Happy 5th Siftiversary


Holy smokes, VideoSift is 5 years old! In internet time, that makes us about … dead.

I'm very proud that we are still alive as a strong community with a culture and membership that continues to grow stronger over the years. The longevity and success of VideoSift is due to the dedicated people we've attracted here as members - the people who care about the details and put in the time to keep this place tidy, vibrant and very, very human. You know who you are. Big wet kiss to you.

Here are some interesting stats on 5 years worth of data:

Published Videos: 85,357
Comments: 1,073,437
Up votes: 2,967,079
Comment Up Votes: 799,200
Visits: 100,771,243

I'm also proud of the things we haven't done over 5 years:

  • We haven't sold out to the creeps at Demand Media (that was once a possibility)
  • We haven't let the community become a pop-up ad farm.
  • We haven't let the community run on auto-pilot
  • We haven't allowed spam and self-interest to ruin the fun

    We're looking to make some big changes this year. I've mentioned already that we would like to phase out Charter Membership and instead distribute charter rewards among Star levels. We'll post an update on this soon. We're also considering some other changes that I'll be discussing with you all over the next few weeks.

    It's just left for me to thank my partner @lucky760 and everyone who has stepped up over the years to shape and guide VideoSift.

    VideoSift as a community is as strong as it's ever been, and I expect to be here writing one of these in 10 years. I don't know how it happened, but we're kind of an institution!


    The highest rated (non-admin) comment on this thread after 7 days will receive a VideoSift prize pack from the VideoSift Shop including the fab VideoSift Tee.


    Update: Congrats to @Hybrid for winning the Siftiversary contest with his wildly inappropriate comment. ;-) A VideoSift Tee and a special surprise gift will be winging its way to you soon!

    jonny says...

    Congratulations Brian. VideoSift is the real deal, and even though I can't get YouTube embeds to function properly, I still keep coming back. [edit] the embed problemt isn't a VS issue - it happens to me wherever I see YT embeds. [/edit]

    btw, does the comment up vote count include the mission to make siftbot a gold star?

    dag says...

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

    Thanks Jonny - yes, I think it does include Siftbot. >> ^jonny:

    Congratulations Brian. VideoSift is the real deal, and even though I can't get YouTube embeds to function properly, I still keep coming back.
    btw, does the comment up vote count include the mission to make siftbot a gold star?

    dag says...

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

    I only wish I had the raw talent and sexual charisma of a Doug Sheehan, or even a Danny Ferguson.

    >> ^deathcow:

    Brian?? wtf I thought your name was Doug Sheehan! 5 yrs??? is that awesome or terrifying or what! We always said at 5 years the site would go completely hardcore porno!

    dag says...

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

    Thanks EMPIRE - you're an old school Sifter - glad you're still here. >> ^EMPIRE:

    Congrats Dag!
    This is still my number one go-to page every day.
    It has provided me with countless hours of entertainment, and it has a great community.
    Hip Hip Hurray!

    gwiz665 says...

    I say we let Graterbot out of his gilded cage to take up some of siftbot's responsibilities. He's a political prisoner, just like mandela!

    Thanks for being here for 5 years, I've spent many, many hours here and the community is really ace.

    jonny says...

    It seems like VideoSift has been around a lot longer than 5 years. I showed up in early 2007 and lurked for a few months before joining. That seems like ages ago, and the only other websites I can think of that I've been visiting consistently for that long are wikipedia and google, and I've learned more by visiting VideoSift than either of those.

    It hasn't always followed the direction I'd hoped it would (almost certainly a good thing), but I'm happy I've been here to see it grow and yet maintain its roots.

    dag says...

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

    Thanks for reminding me. I need to go pay my traditional Siftiversary respects to @graterbot.

    You are very welcome gwiz, at least as welcome as a giant crowned cock can be.
    >> ^gwiz665:




    I say we let Graterbot out of his gilded cage to take up some of siftbot's responsibilities. He's a political prisoner, just like mandela!
    Thanks doe being here for 5 years, I've spent many, many hours here and the community is really ace.

    dag says...

