It seems that this new feature was not entirely a boon, however. When you click the subscribe button on someone's channel who has this feature implemented, a secondary screen with usernames, check boxes, and an additional subscribe button pops up. I know some people who are new to YouTube and don't care to read everything may get flustered and click that second button, accidentally subscribing to some people they didn't intend to.
Accidentally subscribing to a couple extra channels probably won't be a big deal, it might result in some unsubscribing, but it may result in someone getting a chance to actually check out some youtubers he or she may really enjoy. Accidentally subscribing to 12 or more extra channels will probably result in some sort of anger, frustration, or maybe just someone who doesn't watch the videos in their subscription box.
Going on this, there are whole categories of people who don't watch the videos of the people they subscribe to. Some of these are "sub4sub"bers, and I discuss them a bit in my video Small Is Beautiful (YouTube has blocked the use of sub4sub in the comments and a few people PMed me comments for this video, I need to post them here, I'll get on that soon). These people usually remove themselves if you don't choose to subscribe back (and sometimes they don't even make videos, so really....what's the point?). The group that bothers me more is the iSubbers. These are people who subscribe to everyone in the hopes that some of these people will check out their channel and subscribe back. This has actually been a successful plan for some people. I could probably name you some YouTubers in the 6 digit range who did this.
Don't get me wrong here, this isn't a good plan. It's only good if you're spineless and have no integrity.
Oh, my point. So these iSubbers used to just go through and subscribe to everyone, I'm not quite sure how. Comments? Subscribers of other YouTubers with their subscribers shown? Some alphabetical list somewhere?
But now we've made subscribing to the masses really easy for them. It takes far less clicking, and now a far greater number of YouTubers with subscribers in the three digit range have an actual audience far smaller than their subscriber count. What's the point of subscribing if you don't ever want to watch?
I like when people have a smaller amount of people in their box, because, besides all of the negatives that I've mentioned thus far, I think it places more emphasis on the people named. I'm going to be decreasing the amount of people in my box, probably by the time you see this. Honestly, if I included all the guys on youtube that I love, it'd be at least 4 people longer. I mean, I didn't even include my YouTube crush(es) !:) (or did I? Ha. Whatever)
Also, there seems to be some drama inherent in the whole box thing, as ckXcore refers to it, MySpace Top-8-esque. If I'm NOT including some people that I love the most, I feel that no one can get upset. Right?
So, I'm not saying that however you do whatever you do is wrong, I'm just saying that I'm making some changes and I probably won't mention it in a video because I tend not to talk about my channel on my channel. It's how I do, not right or wrong, it is what it is.
Some people might stay in for longer, and there is reason for that.
You want a screen cap of my box before I changed it? Here ya go.
