[Rant] Minor Rant III: For a Few Hollers More

[GasBandit]

Or you know, it was related content.

↑↑This statement and this one ↓↓ are in contravention.

Automated Google has no idea what the content of the video is

When used properly, a video reply was a handy way for youtube's automation to stick related content in the sidebar of a video. That's going away now, which will make the system less successful/efficient at providing related content, same way as removing a screwdriver from a toolbox makes you less successful at driving screws. Oh, there are other ways, you can try to do so with a hammer (content tagging) or a pocket knife (relying on eventual comments from users who may not ever find your video in the first place), but it just doesn't work as well.

Really, all they needed was a "flag this video as Reply Girl" button, like they do for spam comments, and the userbase would've largely police it for them.

 

[GasBandit]

But what's really worrying is that this is the latest action in a noticeable trend of google actions that has progressed over the last few years, IE, when something that has a genuine use isn't quite going the way they think it should, they just scrap it rather than fix it or spin it off. The cynic in me think they're going to, as Stienman alludes, put more of their eggs in the Google+ basket, eventually stripping all the navigational components out of youtube itself and relying on social distribution through Google+ to disseminate youtube content. IE, if you aren't subscribed to a channel, the only way you might learn about content in that channel is directly through word of mouth - Google+ or other social/newsfeed sharing services.

 

[Gared]

Well then I guess it's good for me that we have an Awesome Videos thread. Though, to be honest, most of my non-pron internet video viewing goes to Wimp.com, or videos on FailBlog.org.

 

[GasBandit]

Well then I guess it's good for me that we have an Awesome Videos thread. Though, to be honest, most of my non-pron internet video viewing goes to Wimp.com, or videos on FailBlog.org.

That's kind of like saying "I don't care about problems with the wheat harvest, I get my bread at the store." I, too, get most of my videos from alternate websites/RSS feeds like the various Cheezburger sites (of which failblog is a part) or the DailyWhat copycats. The problem is, somebody had to send them those videos too, and somebody had to send THOSE people the videos too, and if you keep going up the chain far enough you'll get to the video being found by somebody navigating around on youtube (which is getting more and more difficult to do these days) finding interesting things by happenstance - aided by connecting the dots of related content.

If you ask me, instead of all the other good stuff they've shut down, Google should have just dropped Google+. It was a bad idea, and a poorly timed one ("Let's launch a social website at the height of Facebook's popularity, directly in competition with it!"), and yet they keep putting more and more of their eggs in that basket, breeding resentment from people who liked using things like Google Apps, Google Reader, and Youtube without having to strip naked and get on the Probulator for Google+. NO I DON'T WANT TO USE MY REAL NAME, YOUTUBE. Sheesh.

 

[PatrThom]

But what's really worrying is that this is the latest action in a noticeable trend of google actions that has progressed over the last few years, IE, when something that has a genuine use isn't quite going the way they think it should, they just scrap it rather than fix it or spin it off.

If I ever rag on Microsoft for anything, it's their habit of being Microsoft, where they release a product designed for a preconceived market segment with a cultured* usage model, but if consumer sentiment starts to drift from its preplanned destiny, they stubbornly try to push it back to match the prepackaged existence they had planned out for it.

*like pearls, not like bourgoise.

(link to above post)

--Patrick

 

[Gared]

That's kind of like saying "I don't care about problems with the wheat harvest, I get my bread at the store." I, too, get most of my videos from alternate websites/RSS feeds like the various Cheezburger sites (of which failblog is a part) or the DailyWhat copycats. The problem is, somebody had to send them those videos too, and somebody had to send THOSE people the videos too, and if you keep going up the chain far enough you'll get to the video being found by somebody navigating around on youtube (which is getting more and more difficult to do these days) finding interesting things by happenstance - aided by connecting the dots of related content.

If you ask me, instead of all the other good stuff they've shut down, Google should have just dropped Google+. It was a bad idea, and a poorly timed one ("Let's launch a social website at the height of Facebook's popularity, directly in competition with it!"), and yet they keep putting more and more of their eggs in that basket, breeding resentment from people who liked using things like Google Apps, Google Reader, and Youtube without having to strip naked and get on the Probulator for Google+. NO I DON'T WANT TO USE MY REAL NAME, YOUTUBE. Sheesh.

You do realize that I am most definitively NOT a part of the YouTube target audience, mmmmyes? That's all I was saying.

 

[Azurephoenix]

That's what the sidebar is for.

Often times I found things as video replies that never came up in the sidebar.

 

[GasBandit]

You do realize that I am most definitively NOT a part of the YouTube target audience, mmmmyes? That's all I was saying.

Yes. I was trying to convey that it also affects people who watch videos but don't necessarily go to youtube.

 

[Gared]

Ok, I can see that possibility.

