old youtube channels

old youtube was peak. banner ads over videos, the lil annotations people could add in videos, online tutorials with some nightcore song and notepad to communicate. the coolest thing was the fact that you could personalise your entire channel, instead of the bland slab feel profiles we have today (and on virtually every social media platform now... damn u facebook..). 

old channel layouts

(pewdiepie's channel in 2011 (waybackmachine))

until 2012, users were able to edit and customise virtually every aspect of their channels. users had the most customisation freedom before 2011, but were still able to customise most aspects until 2013 (i could b wrong abt exact dates). i LOVE this, every channel could be unique and expressive, setting one channel apart from the rest. this all changed though in 2013 when they introduced the 'One Channel' layout, removing custom backgrounds and forcing more uniform, less personality. part of me understands why they did this. the internet was moving towards becoming more profit-based and standardised (low-key its downfall). platforms wanted to look more 'professional', not messy or personal and advertisers didnt want their brand logos clashing with someone's sick neon skull background ig. youtube like most other social sites was trying to appeal to bigger companies.

in a way, even from these few comparison screenshots, we can see the impact of the push for monetisation and the death of personal expression online. the internet was rapidly changing from something to explore and get lost in to the glorified online mall we have today. i guess that's why i love spaces like this website so much, it feels like a breath of fresh air lol

(pewdiepie's channel in 2013...)

here are some more old youtube channel layouts that i think are cool!! look at how different they all are:

that was just really to showcase how the older channels looked. visit any one of these now and they'll all look exactly the same aside from banners and profile pictures. this isn't to hate on youtube, it's just cool to look back on this stuff. thank u for reading! :D