Commenting on the Comments
Posted February 29th, 2008 by Matthew in RantsOkay, so we’re chatting in the latest video about the comments section and trying to make it less insular and more open to new folks jumping in. Thanks to Ryan for bringing this up, as I think it’s definitely something to chat about. Lisa brought up the great suggestion of establishing a forum on the site, and that leads into a much larger discussion. But first, I wanted to touch on this idea of establishing a forum for the original FOG’s (friends of g14). I think it would make sense to set up a forum if we had a bigger audience. Otherwise, it’s just a space for Jessie, Ndr, and probably Jeff to chat with each other during the day. And they have Facebook to do that. There is actually a discussion board on the g14 Facebook page.
So, it’s a balancing act. Because I really don’t want the comments to drop off on the videos, but I would love for them to stay on topic about the videos. Which may let other new people feel more comfortable coming in and leaving comments.
There’s also the idea that a lot of our audience actually exists outside of the general online audience. Meaning, they aren’t the type of folks that jump on and comment on a web video. In looking at your own online habits, how many other online non-viral videos do you watch per day? Per week? And how often do you actually leave comments for them? For myself, it is a very rare occurrence, and my job is in the Web 2.0/New Media space.
Which is fine, obviously all we really care about is people watching and enjoying the videos. However, in lieu of a live audience or Nielsen ratings, we rely on comments to see that there are indeed people outside of our friends who watch these things. Right now, I rarely see that. Which, again, is fine because we’re really only making these for fun. If we were trying to justify Insert Show Here as something for a sponsor to get behind, something for us to make money off of, then I would be worried, because in the New Media business space comments often reflect popularity and loyalty. And while there is obviously some fierce loyalty being reflected here, there’s not enough volume, variety, and diversity in the comments and the audience to make us commercially viable. Again, for Insert Show Here, this isn’t really important, but when we launch the new show, it will be critical.
So, those are my thoughts right now. I’m all for Ryan’s idea of sending the word out about the show, whether we give you a hat or not. I think that ISH spreads well via word of mouth, but I would love to actually see evidence of that in our comments section for each video. We don’t do this for money, we don’t even do it for praise. We do it for ourselves, and for our friends, and for that larger group of friends that we haven’t met yet. Don’t worry, we’ll always love you all best though.
Matthew
February 29th, 2008 at 10:43 am
i for one watch maybe a dozen viral/online videos a week… sometimes more if its a channel 101 week, because a lot of my friends make a lot of videos… however, if i’m watching a video that a friend of mine made and is in i’ll comment (but sometimes directly to them and not on the site that the video is on) but if i’m watching a video someone sent me, or even a “series” that i like- i won’t comment unless i have something very specific to say…
whenever a g14 piece goes up that i’m not in, i post it in several locations… whenever a g14 piece goes up that i am in i post it in those locations, plus a few others and i send an email out to my friends and family who want to see me in films… typically i get a lot of comments back from people in either case (moreso when i’m in them obviously because they’re my friends) but they don’t write comments here at all because like me, its usually more important that my comment gets back to the one person i know who is involved and i don’t bother with the general thread of comments, most of the time i don’t even read them. i only read the comments and respond to them here because i know who is involved. otherwise i wouldn’t feel the desire to. i’m just being honest.
i think if you want more people to write comments there should be a little image of some verbage along the lines of “If You’re New To This Site and You Enjoyed The Video You Just Watched, Please Please Leave Us a Comment- We Thrive On That Sort Of Thing!” or if you just want to know how many people are watching the video, there should be a counter for how many times each video has been played, similar to youtube. also youtube is a completely different game and MANY strangers comment on MANY videos because that’s how its all set up… on my silly lip-syncing videos, i check every week or so to respond to comments being added by strangers every day which is the result of some whoring of my stuff i did when i first added it… and again, i’m much more likely to leave a comment on a youtube video than on a short film group’s actual website. regardless of the comments below the video, i guess i just see the youtube as less “personal” and therefore more “safe” to leave general comments to strangers. i’m not sure what the answer is though- that’s just my two cents.
February 29th, 2008 at 10:49 am
and one more thought: when i post a g14 video with link into a thread on say, the channel 101 forum for my friends, after they watch the video they comment in the thread i started… same with if i post it on myspace, my friends comment directly on myspace… so i don’t know if i should forward any non-justpraisetome comments onto the comments section or to the group or if when i post the video in other places i should write something like “if you liked the video or have any comments, please leave your comments on the actual g14 site and not back in this thread”… but i’m not sure how that would work if i just had a friend who wanted to write something bland like “good job cassandra!” which no one is interested in reading…
February 29th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I wonder if there is a way to use a permalink so that folks are directed to watch the video on the site and can comment here (as opposed to the various pages across the interwebs)? I appreciate you posting on your vaious network sites Cassandra, but maybe to gear up for that new show we’re launching in the very near future, we can provide a link to this site so we begin to gather the audience that will really make this a success? Just a thought…
February 29th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
but that’s kinda what i’m saying… when i post the videos around in the many online locations, i typically embed the blip version and provide a link to insertshowhere at the bottom… so the permalink is always there… i could always stop embedding and only provide the link but i feel that on forums and places like that people might still be more likely to post their comments in the threads of the forums i’m posting it in, even after they’ve come to the g14 page to watch them… but if it was something everyone wanted me to do i could write something along the lines of “please post any comments on the actual g14 site and not in this thread” wherever i posted it… i’m just not entirely sure how successful/helpful it would be… that’s why i’m looking for feedback in regards to this…
i’m very excited about the show that will be launching in the near future and when the time comes, i will be posting the crap out of it and sending emails about it, but i’m just thinking that after people watch it on this site, they’ll still be more likely to email me back or post back in the threads i’ve linked in than they will be to comment here… just because they know me and it seems natural to them to only tell me what they thought (especially my close friends and family)… but i’m VERY open to suggestion to get these folks more into looking at this actual site…
another thing i’ve been thinking of is my youtube subscribers… i only have a couple hundred but they’re pretty loyal ones and i’d love to send them over here when the new show launches… maybe you could email me and let me know if you guys plan on doing a “teaser” for it or something that you might not mind me posting on my youtube account as well to get my subscribers to watch it and follow the link? i’m open to discussion about other ideas too though, if you have them…