Solved Another "unlinked" thread

[Sidular]

Hey guys. So, I'm just throwing my name into the mix of what appears to be an ever increasing number of unlinked accounts. I sent out a support ticket a few moments ago, but am doubtful about hearing anything back any time soon considering how many tickets I imagine are being created for this issue.

My main concern here is the fact that freedom just unlinked my channel without contacting me first, or trying to work with me to resolve whatever mysterious issue they found to justify the unlink. This lack of communication is how my real family works, but I figured that the freedom family would be different.

 

[LW]

You may want to check your email. normally speaking if we unlink someone we send out an email to the email we have on file similar to this one.

Hey there. Sadly YouTube doesn't give us the same sort of "heads up" when they close a channel or issue strikes so giving you a grace period (though Ideal) would put us, and the rest of the #FreedomFamily at risk. YouTube only allows a certain number of channels to be closed in any MCN before they shut the whole thing down. This means that the only warning WE get is YouTubes very vague TOS, Community guidelines and the like. This also means that that's effectively the only warning we can afford to extend to partners at this time. We would love to get to a point where we could be more leisurely and extend time to fix issues however with the strict guidelines set by YouTube this is a luxury we simply don't have at this time. The good news is that Support can work with you to get your channel cleaned up if you just email [email protected]

Hey,

Sorry this has happened to you. Sadly YouTube won't give Freedom a real heads up when they decide to deem channels as not advertiser friendly and if they keep too many channels like that the MCN would be shut down by YouTube.

You may want to check your email. normally speaking if we unlink someone we send out an email to the email we have on file similar to this one.

Hey there. Sadly YouTube doesn't give us the same sort of "heads up" when they close a channel or issue strikes so giving you a grace period (though Ideal) would put us, and the rest of the #FreedomFamily at risk. YouTube only allows a certain number of channels to be closed in any MCN before they shut the whole thing down. This means that the only warning WE get is YouTubes very vague TOS, Community guidelines and the like. This also means that that's effectively the only warning we can afford to extend to partners at this time. We would love to get to a point where we could be more leisurely and extend time to fix issues however with the strict guidelines set by YouTube this is a luxury we simply don't have at this time. The good news is that Support can work with you to get your channel cleaned up if you just email [email protected]

 

[Sidular]

Yeah, my channel seems to be fine, as far as I can tell. None of my videos were demonetized, and I've received no reports from YouTube regarding any issues for my channel or account.

Freedom appeared to more or less see my account as a risk, while citing issues that simply don't currently exist.

The wording on that is rather odd. It seems to more or less be about a future issue/strike that hasn't even happened yet, and may never happen at all. It would have been nice if Freedom shared their report with me, especially since it was regarding future content or issues. Sharing details with me, or trying to contact me and work with me to resolve these concerns, would have been a far better method than simply unlinking without warning. I always figured that a partner network would prioritize communication, and not penalize those for stuff that hasn't happened yet.

 

[LW]

Yeah, my channel seems to be fine, as far as I can tell. None of my videos were demonetized, and I've received no reports from YouTube regarding any issues for my channel or account.

Freedom appeared to more or less see my account as a risk, while citing issues that simply don't currently exist.

The wording on that is rather odd. It seems to more or less be about a future issue/strike that hasn't even happened yet, and may never happen at all. It would have been nice if Freedom shared their report with me, especially since it was regarding future content or issues. Sharing details with me, or trying to contact me and work with me to resolve these concerns, would have been a far better method than simply unlinking without warning. I always figured that a partner network would prioritize communication, and not penalize those for stuff that hasn't happened yet.

Freedom is protecting themselves instead of punishing your channel or others. YouTube has apparently deemed your channel to not fit their regulations so Freedom had to unlink you to avoid the network being disbanded.

 

[Sidular]

Freedom is protecting themselves instead of punishing your channel or others. YouTube has apparently deemed your channel to not fit their regulations so Freedom had to unlink you to avoid the network being disbanded.

