As a creator at Locals, I got the impression Locals would expand my ability to upload vides from a 5gb limit to 15gb limit once I attained 50 people joining my Jeff 4 Justice community. Apparently I was mistaken. I concluded this because at Locals support article, “What are tiers,” it reads, “You are assigned a tier according to the number of supporters, both 1-time and subscription, your community has. When you have reached a tier milestone you can be upgraded to another tier.” Note “1-time” does not appear to be defined. The article explains, “Basic Tier - 0-49 Supporters, Starter Tier - 50-499 Supporters, Pro Tier - 500+ Supporters; Basic - 5,000 (5gb), Starter - 15,000 (15gb), Pro - 50,000 (50gb).”

Annoyed at the limitations of Locals’ 5gb upload limit hindering me from uploading many videos, I hustled to get 50 people to join my Jeff 4 Justice community at Locals. After 50 joined, I then noticed no upgrade to a 15gb storage limit. On 5/17 I emailed Locals support, “My understanding is I was supposed to be able to advance to Locals’ “starter tier” and have my monthly upload limit increased from 5gb to 15gb after 50 people joined my community. It appears as though I have 53 members now. When will the increase to 15gb occur?” That day I received a reply from Locals support, “The requirements to advance to higher tiers is based on Supporters, not Members. You need to generate revenue.”

Huh? “Supporters” not “Members”? I’ve read all the Locals support articles I could find regarding their recommendations of best practices for creators to have the best shot at doing well on this venue. Apparently, I missed their support article titled, “There are 4 different types of members.”

Can you blame me for the confusion? Back to the Locals article, “What are tiers,” it refers to both “supporters” and “members” in a way I perceived as synonyms. “User permissions will allow you to give different access and badges to members of your community. To read more about it, click here… Email addresses of members,” the article states. It’s obviously easy to get mixed up trying to understand how Locals is defining “supporters” and “members.” What’s more, the “What are tiers” does not refer to the difference between how Locals is defining “supporters” and “members.” I see a “related articles” section at the upper left-hand side of the “What are tiers” articles yet none of those related articles were the article titled, “There are 4 different types of members.”

Locals has a catch-22 for unknown and lesser-known independent creators. How do we build a following - let alone a paying audience - when we Locals appears to provide no exposure to our content? Especially considering political creators like me seem shadow banned on big tech? At Locals, we unknown and lesser-known independent creators are hindered by upload limits.

Where exactly is incentive and support for unknown and lesser known independent creators? It’s akin to working at a store as a salesman yet not being able to meet customers.

I won’t put anyone on the spot but I’ve seen political creators on Locals with way larger followings than I have yet they are barely active on Locals. Yet I tried to upload numerous videos and only get a handful of views receiving no help from Locals getting my videos seen.

In my previous commentary, “6 Ways Lesser Known Creators Need Locals To Help Us” I first addressed Locals’ problems for unknown and lesser-known independent creators.

I continue to avail myself to discuss this with the Locals leadership (and Rumble too since it’s apparently the same company). I will happily focus group test or have a call with Locals leadership to discuss the barriers unknown and lesser-known independent creators face trying to build a following on big tech alternatives.

Sources:

My first commentary on this topic: “6 Ways Lesser Known Creators Need Locals To Help Us” https://jeff4justice.locals.com/post/2148181/6-ways-lesser-known-creators-need-locals-to-help-us

Locals support article “What are tiers?” https://support.locals.com/en/article/what-are-tiers-and-what-does-upgrading-my-community-plan-entail-q1555u/

Locals support article “What are tiers?” https://support.locals.com/en/article/what-are-tiers-and-what-does-upgrading-my-community-plan-entail-q1555u/

What are the different tiers of members? https://support.locals.com/en/article/what-are-the-different-tiers-of-members-15jxfu1/