What was your favorite era of YouTube?

[YaBoyDuggie]

My personal favorite is 2012-2016. That's when the layout on PC was becoming good and everyone perfected making gaming content. A lot of my best memories came from those! :D
2017 is around when the "edgy era" of YouTube was starting, the ad-pocalypse forced a lot of creators to get edgier so they wouldn't be marked as for kids and around that time we got more predatory clickbait-y content aimed for kids. 2019/2020 was when things fully fell apart for the site imo.

 

[ButterCashier]

About 2009 - 2014.

 

[Uniju]

2007 (watching anime episodes uploaded in 3 parts)

 

[Princess Viola]

Peak YouTube was back before it became so goddamn sanitized and corporate, when YouTubers just made videos and shit for fun and because they goddamn wanted to and not to try and get a paycheck from YouTube and didn't have to avoid talking about controversial topics (or censor themselves) because their sponsors don't want them to talk about those things. (And also back when they didn't have to do bullshit to try and game the algorithm either like clickbait video titles, thumbnails, making videos over specific lengths to maximize the adverts, and all the other BS they need to do)

I hate modern YouTube, another site needs to take over.

 

[Ray Trace]

I am still utterly devastated by YouTube's decision to remove the ability for viewers to add community captions, it was the best way I could watch some foreign video with subtitles.