(cricket chirps)

Haha this could be like pulling teeth.

Well, I'm not a complete lurker, but I'm not the most vocal of sifters. I did post a couple of SiftTalk entries, but they never showed up...

Anyway, to celebrate Delurking Week, I've created a brand-new collective: 1stTube. It's a celebration of the era of television -- a technology that is soon to be as historic as the steam engine. All postings are welcome!

My name is Blocky.

And I am a "lurker"

My name is Dash...

Ah like lurkin' at all them videos.

*quality idea Dag and a nice tradition to start.



And Hey Blocky

Gold Star member swampgirl has awarded dag one published post for this quality Sift Talk contribution.

a video embedding site where you have to earn votes from existing members in order to join? where fedquip was lauded and then lambasted for some kind of dubious technical infringement? a community where other members can vote to ban you for posting the wrong thing?

cliquey? surely not!

clique (klēk, klĭk)
n. A small exclusive group of friends or associates.

Be a clique, or be YouTube, easy choice.

dag, how many members did we have sign up before introducing a "probation" status?

I think we were at around 3,500 when probation was introduced. We are just about to cross 7,000.

*ban them all!!!

dag cannot be banned because starred accounts are immune from banination. If you feel this account requires banination, please contact the administrators (ignoring banination request by gold star member grspec)

i mean.. welcome lurkers..

Need a larger announcement, more then just a text link, maybe a picture of someone unmasking or something.

i think there's a message on the front page if you are not signed in.

I do say the sift community is one tough nut to crack, I've been on the net for awhile and I can't say I've seen anything quite like it. I enjoy it here because the central sift community shares the same hobby as me..sharing videos, and this is by far the most elite group compared to any other vid sharing site (but dozens of new ones are popping up daily)

But it can be a difficult community to warm up to, When I first saw the collectives come up some months ago I could sense a great potential in growth. Instead of 1 community forming around the front page and top videos, there are now opportunities for 40 massive communities to grow around each collective.

Problem is lurkers can't become members of collectives without asking for an invitation, many internet lurkers are internet newbs and may find it difficult to join their choice collective.

I say disable the "invitation" option and allow users to one click join a collective.

Savvy Sifters PM me asking for an invite to my collective, yet the not so savvy sift newbs email me asking "how do I join your collective". Think of yourself as a newb and visit a collective that your not a part of, and imagine how you will join that collective.
http://www.videosift.com/collective

Anyway, from what I hear Sift 3.0 is going to correct that confusion? I predict a natural delurking at that time.

I got this one James. VS 3.0 eliminates the invitation system and membership in collectives. Collectives are still managed by gold stars, however.

Did I leave anything out?

Can we link this SiftTalk on the frontpage somewhere? I'm not sure there are too many lurkers that check in with the blog over here. Hell, even some of our members don't.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Yeah Fedquip & Dotdude - 3.0 will be doing away with invites. We're hoping it will move collectives toward full-fledged communities.

The main reason for this thread- was in response to some criticism that VS shuns outsiders. I don't see that myself, but I know stepping out in a community can be a sensitive time.

Karaidl, it's on the front page in the sidebar, at the top.

any place where a select few people have enormous diamonds next to their name is going to discourage people from even bothering to start trying. You need to have 2 ratings, one for all time history, one for "this month".

Also, remember that if you get more members, it gets less cozy, the injokes stop, and you spend your whole time talking to noobs while the pioneers of the community go off somewhere else quieter. Is that really what you want?

hehe, diamonds = discouraging? I don't think so... diamonds = motivation

it's only encouraging for a certain kind of person, say, the kind of person that gets in a group and then discourages other people from joining. et voila. I want my star, but then, i am a geek too. And i want to downvote some of the total shit around here!

Karaidl, it's on the front page in the sidebar, at the top.

Was that already there? Jesus, I'm unobservant.

I remember when I first got here and I lurked around for a while. I god the sense that there were a number of 'in jokes' and other things going on. But the way people here handled themselves did not discourage me from participating, rather it encouraged me.

