Last year, I started a YouTube channel purely to express my joy of biking. I can't think of anything more toxic and discouraging than checking in on the stats of it. If there's one thing that can ruin a hobby for you, it's looking at metrics related to it (whether that's how many views/plays you've gotten, or if it's about financial compensation).
What I find most dangerous about having access to analytics related to something you've created is that it can skew the kinds of things you feel you should make in order to be more popular, rather than simply making the things you want to make. I'm only speaking for myself here, but it took me quite a bit of time to arrive at a place where I felt comfortable sharing myself online in this form, and the last thing I want to do is introduce systems of quantification around it which will dissuade me from pursuing a more wholesome goal: to express myself creatively.
I have some loose rules [1] about this:
- Don't look at the stats. I have a "streaks" app on my phone. Every time I look at the stats on my channel, my streak is broken.
- In the case of YouTube, don't ask people to like and subscribe.
- Try not to dunk on stuff.
I should note that these rules and opinions don't really apply when you're trying to do your thing to make money. In that case, sell your jam to whatever degree you're willing.
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Footnotes
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Feel sort of de-growth-y now that I think about it. ↩