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

    I know I haunt your homoerotic dreams Blankfist. I know it.>> ^blankfist:

    "the people who care about the details and put in the time to keep this place tidy, vibrant and very, very human. You know who you are. Big wet kiss to you."
    That's assault, @dag.

    JiggaJonson says...

    I remember having a surge of motivation to participate in the site hit me when you (@dag) came "hat in hand" and asked the community for money. I suddenly realized how important both the site and the community is to me and opened my wallet accordingly. I couldn't bear to see it leave at this point. What would I be left to for witty commentary? Youtube comments? fml if I'm ever reduced to that again.

    I've got the kind of personality that likes to share things. If I find a food/resteraunt/game/song/VIDEO that I like a lot one of the first things I do is spam link it to my friends (or shove a sandwich in someone's face if it's not virtual). As such, Videosift was a fantastic fit from the start.

    Cheers to the 5 years mate!

    Ornthoron says...

    5 years?!? That means I've been here for half the time Videosift has been up, not counting the year and a half I lurked before signing up. It seemed such a cohesive and including community at that time that I imagined it to have existed for a much longer time. It was certainly the main reason I finally joined.

    Big thanks to @Fedquip for pointing the way here from his now discontinued AOL blog. I always enjoyed reading it.

    JustT1m says...

    4/5 years and still only 15 star points... I guess on the 7th anniversary I might have 25...
    Still visit this site everyday (more than once a day tbh) Always manages to provide me with entertainment one way or another.
    Been a pleasure to use this place!

    conan says...

    Strangely enough that means you guys have helped me procrastinate for five years. Videosift is the first page i visit every time i open a browser and usually it's the last page i see before going to bed (yes, i do spent an awful lot of time on my computer, "comes with the job" is what i keep telling myself). About a year ago even my wife accepted Videosift as some sort of mistress beside her... There'll come the time i succeed in convincing her that she needs a VS account ;-) It's been a great time, let's hope we'll have some more years together.

    Ornthoron says...

    >> ^dag:

    After doing a little research, we came to the conclusion that they're destroying the Internet. >> ^Deano:
    Demand Media. I remember reading about those guys in Wired. Great article here;
    http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/10/ff_demandmedia/all/1
    Well done for keeping the site pure.


    I'd love to hear the story some time about what transpired between Demand Media and VideoSift. Did they approach you with an offer? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, of course.

    Hive13 says...

    Many, many congrats to Videosift. This is one of my very favorite destinations on the web. The community is fantastic, the site is extremely well designed and of course the videos are always great.

    Here's to another 5 years!

    ant says...

    >> ^jonny:

    It seems like VideoSift has been around a lot longer than 5 years. I showed up in early 2007 and lurked for a few months before joining. That seems like ages ago, and the only other websites I can think of that I've been visiting consistently for that long are wikipedia and google, and I've learned more by visiting VideoSift than either of those.
    It hasn't always followed the direction I'd hoped it would (almost certainly a good thing), but I'm happy I've been here to see it grow and yet maintain its roots.


    I thought it would be six by now.

    darkrowan says...

    Wow, has it been that long? It seems only yesterday that on the LiveJournal community of ROFLCL this post was shared. I started rummaging around the site for a week or so before signing up.
    I've seen SO many things change in my time here.


    • I remember the Army Green color scheme. I remember 3 votes got you sifted (or more during the day, PST).
    • I remember having to check and * save/requeue posts that weren't getting enough exposure to sift.
    • I remember the time of the siftquisitions. Most notably Quantum Mushroom and Choggie.

    But for every bad thing I remember at least two good ones.

