www.HORBAWRONG.com (creativity's hub)
 

I should probably save this for krumbinesBRAIN, but I figure I'll just use bits and pieces anyway ... or maybe I'll just use this as a script for later.

At any rate, have you heard what's been going down at YouTube?  Everyone is crying "HULU!" and are having panic attacks. Have you noticed how anytime youtube changes something, the self-proclaimed community has a collective panic attack?  The most recent was the whole algorithmically-demoted videos that may or may not contain offensive material.  This was quickly labeled censorship and the community pulled out their paper backs to breathe into.  The criminal offense of this "censorship" was simply how youtube continued to fuck with top 100 lists ... and yes, have you noticed how inconsequential those lists have become?  Now more so than ever, if you're not Fred, a top 100 list means jack-shit.)

Which is fine by me.

Kind of.

I've had an idea percolating in my mind for some time now ... it was the alternative to the "Start Here" playlist and something I had, in fact, done before.

Follow me on this one.

What if serious content-producers actually treat our youtube channel pages like television channels and cater more to people looking at their subscription boxes on a daily basis than to our over-all library on youtube?

What I'm talking about is constantly rotating content.  The problem is that three months ago I had 80 subscribers ... half of them might have watched all fifty some-odd videos I had posted.  Today I have just under 350 subscribers and I would venture to say that the vast majority have only seen a handful of my nearly 100 videos posted.

So what's the point of leaving a video online if no one is going to watch it much past that first week or two?

This was why I put together the "Start Here" playlist ... as a way to drive eyeballs to some of my more deserving videos.

But really, once a video has passed its two-week mark and has reached all the subscribers who are going to watch it, what viability does it pose?

Why not remove it and repost it in a month?  For me, that means taking a video that maybe got 60 views and today putting in front of 350 sets of eyeballs.  Next month, that 350 might have grown into 600 ... 300 more people who might not have any idea what Beanie Boy is much less why people like to call me a puppet fucker.

Stay tuned to your subscription box, those answers will be coming at you this Monday at 8pm, Eastern Standard Time.

The other positive aspect behind constantly rotating content, is that for lion's share of your subscribers, that's fresh new content on a daily basis (or however frequently you choose to post).  Certainly beneficial if you're in a production funk or if you're working on a big project that's simply taking time to finish.

Let me anticipate the criticism of this idea ...

1. "I've been watching you from the beginning and don't want to watch some things over again.  I wanna see fresh content, not old stuff."

This is going to be the one point that I remain very cognizant of.  Rotating and recycling your content is an opportunity to get rid of the shit.  If you're committed to reposting only your quality content, and a subscriber is adamant about only new material ... it raises the question about the quality of support you're getting from this subscriber in the first place.  I can name a handful of my own subscribers who not only would cheer over this opportunity to have the old videos they had never taken the time watch served up to them in their sub box, but would happily rate, watch, and comment on the ones they had already seen if not to just support my work, than because they truly love the video (I'm talking about Novanine and the Beanie Boy Show and probably Ibrahim and EVERYTHING else).

2. "I don't want to lose comments/ratings!"

Reposting will, in fact, wipe out the comments and ratings.  One can be a bad thing (the comments) and the other can be a good thing/irrelevant thing (the ratings).

I say this: nothing is sacred.  You'll wipe out the comments?  So what?  There's a copy of practically all of them in your youtube inbox and your email.  Plus, exactly how many "LOL" or "that was great!" comments do you really need to preserve?

Some of us had been hit by the down-rating bot.  Recycling content gives us an opportunity to clear out those niggling-little one and two star ratings.  But ultimately, what difference do the ratings mean, anyhow?  Truth be told, this is a feature that I can pretty much do with out.

3. I can't think of anymore negative things right now.  Can you?

I'd apologize for the long post, but if brevity is what you're after, you should be reading my twitter!

 


Comments

Heather Maria Lueck

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 10:46:25 am

I'm thouroughly dissapointed to read "You'll wipe out the comments? So what?"

Come on krumbine... rotating content might be a good idea (it might even be a great idea) but comments mean something, you can't be so indifferent towards them. They are an important aspect of the youtube community and a chance for your subscribers to voice their opinions, offer advice, share ideas or show support. Would it really be so easy for you to erase all that?

 

krumbine

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:00:52 am

I didn't quite put that in the proper tone, did I?

Youtube comments--the best of them, mind you--are a lively and current conversation/dialogue about the subject video. It's an active thing that we participate in.

If we both go see Transformers 2, we'll talk about it afterwards ... but do we need a transcript of that conversation for posterity?

Youtube comments are invaluable and of course I cherish them deeply ... but once a conversation has run its course, I'm not sure I see the need for archiving.

