I've never been a fan of the blog format for video (even when putting together the last Vloggercon, I was against making the site in the blog format, but was alone in that thought). Though I ended up not using it for my own personal videoblog site (many hours of discussion with web/dev friends steered me away), I still believe using something like Sweetcron could be an interesting way of showing your work.
<http://www.sweetcron.com/> Especially when people are putting various sorts of videos on a variety of video hosts. For instance, some people put teasers on youtube and Behind The Scenes on Vimeo. But you want a site that will aggregate all of that content. Anyway, my two cents. Blog is Dead, Long Live the Blog. Schlomo Rabinowitz http://schlomo.tv - finally moving to wordpress http://hatfactory.net - relaxed coworking AIM:schlomochat On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 10:27 AM, Rupert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I did a video rant about this a couple of weeks ago. > > I've been thinking about different layouts and ways of presenting > things since then. > > Great thoughts, Ron - particularly what you note how we're > comfortable with line-by-line communication in a vertical format, but > how it's limited the success of the traditional videoblog - and how > daunting it is for a viewer to face a bunch of videos in a line down > the page. > > I've seen this problem when watching people go to my videoblog. > It's not just a problem for the viewer, it's a problem for the producer. > > Reading your post made me realise how much I've forced myself to like > the blog format because that's what everyone uses - even though > initially I thought it sucked. But when we started out, it was the > easiest way to do publishing and podcasting. > > Now I've totally fallen out of love with the blog format. So much so > that I can't seem to drum up the motivation to put any energy into > making videos until I can feel good about how I publish them. > > I've been thinking about the successful shows you mentioned - FU, > Ninja, Rocketboom. Wreck & Salvage and LoFi St Louis have good new > designs, too - which encourage people to browse more freely and don't > force the reader to deal with this heirarchy of freshness/relevance. > > For me, I think there may be an element of needing more interlinked > networking between producers - to allow people to browse outside of > your own videos. Jesus, that sounds like a web-ring. But isn't that > the best thing about YouTube? That you can choose to see more videos > by the same person or jump to something related but made by someone > totally different? > > I don't know. I'm stuck. But it's good to read your thoughts on it. > > Rupert > http://twittervlog.tv > > On 10-Dec-08, at 10:05 AM, Ron Watson wrote: > > Great topic, Heath! > > I've been doing online video since 1998, and I was very excited with > the explosion of digital video in 2005. It was awesome! > > I dabbled with wordpress and the blog format for a while, but it was > obvious to me rather quickly that the long vertical videoblog (and > blog, for that matter) was a dead end in terms of viability. > > It's daunting to scroll down a page and see an hour of video. It > makes the small, short flicks and turns them into a day long endeavor. > > I think the traditional blog format is great for RSS feeds and for > archival purposes, but as far as presentation of content, it's not > good for holding people's attention. > > If you're content is very special or totally rock solid, you can hold > an audience, but you are fighting against a faulty design. > > There are 2 ways in which the traditional blog layout fails for video > blogging. > > Story telling and Community. > > --- > Story Telling > --- > > I took a critical look at a person from this list's new project, and > that's what I found to be the critical fault in the presentation of > content. He had all this great content, a really sweet, honest and > appealing vibe, beautiful theming, but it all went out the window > when I scrolled down the page and saw 15 5 minute videos all > presented as a running commentary - essentially a very long monologue. > > I have no doubt that the content was personally appealing (although I > couldn't watch it because of bandwidth constraints - :-( ) but when I > saw that scrolling list, it just seemed like a Herculean task to go > through it. I really was intrigued by the vibe set up by the site and > my personal belief system, but when I saw the layout of the content, > I was turned off. I didn't want to watch that much on one topic. > > When you post 30 things on one page, it devalues all of them. It > triggers the idea of a lack of quality - like "this thing couldn't > stand on it's own so he put 30 on one page." > > I suggested that he set up in a landscape format (as opposed to > portrait, or blog) which would embrace his theme, keep relevant > content on the page at all times, be an efficient use of space and > would let each video (or 2) be it's own story. > > I could actually see myself watching all 15 videos with this kind of > layout if the content was good with some clever storytelling. > > Leave me with a cliffhanger, or give me a text based teaser to draw > me into the next video. > > --- > Community > --- > Also, this kind of a layout creates a dialogue. I watch it then I > talk about it. It's the give and take, the interaction with the > viewer that we're all