Congrats on Bronze

Congratulations on reaching new heights on VideoSift. You have earned yourself 25 stars, earning you status of Bronze Star member. You have been awarded 1 Power Point for achieving this level. Thanks for all your contributions.

You want some ice cream ?

Yah man, that one is on Netflix too. That dude is a little too concerned with the "cut of his jib".

Congratulations! Your comment has just received enough votes from the community to earn you 1 Power Point. Thank you for your quality contribution to VideoSift.

Happy 35th birthday, Truckchase!

Happy anniversary! Today marks year number 4 since you first became a Sifter and the community is better for having you. Thanks for your contributions!

Sure, Barack and I chat all the time about things.

I guess my working model for predicting what Obama does is based on two hypotheses:

1. Obama is really telling us what he wants to see happen in his speeches. He wants to do what he can to address the progressive agenda because he sees it as his moral duty.

2. Obama is, contrary to his speeches, an uber-pragmatist.

It's the second part that gets activist lefties mad at him. He's not interested in waging war on the oligarchs who run the government from their boardrooms, he wants to try to reach out and show them that the progressive agenda is good for both the 99% and the 1%.

Similarly, he's not interested in picking a fights he can't win, just to make an ideological point. He unfortunately doesn't think it's his job to try to shift the Overton window with his words and deeds.

I think people who imagine him to have been some sort of anti-progressive infiltrator or turncoat are just being melodramatic, and I really wish they'd stop issuing all these pronouncements about whether Obama is "with us" or "against us."

He's clearly "with us", he's just not a hardline ideologue who makes everything into some showdown of unwavering and conflicting principles.

He prefers to use the inflexibility of others as his argument to the public for supporting him -- he's being more reasonable, after all. It seems to work out okay for him in the polls, but I think he'd be a much more effective President if he made being firmly on the side of doing what's right a higher priority than being reasonable.

In reply to this comment by Truckchase:
Good talk NR. I'm not convinced.... there are cabinet appointments, etc. he's made that make me not trust him, but I am listening. Ob's speech a couple days ago has me wondering you've got a direct line to him or something.

Dislikes are at 341K, likes 7K.

Makes me happy!!!!!

In reply to this comment by Truckchase:
Thanks for the endorsement BB, I'm glad you liked the idea.

Congratulations! Your comment has just received enough votes from the community to earn you 1 Power Point. Thank you for your quality contribution to VideoSift.

Congratulations! Your comment has just received enough votes from the community to earn you 1 Power Point. Thank you for your quality contribution to VideoSift.

This achievement has earned you your "Silver Tongue" Level 3 Badge!

In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
You know, someone has tried that excact clip, and only got 5 votes - http://videosift.com/video/Sesame-Street-Elmos-Song

Other Elmo ones have got as many as 135 votes - http://videosift.com/video/Elmo-Interviews-Ricky-Gervais

You'd be surprised what will do well here sometimes

Your two PQ'd on 9 videos would probably sift if you ran them through beggar's canyon on a Thursday or Friday (to get the weekend traffic), and then you would only need to post a handful more to get bronze (says the newbie to the long standing member!). If you renew your membership, a promote would be even better.

On re-reading your comment below, I'd like to clarify that I only ever meant to ban self promotion during an anonymous week contest, not in general, and it's certainly quicker to promote than to go out vote whoring the hard way.
In reply to this comment by Truckchase:
Ahhh, that explains it, mine aren't old enough to like anything but "Elmo's song" yet. Doubt that would get many votes.

In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
We might not quite be on the same page, but I think we're in the same chapter. I agree with everything you said here, except the part about changes being required to get there

I can confirm that children are no impediment to success here. In my case, I've had more success with ones my children like (or that I looked up for them) than the ones that I posted just because I liked them. They are usually only demanding until they're asleep

I'm quite surprised that BT and FA followed us here for this conversation too, even though I hang out in their corner of the sift. Perhaps they read the recent comment stream?
In reply to this comment by Truckchase:
Sounds good. At the end of the day I don't think video quality voting should be based on personal loyalty. You must have made quite an impression already to have a couple really great guys (BT, FA) on the sift upvoting your personal comment to some random dude.

If you're willing to take the time to make yourself an integral part of this community the perspective of favoring loyalty votes and disallowing self promotion will work well for you. On the other hand, I'm in favor of measures to empower those who don't devote much time to the site but enjoy it and the people just as much. (i.e. me; my kids are demanding) I would also argue that it would be healthier for the site and the community as a whole to welcome such measures since the attitude of person-to-person loyalty will endure regardless of the obstacles placed in front of it. The last thing I think you really want here is an echo chamber despite how appealing it may seem at face value.

I agree with that statement. Additionally, that bastard Elmo is riding Ricky Gervais' coattails.