    • I've had the pleasure of meeting, in person: @youdiejoe, @lucky760, @charms, @poolcleaner, @volumptuous @dystopianfuturetoday, @Issykitty, @blankfist, @Grimm, @firefly . All amazing people. (this accounts for both So Cal Siftmeets. read below why I mention this)
    • With the advent of PQueue I've seen many great documentaries make their way through. Getting these out before, such long videos, was nearly impossible.
    • Overall I've seen the quality of what we bring to the table, we sifters, increase. We're no longer just full of cat videos. Now we have cats and Rabbits in Prison! How can you hate that?

    All in all I've seen, from my own semi-lurking status, this community grow and mature (mature except for all the Blankfist/Kronoposeidon posts ~_^). And I would not want to change this community in any ways because of it.

    PS: Our last talks about another So Cal Siftmeet went stale about this time last year. As mentioned above I've met so many great people there I propose we restart talks on this. My personal time is admittedly limited (40/hr week job, class 4 nights a week, planning to move out of state for more college work) but I would like to have another. Anyone interested?

    Tingles says...

    Congratulations on 5 years, and thank you for giving me something to do, over the last couple years I've been here, when:

    - I am at work
    - I am at school or in class
    - I am visiting the mother
    - I am having a nice bout of insomnia
    - I am stuck in traffic or on the bus
    - I am waiting for a date that doesn't show up
    - I am waiting for a taxi on the street corner drunk as a skunk

    Good times all around.

    deputydog says...

    Congratulations on keeping the ship afloat for half a decade. I unfortunately had to dive off a while back, but I still circle in my dinghy on a regular basis.

    (Something else nautical, etc. Where's Choggie? Etc, etc.)

    I love every last one of you.

    joedirt says...

    I suggested a few yrs ago using same frame work and channels but embed images instead of videos... You could have been the canhazcheezburger empire.


    Surprisingly this place was way ahead or a reddit or many other daily CHECK THIS OUT sites. It isn't trivial to keep a community going for a few months, let alone years.

    Anyways, graterbot was the best.

    bamdrew says...

    Congrats; rad community dag and lucky.

    This is embarrassing, but... I've been here for a while (and lurked before that)... I just now noticed that those are glasses and a nose on siftbot, from looking at graterbot.

    ... maybe I should mention I thought the handicapped sign was just a random symbol until I was 21 years old ('oh my God, its a stick man sitting in a wheel chair...!')

    lucky760 says...

    Gotta say being part of VideoSift has been one of the single most gratifying things I'll have done in my life. Building (and to a lesser degree, maintaining) the website is a joy.

    The community is undoubtedly the most enjoyable to be part of anywhere online. @dag really created a beautiful thing.

    Most of all, for what seems like years, one member in particular has always made this place the best, most enjoyable it can be for me and everyone else. I don't even have to say your name. You know who you are. Thanks for Sifting.

    paul4dirt says...

    I heard telephones, opera house, favourite melodies
    I saw boys, toys, electric irons, and TVs
    My brain hurt like a warehouse
    It had no room to spare
    I had to cram so many things
    To store everything in there

    We got five years, stuck on my eyes
    We got five years, what a surprise
    We got five years, my brain hurts a lot
    We got five years, that's all we've got



    Ornthoron says...

    >> ^deputydog:

    Congratulations on keeping the ship afloat for half a decade. I unfortunately had to dive off a while back, but I still circle in my dinghy on a regular basis.
    (Something else nautical, etc. Where's Choggie? Etc, etc.)
    I love every last one of you.

    *Gasp* When did you start to capitalize your sentences?

    braindonut says...

    Huge congrats!! How awesome. I sometimes forget just how long I've been enjoying Videosift.

    FWIW. This is the only online community I have ever really cared about, or felt a part of. (And I'm not even really a serious part of it, at all. I just slink about and watch a ton of videos and comment on stuff...)

    I was actually wearing my Videosift t-shirt today, neat coincidence.

    kronosposeidon says...

    Okay, finally off work, no drive-by comment this time.

    I've been a member of a number of online communities over the years, of almost every stripe and size. Political, film, celebrity gossip, astronomy, feminism, books - you name it. Some I've enjoyed more than others, but this by far is my favorite. I've been active here longer than any other URL in the world, so I guess I've found my home. Even when I take vacations, I always come back. This place feels like an old pair of shoes - lived in, comfortable, and fits just right. But with no putrid stench.

