Hi Folks - I feel the need to share my thoughts on this a bit more

"NOW THIS" videos are exclusively created to get clicks for this company.
Their sole business model is to post on social media and encourage people to share their content for marketing purposes. (Facebook and Twitter) so they can get viral hits.

They don't have tons of hits on their YouTube page because most of their hits are on Facebook with over 5,304,668 followers over the last two months
https://www.facebook.com/NowThisNews

And the main part to note here is they have "no original content" whatsoever.

They make their profit by stealing other people's video content and applying a template, and editing the crap out of things to crop it into a one minute video. They often cut out the sound, and ad the overlaying text as part of their template.

I'm a VERY STRONG believer of supporting the content providers.
"NOW THIS" doesn't create any of their own content. They steal it outright.
I'm really sensitive to theft from content providers, especially when the stolen content has only one purpose and that's to reserve it as their own content for the sole purpose of company profits.

As a member of the SIFT, I believe our job is to sift out the bad stuff and vote up the great videos. These guys don't create even mediocre videos. They grab any story they can and go for the emotional grab to catch people and get them to re-post. There is no quality to these videos of theirs.

In my opinion - and i think Brand's too, though i don't want to put words in his mouth - the motivation to act based upon nothing but profit is the largest and most significant drain on happiness and especially the advancement of us as a people. We need a revolution of principle, a revolution of the mind, we cannot keep on doing what we are doing when it is so clearly not working.

We have been pouring the results of our productivity into bank balances for so long now. If our productivity was represented by food instead of money, we would have been putting corn into a hole in the ground for 30 years and wondering why people are hungry. In a system based on corn, prosperity of a nation is based upon the free and active flow of corn.

I ask this question of you, because i don't know the answer. Do you think that we can continue pouring our productivity into big holes that other people sit on for "whenever they might need it?" Is it reasonable to build a system based on flow, but let huge clumps of it gather and expect everything to keep running quickly and without turbulence?

It just doesn't work anymore. The very rich don't realise it yet because they can afford to pay to avoid it, the quite rich notice it when they sit in traffic for example, but eventually things will become so clogged up that they will have no choice but to notice that there are no quality schools, hospitals, roads, airports, shops nor people to do their shopping, cleaning, cooking and driving. We all benefit, including the rich, if money is put into improving our infrastructure and facilities. We all benefit when productivity is flowing freely and quickly through the system. The opposite of that is called a depression, and it's when people don't have confidence in spending their money... we know that, we accept it, people were repeating it during the recession. How come we can't recognise the polar opposite? We're in a semi-permanent state of inverse depression, where those at the top don't have the means to spend their money, so it doesn't move.

This is an idea that needs to come from grassroots, everyone needs to come together somehow and unify over this idea. Because you can't blame any one individual for taking advantage of their fortunate position on the uneven playing field, or for fighting for a better position on the field. We all need to agree that the playing field has to be even, otherwise eventually the playing field will not be worth using.

I cannot stand this poisonous idea that you cannot ask a company for tax and here's my argument against that:
A lot of people live in the UK and a lot of people want to buy coffee and other assorted goods (starbucks, amazon). Even including tax, there is a lot of money to be made selling to these people. Let's say there is 2 billion pounds in profit available to be made by someone. That's still profit to be made by someone, and whoever offers that service to them under the correct rules makes that money.

The problem is that there's 4 billion to be made without tax, and it's cheaper to buy the politician for a billion to ensure you get the tax breaks. That is the poisoned system that psycho-capitalism has eventually produced... And it's so naive to think otherwise... so naive to think that those with billions of pounds wouldn't buy economists and lawyers, tout the favourable theories, generally spend top money on creating the right environment to make more money. Whether you think more or less tax is a good idea, surely have to agree that whatever the rules are, we adhere to them, or the system that we so carefully designed it around will fail.

Why are people so reticent to believe that we're being duped? No, surely not, it's the government, they can't possibly be lying to us. They stood in front of us, bare-faced, and told us they weren't torturing people, they had intelligence about WMDs, they weren't spying on us all. They prove themselves to be deceitful but like toddlers we trust the adult.

In light of the California murders I think this is appropriate.
Also TV news rots the mind. Just say NO!
*quality

it being property of fox, i'm sure the embed will need reacquisition regularly. no biggie.

should probably be el numero uno video, tho, no?

*quality

I'd say it's broken in that I don't even see it at all. I see a section for "Recently Promoted", Most active Videosift Discussion of the Week, Top 15, "Videosift on Facebook" and "Newly Appreciated Comments" but no "Quality" section at all.