 

[Bubble181]

Plenty of different problems going on.

1. "the community policing itself" isn't working on YouTube, and it is failing more and more all over the internet. No offense, but there's a reason there's more and more laws being enacted to control the net. Partly because, you know, Big Evil Corporations and greed and control and all that, but also because self-policing just plain doesn't work in a large and anonymous group. It works very well in smaller communities like this forum. It works like crap-hell in huge and completely anonymous seas like YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, Digg, 4chan and what else. If "the community" worked, YouTube comments wouldn't be the ocean filled with pig shit that they are.

2. The drive to real life IDs is all across the 'net, and Google is taking a lead because they can. Blizzard tried it to, and was called out for it. Google is being more insideous about it - most people accept using their real name on a Facebook or G+ account. Linking that account to their videos, pictures, and so on seems to make sense and be "convenient" (which I suppose it is), but it's also horrible and bad.

3. More and more, the major corporations are being help responsible for "their" content. Be it youTube/Google, ISPs, and so on - they're being held accountable and being forced to cooperate with law enforcement (and they're playing along by trying to get more say over content and such - a mistake on their part as far as I'm concerned). It makes sense that the more they get held accountable, the more control they want and the more restrictions they'll implement. Google isn't free and never has been - and they haven't been the small sympathetic company fighting the big brands for years. They've mostly just managed to keep a good corporate image. If it was up to Google, I assure you, the only thing we normal people would upload would be America's Funniest Home Videos, and we'd all be tuning in through YT to watch TV. This whole community building thing and such isn't (necessarily) in their own interests.

 

[GasBandit]

Plenty of different problems going on.

1. "the community policing itself" isn't working on YouTube, and it is failing more and more all over the internet. No offense, but there's a reason there's more and more laws being enacted to control the net. Partly because, you know, Big Evil Corporations and greed and control and all that, but also because self-policing just plain doesn't work in a large and anonymous group. It works very well in smaller communities like this forum. It works like crap-hell in huge and completely anonymous seas like YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, Digg, 4chan and what else. If "the community" worked, YouTube comments wouldn't be the ocean filled with pig shit that they are.

I don't agree. The "Mark as spam" mechanism in youtube comments seems to actually do a fairly good job given enough time. It does decrease spam in all but the most inundated video comment threads. As for the rest of it, really what tools do they have to self-police? If I'm on 4chan and I see something that needs to go away, what can I do other than "SAGE" in every field, for all the good that does? You're saying something doesn't work when it hasn't even been tried to a real extent in most of these venues yet.

 

[Gared]

Ok, before, I have to admit, I wasn't all that annoyed at Google. Let's face it, I'm not the target audience for YouTube, and there's only so much that I have the capacity to care about when it doesn't affect me directly. But now? Now I'm annoyed at Google. What the f*ck did they do to Google Maps, and why the f*ck did they do it? Whatever happened to it saving my home location and giving me step by step directions and the Google Earth-like satellite view? We're f*ckin' goin' backwards here Google. Are you trying to compete with Bing by being as useless as they are? Now I have to choose to open specific portions of the directions in order to see those steps. What the hell good is "Take I-5 S/SR 8/ state route 8/ and Olympic Hwy to Washington 109 N" if I don't know which exits to watch for?! They change road names around here faster than the weather changes. Hell, the name of the street that I live on changes 3 times in the 2 miles it takes me to get to the bottom of the hill I live on, without turning or even curving slightly once! And now I can't click on the map and scroll with the scroll wheel to zoom?!

Sergey Brin needs to get his ass back home and stop cavorting all over the globe visiting NK and recovering the Saturn 5 rocket engines and get his shop back in order.

 

[GasBandit]

Quickly turning this into the "Google's slowly turning evil" thread...

More evidence of the paradigm shift I'm certain has been taking place behind google for the last few years.

"That thing we do? You know? That gave us all the google applications you love most about us? Yeah, we're not gonna do that any more, because we're (flips through management terms for dummies book) leveraging productivity to synergize just-in-time delivery of b2b fortune 500 cloud applications."

 

[figmentPez]

Quickly turning this into the "Google's slowly turning evil" thread...

More evidence of the paradigm shift I'm certain has been taking place behind google for the last few years.

"That thing we do? You know? That gave us all the google applications you love most about us? Yeah, we're not gonna do that any more, because we're (flips through management terms for dummies book) leveraging productivity to synergize just-in-time delivery of b2b fortune 500 cloud applications."

Sounds like a good way to:

• Burn out employees faster
• Limit expansion/diversity and become more vulnerable to unexpected shifts in culture
• Reduce chances to earn goodwill from the public
• Change current image as an innovative company

I'm not sure this is so much "evil" as it is "stupid".