    I'm guessing it's the people who make me feel at home that matters more than anything else. There are so many funny people, intelligent people, creative people, and just plain interesting people that I could literally name scores and scores of members who have caught my attention and enriched my life, even in a small way. I was even tempted to name as many as I could, but I knew I'd inevitably forget some and I didn't want to do that, and I also didn't want to turn this into an Academy Award speech.

    It would be so freaking cool if we could have like a class reunion with hundreds of members, old and new. Seriously. But I know that's seriously impossible. So I hope more long lost members show up today or tomorrow, just to say hi, if nothing else.

    Krupo says...

    >> ^dingens:

    Woohooooooo! PARTY!


    You mean *woohoo

    Aside from the sifting itself, it's been fun meeting up with sifters from Vancouver to Toronto to Montrealand the UK was cool. Shoot, technically we had a siftup in Turkey when we visited @messenger but that was part of a much larger adventure which has taken up a good chunk of my sparetime.

    I recall trying to check out every vid on the sift by following it in my RSS feed. The amount of time spent here isn't the same as back then, but it's still a fantastic place to come back to.

    Among so many other things, like the community, it's been a great way to tell telemarketers for cable companies why I don't need their overpriced services.

    Aniatario says...

    Wow I always assumed that the sift was like, fifty years old or something. In this case, I'm honored to be a three-year member, the discussions, the videos and the level-headed people here on the sift really have had a huge impact on my life in more ways than one. Ofcourse, anyone outside the community reading this might think I'm laying it on a bit thick, I mean honestly, can a couple of youtube videos and comments really change a person's life?

    Three years ago, I had only just graduated highschool and was still very much woefully ignorant in terms of politics, philosophy, science, you name it (for the record, not much has changed) And whats more I found myself within a great deal of spiritual/emotional turmoil. I was trying to reconcile the biblical teachings and practices I learned in the Church (I went to a Catholic high school) the teachings of the longhouse, the 7 grandfathers, as well as this deep cerebral yearning for more.

    My mind was exposed to so many intellectually stimulating figures here on the sift. Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Bertrand Russel, Christopher Hitchens, the list goes on and on. Whats more, aside from the occasional bursts of hysteria, I found myself much more politically aware and far more comfortable with all those little skepticisms haunting the back of my mind all those years in highschool. Never before had I encountered so many learned and witty, like-minded individuals.

    Happy Anniversary Dag, awesome work. Let's keep the good times rolling.

    Truckchase says...

    Happy 5th VS. Thanks to the staff for having the guts to put this together and stick with it, and thanks to all the ass-kicking members who are so great at scouring the net for worthwhile content.

    ant says...

    >> ^siftbot:

    Where's my cake?


    "Cake is a lie."

    >> ^xxovercastxx:

    I can't help but wonder who the oldest active member is, excluding "staff", of course.
    From a quick glance just over this thread, it seems to be @deathcow, though @ant, @<a rel="nofollow" href="http://woohoo.videosift.com/member/Deano" title="member since April 30th, 2006" class="profilelink">Deano, @<a rel="nofollow" href="http://woohoo.videosift.com/member/darkrowan" title="member since May 4th, 2006" class="profilelink">darkrowan, @Zifnab, @<a rel="nofollow" href="http://woohoo.videosift.com/member/joedirt" title="member since June 18th, 2006" class="profilelink">joedirt, @Krupo, and @<a rel="nofollow" href="http://woohoo.videosift.com/member/quantumushroom" title="member since June 22nd, 2006" class="profilelink">quantumushroom were all within 3-4 months.
    Damn, you get used to hearing people complain about the people who have moved on and you forget just how many of the "First Class" are still here.


    Call us, old farts. I am an old fart in real life too.

    deathcow says...

