Being a Content Creator Can Get Scary Sometimes

It’s not about the nerves. It’s about the other people.

Over my five decades, I’ve been lucky enough to have the chance to get myself “out there.”

My main YouTube channel has had over 1.8 million hours worth of watch time since I began it in 2009. I’ve grown it to have a nice following, with a ton of comments from folks coming in to watch.

I’ve also done Twitch streaming, and have earned enough through it to surpass the monthly payout threshold. Lots of kind people also have taken it upon themselves to donate or purchase the paintings I’ve had for sale.

I’ve been mercifully granted the chance to have more than a dozen books published, too. Some I did myself, through self-publishing methods, but the majority have been through traditional publishing houses.

Finally, I’ve been a talk radio host with a listenership of over 9 million people at any given time.

I’m not saying these things as a brag. They all took effort and a lot of time to make happen. There also was not an inconsiderable amount of money required to invest along with the “sweat equity.”

I’m revealing these things to show I have had a lot of chances to be exposed to the morass of humanity, and not all of it has been pretty.

If you’re not cautious, dealing with those you encounter takes a toll.

The nightmare of dealing with people can take a toll if you’re not cautious. You have to shield yourself and your heart from some very disturbing stuff.

I call the YouTube comment section the cesspit of Satan’s sperm for a reason. The ability for people to post anonymously can lead to some pretty hefty abuse.

Just to name a few of the “wonderful” comments they have exposed me to:

“You should kill yourself.”

Those come in on a weekly basis. Gotta love it.

“I’m going to hunt you down.”

These are always “fun” for adding a bit of paranoia to one’s life. They’re almost exclusively not serious and people speaking out of their collective behinds, but the threat is still possible.

I’ll go into that more soon.

There are the kind folks who make it a point to berate every single thing about you. Your hair will be a target. Your skin color, too. Wear glasses? Be ready to hear about that one.

You’re ugly. You’re hideous. You deserve to die. You’re underweight. You’re overweight.

Any and every little thing about you will be up for grabs in the amazing Mulligan Stew we call the Comment Section.

They’re vicious about it, and if you don’t have any kind of thick skin to resist the bullying that happens, you should think twice about starting with it.

I’ve had good experiences, too, of course.

I’m really not trying to be a discouraging person with this. I think the opportunities spaces like YouTube offer are amazing, and if you stick with it, you can go really far.

But things are not all rainbows and unicorns there. Being a creator on that platform really takes a mindset not everyone can follow.

I’ve had better experiences with Twitch. I am not sure of the explanation for it, other than, perhaps, the type of streams I do.

I only stream art there. I paint digitally (yes, despite my blindness), and the art community on Twitch is an amazing and embracing sort of lot. They’re very protective of their own.

I do know the gaming quarter of Twitch can get rather toxic, so your mileage may vary if you decide to start there.

Then the doxing happened.

The worst experience for me was getting doxed.

I’m not entirely sure where it started, but at the end of my radio days, personal information about me and my family showed up on websites.

It did not take long before they spread it to hundreds of them, and the threats came in.

People started showing up at our door and in our neighborhood. Death threats and letters came in, to the point that pictures of the kids arrived with “spunk” all over them. The letters attached said they were coming for them for real next.

We had to get the FBI involved in the situation and, though I never heard if they caught anyone regarding the case, I knew I had to walk away from it all to protect my family.

It was horrifying.

I got sick from the stress of it all, to the point of having “stress-induced diabetes” and my blindness worsened. My mental health took a turn for the worse as well.

Not to be doom and gloom…

We are safe now. We’ve taken steps necessary to make sure we’re protected against such things happening again.

It’s still, unfortunately, a risk, and that makes coming back out into the public light a scary proposition.

I do my best to not be a doom-and-gloomer. I’m not sitting here paranoid that something bad will happen again, and I hope saying these things doesn’t for you, either.

What I want to encourage, though, is being safe online, especially as a content creator. Decide for yourself if the risks are worth the rewards.

Figure out now, before something happens, how you’ll deal with it if it does.

Here’s an important step to protect yourself and your family.

Most of all, if you’re going to be a public figure, ensure you take all necessary steps to protect your heart. Everyone knows what it’s like to be bullied in some kind of way.

The world of content creation opens the doors for some of the worst types of them to come out of the woodwork.

One primary method you can use to protect your information as a content creator is to get a PO Box, if you live in the USA.

Anything you do online, do it through that PO Box. It’s a good step to at least deter the “armchair hackers” who might try to find your information.

I hope all of this helps shed some light on the difficulties of being a creator online.

It’s scary, but there are things you can do to minimize the trials.

Other things from me:

About me:

I am an author with over a dozen books and dozens of short stories published. I have experience with both traditional and self-publishing and love to discuss the pros and cons of both.

Why do I write? Because I am blind and live on woefully low disability payments each month. The government graced me with trying to live on about $700 per month, and I decided to start publishing because I also like to be able to eat.

If you like my work and feel inclined to support it, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi.

Thank you from the depths of my soul for being here. Keep striving to “be the best you that you can be” at this moment.

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