site banner
PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   2165 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 29, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I've heard that videos under ~5 minutes become shorts which don't get monetized, so the incentive is to make longer videos. I guess videos under 10 minutes are also getting downgraded now because they get less engagement / fewer ads?

I have also noticed that most of the recommendations on lightly-used logged-out browsers are now are now shorts of the simp-bait variety or long-form videos of the "show something rage-inducing and offer light, brainrot commentary from the corner of the screen" variety - Asmongold is the epitome of this, and I always regret clicking. To add to this, I suspect most of the history and food video recommendations I get are wholly AI-generated, and most of the topics that would be interesting are obvious clickbait. It's gotten to where I can pretty much only watch people whose channels I intentionally search.

I've heard that videos under ~5 minutes become shorts which don't get monetized

There was some panic over this in the early days of Shorts when YouTube was retroactively, non-consensually converting existing videos into Shorts, but these days, YouTube is pretty clear that only vertical/square videos less than 3 minutes in length become Shorts. So as long as your video is shaped like a normal video, it can be as short as you want without getting the Shorts treatment.

You can technically monetize Shorts now too, but I've heard it's not as lucrative as traditional videos.

I’ve always hated YouTube shorts. It always caters to low information, low quality content that fuels the dopamine rush people want. Having something long form even as background noise I’ve always liked. Especially while sleeping. Sleeping is an enormously difficult task for me and I need something to carry me away and push things into the background.

Sleeping is an enormously difficult task for me and I need something to carry me away and push things into the background.

I'm much the same in this regard, and it's always been viscerally difficult for me to understand people who need pure silence to sleep. Everything just seems too heightened when it's quiet; I become hyperaware of things like the house settling or find myself paying attention to every little sound on the streets outside and it just becomes impossible to relax.

Without 20mg-50mg melatonin every night I only sleep 3-4 hours. I don’t know if I’m a semi-permanent insomniac or what. But it’s the only thing that can do a halfway decent job of keeping me down and even then it doesn’t always take on the lower end of that dosage. Otherwise I’ll be awake for days. Parents used to yell at me all the time for not “going to bed,” but I don’t know how to fix it. I’d usually try and be productive by making breakfast for everyone in the very early hours of the morning before my family got up. Never stopped me getting yelled at but at least made them happy I suppose. Being tired was always a mental thing for me, never physical. I tend to recover extremely fast, physically.

I've recommended this book on this forum several times by now, perhaps even to you at some point, but you should take the time to read This is Natto: Are you ready for the journey within?. Unless you're some very rare specimen, hyperarousal in your mind likely contributes to or makes up nearly your entire problem with sleep.

I will definitely take a look at that. Thank you. My mind does tend to occupy itself a lot. When at home and not among company I’m a pretty emotionally lowkey and laid back guy. I don’t have ADHD or anything like that. But to me sleep was always a matter of my eyelids being so heavy I can’t keep them open. Even caffeine does nothing for me. I can’t drink coffee because it tastes like shit IMO but I do drink a good amount of soda. Doesn’t do anything. Even without it I could be awake for days without sleeping supplements.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats