I've been considering making a YT channel just to get more involved in the online community. The flip side to that is the possibility that someone who knows me but doesn't know that I'm trans could come across it one day. Then there will be drama...and I don't do well with drama.

How many of you have a YT account?

Are you stealth? If so has anyone ever come across your videos that didn't previously know?

I don't have a YT channel myself. I don't condemn it nor do I endorse it. So many people view their online persona as being themselves. It is not, it is just an aspect of who they are. What you publish to that online persona reflects what others perceive you to be. If you are a die hard right-winger, but publish pro-Obama content then everyone would perceive you to be an Obama supporter. It is a matter of what content you make available, and how much personal data you associate with that post.
If you feel the need to 'come out' via an online persona, you could still do so without revealing who you actually are. That is part of the allure of an online persona. You can project those traits that YOU find most desirable to others while hiding those traits that you find distasteful. Everyone does so whether knowing or unknowing.
I recommend caution about anything online. EVERYTHING you do online is recorded and saved in someone's server. This includes your searches, Susan's interaction, and all the videos you watch on you tube. To think that any online activity is anonymous is truly naive. Big brother is watching, whether he finds your actions worthy of notice is irrelevant, he is still watching.
Before I posted anything online I would seriously consider the impact of that post on my most intimate of relations. If their finding out is less than any supposed benefits I would gain from posting, I would post. If not then I wouldn't post. Only you can make that judgement call.

Christy.

Never made a youtube just for my transition, mostly because I'm very shy even online. But I do have an account; my roommates and I used to make videos that are still up. There's one transition related video on there: me singing a song the first verse filmed when I was pre-T and the second verse filmed when I was 3.5 years on T. It's pretty cool so I wouldn't mind if someone I knew found it (I'm not really stealth or out, I'll come out if it's relevant but most of the time it's not). They'd have to be searching some weird stuff to get there, you know?

But I'm incredibly grateful to the youtube trans community. They helped me when I was starting out and they help countless others I'm sure.

If you're concerned about the wrong people seeing you in a YouTube video you should absolutely not do it. You have to assume that anybody and everybody on the web will see it. It's open to the public, just like it was nailed to a post along the sidewalk on Main Street.

~ Lyric ~

Here's the thing, though:

Almost NOBODY stumbles upon people's individual Youtube videos, especially when it's just like vlogs or something where the person is talking. (That is, unless they were looking for transgender videos in the first place...)

Here's how I figure it... There are 300,000,000 people in this country. I know around maybe 500-1000 of those people. So at best I know maybe 1 out of 300,000 of the people in this country. My Youtube videos are maybe going to get a few thousand views at best, so I figure at best the odds of a single person that I have ever met in my entire life stumbling onto one of my videos is about 1%. And these odds get even less when you consider that most of the people who stumble onto transgender videos in the first place are those who were actually looking for that exact thing. So among that 1% odd chance, the odds that this person will be accepting, because they were clearly interested in TG issues in the first place, is very high.

So yeah. I'm not worried. As far as I'm concerned, every single one of my Youtube videos is just going out into this white void full of a bunch of anonymous people, kind of like when I'm playing an MMORPG. The odds of me ever running into someone that I actually know are pretty much slim to none, as long as you keep it relatively anonymous and don't give out too much personal information about yourself.

Besides, I'm kind of at the point where my mindset about being outed as trans to someone I know is kind of along the lines of "So what? If they don't like it, then f*** them. " (I hope I won't regret this once I'm further along in transition and actually ready to go full-time...)

Carrie, you make such a good point. If someone you know sees you in the videos and tries to out you, all you have to do is ask them why they were searching for transgender videos to begin with.

Carrie, you have some really good points.

I'm the first to admit that I'm a little paranoid when it comes to this stuff. The funny thing is I'm not ashamed to be trans. If someone were to respectfully walk up and ask me I'd have no issues with talking about it. I do know from past experience that people are rarely respectful and I just don't want to deal with any uproar over it. I'm too old and tired to be dealing with a buncha lip.

I have people in my life that I've known for the better part of a decade now who have no idea. Just don't need them saying I "lied" to them because then I'm going to get defensive and ask what business do they have knowing what I'm packing downstairs.

Think I'll think about it for a little bit but yeah, more than likely you're right and the chances are super slim.

Fair warning: I'm a hopeless optimist. So I pretty much refuse to focus on the negatives or the possible consequences of anything.

So what you just heard is very much the "Oh, whatever, it will never happen to me" side of thinking about things.

Quote from: Carrie Liz on May 18, 2013, 12:52:59 PM
Fair warning: I'm a hopeless optimist. So I pretty much refuse to focus on the negatives or the possible consequences of anything.

Nice disclaimer. 

Hopeless optimists for the win!

But yeah, I agree. The chances are just SO slim.
I have a YT account, with only two vids, lol (dreadlock updates (they change quite a lot over time, y'know)), my account name is male as well, so if someone who I know finds it they'll probably be pretty confused, but whatever. I'm pretty sure they'll accept it, but I'm such a wimp that I don't dare to come out. I sometimes almost HOPE for someone finding it, to let 'coincidence take over', but at the same time I'm hell scared for it, lol.
But yeah, the chances are SO slim.
I'm still not sure whether I'm going to make some trans related vids, or stay stealth and tell people I'm having a hormone disease or something, lol. Some part of me wants to 'play' being a real GENETIC guy, but another part also wants to share my views on ->-bleeped-<-.

I've been doing transition videos since two weeks from starting T. I am not stealth, but I am not out at work, due to retiring in 3 days.It makes no sense. But if I were found out it would be no big deal.

I've had someone look for me (I want her to see them) and she can't find me. It is hard to do but there is a link I could give to help you make a name for your channel. Youtube will try and put it in your name (well if you have a gmail or google+ acct.). I watched the video about 4 times and then was able to do it. Youtube continues to think I want to change this. It isn't a stealth thing, but on the net I'd never use my whole name like that. Might not need this if you don't have gmail/google+.

The only person I know who got "outted" on youtube wasn't actually trans at all, has extreme chest dysphoria. Anyway, she made sort of a silly mistake, in retrospect, she'd admit that. She tied her youtube with another youtube which had family stuff on it. She did the tying. Actually made her life a lot easier since she didn't have to tell them stuff.

I agree re: having to search for it. I get stuff I have searched for in the past. Ocassionally you get something you didn't plan on getting. It is usually kind of funny. I have heard of people stumbling on videos, but I do wonder about conservatives who find videos and make nasty comments. I haven't had this but then I haven't been on long. This happens to well-known people like Uppercase Case and Skylarkeleven. I'm not really in that league. Maybe things change a bit when you get to a few hundred thousand views.
I don't think it's an issue at our level.

BTW, I think it's a lot of fun and the youtube community is very supportive. I feel like you get to know each other better as you actually see videos.

--Jay

Well, I'm all for optimism and I love TG oriented videos, but I guess I have to dampen things a bit more here. YouTube videos are not only public, but they are probably going to be there for a very long time. Even if you take one down, it's probably been archived someplace. There is already technology that can search for and find all still photos of  a person's face on the web. This doubtless will eventually work with video as well. That would mean any prospective employer, government agency and oddball down the street will be able to instantly do a search for any pic of your face and bring up everything you've ever put on the web. Sadly, the Internet is making paranoia a pretty valid thing. While there's a good likelihood that any "transition video" you post will only be seen by people with your shared interest, I wouldn't depend on that being the case.

~ Lyric ~

I make a few youtube videos, and I really can't see anyone you know finding them unless their specifically looking for those videos.  I did out myself one time due to things online but that was purely my fault (I favourited one of my girlfriend's tweets from the wrong account, and although I didn't have any photographs of me on that twitter account she recognised a photo of Edinburgh that I'd sent her as well), and since then I've been a lot more careful about making sure my life as "birthname" and my life as Alex stays separate.  On youtube and facebook I use name different to what I will change my name to, okay the first name is the same, but there must be millions of Alexs in the world.  Just don't mention your location in any writing because some people do search for things in their area.

Well I suppose that if you absolutely must guarantee that nobody sees these (except the youtube trans community), Lyric is right on that score. So if you are totally stealth and can't have anyone know, I would not do it. The odds may not be particularly high, but it is possible. I think it might be remote-- people do stumble on videos, there is software like lyric says, etc etc. A given *individual* finding you, that might be lower. So say you don't want John Q to know you are there, well odds are off unless JQ is a stalker, in which case the odds are high.

The up side is that youtube is lots of fun and it really gets to be a community. I really have gotten to like youtube much more than susan's (which is saying something) because you actually see others videos and I feel that you get to know them more. I have about ten buddies that always comment on my videos, and vice versa.