 

[Shawn]

A guest is going to write up a negative review of me and the hotel because we don't offer comp upgrades for people grieving over a dead coworker.

 

[DarkAudit]

A guest is going to write up a negative review of me and the hotel because we don't offer comp upgrades for people grieving over a dead coworker.

If it makes you feel better, I wouldn't do it here either.

 

[Sparhawk]

A guest is going to write up a negative review of me and the hotel because we don't offer comp upgrades for people grieving over a dead coworker.

WTH? Really. The two times I stayed at a hotel for a funeral, I wasn't in the hotel for anything other than bathing, sleeping and getting dressed. The room didn't matter. Geez, the nerve of some people.

 

[Gusto]

Hahaha, what the hell. As long as they list that reason in their review, I'm sure no one reading it will give a shit.

 

[LordRendar]

I hate waking up at 4 am for work. It is the worst.I can work till 4 am no problem,but getting up? Nope.

 

[LittleSin]

Fuck.

I finally get an interview, it goes well, but now they want my references. So, I haven't worked in, like, four years. My references are pretty thin. SO I give them two of the ones I thought were guaranteed

They are asking for a third. I don't have a third.

Fuuuck.

 

[Bones]

does it have to be work? I am pretty sure most of us on here would vouch for you.

 

[Officer_Charon]

I would be more than happy to... provided they don't mind the opinion of a 'Murican...

 

[Chad Sexington]

Fuck.

I finally get an interview, it goes well, but now they want my references. So, I haven't worked in, like, four years. My references are pretty thin. SO I give them two of the ones I thought were guaranteed

They are asking for a third. I don't have a third.

Fuuuck.

does it have to be work? I am pretty sure most of us on here would vouch for you.

Yeah, this. Can you give them a close friend? Or any of us: I'm in Canada and can vouch for you as a reliable person, friendly, personable, raising a magical son...

 

[Emrys]

Fuck.

I finally get an interview, it goes well, but now they want my references. So, I haven't worked in, like, four years. My references are pretty thin. SO I give them two of the ones I thought were guaranteed

They are asking for a third. I don't have a third.

Fuuuck.

If you can use it, find someone you know who can speak to your character. The person should be able to mention how organized you are, that you can follow through on scheduled actions, and can find good solutions when things don't go exactly as planned. They should be able to say that you're friendly, level-headed, competent, intelligent, reliable, and won't post embarrassing pictures on Facebook.

 

[PatrThom]

If you can use it, find someone you know who can speak to your character. The person should be able to mention how organized you are, that you can follow through on scheduled actions, and can find good solutions when things don't go exactly as planned. They should be able to say that you're friendly, level-headed, competent, intelligent, reliable, and won't post embarrassing pictures on Facebook.

You should leave out the part about how this reference is breeding a doomweasel army, however.

--Patrick

 

[LittleSin]

I e-mailed them back asking if a personal reference would satisfy.

Received no answer.

Sadness.

Thank you for all the volunteers, though!

 

[Shakey]

I e-mailed them back asking if a personal reference would satisfy.

Received no answer.

Sadness.

Thank you for all the volunteers, though!

Lie and make a friend a work reference. Worst that could happen is you don't get the job. Best is they don't call them at all.

 

[Ravenpoe]

I was once a reference for myself. At the time I had a spare cellphone, and put on a fake accent...

I gave myself a glowing reference, and got the job.

 

[AshburnerX]

I was once a reference for myself. At the time I had a spare cellphone, and put on a fake accent...

I gave myself a glowing reference, and got the job.

Considering that was an awful plan and you still pulled it off, I'd say you deserved it.

 

[PatrThom]

I can totally see that working if you were going into Marketing.

--Patrick

 

[sixpackshaker]

The stray pig in my neighborhood has gotten under my house twice this week and knocked out my A/C. I am about to put that fucker in the ground over some coals.

 

[drawn_inward]

Stray pig? I thought you lived in Texas not Vietnam.

Save some chicharones for me!

 

[sixpackshaker]

Spoiler

Another rant, my dog keeps running off and not eating his meals. So that is why is is rail thin now, and that is why the pig keeps coming over to eat his meals.

 

[GasBandit]

When you plaintively yowl at me, by name, from 2 rooms away that "this thing isn't working," then flee the scene with a flustered "it's going crazy I gotta go," and disappear... and I can't find anything obviously wrong with the computer, do you really expect me to be able to fix your issue?!

 

[Sparhawk]

When you plaintively yowl at me, by name, from 2 rooms away that "this thing isn't working," then flee the scene with a flustered "it's going crazy I gotta go," and disappear... and I can't find anything obviously wrong with the computer, do you really expect me to be able to fix your issue?!

Why, yes. Yes they do. I mean there isn't anything wrong with what they are doing, it's all the wibbly-wobbly computer stuff that's messing up.