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CollegeHumor shuts down

washingtonpost.com

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Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#81

Post by justinhj »

echelon wrote: post #24

CollegeHumor is blaming this on Facebook for faking viewership numbers. This isn't the first time Facebook killed culture, and it won't be the last. We really need to de-platform or find a way Facebook can't steal value.

There are so many ways to make money without going near Facebook that this is a terrible excuse. If you have good content that brings in viewers there will be a way to monetize. Nobody is driving good content off the internet, collegehumor simply didn't keep up with what people wanted.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#82

Post by hawski »

yoz-y wrote: post #33

Why does the article start with a false premise that "internet used to be fun" and "bygone era". Come on, if you don't want to follow Twitter drama just go to some other place. Ugh.

I think I agree with you somewhat, but I think you can't argue that noise floor raised. Either way one must remember Sturgeon's law: 90% of everything is crap.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#83

Post by manigandham »

maemilius wrote: post #67
_ea1k wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it really matter? Why switch just for view numbers without a revenue model?

View numbers were the revenue model. Eyeballs make money for advertisers. The more eyeballs, the more money.

It didn't work out that way. The vast majority of these publishers were chasing views without any increase in monetization from their direct-sold campaigns. Add in the increasing cost to promote video on FB itself and they were constantly losing more money.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#85

Post by friedegg »

m-p-3 wrote: post #78
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.

Good to know, time to archive with youtube-dl and make a torrent out of it, and/or publish them on a PeerTube instance.

For the content creator, Google's Takeout service will give you an archive of your videos, so if you know you're shutting down, you can get them before then.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#86

Post by yoz-y »

hawski wrote: post #82
yoz-y wrote: post #33

Why does the article start with a false premise that "internet used to be fun" and "bygone era". Come on, if you don't want to follow Twitter drama just go to some other place. Ugh.

I think I agree with you somewhat, but I think you can't argue that noise floor raised. Either way one must remember Sturgeon's law: 90% of everything is crap.

Oh yes. I’m not contesting that. And I agree with the fact that the “good stuff” (from a geek’s point of view) is harder to find. I just don’t want to blame everybody for not sharing my interests and enjoying the Internet how they like.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#87

Post by blobbers »

xamuel wrote: post #39
echelon wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a false premise for many of us. I miss the indie internet, before big corps and big tech started taking over. I miss IRC and forums and personal websites. I miss the time when Digg was new and hadn't taken over, and memes weren't the most upvoted content. When websites weren't all Javascript and Google wasn't Yahoo. MySpace and LiveJournal and Xanga were never as sterile as Facebook and Instagram. The intern…

When I was growing up, I played on MUD games, which were text-based massively multiplayer games 100% free to play, with no ads or any other kind of monetization, with full staffs of admins, programmers (!!), level designers, and moderators, all 100% volunteers. Reading that now, it sounds like I'm describing some kind of crazy sci-fi utopia that couldn't even get published because it's too unbelievable.

It really does sound like a utopia. I was part of that community as well.

Perhaps when things are small and the people can relate to most of the people directly, they're able to act in a more altruistic manner.

When we explore this thought experiment further, it has pretty bad consequences for politicians at a national or global stage.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#89

Post by excursionist »

shawabawa3 wrote: post #79
synlatexc wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FB's measure of views was dubious (3 seconds, even if the audio was off). So the #s looked great for them, but in reality the majority of views were just glimpses as people scrolled through their news feed.

I don't understand why publishers moved everything wholesale onto Facebook without doing some research Why not put up a few videos and compare ad revenue? When it didn't add up they could just move back...

I assume facebook still pays for all views it counts, so there is no downside in terms of ad revenue for publishers.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#90

Post by coldpie »

Zhyl wrote: post #41
echelon wrote: post #24

CollegeHumor is blaming this on Facebook for faking viewership numbers. This isn't the first time Facebook killed culture, and it won't be the last. We really need to de-platform or find a way Facebook can't steal value.

Some content creators are already doing this. I'm seeing more spinning up their own newsletters or RSS feeds, patreons, direct donations, subscriptions services (or completely independent platforms). There is an awareness of the dangers of putting your eggs in one basket, let alone the dangers of putting them in a basket as opaque and uncertain as Facebook. CollegeHumor had a lot of hits and spawned some genuine tale…

> newsletters or RSS feeds

I'm still miffed that Firefox (et al) nuked the RSS feed button in the URL bar. RSS has a lot of problems, but we could have improved it instead of just giving up entirely in the face of shitty closed platforms like FB, Twitter, etc.

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