--Jay

I just recently posted my first video to YouTube, which was a transition video. I am a hopeless optimist too when it comes to these things.

I am out everywhere, with no care to be stealth around people I know. So, although it was a huge shock to see myself on the first page of YT search results for "mtf" or "mtf transition", it doesn't bug me at all

Actually I think it's kinda cool. Let the whole world know, sure. I am proud to be transgendered.

Quote from: Jennygirl on May 21, 2013, 08:28:14 PM
I just recently posted my first video to YouTube, which was a transition video. I am a hopeless optimist too when it comes to these things.

I try my best to be an optimist but I've had issues in the past...but then again it's to be expected in the South I guess. Of course since you mentioned your video I had to go have a look. You're progressing nicely and look so happy! I remember you saying you're five months in the video, me too! I officially started T Dec. 18th. 

Quote from: Simon on May 21, 2013, 10:02:02 PM
I try my best to be an optimist but I've had issues in the past...but then again it's to be expected in the South I guess. Of course since you mentioned your video I had to go have a look. You're progressing nicely and look so happy! I remember you saying you're five months in the video, me too! I officially started T Dec. 18th. 

Aw thank you, Simon

And look at that! We are practically HRT twins! I started on December 7th

Quote from: Carrie Liz on May 18, 2013, 11:43:43 AM
Here's the thing, though:

Almost NOBODY stumbles upon people's individual Youtube videos, especially when it's just like vlogs or something where the person is talking. (That is, unless they were looking for transgender videos in the first place...)

Here's how I figure it... There are 300,000,000 people in this country. I know around maybe 500-1000 of those people. So at best I know maybe 1 out of 300,000 of the people in this country. My Youtube videos are maybe going to get a few thousand views at best, so I figure at best the odds of a single person that I have ever met in my entire life stumbling onto one of my videos is about 1%. And these odds get even less when you consider that most of the people who stumble onto transgender videos in the first place are those who were actually looking for that exact thing. So among that 1% odd chance, the odds that this person will be accepting, because they were clearly interested in TG issues in the first place, is very high.

You raise some good points, and I love the attitude (or lack of it!)  There really is nothing to hide.

Said by me, who is petrified that someone will find out...   

Out of the 1,000 people I know, I bet that a good 100 - at least! - would happily use information they find out about me for malicious purposes.  I try not to make enemies, but we all do.  And it's that tiny fraction of enemies that is the real problem for me.  I don't worry that anyone will accidentally stumble onto me while they are searching for TG issues themselves, but I am a touch concerned that someone might find TG-related things about me while searching for me in general.

I guess we all have different comfort levels with this.  But I for one am very grateful for all those out there who are public, vocal, visible, and proud to be known.  You are shouldering a heavy burden on behalf of all of us.

Quote from: Simon on May 21, 2013, 10:02:02 PMOf course since you mentioned your video I had to go have a look. You're progressing nicely and look so happy!

Yeah, sorry, I got curious too.  And I have to agree - you look fantastic!

Just seeing a transition movie like that really does wonders for my own self-confidence. Thanks for putting that out there.

I am on Youtube, but only have two video's (dreadlock related) in which I haven't mentioned I'm trans. I expected people to all start getting confused and say I look like a girl, etc. etc. (my name is male, and so is my avatar), but no one said anything. One dude even called me 'bro', which was kinda nice
I thought about telling I have a hormonal imbalance or stuff like that, and pretend I'm 'just another guy', but I can't do that, lol, it's just not in my nature to lie about things like this, and I want to make some video's later on the discuss some trans related matters I'm going through/thinking about/etc.
I personally think the greatest fear and prejudice against transpeople stems from ignorance, and even though cispeople probably won't venture in the trans related space of YT or the internet in general, I feel like being closed up about it won't solve problems either. Even if I finally look like a man on the outside as well, I don't intend to be fully stealth. Of course I won't tell everybody "Hey I'm trans" in the same way as you tell someone "Hey, I'm Erik", lol. It's not the most important fact about me, far from, but I won't make a secret of it either, especially not with good, close, friends or people who are just interested.
As how would the hate of cispeople ever stop if we aren't even a BIT open to them, they simply don't understand us. But yeah, I understand some want to be completely stealth, and sometimes I think about it as well, but I also think being open helps cispeople to (hopefully) understand us better in the long run.