 

Obsquatch

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:31:58 pm

As someone who was once referred to as "leaving the best damn comments in the world," I cringe at the thought of having to watch you repost all 7,042 talking heads episodes, one every other day, alternating between beanie boy episodes and old Krumbine's Brain episodes, only because you want more hits and you think that the people would appreciate them are too lazy to look at your past videos. Try "recommending" things to your subscribers, get specific if you want to... "Dear Ibrahim, in this video my ass looked particularly juicy." Or make a rotating "schizo zombie feature from the past" playlist on your channel and feature an old video. You can spend ten seconds of your 9:59 fucking vlog videos pimping out your old shit in your NEW MATERIAL. The new people you want to care about your old shit will heed the word and click the link and comment on the SAME VIDEO YOU ORIGINALLY UPLOADED. But for the love of god, don't bring the idea of re-runs to YouTube. And don't think that I'm going to come up with the same quip responses that I did when I first saw something you wrote, because in all honestly, I will be blinded with rage that you are trying to force your oldest online friends to relive your past successes for your own means. I agree that if you published now what you published then, you would get more hits on each of those videos, but you'll lose me, and a few choice others in the process. Wouldn't you agree that it is not your responsibility that your new viewers must see your old content. Make it available, pimp it out, but don't force it down my throat just for the sake of new comments and higher numbers, or I will one star your ass.

This really goes against the "stay creative" grain, don't cha think?

Stop living in the past, Krumbine. Look to the future. Go towards love. Go towards joy. Go fuck yourself.

 

krumbine

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 1:22:17 pm

Great. Thanks, buddy. Now I'm REALLY confused ...

 

Obsquatch

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 1:56:11 pm

Yeah, in rereading this I realized I am a dick. Whoops. I blame... you. I love you?

 

krumbine

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 2:04:43 pm

I love you, too buddy ... but I respect your opinion. The conflict, for me, is balancing the minority of hardcore fans and supporters against the legitimate commercial aspect of my channel. The whole reason I would even consider doing something like this is simply because the more exposure I get, the better off my prospects will be in the long run.

Again, you and Heather argue decent and convincing points, but I find myself thinking about all the videos the two of you haven't watched yet. See? There's a benefit even for the naysayers.

Interestingly, I just discovered that the "Start Here" playlist has gotten 259 hits ... so people are clicking into it.

I dunno ...

 

krumbine

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 2:10:25 pm

***correction, 322 views for being created 2 weeks ago. 259 is the hit count for the krumbinesBRAIN playlist.

You did mention an idea that I've wanted to figure out how to incorporate for a while ... a way to effectively advertise your own videos through a vlog or whatever.

Maybe a segment in krumbinesBRAIN, along with the subscriber playlist of the week, my own featured playlist? I also think that perhaps a playlist should be capped at five or six videos ... more than that seems wasteful.

Thoughts?

 

Obsquatch

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 6:31:13 pm

what videos haven't I watched? I am watching you watch your old videos.

 

Tripp

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 7:30:40 pm

So...someone said something about not being able to throw a pebble into the same stream twice. I think that there's wisdom in this for all of us who muss around in on-line communities. They are by definition fluid.

The content and the people migrate, take time off, come and go as they please. And that's okay! In fact, as I recall, Heather you were lauded for it. Awesome. Can't we embrace the community of The Internets without attempting to make money on it.

Social media is about making community. Once you've made the community, making money on it seems to undermine what's created. No?

Think about the channel like a blog. Link to old posts and projects. Refer to yourself. Put 'em in the credits if it helps. But I agree with 'Squatch. Reruns are why I no longer watch TV. I really would hate to see Das Tube go that route.

Peace!

 

Ibrahim

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 3:39:16 am

Hmm..

Krumbine, I think there's still some confusion about the purpose of your channel on Youtube, and that's leading many of us to either brand you a motherfucking genius or a motherfucking sell-out.

What I've understood is that in the long term, you're shooting for the big screen, so this is a very good medium for you to introduce yourself and get recognition.

Side-by-side, you also like and want the friendships and interaction with other creative people and, well, freaks like me.

I think these are two things that will inevitably clash every now and then. Most of us on Youtube don't really have the admirable ambition and focus you have, and I for one am just on there for fun and friendships, and to create, regardless of who is watching, if anyone is.

I don't dislike the idea, though. It's just the loss of the comments that would pinch me a bit. Come on, you gotta admit, you do go through them again every once in a while, don't you? They're quite entertaining long after the conversation is over. It would be a touch rough on your old subs to disregard their original reaction and opinion on any given video wouldn't it?

But I strongly recommend you do whatever the hell you damn well please! It's your channel buddy, it's not like we're going to stop watching! :)

And what's this I hear about juicy ass?

 

Obsquatch

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 3:40:17 pm

I like it when people do what I say. Long live the brotherhood!

 



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