Oh. Maybe I'm just showing myself off as a newbie again - it wasn't obvious to me that it would matter.

I think the "no quality/promotes" part of the contest sucks, since it changes how the queue works, and only in a bad way.
>> ^Sarzy:

>> ^oritteropo:
They will keep until next week, surely?>> ^Sarzy:
I think it's kinda lame that we can't quality other people's videos. I just watched a pretty awesome video which was pretty much begging for a quality. I really hope it doesn't get lost in the shuffle now.


Sure, but it'll be too late for the top 15 by then.

http://ingridandneil.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/outdoor-adventures-whistler-bcs-own-dog-concentration-camp/


The workers compensation claim is here: http://ingridandneil.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/wcbdogcase2010.pdf


If you look at the OAW press releases it is pretty funny. They go from:

OAW has had a financial interest in Howling Dogs for 4 years the operational control of the company remained with the employee

Not long after the events of late April, the employee in question ceased managing the business. This employee continues to get our support as he heals from his injuries and illness. Because of the information in the WCB ruling pertaining to his emotional condition we don't feel it is appropriate to release further information about this individual.

Outdoor Adventures at Whistler Ltd. and former General Manager, Howling Dog Tours Whistler Inc. agree to the following:
1. The number of dogs euthanized by Mr. Fawcett. Mr. Fawcett advised Mr. Houssian in mid-April 2010 that he was estimating 50 dogs would be euthanized.
2. The condition of the dogs euthanized by Mr. Fawcett. In mid April, 2010 Mr. Fawcett advised Mr. Houssian that the dogs to be euthanized were "too old" or "sick" and "not adoptable". These dogs live to "run" and were not able to do so and would have had to be kept in cages with the result that they would have had very poor or virtually no quality of life.
3. The efforts made to arrange for dogs to be adopted. Considerable efforts were made to arrange for dogs to be adopted, both before and after mid April, 2010. The efforts at adoption were not as successful as hoped.
4. The instructions given to Mr. Fawcett concerning the manner of euthanizing the dogs. There were no instructions given to Mr. Fawcett as to the manner of euthanizing dogs on this occasion, and Mr. Fawcett was known to have very humanely euthanized dogs on previous occasions.

I am guessing you cannot quality your own stuff ?


a week now I have been an omnipotent silver, and no qualities come from me. wtf.

No.

Quality is overpowered compared to promote, but basically promote has been obsoleted. Raising the cost of quality might be a solution, but 2 power points is much too steep a cost, in my opinion.

Notquality is a bad idea, because it would lead to quality wars, since people have different tastes. If people don't like the "hotness", which is the only thing affected by quality, they can switch to "newness" and avoid it altogether.

Thanks Håvar!

In reply to this comment by Haldaug:
Feynman with a theme melody! Could it get any better? No: *quality

Feynman with a theme melody! Could it get any better? No: *quality

>> ^kceaton1:
Well for starters it would be 999 or the EU 112. Second, the female driver is looking straight ahead mere moments before that. So either she is so stupid the french will need to create a new name just for her, or her brakes lines were cut or they failed and she is mute as she didn't warn anyone.
I think I go with fake. If there was 'boobage footage' then all would be forgiven but, alas, it was merely a tease. That means no quality.
Sorry, I like provoking the Siftbot, keeps him on his toes.


Sirex nailed it. Fake? Isn't it like COMPLETELY obvious that this is an advert promoting safe driving?

>> ^kceaton1:
Well for starters it would be 999 or the EU 112. Second, the female driver is looking straight ahead mere moments before that. So either she is so stupid the french will need to create a new name just for her, or her brakes lines were cut or they failed and she is mute as she didn't warn anyone.
I think I go with fake. If there was 'boobage footage' then all would be forgiven but, alas, it was merely a tease. That means no quality.
Sorry, I like provoking the Siftbot, keeps him on his toes.


personally, i'd just go with the fact it's an advert, to call fake.

Well for starters it would be 999 or the EU 112. Second, the female driver is looking straight ahead mere moments before that. So either she is so stupid the french will need to create a new name just for her, or her brakes lines were cut or they failed and she is mute as she didn't warn anyone.

I think I go with fake. If there was 'boobage footage' then all would be forgiven but, alas, it was merely a tease. That means no *quality.

Sorry, I like provoking the Siftbot, keeps him on his toes.
_{(I had to edit? so sad) Subtle sarcasm is subtle...}