Lost Video Island

SuperKC · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 2:31 pm Post subject: Slow Motion, Baby

Anybody else feel like this place has slowed down a lot? I know I don't post as much. What do you guys think?

lostcalier · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 7:40 pm Post subject:

The council feels like it has which laregly has had to do with the ever growing demand on the council and the increased lack of time E and I have for the site due to school for me and work for him. We're working hard now to try and find new ways to rejuvenate the site and get it back to its glory days. So we would appreciate feedback from all of you on what you think would make the site fresh and new again.

Don't worry the site will get back to it's glory days for the simple fact that the council still values excellence and the sites downturn has NOT gone unnoticed by us. We all refuse to give up on the site and I hold strong to the promise I made when the site first went online, as long as you guys keep sending vids I will find a way to keep it online and exciting. So no worries we may have hit a bit of a bump in the road but the council is working on some ambitious new plans that I think all of you will like. Just bare with us a bit longer while E and I try to free up some time to join the rest of our team in this effort to give you guys what you want.

Again, please tell us what would make the site fresh and new for you. LVI is here for you and because of you so your input is very valued. Thanks to all of you that will stick with us through this slow period and for those of you that decide to move on we've loved having you here and we hope you'll return once our new plans are activated and launched.
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SuperKC · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 8:45 pm Post subject:

I wouldn't know what has slowed it down as a whole. But I can try to tell you what's keeping me at bay.

Maybe I don't come as much because I don't vid anymore. And maybe I don't vid anymore because I was discouraged about the reception of my vids. What's the point in making something no one likes or comments on? You make a vid for fun yes, but also so other people will watch it. And the only way to tell who is watching is if they tell you so.

There is a divide between people here at LVI. There's the council, and the spammers, & everyone else. (Those first two groups overlap in a couple of instances.) But yeah that creates a divide. And even if I love you guys & think you're awesome/smart/creative, etc. it's still a bit of an "us" & "them" syndrome. It just happens when you create any kind of inner circle that separates the so-called elite from everybody else.

I know at first the purpose of the council was originally because there was limited space availability and it was necessary weed out the mediocre (or the downright ludicrous, let's be real) in order to save the space commodity for the very best and brightest. But now that LVI doesn't host vids at all anymore, it's still a bit of a mystery to me why the council isn't spending their time doing other things for the site instead of judging other people's vids and putting that oh-so-precious seal on the "right" ones. Every vid gets on the site whether or not they're crap anyway.

Honestly? I don't go to the main page to look at new vids. And I haven't since you introduced the message board link system. So truth? I never even know if anything I'm watching has a CP or not unless someone says so in a thread.

Why is it that you have to get volunteers to do basic site maintenence when you have so many "staff" members already? I mean, each council member could run their own monthly (bimonthly whatever) contests, or be making sure all the vids have working links (mine don't!), participating on the message boards a little more, making "vidder spotlight" pages (with interviews?), or creating their own personal recommendation links? If one or two council members made a "monthly recs" list with descriptions and reviews, that would be awesome and something I'd enjoy seeing a hundred times more than some gold banner.

So basically my theory is that there are better ways for the council members to tell us what vids/vidders are good than the tedious voting process.

I also think that you guys (council members) would probably comment more on vids if you hadn't already hashed it out amongst yourselves during voting. That would make some of the vidders feel a little more like they were a part of something rather than someone you guys didn't like enough to give a seal.

This may be the biggest bunch of nonsense you've ever read. And god knows I'm not like, personally offended by anything that happens on LVI. I just might feel like I can expend my creative energy elsewhere sometimes, is all.

I think you're all great, E, lc, Hobbes, Aislynn, Ruth, etc. etc. But what you're doing might not be creating the environment that we used to have here. I do miss it. Otherwise, I wouldn't offer up my opinion.

Polarbear · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:07 pm Post subject:

you're absolutely right., KC. We should be doing more for the site. Unfortunately everything goes through E and LC mostly so we can't do anything to the site on our own. And we have to pass every vid that comes in then vote on it which does take up a lot of time. I've often suggested some sort of reviews and comments on the site. I think that would interest people a lot more to browse there. But again this has to go through E. I am happy to write some reviews of vids. Thanks for the feedback.
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Fan4Lost · Advanced Vidder Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 2224

KC...I agree with a lot of the points you made. And it's not nonsense. I've only been here since January as a member, kind of lurking behind the scenes since November I think, but it does seem like LVI did get real slow all of a sudden. What happened? It seems weird to me. It's not like people don't see the site on search engines, it pops up right under Lost Media.

