YouTube Stars!

One of the best things about YouTube is that people who watch a video can respond to it in the comments and by a video response. This creates a conversation about the subject matter of the video. Often, the comment section adds so much to the understanding of an issue because a YouTuber can see different sides of the issue - different points of view. As long as people express their thoughts in a respectful way, this is a good thing! When commenters just spew hate in order to get a rise out of the video poster and the comment readers, it is best to ignore the commenter since they often leave these kinds of comments just to get attention - be it positive or negative. The human drive for social interaction is very strong, and YouTube can fulfill that need to some degree. Let's continue to do what we can to make YouTube a constructive community where it is possible to have an overall positive experience.

Here are four videos about interaction on YouTube. The first is a short bio from one of our favorite singers, in which she also discusses commenters. Next, we'll hear from one of the "wise men" of YouTube on the topic of what to do when certain people threaten others online. Then, we'll see a response video on the same topic, from a member of the former eNation. Finally, we'll have a look at a controversial video and the lively and heartfelt discussion that ensued in it's comments.

First, some news! I recently heard from Marina of the HotForWords channel about the importance of the "Total Video Views" stat. Apparently, people who want to get an idea of how well you're doing on YouTube are interested in knowing how many views all of your videos together have received. It seems that YouTube does not publish this piece of information anywhere. Marina asked if I could find that number for her. I created a widget that anyone can put on any of their websites (MySpace, Facebook, their own personal sites) which simply provides a YouTuber's Total Video Views number in text form. HotForWords is already using the widget on her website. The widget can be styled just like any other text - change the font, font size, colors - to whatever suits you. We created a website to support this new widget enterprise: www.MyYTStats.com. Please go there and see what we have so far. We have several versions of this Total Video Views text widget - one scrolls and one fades in and out. They are all available for YOUR use on YOUR websites, for FREE!



Our good friend Jennifer Newberry just launched a new channel dedicated to vlogs only. Jennifer is a 26 year old blond Swedish-American singer who we have posted about in the past. We even interviewed Jennifer back in December! This is the first video on Jennifer's new channel. Listen to her thoughts on "mean comments" and learn a little about who Jennifer really is. Then read the interview!



Tom, tlg847, pulls no punches as he discusses how threats to people and their families are handled in "life" and on YouTube and the Internet. He uses "bad language" to make his point. Is "it's only the Internet" a valid excuse for threatening and/or nasty behavior? Join in on the discussion by commenting or making a video response! Several interesting websites were mentioned in the comments. One is an ACLU page that talks about Civil Liberties in the "Summary of Argument" section. Another briefly describes the Avogato Trust Metric. Tom has been working with Renetto, PeriUrban and KenRG on a new website which Tom mentioned in this video and in the last video here. The final frames in that video tell us what the new website's name might be. This picture is from that video.



VitalFinds, an intelligent and prolific videoblogger who contributed to the eNation discussions and helped test the 2BuxMall, made a video response to Tom's video. She adds her ideas about what should and should not be acceptable in a well run video community website.



Last week, popular vlogger and artist Paperlilies made this video to announce her latest art competition. Bryony has done quite a lot to foster the art community on YouTube. She has painted several pictures on camera and auctioned them off on eBay. Tom, tlg847, bought one of the first ones. Bryony has sponsored other art competitions which gathered a good amount of participation and interest from the YouTube community. This time, her well known wit, sometimes veering into snarky territory, was deemed to be offensive to several members of the YouTube community. There have been almost 800 comments on the video so far, many on the topic of religion. Have a look and if you have an opinion, leave your comment!

Labels: Jennifer, JenniferNew21, kenrg, MyYTStats, Newberry, Paperlilies, PeriUrban, religion, renetto, statistics, tlg847, vitalfinds

posted by KennyCrane at 3/23/2008 10:46:00 PM