#watcher streaming

They acknowledged that they made a mistake, made the wider context more clear, and addressed basically all of the criticisms brought forward by the community as far as I know.

Anyone who already subscribed to the streaming service who no longer wants it gets a refund.

Patrons get a free subscription to the streaming service.

The service now only offers early, ad-free episodes that will still be released on YouTube.

They acknowledged the insensitivity of the original pitch and how the price is not something that everyone can afford.

THIS is how you respond to backlash, especially this widespread. Take time to collect your thoughts, take the criticism into account, and change your actions going forward.

I understand being disappointed, but yall need to grow up and realize that they still need money to operate. They don't have a budget from a company like they did at Buzzfeed and in order to maintain making things like the Files series - THEY NEED FUNDING.

Product advertising can only take them so far and they are stuck in very strict rules with how they have to advertise them. They want to get away from it.

I need yall to stop harassing them, people who still support them, and people who understand the situation, because yall obviously don't.

AND WHILE IM AT IT-

The blatant racism and hate toward Steven Lim makes me so fucking sick. I don't give a fuck who or why you think is "at fault" but the things being said about and to him are nothing short of racist and abusive.

You've got an entire fan base cultivated of largely young people that have to use that 'mostly fair' price, a decent chunk of which share an anticapitalist sentiment and very strong moral values (aka piracy is moraly fine)

Like literally the first bingo i saw opening this app was someone organising the best way to jettison the load.

I understand why they got backlash, but they responded and are changing how they do things, so do people really just feel betrayed enough by the way they announced it that they don't want to watch anymore?

Like their decision kind of makes sense to me, they need more money to keep making their content and YouTube money is not what it used to be yk? It was a bad way to announce it, and a bad decision to pay wall EVERYTHING but they apologized and are doing things differently so I guess I just don't get why they're still getting backlash.

/gen

(Sorry to drop this all in your inbox you just seem well-informed on the situation xo)

Hi anon! Very good question about a complex situation, so I’ll do my best to get down my thoughts in a comprehensive way.

(Remember to take my opinion with a grain of salt! Everyone has their own takeaways and I’m not attempting to change anyone’s opinions, these are just my own thoughts.)

As far as I know the situation hasn’t changed, and the continued backlash has more to do with how people individually feel about to the situation. From what I’ve seen there are three main perspectives:

1) “I think that the apology and changes make up for their actions, and I will continue to support them.”

2) “I think that the apology and changes are a good first step, but it will take a while for them to regain my trust.” (This seems to be the majority.)

3) “I think that the apology and changes do not make up for their actions, and I will no longer support them.”

None of these perspectives are right or wrong, it entirely depends on your own personal values.

That being said, most algorithms tend to amplify more critical/cynical perspectives because that’s what gets the most attention, which can make a small amount of the fanbase seem much larger than it is (not to discount those opinions, to each their own). The more negative-leaning, the more attention things usually get. Not just in fandom discourse either! Think about news headlines, and how much positive vs. negative news you usually see.

So even though the majority of the takeaways (at least that I have seen) have been relatively positive, scarcer statements like “Watcher is now an evil billion-dollar corporate scheme that is preying on its audience!!” are going to generate more controversy (and therefore more attention) than something like “This was a good first step, I hope they continue to improve in the future.” The message with more attention can lead people to see that as the majority opinion, and spread that message further, etc. etc.

This is what can cause it to look like everyone thinks that Watcher acted maliciously and is only interested in money to line their own pockets. I’m not saying that there still isn’t work to do and that the situation is completely fixed (I personally lost a lot of trust in them), but I don’t think it’s as drastic as it might seem to many people at first glance.