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CollegeHumor shuts down

washingtonpost.com

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Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#11

Post by ceejayoz »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #7
jannes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also blaming it on Facebook: > “In order to beat YouTube, Facebook faked incredible viewership numbers, so [CollegeHumor] pivoted to FB,” former CollegeHumor writer Adam Conover presciently tweeted last October. “So did Funny or Die, many others. The result: A once-thriving online comedy industry was decimated."

I don't understand this. Did they abandon Youtube for Facebook? They could have easily managed their followers in Facebook while continuing to upload to Youtube as usual.

It's not the uploading that's the problem, it's the budget you spend on getting new Facebook likes or YouTube channel subscriptions.

Buying Facebook likes looked like a wildly better investment, but that was an illusion.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#12

Post by ceejayoz »

tombert wrote: post #10
spamizbad wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They allegedly fell victim to the whole "pivot to facebook video" craze caused by Facebook misreporting their video engagement figures. Whether some business unit inside Facebook did this intentionally or not, it's a big reason why I think media companies have turned against Facebook as they feel like they got ratfucked.

Maybe this has already happened, but wouldn't this be grounds for a lawsuit? If businesses are going bankrupt because of outright lies or negligence on a company's part, I would think you have grounds for damages and class-action lawsuit. I'm speaking out of my butt here, I'm not a lawyer.

They got a tiny slap on the wrist. $40M.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/facebook-pay-40-mi...

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#13

Post by irjustin »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #7
jannes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also blaming it on Facebook: > “In order to beat YouTube, Facebook faked incredible viewership numbers, so [CollegeHumor] pivoted to FB,” former CollegeHumor writer Adam Conover presciently tweeted last October. “So did Funny or Die, many others. The result: A once-thriving online comedy industry was decimated."

I don't understand this. Did they abandon Youtube for Facebook? They could have easily managed their followers in Facebook while continuing to upload to Youtube as usual.

A large problem is content stealers. They'll post the entire video without attribution. Also Facebook for a very long time didn't do anything to prevent content stealing even with takedown notices there were too many. FB didn't have an automated system.

College humour was basically forced to put their entire video just to retain views.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#14

Post by chc »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #7
jannes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also blaming it on Facebook: > “In order to beat YouTube, Facebook faked incredible viewership numbers, so [CollegeHumor] pivoted to FB,” former CollegeHumor writer Adam Conover presciently tweeted last October. “So did Funny or Die, many others. The result: A once-thriving online comedy industry was decimated."

I don't understand this. Did they abandon Youtube for Facebook? They could have easily managed their followers in Facebook while continuing to upload to Youtube as usual.

To my understanding, what Facebook tried to present to online producers was that publishing native video directly on Facebook was insanely lucrative, not just that they should have a Facebook page.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#15

Post by echelon »

sitkack wrote: post #6

CollegeHumor had same damn well written, well produced comedic satire. I hope all of their material is archived. One thing to watch out for is if this posted under their Geuite account to YouTube, when the gsuite bill isn’t paid, all the YouTube videos will get deleted, leaving a cultural hole. Of all the Google crimes, this one is accidental but the most damaging to society.

YouTube deletes videos attached to corporate accounts if their bills go unpaid? Have they done this in the past?

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#16

Post by dmos62 »

sitkack wrote: post #6

CollegeHumor had same damn well written, well produced comedic satire. I hope all of their material is archived. One thing to watch out for is if this posted under their Geuite account to YouTube, when the gsuite bill isn’t paid, all the YouTube videos will get deleted, leaving a cultural hole. Of all the Google crimes, this one is accidental but the most damaging to society.

> the most damaging to society

While I agree that content archival is important, I would strongly argue that lost content is not on the same level as for example anti-competitive practices, even in terms of cultural impact.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#17

Post by ceejayoz »

sulkie wrote: post #9
jannes wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are also blaming it on Facebook: > “In order to beat YouTube, Facebook faked incredible viewership numbers, so [CollegeHumor] pivoted to FB,” former CollegeHumor writer Adam Conover presciently tweeted last October. “So did Funny or Die, many others. The result: A once-thriving online comedy industry was decimated."

Would there be significant disadvantages in using both platforms at the same time? Or does "pivoted to FB" also imply that the content was adjusted to FB audience?

Using, no, but at some point there will have been meetings about where to use the marketing budget.

"We can buy Facebook likes, or YouTube subscribers."

"Engagement's so much better on Facebook, let's buy likes."

Facebook's incorrect (dramatically so - as high as 900% inflated) stats made buying a like look way more cost effective, so that's where the budgets went.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#18

Post by brokensegue »

sitkack wrote: post #6

CollegeHumor had same damn well written, well produced comedic satire. I hope all of their material is archived. One thing to watch out for is if this posted under their Geuite account to YouTube, when the gsuite bill isn’t paid, all the YouTube videos will get deleted, leaving a cultural hole. Of all the Google crimes, this one is accidental but the most damaging to society.

Given the residual income from their back catalog I doubt anyone will let that happen.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#19

Post by tombert »

ceejayoz wrote: post #12
tombert wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe this has already happened, but wouldn't this be grounds for a lawsuit? If businesses are going bankrupt because of outright lies or negligence on a company's part, I would think you have grounds for damages and class-action lawsuit. I'm speaking out of my butt here, I'm not a lawyer.

They got a tiny slap on the wrist. $40M. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/facebook-pay-40-mi...

Thanks!

This is kind of depressing; I suspect that $40 million is barely a blip in Facebook's advertising budget, so the sad part is that this probably had almost-literally no effect on them.

I guess it's not a new thing for corporations to own the world, but it's always sad when I'm reminded of it.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#20

Post by awillen »

I remember when CH was just a site where people uploaded funny pics, and once in a while they had a well-written article. How far they came - sad to see them shut down.
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