Rimmy

I think you're misinterpreting what I mean by recommended. I'm talking about suggested videos at the end of a video or how highly it places in related searches. Not being monetised is going to push it further and further down the lists, and again, the revenue isn't the issue here

I'm well aware what you mean. And I'm saying that your video is never going to appear at the end of a video or in a general search with ten views. It doesn't matter how many mid-roll ads you stick in it.

I really don't think you are because you've missed the point. That's not what I'm disputing. I'm saying if both videos, uploaded roughly at the same time, same tags, same sized channels, one monetised and one not, YouTube's algorithm will ALWAYS prioritise the monetised video.

Cool. Here's the thing: If you are getting enough views to be advertised by YouTube, you WILL be eligible for monetization. You are never going to have a situation where non-mon and mon videos are genuially competing. Because if they are then the non-mon will become monetized.

Ok now we're on the same page! You're absolutely right, except that will 100% now be the case. Say I'm lucky enough to end up with 1k subs before the change so I remain eligible, say a friend just misses the brief window but then catches up a week or two later --

At this point, I'm monetised, they're pending a review of their channel from YouTube. We could upload literally the same content and it would always be favoured to the monetised creator over the sake of a few days. They could be much more talented but would be overlooked --

That's what I'm trying to get at here dude. I know YouTube has always been primarily luck based, but it's once again tipping the scales more and more in the favour of people with an already established fan base, except now they've kindly given us a date before it gets worse.

Again, this is all a good fear if these videos had any chance of exposure in the first place. If you are literally just on the cusp of getting monetized/just been monetized, you are not getting any exposure in the first place. Neither of you - the monetized or the non-mon.