Okay, I'm going to say this one thing and this is just my honest opinion and thats all it is.

I love the show Lost, always have always will, but I've done so many vids to it that I'm bored of vidding for the show. I feel like maybe everyone is just on Lost vid overload and they're just kind of taking a break. I dunno what to think really.

I say, go ahead with possible incentives that might spark some excitement with the members and see what happens. But honestly, I think everyone is just burnt-out with school and work and home-life and such. Maybe once the weather gets nice, us nerds(speaking for only the people who consider themselves nerds, I for one am a nerd and proud of it) can open our windows and hear the birds chirping and feel the fresh air on our faces and maybe it will all come back again.

We can only hope

SuperKC · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:44 pm Post subject:

And as a nerd I assume you will open that window but don't you DARE go outside! You might get a tan or something. For shame!

Anyway, yay! People agree with me. I only hope what I have said can be of some help. If you guys aren't even having fun with the process, why not CHANGE IT?

lostzilla · Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2006 9:46 pm Post subject:

I think what you said is a great way to shake things up a bit. I'm a lil bit of lazy, I don't do stuff around the site much, but it's still a great idea. I completely agreed with the monthly recs, hell it should be weekly even.

so...E?, LC? what do ya think?
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Hobbes · Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:46 am Post subject:

Why is the process to blame for the fact that people don't review enough, or post their monthly recs? Hell, they have to watch videos already to vote on them, why can't they comment too? Frankly, for me, it's because of a few reasons: 1) I have too much else to do to even vote much in the first place 2) There aren't all that many videos I actually feel are worthy of commenting on, fair or not 3) saying nice things is hard, even for an absolutely exceptional video. Just saying "I loved it! Or it' was great!" isn't even a worthy comment in my book, since you don't even really have a reson for it, and it could just as soon be a lie as a serious comment. And before you say I could just poist my completely honest comments, I don't think I'd want to, it's not worth it unless someone asks for my opinion, which they do in the Self Help forum.
The seals are something I don't see LVI losing. They are the only thing that makes LVI special from all the other vidding communities out there, and they're the one thing that strives vidders to make their vids good and original, not just a standard Jate 101 vid, or worse... Sure, it's a pain in the ass to vote on them, but that's the Council's job, and there's not all that much else for us to do! If we didn't have that, we wouldn't even have a council (for better or for worse...).

MovieGuy · Advanced Vidder Joined: 09 May 2005 Posts: 9022

I'm getting a little sick of Spammers being called a clique like this. Like Warren said, we accept all. If you make an effort and talk to us we accept you. Example: Steph

Because we're nota clique. A clique thing is something like a club I think

Wait... I'm confused as to what is a clique

marcus · Expert Vidder Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 4541

I'd just like to say I still love LVI and the reason I haven't posted as much is I've been so damn busy outside of LVI...but the holidays are soon, so I'll post a lot more then.

I'm definetly not leaving LVI though. Not even if Lost suddenly went on a hiatus for 12 years.

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It's official - Aislynn is 36. Add a 0 to the end of that and you've got a full circle.

marcus · Expert Vidder Joined: 28 Jun 2005 Posts: 4541

Polarbear · Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:08 am Post subject:

Flirting with me is a good way to get in to spam club

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Fan4Lost · Advanced Vidder Joined: 12 Jan 2006 Posts: 2224

I guess I'm in then?

SuperKC · Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:09 am Post subject:

RE: SPAMMERS I didn't mean to suggest that you guys were some closed off clique. But you guys are separate from the average user in some way and you can't honestly deny that. You all have a bond and if a person doesn't have the time to sift through all of the spam messages posted in one day it's hard to get in there. I'm not saying its not possible, or that you guys are mean about it at all. It's just one of those things. And it's not something that we can (or would want to, I hope) change. You guys are just one factor. And not a major one. I barely even mentioned it and I only did so because I was mentioning the council and everyone else and then realize there was "technically" a third sub-divide of spammers.