looking for. > > Let me watch a video and digest it. Then I'll comment on it. > > The traditional blog format reminds me of online tit for tat email > communication that I find becomes 2 dueling monologues. When you > create a series of communication, or a series of argument, there is a > critical loss of context. We forget what we were talking about. The > discussion becomes about the minutia or the meta, and the greater > understanding or message is lost. It quite literally is the > presentation of parts - the parts are greater than the whole. > > I don't think it works well for online communication, and I don't > think it works well for communicating with multimedia content. > > It isolates the viewer, it isolates the content creator, and it > isolates the content itself. > > It looks like it's all connected, but in reality it's just a list. > It's like a quoted, line by line email argument as opposed to a well > thought out and crafted piece of prose. > > JMHO... > > --- > Tunnel Vision > --- > > I'm in the process of creating a large community website based on dog > sports. It's very ambitious, and I'm going to be facing competitors > that have very deep pockets. It's pretty intimidating, to tell the > truth. > > I'm working very hard to create a really nice looking site that has > boatloads of functionality. > > One of the things that I've struggled with is the organizational > heirarchy of the site - both in terms of navigation and content > presentation. It's very hard. > > My greatest goal is to bring these heretofore disparate communities, > 6 of them with very different mindsets but one common passion of > working with dogs, together. > > I took that single mindedness and tried to force my needs, my comfort > zone and my goals on them, the enduser. It would have failed. > > I wanted a simple menu structure that presented content and access to > content from each community on each page. I wound up with a > convoluted and hard to follow menu structure, kind of like what is > currently on http://k9disc.com . > > It just wasn't compelling, and the goal of elegance and inclusiveness > trumped the usability of the site. If I would have stuck with that > model, my deep pocketed competitors would smoke me, of that, I'm sure. > > But stepping back and reevaluating my approach prompted me to make > some changes that were a bit uncomfortable for me personally, and for > my conceptualization of the project, but I got through it and think > that I have a much better shot at developing a vibrant and engaged > community as a result. > > I think that the videoblogging community, of the non-youtube sort, > have gotten stuck in line by line communication. That's how so many > of us communicate. It's also how the tools we use function. > > Look at this list. > > Look at twitter. > > Look at RSS. > > Look at the video blog. > > They're all the same. > > Not everybody likes the simplicity of twitter. > > Not everybody likes linear presentation of content. > > It's what so many of us know and understand, so it becomes what we do > and how we do it. > > Thinking about it, I think this has been a major factor in the > limited success of traditional videoblogging. > > Youtube won on presentation and community, and the presentation and I > believe the community developed out of the landscape layout - > relevant content on every screenshot, and the ability of every video > to stand on it's own. > > Ask a Ninja? > > Epic Fu? > > Rocketboom? > > Blip? > > All of them landscape (esque) with one video per page. Storytelling. > > I know they're shows and not really videoblogs, but they're > successful and well watched. > > Sure they have compelling content, but I think it has something to do > with presentation as well. > > peace, > Ron Watson > http://k9disc.blip.tv > http://k9disc.com > http://discdogradio.com > http://pawsitivevybe.com > > On Dec 10, 2008, at 10:56 AM, Heath wrote: > > > I have been doing a lot of thinking as I come close to my 3 year mark > > of vlogging. From the outset of vlogging almost everyone settled on > > the blog format for their site. And I think at that time it worked. > > > > However, now.....I am not so sure. I mean every time you make a > > video and post, that video moves down the list and soon it's off your > > homepage in some cases, never to be seen again. Now for some, maybe > > that is no big deal, but.....I think some of us all make a few videos > > that we are especially proud of, and in the current blog/vlog format, > > there is no easy way (I know we can sticky but if you sticky more > > than a couple no one will ever see your new content on your site) to > > show off those posts. > > > > It seems to me that there is a huge lack in the number of themes that > > take advatage of vlogging. I mean with the explosion of online > > video, you would think we would have more, but I only know of a small > > handfull and most of those you have to pay for. > > > > I am just curious as to what you all think? I just don't know....I > > mean part of me likes the blog/vlog format as it is, but I find > > myself longing for a different way to show off my video's moreso the > > ones that I want to showcase or ones that I am fond of...I mean I > > could revlog but.... > > > > So what do you all like and dislike about the current vlog format? > > What would you like to see? Just curious... > > > > Heath > > http://heathparks.com > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
