Steven Lim - Tumblr Posts

When you see three guys on a couch, you know some shit is going down. But seriously, WHY does it look like they intentionally copied the try guys couch video? 😭

Updating with that new couch content™️

When you see three guys on a couch, you know some shit is going down. But seriously, WHY does it look like they intentionally copied the try guys couch video? 😭

I KNEW IT!

There was no way Watcher and the Try Guys independently thought of this idea. Also, both Ryan and Zach referred to their apps as "streamers" which is a term I'd never heard before. I knew there was some third party company waiting in the wings.

I'm a big Try Guys fan and I'm happy with how they've rolled this out for the most part, but I knew there was some other corporation involved. I would have loved some transparency on that. 💙💚💙💚

Okay so hi I'm not super in any of your fandoms (watcher + try guys + dropout, hello welcome) but I'm a software developer and BOTH try guys and watcher announcing a custom streaming platform so close together had me suspicious.

So with just one, I'd assume that maybe they scraped together the money and resources to hire enough devs to make a well-designed secure platform (you want security for your login info and payment info). But two? Seems a bit odd.

So I actually looked a bit closer, at their privacy policies:

So it looks like Vimeo has decided to up their game and partner with existing yt content creation outlets to make streaming platforms.

Wait, what about Dropout? Dropout uses it too!

What does this mean, exactly?

Well, it means that Vimeo is providing a base software that gets customized for use by the companies (watcher, 2nd try). It means that Vimeo has a hand in your data associated with these platforms (account info, payment info, watch info, etc...). Is that a bad thing? Idk yet. Read through the streaming platform's privacy policy and Vimeo's privacy policy and make your own decision about what you feel comfortable sharing. But realistically the only additional info collected compared to your average youtube use is the financial info, and that seems to go through another third party (4th party?) (like Stripe or something like that. very common, most of your financial transactions online use things like that). It also likely means that Vimeo is taking some kind of cut of the profits made from these subscriptions (and lets be real, in this day and age, they're not just demanding a flat fee. It's likely some percentage of your subscription cost). The companies switching over (watcher and 2nd try) are making the gamble that the money made on subscriptions after cost taken is more than their adsense from yt, which isn't a wild idea considering how much we know yt loves demonetizing videos and paying their creators poorly.

It also means that Vimeo seems to be on some sort of marketing push, and that more of your favorite channels may swap over to streaming services in the near future.

Vimeo???? Yes, vimeo, that bootleg youtube that's been around for like as long as I can remember being on the internet. I guess they finally found a way to usurp yt's market control and good for them ig. Maybe this will be the thing that finally forces yt to fix their creator relationships? time will tell Why are you posting this in my favorite media company's tag?? I wanted fanart! Sorry to intrude, I just think this is neat and would love to hear opinions from other people on this knowledge.

calling it now: the professor is gonna come back as a ghost in ghost files

shout out to the 5 1/2 people defending watcher….couldn’t be me but I gotta appreciate the parasocial dedication

edit: hey so turns out their patreon already generates (roughly) $115,510 minimum a MONTH since they have about 11,551 members. and the minimum tier is about $10 a month (depending on the currency). and that's just patreon alone, not even including youtube's revenue from millions of subscribers and millions of views per video.

all for about 25 employees.

so like. haha. what is going on with them. not even LA living can justify that. it's kinda weird!

man rip watcher for putting everything behind a paywall. like their fanbase is literally teens and young adults with not much disposable income, and they're deciding to recreate streaming service level bs

like eight or nine years of following these guys's careers and supporting them and what do I receive ..... a paywalled streaming service .......

this really feels like a massive backstab to everyone. i just know that this decision will bite them in the ass, and in my not so humble opinion, it's steven's idea. i am just really fuckin dissapointed. been watching them since they left buzzfeed, and it feels so tone deaf. don't wanna wish them bad things, but ffs i hope it fuckin humbles them.

you can take people from buzzfeed, but not buzzfeed from people. this really feels like the end of summer. good memories, but so bittersweet.

I expected Ryan and Shane to be a bit more attached to reality than this. The comments on their video are actually soul crushing. If I were them I’d already have an apology video filmed vertically from my phone with a puddle of my own panicked depression vomit in the background

The most important comment in this whole mess

some of my favorite comments from the new watcher video

i'm sorry but steven going 'uwu its just 6 dollars, everyone can afford it' made me want to whack him with a stale baguette filled with lead, like how tone-deaf can you be, you silly little tesla-driving man

Watcher, once they read all the comments to their announcement:

I just watched the news, I need to know

Rb for a bigger sample!

very disappointed in the watcher boys, getting us all excited about an announcement that’s just “some of you guys get to pay us money to access our content now whereas those who can’t, well…” it’s the end of an era for me and i wish them well but my disappointment is immeasurable

My favorite funny moment that came out of the Watcher streaming announcement was people asking Miles (from the Try Guys) about the Watcher streaming service while he was live on YouTube and as he was about to speak a whiteboard fell directly onto his face and he took it as a sign from the universe not to speak

"Steven isn't solely responsible for the paywall shift" and "Nobody wants to watch Steven eat insanely expensive food and have to pay for it" are statements that can coexist btw.

Do I feel bad about how mean some of the Watcher comments are? Ah, sort of.

But mainly when I see people posting things like 'I no longer have to pretend that anything they did on Watcher was as good as Unsolved' I'm struck by how it just shows that people followed them, and stuck with them, out of love, loyalty and respect. So when the illusion of those feelings being mutual was shattered well, this is basically post-divorce honesty hour. It's the parasocial relationship break up equivalent of 'I never really liked your apple pie.'

steven lim: we actually need more money for higher production value so that you guys have the best! and we're bringing back a super expensive show! for you guys, the fans!

the fans:

the idea of putting too many spirits behind a paywall is actually so funny to me

like no I don't think I will pay $60 to watch two grown men in their 30s sit around drinking while reading tumblr ghost stories