Hobbes, I don't plan to force anyone to do anything. I was suggesting that you guys WOULD have more time to A) Comment (if you saw fit) and B) Run other things if you weren't voting for CPs constantly. More than one of you have in some way hinted (whether inentional or not) that it's a tedious and not fun process. I am simply suggesting alternatives.

Also, if you think those CP seals are the ONLY thing that separates LVI from all the rest of the fodder out there then I have to disagree wholeheartedly. First of all its comprehensive, well organized, well designed, well mantained, well taken care of, and all of this would be true even without CPs. You folks take pride in your work, and as I said, CPs are not the only way you can spotlight good vids and vidders.

You said that no one is stopping the council members from running other things, I was saying that it was the tedious, time consuming process that you guys have set up that was stopping you guys. It can have a way of making a fun thing more like work.

I might agree with your sophomore slump analysis. However, fact is? LVI (at least the forum) has never been one of the "Popular Kids" when it comes to the rest of the Lost fodder out there. I mean, just take a sideways glance at LM even on its slowest day. We've never had volume like that and I'm not sure we ever really wanted it. (At least I feel from past conversations that that is the general consensus.) We've always been a mostly small, but dedicated group. The reason is that the site satisfies a particular niche. A particular brand of fan. Which is a good thing, in my opinion.

Change isn't always bad. Adaption is good. Overall my message is this: Back when you started judging vids it was on such a small scale. Now it has grown to huge proportions and you guys are still trying to do things in the same way. (Although you have changed the mechanics of it, it's still the same basic principle.) Something's gotta give!

Now I'm going to be honest. I feel like your message to was a little defensive and kind of hostile, but I didn't mean to incite that in you and so I'm going to leave it alone. I really didn't mean to put you on the defensive and I'm sorry if I have. Hobbes, I have been with this site since practically the beginning. You know as well as anyone that I value your work especially as well as the rest of the council. Please don't take any of this as anything more than what it is, which is just an opinion about what you guys could do differently. And not about your intentions or whether or not it is "right" or "wrong."

Because in the end? Council or no Council, CPs or no CPs, this site is a real achievement. You've put a lot of heart and sweat into it. You all should be proud.

Hobbes · Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:33 am Post subject:

Well, I'm almost glad you noticed that I was being defensive, because I was. I'm sorry to say it, but I'm a little irritated with the fact that your suggestion on how to make the site better is, in my opinion, very close to "scrap everything that's happened since the beginning of 4.0 and make it back like the old days".
What you suggest is impractical with the high number of videos and vidders we have now.
Even though there are plenty of other things we could be working on, the Council Pick is the only thing that gives order to these vids, and keeps the best getting the attention they need. It's the only thing that seperates the most original and well-made vids from the rest of the mob. We could write up "vidder spotlights" or more reviews, but we can't do any of that on the main site easilly, not without some major site changes anyway. And it seems to me that you have some very big antagonisms to that whole process of picking the best videos. I can understand your frustration with the fact that your talents aren't being recognized to their full extent, but I think you're being unfair. The voting process may take a while, but only as long as watching the individual vids anyway

Then it's up to the council members themselves to comment on the vid or not. Practically, stopping voting wouldn't save any time for us, we'd still be watching all the videos (or trying to). And it may suck having to watch the crappy ones, and suck even more turning down a vid that is so close to getting a CP, but it's still the biggest thing LVI does for these vids (fine, it's not the only thing, excuse me for using a hyperbole) and I for one am very glad that we do it. Maybe the little CP isn't enough, but there has to be something.

Things are changing... the little site is becoming a big one

it's got it's downsides, particularly the fact that it's not quite so "cozy" anymore, but what can we do? People are gonna come in, we're gonna need some sort of means to sort these things to keep the vids from becomming a swarm only distinguishable by the occasional well-known vidder (meaning any good vidder who isn't well-known will almost-never get noticed).

I'm sorry for sounding ticked off and defensive, but I was. It's just that everything I thought was great about LVI was just... well... said wasn't great. I don't know the solution to this funk, or if there even is a funk, either.