I'm still not the most talkative person around here but I try to pipe up when I can and contribute as best I can. If we had a rampant problem with spiteful down-voting or something like that it would definitely turn people off.

Oh well, just my $0.02 CDN (almost as much as $0.02 US now!)

Just so every one knows: I'm not really a grumpy old bitch, I just play one on the Internet. I used to play the flirty whore and that got me in trouble, so...

Anyway, I'm always glad to see lurkers come out and comment or post. There are still several sites I where I lurk myself.

MLX was like Blanche Dubois before?

I don't really have a mullet.. It's a wig that got fused... oh nevermind. (But I do think there are some real life Morans around here sometimes)

I also don't think there are really cliques. Maybe up-your-vote-buddies which is pretty gay, but that is about it. I think it's a community of hit-and-run posters. It used to be fun to be outrageous, but I'm out of my league lately.

Speaking of spiteful down-voting, where is ant? (zing)

I recently delurked, and it's be fun! Several folks have been quite hospitable, as a matter of fact.

I do have a question though: is it possible to resurrect one of your own discarded sifts, once you have the queue space? I can understand you wouldn't want to allow this too soon after discarding, but is changing the source and the title the only way to do this? Thanks!

To answer your question, Woland, you don't have to change the source, but the title must be changed. It's not a big deal, though. Once it's submitted you can go back and edit the title to whatever you want, but the url will remain the same.

Also, a gold star can save your post, which will keep the votes and it doesn't matter if you have an empty queue slot or not.

Thanks karaidl!

Woland, to actually answer your question, no, you can not save your own videos that have been discarded. Let me know which one, and I can save it which resurrects it back to the queue. Then you can edit the embed or title, etc.

If it was a published video that was declared dead.. then you cannot ever save it (damn you siftlords!). If it was discarded from the queue or by you, then it will go back to where it was pre-discard. So, just resubmit the same video again (if it will let you as not a duplicate)

Woland, to actually answer your question

Ouch, JD. Ease up, I try.

(shhhh... i was making it look like there is no secret clique)

You know I love you still >:^o

Actually, as a fairly long-term member (I'm one of the "Joined for Jake" folks) I've often felt the place a bit "cliquey", although it's certainly not got anything to do with the friendliness of the folks. I just don't have the schedule to do a lot of posting of "diamond in the rough" videos, especially since it becomes harder and harder these days to find something classic that hasn't already been posted. I've commented billions times, been a member for 1 1/2 years, and done tonnes of voting both from the queue and from the front page. Hence it makes me wanna tear the hair from my (balding) head that I'm not even allowed to call a star-dead. Can't there be some sort of merit system for folks who can't spend their days searching youtube but who still are (relatively) respected members?

Oh, and *long.

Gold Star invocations (long) cannot be executed by coupland because coupland is not a Gold Star member - sorry.

P.S. Try harder... (I'm kidding.. or am I...)

It's not so exclusive as one may think around here. Cliquish? Only in the sense that there is a core group of members that are obsessive sifters

I'd like to say to the lurkers out there if you want to participate..then jump in. All it takes is posting and commenting. A LOT. Don't be discouraged by a dud...(just have a look at some of our discard piles

You can also mispell lots of words or downvote every other video. Then you're not just a member, you're an icon.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Coupland - I feel your pain. We've understood for a while that some of the best contributions come in the form of a comment.

I'm happy to say that in 3.0 there will be a system for rewarding comment contributing Sifters, and giving privileges based on that.

Hey Dag, thanks for that. Keep in mind that I'm not necessarily saying people should be "rewarded" for commenting, simply that at some point people have earned enough "trust" that they surely can flag a video as dead or as long. A lot of functionality has been disabled -- for good reason -- to prevent untrusted people from abusing the site. But surely trust can be earned without 250 accepted submissions. Just food for thought...

On the subject of alternate "rewards," might it be possible in the future to reward sifters for the quality of their posts as well as the quantity? Perhaps something like 1 published credit for sifts with 10-30 votes, 2 for 31-50, 3 for 51-80, 4 for 81-120, etc.? Thanks!

ack, Woland, we don't need to be rewarding Family Guy and Colbert clips.

