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CollegeHumor shuts down

washingtonpost.com

151–160 of 226 posts

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#151

CollegeHumor did not shut down, from the article itself: “In words that I’m sure are as surreal to read as they are to type, I will soon become the new majority owner of CH Media,” said Reich, a longtime executive at CollegeHumor. “Of course, I can’t keep it going like you’re used to. While we were on the way to becoming profitable, we were nonetheless losing money — and I myself have no money to be able to lose.” Dr…

I think it will just basically become an archive and net passive ad income, but assume they won’t create any more content

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#152

CollegeHumor did not shut down, from the article itself: “In words that I’m sure are as surreal to read as they are to type, I will soon become the new majority owner of CH Media,” said Reich, a longtime executive at CollegeHumor. “Of course, I can’t keep it going like you’re used to. While we were on the way to becoming profitable, we were nonetheless losing money — and I myself have no money to be able to lose.” Dr…

BTW, Sam Reich also acted in a bunch of CollegeHumor videos (e.g. https://youtu.be/N0ps6HuThMs). Of any executives to have control of the company, Sam seems the most likely to preserve CollegeHumor's style.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#153

CollegeHumor did not shut down, from the article itself: “In words that I’m sure are as surreal to read as they are to type, I will soon become the new majority owner of CH Media,” said Reich, a longtime executive at CollegeHumor. “Of course, I can’t keep it going like you’re used to. While we were on the way to becoming profitable, we were nonetheless losing money — and I myself have no money to be able to lose.” Dr…

CH is passed on! CH is no more! CH has ceased to be! CH has expired and gone to meet 'is maker!

It’s pining for the fjords.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#154
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... and that's the meta-story. "Ad-supported business models are fragile."

Do you have a better business model that has been proven to work for monetizing the kind of content CH made? People won't pay for a subscription for that, people won't donate enough to keep the business afloat, and people don't actually want to use attention tokens/microtransactions. A lot of people claimed that these alternatives work, but I've yet to see a business prove that they actually work.

What about licencing? Think of it like Star Wars but comes with free movie tickets and makes the money from merchandise and licensing characters/artwork etc. to businesses that actually sell things.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#155
post #41
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…

substack FTW

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#156
post #149
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This isn't the first time Facebook killed culture You know, I never really thought about it this way, but the way you worded it is perfect. I talk about the "good old days" of the Internet, and it always comes down to Facebook ruining everything. I'd pin it around 2012. You're spot on though - Facebook outright murders internet culture. God, I despise that company and what it stands for so much.

One of the things I miss that Facebook killed is... Facebook. Prior to its attempt to dominate media sharing on the internet, most of the content I saw on Facebook was created by people I know, about their personal lives. People share far less content of that sort now, and the algorithm doesn't prioritize it when they do. Personal updates from people I actually know are probably reduced by an order of magnitude from…

Oh definitely, FB was the most amazing thing that I have ever seen for a few years. Instagram or any other social network never gave me the kick that FB used to give. It was like a new ability to browse the lives of the people you know.

I don't know what happen, maybe there's no money in this service maybe people simply got bored with each other's ordinary life.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#157

Wasn't Vimeo a byproduct of CollegeHumor or am I mixing up my 2000-2005 internet history?

Connected Ventures, the company that owned CollegeHumor and Bustedtees was acquired by IAC. At the time Vimeo was a side project of Jake Lodwick and was part of the Connected Ventures business, but it wasn't making any money and didn't impact the IAC acquisition price. Long story short, Vimeo's cost to operate became very expensive and started to impact Connected Ventures core business (CollegeHumor and Bustedtees). So Vimeo was spun out of Connected Ventures and made its own division in IAC.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#158
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this make an argument for crypto?

No, it does not in my opinion. What problem described above would crypto solve?

Patreon taking a cut and not allowing adult content.

Payment processing and facilitating has tangible expenses (cost) and payment processors do not want to get involved with any companies involved with sordid industries (higher fraud).

Patreon adopting crypto cuts out the middleman processor and solves both problems.

But crypto ia too user-unfriendly at the moment, so usage would be very limited.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's left of College Humor? The company.

And the name I guess. That's probably the main asset.

I don't think the name carries any value or even brand recognition. But the existing IP would be of value.

Re: CollegeHumor shuts down

#160
post #156
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things I miss that Facebook killed is... Facebook. Prior to its attempt to dominate media sharing on the internet, most of the content I saw on Facebook was created by people I know, about their personal lives. People share far less content of that sort now, and the algorithm doesn't prioritize it when they do. Personal updates from people I actually know are probably reduced by an order of magnitude from…

Oh definitely, FB was the most amazing thing that I have ever seen for a few years. Instagram or any other social network never gave me the kick that FB used to give. It was like a new ability to browse the lives of the people you know. I don't know what happen, maybe there's no money in this service maybe people simply got bored with each other's ordinary life.

I know what happened: Facebook decided to emphasize published content instead. There's evidently more money in that.

As a result, the algorithm is less likely to show my friends if I post a picture of my lunch, we're less likely to have a conversation in the comments about recipes or restaurants, and I'm less likely to bother posting the next one.

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