You know, someone has tried that excact clip, and only got 5 votes - http://videosift.com/video/Sesame-Street-Elmos-Song

Other Elmo ones have got as many as 135 votes - http://videosift.com/video/Elmo-Interviews-Ricky-Gervais

You'd be surprised what will do well here sometimes

Your two PQ'd on 9 videos would probably sift if you ran them through beggar's canyon on a Thursday or Friday (to get the weekend traffic), and then you would only need to post a handful more to get bronze (says the newbie to the long standing member!). If you renew your membership, a promote would be even better.

On re-reading your comment below, I'd like to clarify that I only ever meant to ban self promotion during an anonymous week contest, not in general, and it's certainly quicker to promote than to go out vote whoring the hard way.
In reply to this comment by Truckchase:
Ahhh, that explains it, mine aren't old enough to like anything but "Elmo's song" yet. Doubt that would get many votes.

In reply to this comment by oritteropo:
We might not quite be on the same page, but I think we're in the same chapter. I agree with everything you said here, except the part about changes being required to get there

I can confirm that children are no impediment to success here. In my case, I've had more success with ones my children like (or that I looked up for them) than the ones that I posted just because I liked them. They are usually only demanding until they're asleep

I'm quite surprised that BT and FA followed us here for this conversation too, even though I hang out in their corner of the sift. Perhaps they read the recent comment stream?
In reply to this comment by Truckchase:
Sounds good. At the end of the day I don't think video quality voting should be based on personal loyalty. You must have made quite an impression already to have a couple really great guys (BT, FA) on the sift upvoting your personal comment to some random dude.

If you're willing to take the time to make yourself an integral part of this community the perspective of favoring loyalty votes and disallowing self promotion will work well for you. On the other hand, I'm in favor of measures to empower those who don't devote much time to the site but enjoy it and the people just as much. (i.e. me; my kids are demanding) I would also argue that it would be healthier for the site and the community as a whole to welcome such measures since the attitude of person-to-person loyalty will endure regardless of the obstacles placed in front of it. The last thing I think you really want here is an echo chamber despite how appealing it may seem at face value.

We might not quite be on the same page, but I think we're in the same chapter. I agree with everything you said here, except the part about changes being required to get there

I can confirm that children are no impediment to success here. In my case, I've had more success with ones my children like (or that I looked up for them) than the ones that I posted just because I liked them. They are usually only demanding until they're asleep

I'm quite surprised that BT and FA followed us here for this conversation too, even though I hang out in their corner of the sift. Perhaps they read the recent comment stream?
In reply to this comment by Truckchase:
Sounds good. At the end of the day I don't think video quality voting should be based on personal loyalty. You must have made quite an impression already to have a couple really great guys (BT, FA) on the sift upvoting your personal comment to some random dude.

If you're willing to take the time to make yourself an integral part of this community the perspective of favoring loyalty votes and disallowing self promotion will work well for you. On the other hand, I'm in favor of measures to empower those who don't devote much time to the site but enjoy it and the people just as much. (i.e. me; my kids are demanding) I would also argue that it would be healthier for the site and the community as a whole to welcome such measures since the attitude of person-to-person loyalty will endure regardless of the obstacles placed in front of it. The last thing I think you really want here is an echo chamber despite how appealing it may seem at face value.

Sounds good. At the end of the day I don't think video quality voting should be based on personal loyalty. You must have made quite an impression already to have a couple really great guys (BT, FA) on the sift upvoting your personal comment to some random dude.

If you're willing to take the time to make yourself an integral part of this community the perspective of favoring loyalty votes and disallowing self promotion will work well for you. On the other hand, I'm in favor of measures to empower those who don't devote much time to the site but enjoy it and the people just as much. (i.e. me; my kids are demanding) I would also argue that it would be healthier for the site and the community as a whole to welcome such measures since the attitude of person-to-person loyalty will endure regardless of the obstacles placed in front of it. The last thing I think you really want here is an echo chamber despite how appealing it may seem at face value.

>> ^oritteropo:

I think the nice thing about the sift is that the people here are generally nice! I don't necessarily agree that anything much needs to be done, since the senior sifters are mostly nice to newbies and will freely hand out advice and the odd promote for worthy vids.
During anonymous week, I really missed seeing who had voted up my vids and the ones I voted for. I didn't personally miss the lack of promotes, but I think that if the contest is repeated it could be changed to only no self promotes (and, in fact, I wouldn't object if that was the standard rule!).
I don't even agree that newbies have to be aggressive to stand out, just posting lots of cool vids is enough (or, in my case, just posting lots of vids ) and making lots of comments.
Perhaps we should just agree to disagree?
In reply to this comment by Truckchase:
I know what you're saying, but I think someone needs to be done about the loyalty associated with individuals. It makes it much harder for non-aggressive "newbies" to make a dent in this community. That said, I really like 90% of the people on the sift... I think the main reason I think this way is that I find myself doing the same thing you have argued for and I'm not quite comfortable with it. Perhaps totally anonymous wouldn't be the way to go, but I do wish some sort of incentive were there to draw attention to those that don't get it because of their name.