    > From a quick glance just over this thread, it seems to be @deathcow,

    I was actually discovered to be here when it was constructed. I can remember back (though quite foggy) to somewhere when the last pieces of code were starting to come together.

    kronosposeidon says...

    Actually, according to my records, @dio1 is the oldest member. Who knew?! Not only was he a code nerdlinger, but also the the father of the devil horns.

    And though he can't be with us today, he still lives on in all of us, every time we offer our prayers to Satan. Dio1 may have been the first, but he'll also be the last.


    >> ^deathcow:

    > From a quick glance just over this thread, it seems to be @deathcow,
    I was actually discovered to be here when it was constructed. I can remember back (though quite foggy) to somewhere when the last pieces of code were starting to come together.

    dag says...

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

    Yeah, Ronnie helped out with the beta testing and some design work. Originally he chose a very dark color scheme ... with rainbows.

    >> ^kronosposeidon:

    Actually, according to my records, @dio1 is the oldest member. Who knew?! Not only was he a code nerdlinger, but also the the father of the devil horns.
    And though he can't be with us today, he still lives on in all of us, every time we offer our prayers to Satan. Dio1 may have been the first, but he'll also be the last.

    >> ^deathcow:
    > From a quick glance just over this thread, it seems to be @deathcow,
    I was actually discovered to be here when it was constructed. I can remember back (though quite foggy) to somewhere when the last pieces of code were starting to come together.


    JAPR says...

    I've been more or less a silent lurker for a long time now, after having really invested a lot of time in being a part of this really great community. If I had found this place first before my main online hangout, I'd probably still be on here as much as I was during that (surprisingly long) period after I first discovered the Sift: a place with great videos of a truly wide variety with a (almost completely) fun, friendly, and intelligent community that actually saw themselves as a community and treated each other as individuals rather than just some faceless internet persona.

    Seeing all the familiar names every time I come back, plus new ones who bring new tastes, new senses of humor, and new insight to the site really makes this place a unique site, and the fact that it's been able to stay that way for so many years is a testament to both the quality of the members and the amazing amount of work that Dag et al have put into making this place what it is. Thanks for more than just procrastination, VideoSift. I've made some great friends and learned a lot about all sorts of things from the videos and discussion here. Here's to 5 more years.

    rasch187 says...

    @paul4dirt stole my comment before I even knew about all of this. Kudos to him.

    but anyway..congrats.

    A question in your nerves is lit
    Yet you know there is no answer fit
    To satisfy, insure you not to quit
    To keep it in your mind and not forget
    That it is not he or she or them or it
    That you belong to

    mas8705 says...

    Congrats on hitting 5 years Videosift! I forgot how I discovered the site, but thanks to videosift, I have been able to watch a great variety of videos (and some that I would have been better off not seeing...) Still, I can't wait to see what happens from here going forward.

    dag says...

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

    There's always his estranged brother @graterbot - though they generally don't get along since the attempted coup d'sift.

    Remember remember - the 1st of Aprilvember.

    >> ^looris:

    5 years?!
    Whoa, gg.
    We could celebrate giving a sidekick to siftbot: he's so alone being the only bot here!

    looris says...

    Lol cool, I didn't know him!
    >> ^dag:

    There's always his estranged brother @graterbot - though they generally don't get along since the attempted coup d'sift.
    Remember remember - the 1st of Aprilvember.
    >> ^looris:
    5 years?!
    Whoa, gg.
    We could celebrate giving a sidekick to siftbot: he's so alone being the only bot here!


    petpeeved says...

    Even though I'm still a probie (god I am such a slacker in certain regards. I've found many a video over the years I thought would be worthy of posting but never motivated enough to do so), I want to say that I deeply appreciate all the other less slacking members of Videosift who contribute to making this site so informative, entertaining and insert third adjective for proper sentence harmony.

    Send this Article to a Friend



    Separate multiple emails with a comma (,); limit 5 recipients






    Your email has been sent successfully!

    Manage this Video in Your Playlists

    New Blog Posts from All Members