LOL, good point. But aren't you rewarding those sorts of clips / sifters by focusing mainly on quantity? And aren't you encouraging "cliques" by rewarding the same 10-20 people who vote for every episode of Colbert, Daily Show, Family Guy, etc.? There will be hundreds of Colbert / Family Guy clips (considering they're daily / weekly shows) and they'll always get 10-20 votes, no?

How about something like counting a sift's "Times Favorited" but only allowing a certain number of times a member can favorite sifts each day?

Is it safe to say the community will be enriched by more 'good' quality (25+ votes) sifts, but could suffer from simply more of the same 'mediocre' clips over and over?

Just wondering if there are any plans for a "quality over quantity" measure in the future.

Thanks.

I mostly lurk here, figured it was just manners since I'm not posting the videos. Mostly I'm all business and concerned with the drug war and the media, in debate boards I'm pretty active but I've noticed in some cases and places I tend to silence rather than encourage the debate so I'm careful about where I jump in. That happens more where short notes rather than long sourced debates are common, short isn't my thing

Always happy to talk with anyone about the subjects I'm good at, but for the most part it would probably be better if I lurk outside of the occasional comment on a relevant video. I am glad you are thinking about the potential for cliquishness, seems a pretty good site and like you're keeping ahead of things to me though. Making a better effort than most at least.

It's weird for me cause I signed on May 19 of last year but didn't start posting vids till about a month ago when I finally got the interweb! I guess that makes me one of the oldest lurkers here. :0

So far when I've posted videos I get a little self conscious. (I think I've only had about 4 out of 18 or so vids on the front page.)
But then I ask myself "would I vote for it?"

After reading Brian's last two comments I am certain that he creates these posts just to hype up 3.0

So I don't completely understand the self posted rule for videos. There's some videos that I wish existed but I can't find them anywhere. So then I think 'hey I should just clip that from the movie, post it on YouTube and then submit it here!' Does that count or does it only apply to vids you film yourself?

DigitalAlloy, the key is that it is about finding cool stuff that other people posted on YouTube. Anything uploaded by you, to your YouTube account cannot be submitted to the sift (by you).

/wave lurkers

Wwlcome lurkers!

"I want my star, but then, i am a geek too. And i want to downvote some of the total shit around here!"

The problem is some people take a downvote personally, whenever I downvote I try my best to give an explanation, that way it's not taken as a personal dig but as respected criticism. Mainly however I'll just abstain from voting on purpose if it's not something to my liking.

Believe me though, spend enough time in the queue and you'll get your star!

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Fedquip: After reading Brian's last two comments I am certain that he creates these posts just to hype up 3.0

heh - I half to admit, I'm getting pretty excited about it. Lucky has done an amazing job - I can't wait to show everyone.

Where are those screenshots James promised us??

JoeDirt: If it was a published video that was declared dead.. then you cannot ever save it

OH HO!! Not if it discarded for being dead!!! What now, JD??!! Who's the fool now?!! Go ahead and cry.

ill get some up by 3 p.m. EST karaidl

i don't really understand why many people are angry with downvotes. i think that if everybody would downvote every video they didn't like, we'd have more accurate ratings. (of course, such a thing should happen, the points to be published should be lowered).

instead, if most sifters don't downvote, and only a few do this often, situation is a bit screwed up.

Are we there yet?

Is it soup yet?

I want my VS3 . . .

ahhhhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

(For the sèance)

i think that if everybody would downvote every video they didn't like, we'd have more accurate ratings.

I'm right there with you on that Looris, just remember to state your reason for downvoting. You don't know it, but sometimes your downvotes in particular confuse me more than Ant.

Work is sort of hectic, by 6 EST i swear

I'm right there with you on that Looris, just remember to state your reason for downvoting. You don't know it, but sometimes your downvotes in particular confuse me more than Ant.


