John Holmes Motherfucker  - 2019-06-13
A few years ago, I found a site that was supposed to select and play a completely random video from the totality of YouTube when you clicked on a link. It sounded intruiging. What undreamt of randomness would be revealed. But nearly everytime I clicked on the button, it was a gaming video, which to me is about as interesting as watching a test pattern. I clicked and I clicked and it was (almost) always the same. Assuming the site works as advertised (perhaps a lot to assume), I have to conclude that there is a vast repository of gaming videos making up the bulk of youtube, hidden to me, perhaps to many.
So, in the great scheme of things, if Logan Paul has 8 million subscribers, and there are 8 million gamers cranking out videos, which is more important, as an "Influencer"? Logan Paul is easier to quantify, easier to exploit, easier to talk about. You can see his numbers right there on the page. But the high scores are one meaurement of many. Some of my you tube videos get a handfull of views, but I feel like I've been a big influence on myself.
i think Lindsey is making too much of "authenticity". It's all about intimacy. Ten years ago in December, when I first saw Boxxy, I was suddenly aware of the personal implications of the new technology. I'd seen people talking directly to the camera my whole life, but you knew there was always someone else working the camera, if not a whole crew in the control. But this was one person, apparently alone in room with a camera. And I was sitting there at my one person screen. When she looked directly at the camera, my heart sort of jumped.
But it wasn't authenticity. Boxxy was a fake persona, based, I believe, on an anime character, her avatar of "Gaia online". She wanted to do other things, and whebn she returned to the web, she had to contend with the backlash fans who wanted all Boxxy, all the time.
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Old_Zircon - 2019-06-14 "Authenticity" is a buzzword used to sell Mexican food to hipsters.
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John Holmes Motherfucker - 2019-06-14 In the case of Mexican food, "authenticity" is a valid term with a definite meaning. In a youtube video, it can mean anything. Authenticity can't be manufactured. It can be captured, sometimes by accident. When Bill Clinton was forced by the semen-stained dress to own up to his affair, there was a moment, right at the beginning of his national address, when the camera seemed to come on a second earlier than he anticipated, and during that second, he seemed utterly terrified. THAT was the authentic part of the speech.
Even in cuisine, authenticity isn't everything. There's an excellent Chinese restaurant not far from me, where one side of the menu is AUTHENTIC Chinese food, and the other side is Americanized Chinese food. I learned very quickly to stay on my side of the menu.
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John Holmes Motherfucker - 2019-06-14 After I posted the original post, I took a quick look back at catiewayne.com. There are still people there. Catie's gone, and so am I. I'm sure she finds it almost as embarassing as I do.
Anyone who thinks my obsession with a youtube girl who biologically young enopugh to be my grandaughter was creepy... Well, I don't see it that way, but I get it. If you think it was weird... it sure was!
But it was also a real window into the new world of the new century, a seminal moment in internet culture that I got to see, close up and in real time. It was an early preview of issues that would become important of everyone in the future. Before Gamergate, I got a sense of the harassment of women and the antifeminist beginnings of the Alt/Right. This isn't my obsession anymore, but it is still my education, my area of experitise.
It also gave me a sense of possibility. The most undervalued aspect of YouTube isn't always measured in what gets the most views, it's the infinite possibilities... what can be done with it, what can happen, what can be discovered.
More recently, crowd-funding has freed content creators from the the need to click-bait and crank out shitty reactionary videos that led to some assholes putting out 14, 15, 16 dumb videos about Anita Sarkeesian. Now we're getting videos by Lindsey Ellis and H. Bomber Guy that are much more thoughtful and well-researched than almost anything you'll see on commercial television.
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casualcollapse - 2019-06-17 I found a app for Android that allows me to search videos by amount of views, a lot of video games there too but also a lot of good stuff
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casualcollapse - 2019-06-17
You guys are great and I'm five starring this shit because it fucking deserves it
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