I worked for many years (hundreds of hours) locating, remastering and uploading content for a fan-based YouTube channel named ‘R.E.M. Archive’. I did 99% of the work and was happy to do this for the huge fan base. I believe the channel existed for about 6 years or so.
I had to use the Wayback Machine in order to find an example screenshot of a video description.
A few weeks ago, I checked the email address associated with the channel and found this email from YouTube.
I followed a link, provided in that email, to fill out an appeal form. I, simply, stated that I’d be willing to make any/all adjustments to make the channel compliant with their policy.
And this was the response I received.
I’m not even mad. I will not fight them. This is utter horse shit.
I wasn’t aware of ‘REMVideoArchive’ until you pointed it out. I’ve taken a quick scan of their channel and website and it appears that we shared very similar content. Maybe that group reported me to YouTube or maybe not. I have no idea since YouTube did not make any attempt to explain any details other than the screenshots that I provided. Again, I’m not upset. I’m just confused.
I don’t feel like we can even place blame for this on YouTube because they are just dealing with the situation as they would thousands of other accounts flagged as imposters. It seems clear that they saw this information and maybe you were reported, maybe the automated system of “REMVideoArchive” vs “REMArchive” got triggered as too close and they picked the one with the most metrics/presence.