Exactly it can be confusing so it's nice to give an explanation

i'm pretty sure v3 is going to be amazing

....."someone's humming.....honey, get the shotgun from behind the door......No, the kitchen door.....!"

lurker's beware.......Hey anyone ever hear this song???? Lyrics go like this...
You walk in the room
The music starts to play
The taste of Chardonnay is on your lips

Incense in the air
And candles everywhere
The big fish are all there for one more dip

I'm not part of you little scene
I'm not buying what you sell to me
You're so damn good
You've got it all down to a tee
I'm not part of your little clique
Your spaced out friends are gonna make me sick
Tell me great one
Tell me what it all means

You know it's time to leave
The who's who that you know
Are going to that show
You don't want to miss

And so your bed is made
You charm them all and trade
A cocktail and a line for a kiss

I'm not part of your little scene
I'm not buying what you sell to me
You're so damn good
You've got it all down to a tee
I'm not part of your little clique
Your spaced out friends are gonna make me sick
Tell me great one
Tell me what it all means

You don't know, but I'm on to you
You don't know, but I'm on to you

One of these days I'll post a video... but I rather enjoy just browsing the Sift when I can. That takes all of my time already!

. . . not sure a séance is a good idea . . .

http://www.videosift.com/video/Cereal-Poltergeist

Isle of Q - "Little Scene"

I don't think Snake is every coming back. Looking at his profile, he discarded all his queued all at once. He didn't just get bored, forgot, and never logged back on. He was intent on leaving.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

He hasn't come back yet - because we haven't proven ourselves worthy.

I'm flagellating myself right now.

As religious discipline, or for... other reasons?

I'm a lurker to Sift Talk. Though I visit videosift frequently and upvote videos and comment occasionally.

My first video went down like a lead balloon and my second just made it out of queue and was promptly downvoted. I'm still learning what other users find sift worthy.

I've got ten bucks that says Snake ain't ever comin' back. He discarded all his queued within two minutes of each other, and that was it, he never came back. Looks like one of you guys seriously pissed him off. Or something... Can't imagine why anyone would do that. I mean, sure, downtime makes sense to break the habit, but other than that, it's odd.

Is there a down voted hall of fame? Has there been a video so bad that it was down voted so many times it became notorious in some sick way?

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

DA, when videos get to -3 down votes, SiftBot automatically discards. Still, has to be pretty bad for that.

I have another question - Has any video ever been published and then downvoted until discarded?

There have been some notorious "downvote-pile-ons" that happened before SiftBot could act. I think the numbers were lower than "-3". One of the pilers might remember.

The second Gary Brolsma was published, but then there was a pile on. It was killed twice that night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gg5LOd_Zus

karaidl, this one was published, promoted twice and then downvoted.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Car-Jumps-150-Foot-Ramp

Someone should save it just for giggles.

Damn, isn't that incredible. Didn't think that could ever happen.

Some people, like myself, lurk because of boring paranoia. I read the del.icio.us "popular" feed, videosift top-ten, etc., but am too paranoid to submit much. Please do not think that a lack of participation means I'm not a fan of videosift. I'm just too frightened to construct a complete online identity. I have a feeling a lot of lurkers are the same. *geek

Gold Star invocations (geek) cannot be executed by bugmenot because bugmenot is not a Gold Star member - sorry.

I would call myself a lurker, I very much enjoy the site but I usually don't have the time to look for good videos very often and if I do find a nice one it is usually recommended by a friend or I see it on a blog or news page (as happened twice already this week after not at all for the last few months :-). Most times when I check the sift I just want to have a quick look at the new published videos or the Top 15 to get my mind off of my diploma thesis which is why I almost never comment since I'm in a more "passive" state then and I seldom feel I have something good to add to the comments of the clips.

Concerning videosift being "cliquey", I think that there is a very strong core of sifters who are omnipresent here, but I still think the community is open to everyone. My own experience was very good when I was greeted by Farhad2000 very shortly after submitting my first video.

I hope I'm a bit closer to being delurked now :-)

There were a few videos in the downvote hall of fame. The car jump one is still sitting at -2 with a few dozen downvotes. I saved it to pile more votes on

Hey we have over 7000 members now!

