It definitely helped in some ways, as it provided a straightforward way to watch episodes without having to set up a torrent client. I remember when YouTube wouldn't allow anyone to upload a video that was longer than 10 minutes and all of the episodes were divided into segments.
One of the things I loved about that era of YouTube was that people put up the episodes of both the dub and the sub...and both episode types were getting roughly equal views. In addition, despite the fact that people were commenting on the videos, there was relatively little "Oh it was like this in the Japanese episodes" in the dub episode video comments. There was the occasional remark, but for the most part, there wasn't an attempt to convert people to watching the sub. Instead the people who watched the episodes were looking at the episodes to watch them.
This was in stark contrast to the more active fandom. After Sailor Moon stopped coming on TV and before YouTube, it was actually harder to actually find the old dub than it was the original version. While the Internet already skewed towards the original version, it only got more so even before YouTube. With fans of the original version prevailing on Wikipedia, the old dub was in many ways even deader than it is now. The torrents for the dub were harder to find than the torrents for PGSM and the sub. In 2005, I assumed the old dub and Sailor Moon were just gone. Then in 2006 I discovered YouTube and my fanaticism rose again.
Unfortunately, Content ID put an end to a lot of the viewing of episodes (they cracked down harder on the dubs than the subs, probably because the dub footage, even when altered, still matched more easily), and Viz getting the license led to even fan works getting taken down. Without the episodes for people to readily watch, that led to a second wave of "education" which lasted in the Sailor Moon fandom for years. Now everyone on YouTube is a know-it-all educator who would never watch anything "problematic," and if you don't watch and like the Viz dub you are not a real fan. The groupthink attitude that was a part of the rest of the fandom made it there, and consequently, one wouldn't be able to stick up for the old dub even if you could upload it.
One of the things I loved about that era of YouTube was that people put up the episodes of both the dub and the sub...and both episode types were getting roughly equal views. In addition, despite the fact that people were commenting on the videos, there was relatively little "Oh it was like this in the Japanese episodes" in the dub episode video comments. There was the occasional remark, but for the most part, there wasn't an attempt to convert people to watching the sub. Instead the people who watched the episodes were looking at the episodes to watch them.
This was in stark contrast to the more active fandom. After Sailor Moon stopped coming on TV and before YouTube, it was actually harder to actually find the old dub than it was the original version. While the Internet already skewed towards the original version, it only got more so even before YouTube. With fans of the original version prevailing on Wikipedia, the old dub was in many ways even deader than it is now. The torrents for the dub were harder to find than the torrents for PGSM and the sub. In 2005, I assumed the old dub and Sailor Moon were just gone. Then in 2006 I discovered YouTube and my fanaticism rose again.
Unfortunately, Content ID put an end to a lot of the viewing of episodes (they cracked down harder on the dubs than the subs, probably because the dub footage, even when altered, still matched more easily), and Viz getting the license led to even fan works getting taken down. Without the episodes for people to readily watch, that led to a second wave of "education" which lasted in the Sailor Moon fandom for years. Now everyone on YouTube is a know-it-all educator who would never watch anything "problematic," and if you don't watch and like the Viz dub you are not a real fan. The groupthink attitude that was a part of the rest of the fandom made it there, and consequently, one wouldn't be able to stick up for the old dub even if you could upload it.
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