YouTube hasn't deemed my channel as unfit for advertising, as far as I am aware. I fit and meet all of their regulations on advertising, including the newly enacted 10k view thing. Unless something else changed without my knowledge, it shouldn't be a YouTube or account status issue.

Honestly, from everything I can tell on my end, this was a wrongful unlink on freedom's part. I get trying to save their own butts, but if they're going to just unlink random channels without prior notice or communication, I'd rather not be associated with the network at all. At that point it becomes a trust issue. A channel should be able to trust its partner to have its back, and be transparent. Freedom has failed to be open and clear about this, instead citing issues that may or may not even exist. The fact is, I can't say one way or the other, because freedom hasn't provided any information at all. Just a simple "future" concern. Like, the email said freedom performed an in-depth analysis. If they found a major issue that is 100% going to result in a strike against my channel, then sure. That's grounds for an unlink, with notice after the fact. Otherwise, if the issue isn't going to result in a major strike directly from YouTube within the next 7 days, then as far as I am concerned, freedom is in the wrong. They could have easily tried to communicate with me, and share their findings or report with me, the channel owner. So unless the issue was time sensitive, freedom doesn't really have an excuse here for not communicating with me to resolve the issue or concerns.

I expected more of my partner network.

 

[LW]

YouTube hasn't deemed my channel as unfit for advertising, as far as I am aware. I

There it is. YouTube doesn't really tell you probably and just tells the MCN.

Honestly, from everything I can tell on my end, this was a wrongful unlink on freedom's part. I get trying to save their own butts, but if they're going to just unlink random channels without prior notice or communication, I'd rather not be associated with the network at all. At that point it becomes a trust issue.

Well they're not able to communicate earlier as YouTube doesn't tell them earlier...

 

[Sidular]

There it is. YouTube doesn't really tell you probably and just tells the MCN.

Well they're not able to communicate earlier as YouTube doesn't tell them earlier...

No offence intended of course, but that isn't really a good way of going about this. It's not unreasonable for me to expect transparency when dealing with a partner network, especially when it affects my channel and its revenue directly. I also severely question the legitimacy of the reason that they provided. YouTube is, at least in my experience, very open and transparent on its content policies, and are usually the first to notify a channel if it is breaking any of its terms or guidelines. Since 2008, I've never had a single strike against my channel. I even had a somewhat public battle against copyright trolls trying to claim a thunderstorm as their own, with countless "Never Gonna Give You Up" copyright claims on that video. This was before I joined freedom, and back when I was just a standard YouTube partner, during their original partner program, before it was made public. YouTube was very straightforward and transparent, and assisted me in dealing with these issues. I eventually just removed the video as I was getting a new bogus claim every single day, but this was of no fault to YouTube, or their support. We were both aware of the issue, and tried to resolve it in the best and easiest way possible.

Freedom, on the other hand, has had zero prior communication with me. They didn't try to work with me, or to even tell me what the actual problem was. They just unlinked my account, and gave a generic reason as to why. Their reason could be interpreted in so many different ways, it just isn't specific enough, and is of zero help to me. If freedom is genuinely aware of a pending issue with my channel, they should tell me about the issue, so I can do whatever it takes to try and resolve it in a timely manner. Instead, they just cut the cord on me with no warning, and no information as to why.

Perhaps this is just a giant misunderstanding. Maybe there's some kind of major bug with their system causing all of these innocent accounts to be unlinked without notice. If that's the case, tell me. Bugs happen, and I'd be more than willing to resign my channel with freedom.
Otherwise, I'm seeing this as a great opportunity to take my channel elsewhere. It's not as if other networks don't exist. They do. And most of which offer the same services as freedom.

So really, I'm just waiting on a proper response to my support ticket. Depending on what is said, I may rejoin Freedom. Or if there is a legitimate issue, I'll do what I can to resolve it. But either way, I need to know the cause for this.
If anyone from support is reading this, my ticket number is 255653. Please respond as soon as possible, and help clear things up.