You don't know it, but sometimes your downvotes in particular confuse me more than Ant.

whoa glad to hear that!

I mean, not that I'm doing on purpose, but it's nice

but, seriously, when I don't give an explanation to a downvote it usually means "simply didn't like it". And it would be pointless to write such a comment.

some other times, I downvote a video that does not respect my "policy" (see my profile ) without explaining that, but that does not happen often (usually I do explain in this case).

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Tandriel - you are officially delurked [ticks sheet on clipboard]

Are you guys going to add "L's" next to "lurkers" screen names? . . . . . just kidding . . .

Alright, I admit it! I'm a lurker. I'm djsunkid's girlfriend, and he does the sifting around here. I'd rather watch the gems you guys find than try to find them myself. What can I say? I like to enjoy the fruits of other people's labor.

At first I didn't like the elitism I saw around here, but then I realized it truly is a meritocracy. I like that. Also, since my boyfriend is an avid sifter, I get to see more of the community than I otherwise would. If he wasn't so into it, I doubt I'd watch many of the videos at all, not to mention see the jokes, conversations and friendships that grow up around all this stuff.

I think this is a pretty cool place. I just tend to waste my time on the internet in other ways.

LOL, isn't that funny. Djsundkid made a fake screenname so he can pretend he has a girlfriend! Oh how sad... Sure, DJ, we believe you.

lol, no, she is real, really! real real real real REAL!

Well, here I am. I was told there would be punch.

MY PUNCH!! You DO NOT wanna take away my food!!

she is real, really! real real real real REAL!

Thou protests too much, methinks.

It's a little weird to be accused of being made up! Of course you're joking, but all the same... well... if you google "fullerenedream" I think you'll be satisfied. Or djsunkid will look like a very meticulous liar!

heheh, it's fun to protest too much

Ok, I googled it. Damn... have you bothered to NOT join any other online community? I think you might have some sort of compulsive disorder. In any case, this is your home now. You can't leave VideoSift, others have tried. You might as well go ahead and sever all ties with the outside world, and you'll probably never see DJ again in person, just on video chats.

*punch *party sandwiches *potato chips *lights down *music *disco ball

*BeeGees

Gold Star member dotdude has awarded everybody punch for this quality Sift Talk party.

"My first video went down like a lead balloon and my second just made it out of queue and was promptly downvoted. I'm still learning what other users find sift worthy."

well... who cares? put stuff here that YOU find siftworthy, then others decide whether or not THEY find it siftworthy.

My discard list sometimes looks better to me than my published list, and i like having a place to store these vids even if only 2 other people vote on them.

(by the way, don't post while america sleeps, you'll get 2 votes and then be off the queue page before morning)

(and join incredibly popular collectives, that makes a big difference)

(and make a playlist... i think playlists are the best thing here apart from the punch)

by the way, don't post while america sleeps, you'll get 2 votes and then be off the queue page before morning

Eh, I dunno about that. I'm in America, but I usually don't post until 11 pm or midnight, and I've had my fair share of Top 15's.

It's a little weird to be accused of being made up!

You know, sometimes I think that this entire site is nothing but Dag just making multiple accounts for all his split personalities to talk with one another, and I'm just a pawn in his demented little head game. But then I realize that I'm probably just paranoid and I go play Solitaire with Pokemon cards.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

That's just cyber solipsism, karaidl.

Actually, I'm really me - and Choggie is everyone else.

Dear Videosift,

I am hopelessly addicted and I love it.

Your pal,
berticus.

Good on ya, berticus.... @ 101 and room one oh one, you are in the right place.....Now....What is that greatest thing, that reeks of fear??

I wanna hear more from dj's sockpuppet gf!! (boy, that has double meanings)

Sockpuppet girlfriend... that's got chaffing written all over it.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Thanks for delurking, berticus - though it doesn't seem right that a bronze star coudl be a lurker

So concludes Delurking Week - thanks everyone.