Carter, I really like what you guys are doing with crowdabout.us.
Have you thought about separating "Author comments" from user comments, so that we can add links and extra description to stuff that's happening, as it happens - and mark this as different from the user comments - it might encourage more people to use it, because at the moment "Comments" feels like it's something only users should do. What I REALLY want in the end from web video players is for the image of whatever I'm showing to be clickable *within the video frame* at the moment its shown, so that people can click it while it's on screen and open a new browser tab with more info to read or watch later - so that if I show the Peter Pan monument in Hyde Park prominently in background of my video, people could click it JUST LIKE I'D LET THEM CLICK THE WORDS "PETER PAN MONUMENT" FOR MORE INFO IF I MENTIONED IT IN A *TEXT* BLOG DESCRIPTION OF MY DAY. Up til now, if you want people to know more about something you show in a video, you have to either write about it in a big block of "Video description" (essentially an adjacent text blog) or describe it in voiceover and titles on the video itself. That's not exactly harnessing the power of the web, is it? In blog/hyperlinking terms, videoblogs are pretty inert, inflexible un-networked things. But doing all this in a time-based comments bar on crowdabout.us will be good for me for now. A big step forward for video *blogging* in my book, and a definite advantage over YouTube. Just got to figure out how to make it work with my current set-up and feed. Did any of that make any sense?? Rupert http://www.fatgirlinohio.org/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/fatgirlinohio/ On 5 Mar 2007, at 04:15, caroosky wrote: Rupert, you nailed it. I have put videos up on YouTube in hopes of attracting traffic to my vlog, but did it work? Heck no! I even got a respectable 60,000+ views on one video in YouTube, but it contributed approximately 5 or 6 new visits to my vlog. That's it. In a nutshell, YouTube is shallow. The whole mechanism of offering "You might also like this" items is a game that only YouTube benefits from, with bored people looking for the next thrill, clicking through countless videos. If someone comments, it's usually no more than 8 or 10 words (usually something like, "dude, wtf! UR waystin my time, yo.") I realized, at the end of my own YouTube experiment that YouTube was just using my content to fuel the machine. It wasn't about giving me a place to showcase my work, or have meaningful dialogue with engaged viewers. They just needed to put something new on the screen every three minutes to keep the dumb suckers there and clicking. Talk about wasting my time... Carter http://crowdabout.us/baby --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, Rupert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I just took down all my videos on YouTube this week because they were > making everything feel a bit unhappy and dirty. So this topical for > me. Maybe it's about giving, not about receiving. With a blog, > you're giving - but with YT and Myspace, you're giving to get > something in return. > > This is just my own personal take on it, but I think Flickr is very > different in tone and feel from YouTube and Myspace. (Apart from the > fact that it does the job of showing and sharing albums of pictures > really easily, in a way that is accessible to non-tech friends and > family.) > > Something about the way YouTube makes it compulsory to show star > ratings and number of views (and makes those things central) turns it > into a competitive exercise that I don't like. It's not why I'm > publishing videos (though I'm not sure I could say why I am). It's > also doubtless what makes YouTube such a big hit, and why millions > put videos online that way. > > These things encourage you to think about dumbing down your videos or > making Mass Appeal films to get more viewers. I also think it > seriously affects the mindset and spirit of the people who watch and > comment - encourages attention deficit, carelessness and all those > haters you see everywhere. The whole highschoolish popularity > competition thing drives the new web, just as it drives so much in > the real world, but it's not for me. I hated it even at school. > Supposedly people have feeds and favourites on YouTube - but again, > it all feels tempered by who's cool, who's hot, who's popular, and > how we can all be more like them. > > I like having a videoblog (and having videos on Blip) because my > videos are just there - take them or leave them. I don't have to be > judged openly and disproportionately by somebody who doesn't get > something I've posted, or appear worthless because I have so few > viewers compared to the popular kids. And I don't have to fall prey > to those moments of doubt, with a comment or a bad rating prompting > me to wonder why I'm bothering if I'm not as 'successful' as > everybody else. On my blog, i put a video out there and hope it > makes someone somewhere smile a little, or react in whatever way. > Occasionally someone will get in touch and say that they liked it. > > MySpace, again, feels like a cross between high school cliques and > businessmen swapping cards - and doesn't really provide anything else > that I want that I can't get from email, IM, groups, real world > introductions, etc - and from having a blog. > > But Flickr's focus is different. > > In the end, the connections I've made with people through my blog, > and occasionally through this forum, feel a thousand times more > satisfying than any I've made in YT, Myspace, etc. And when I have a > view via my site, or my feed, it feels more substantial and personal > than just another thrill-seeking YouTuber clicking past a video and > then clicking on to somewhere else in YouTube. > > Rupert > http://www.fatgirlinohio.org > http://feeds.feedburner.com/fatgirlinohio/ > > On 5 Mar 2007, at 00:55, Peter Van Dijck wrote: > > I've always been interested in why young people prefer to post on > youtube & myspace versus on their own (video)blog (for the comments of > course!) - in this group we seem to think having your own vlog is much > superior. > > But today I realized: my photos are on flickr, instead of having my > own instance of some opensource script like Gallery - for the > community aspect (and the superior functionality), so isn't that the > same? > > Just a thought. > P > > -- > Find 10000s of videoblogs and podcasts at http://mefeedia.com > my blog: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/ > my job: http://petervandijck.net > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
