age restriction in place. Stating and I quote, “your videos will continue to be age restricted as we don’t feel they’re suitable for under 18 audiences.“.
I would like to point out… It’s a fucking tarot channel!!! Not porn… And furthermore there are people doing far worse things on their platform. Many of which are getting dinged by the way but there has to be a line between actual pornography and a tarot reading with a picture on a card of a naked person.
Like I said, the swearing has always gotten my ads limited. Fine.. I’m totally cool with that. I couldn’t care less… But age restricting a video cuts the views down by 2/3’s, and that means that people that need the video can’t find it, or can’t get into it, as you have to prove you’re over 18 to watch it.. And you have to be logged in to watch it..
In the end YT’s community guidelines are over-done, and far too restrictive. It’s just another example of free-speech being slowly stripped away in favor of the all mighty dollar, pound, euro, or yen etc. Yes we need rules. Of course… But rules without a sense of humor, or without a gray area are dangerous, and limit freedom of expression. Tarot is an art form, and art of any kind that’s restricted in any way is stale, and void of all life and depth.
I’m reminded of that old Queen song with the line, “Everybody plays the game.” I’ll play the game for a little while. But I have more power than that. When it all gets too out of hand I’ll figure something out, perhaps utilizing this very blog’s servers to host the readings.. That’s always an option. And it would give me ultimate control over my content. But it’s a shame because it would limit who will find SLT in the future. Someone that may need a reading I gave might miss it. SLT would be a boutique almost hidden secret tarot source. While I’ll admit part of me loves that idea, it will greatly reduce SLT’s impact for sure..
In the meantime like I said, I’ll play the game. If for no other reason than I totally want to see how far they’ll go with their guideline nonsense. Sure… I’ll put bikinis on my naked people on the naked cards.. That should at least put a stop to the 18+… For now… emphasis on that phrase… “for now”.. The truth is it’s all getting worse as time goes on, not better. It’s gotten 10 times worse just in the short 2 years I’ve been on YT. Evidence of that is clear in something that used to be fun, and easy to do, like putting up a new reading for all you for example. Its become a finger-crossing jump through hoops exercise, followed by tense hope that it makes it through a ridiculous REVIEW process. A process that makes a usually stressful California emissions test for your car (the strictest in the country) seem like a lazy-day walk in the park… LOL..
At the end of the day I refuse to change who I am for anyone. Especially not a corporation with automated bots trying to dictate who I am and how I do things.
The old days of my early arrival in 2021 and the classic SLT “Bangs” for example are long gone. Those bangs would be banned from YT in today’s algorithm environment. And my channel totally shut down I’m sure. And that’s a shame… Because while the free-speech portion of it all is important, what’s most important is what the ever growing limitations put upon it are leading to. They’re leading to a boring YT, and online environment in general that lacks all innovation and creative outlet. Which ultimately destroys the experience the end-user, i.e. all of you have… And it kinda ruins it all for creators like me as well.
What I’m saying is it’s not just free-speech itself that’s becoming a dinosaur. As free-speech is slowly being sucked away from us, so slow we hardly notice, along with it goes a lot of magic and fun. But I’ll tell you what.. I’m damn proud to be a dinosaur. And I’ll keep roaring until the bitter end… lol
–Cheers
