the future of Conlang Critic and the Big List

hi everyone. I'm currently working on the first episode of the fourth season of Conlang Critic, and as such I've been thinking a lot about what this series is, and what I want it to be.

Conlang Critic is currently the only thing I make that isn't driven entirely by me deciding to make something specifically because I want to make it. deciding what videos to make based on number of requests really seemed like a good idea, but after several revisions I'm still not happy with the way the Big List works, and have no confidence that this system will result in a Season 5 that I would actually want to make.

I have concluded that the only way for Conlang Critic to remain something I enjoy making is to retire the Big List entirely, and to remove the structure of seasons (which nobody really cared about to begin with), and turn the show into something where I only make a new video if there's a specific topic I actually want to cover.

I'm currently unsure if that will happen after the end of Season 4 or the end of Season 5, but I want everyone to know now that there's a possibility that Season 4 will be the final structured season of Conlang Critic. if that happens, all requests currently on the Big List effectively no longer matter as of now. once this decision is finalized, the donation incentives that boost how much your requests are counted will be removed from those tiers. I don't currently know what I will replace them with, if anything.

to be clear, I have no intention to stop making videos about conlangs or linguistics. retconlang will still exist, and Conlang Critic will still exist (though the episodes will become much less frequent). what this change means is that either after Season 4 or after Season 5, I will no longer force myself to make a video on a topic I don't care about just because people asked me to make it. I would much rather put that energy towards making things I'm passionate about instead.

thank you for understanding.

-jan Misali