oh well, as the gate is open, I'll admit having a bit of frustration with the whole thing too. I've been here for 5 years, submitting cool stuff when I can find some. I'm nothing but a small drop in the water of users here but tbh, I feel that wether I contribute to the sift or not, it won't make big difference either for me or the site, so why bother. Most of the time, when I see a dupe or something alike, I invoke it, even while I know I can, with the hope that some member with enough power will do it in. Lately, I stopped doing that.

For me, when I got my first powerpoint I was so excited to finally be able to do something more than before. But then I discovered that when you use them, they go away. Now I'm keeping mine for the day it will matter (meaning that I probably will never use them). Finding a video not submitted is so hard lately...

I would definetly recommend having a look at how stackoverflow.com (if you never had the chance to) privileges and reputation works (ie, when you're granted a privilege, you keep it). Maybe invocations here could be more hard to get, but once you get one, you keep it. Or you could buy some (if the money support is actually used), like specific ones, in case of need. Maybe get some "fraction of a star" on comments or whatever. Something that would filter spammers and morons, but rewards users. Anyway, you get the idea. At worst, I'll keep watching the vids

Wow, thanks for all the powerpoints, advio. I'll never be able to use them all. I looked around and could not find another version. It appears to be hosted on a Japanese site. I'll let you know if I come across it again.

I'm going to try and *promote this using my powerpoints as I hate deceptive advertising as a general concept. Even if this is completely fake and 10 years old, it still makes my skin crawl.

Promote is a gold and above function, not a matter of powerpoints in your case
figured you should know because I did the exact same thing way back.

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

Congrats on your Sift of the week, Triple B. Have some powerpoints.
http://videosift.com/video/Gag-Reel-Star-Trek-The-Next-Generation-Season-2#comment-1580743

Thanks for the powerpoint, Santa. It's an honor to be deemed worthy. As a token of appreciation, I blindly upvoted your entire pqueue (fight the power).

Happy merrytimes!

Ok...well how many powerpoints does a blowie cost?

Why is stockpiling power points bad? What do you have against the 1% you socialist?

Actually I've stockpiled powerpoints, but only because I haven't felt the need to use them. As for a form of currency, I could see how it could be "abused" but I have yet to figure out how or why. I guess if a select few found a way to beat the system, something should be done by way of regulatory. Maybe put a time limit between spending power points?

I like the improved comment quoting, the *related= command, and gifted powerpoints.

First time I saw it, I was blown away by the vs5 mobile version of the site which is more functional and better looking than ever before.

You were biased in favor of..

1. using English 2. using 'existence' as the subject in your point. 3. using the word existence instead of other synonyms. 4. using 'is' as your verb. 5. making the point that 'existence is.' 6. explaining your point with the specific combination of words you chose to use. 7. using a period. 8. Making your sentence short. 9. using two words in your sentence. 10. making my challenge more difficult by being strategic. 11. capitalizing the first letter in the sentence. 12. not capitalizing the other letters. 13. using standard status quo western sentence structure. 14. thinking you would earn 10 powerpoints.

These were just the biases you revealed through writing. There were many many more silent biases that lie beyond detection in your noggin.

For me to prove that your sentence was biased in 10 ways, I need only to believe what I've written - and I do. For you to prove that your sentence was unbiased, you need 100% world population consensus, which I deny you.

'Hoarding' powerpoints is not a problem that requires a solution. It's not like we have a small market for powerpoints, and we're seeing the development of a Rupert Murdoch with too much market share.

I think you've fixed a problem that doesn't exist, and in the process limited the function of newer Sifters who may have far more interest in using functions than some of us older Sifters (like me).

On an unrelated note, I don't dig the new promote system. On that issue, I like your old stuff better than your new stuff.

The sentence doesn't have to be an argument. You cannot write a single sentence that is not biased. The more sentences you write, the more biases you reveal. 10 powerpoints says I can find at least 10 instances of bias in any sentence you write. There will be no penalty when you lose.

I currently have three (3) powerpoints - just sayin'

I think the MAX I've ever had was 7 at one time - so I used them all.

http://imgur.com/a/EmhRt
So, the first part is just me moving around a few things to make more room, because I think the top of the site is wasting lots of space.

I think the Promoted videos loks sort of like ads, but the sift of the week is exactly like an ad to me - look at picture 2 where it has an ad right above it.

I would like to see the whole right side bar only use small things, while the left main page can show big things.

When something is promoted to the front page like bareboards2's post, I would want that above the promoted videos, as it seems to break the flow of reading - and * frontpage should be more powerful than * promote.

There's something off about the promoted videos. They obviously try to squish in the title in small font so it can be shown, but at the same time it feels weird I think. Compare a promoted thumbnail with a regular one:
http://i.imgur.com/GFnBp.jpg
The bottom bar on the regular one actually presses in vital information about comments, which is the centerpoint of the sift, together with the videos themselves. This should not be overlooked - the promote needs something like that.

The "Featured" banner is unnecessary - "show, don't tell". We know it's featured, because the damn thing is right in our faces!

I also can't see who posted the video, which is part of my "1 second evaluation" of whether or not I should give the video a chance. There are people I know have tastes that correspond to mine, so this will often give a video that I've already "passed" a second chance at my precious vote/view.

Here's a quick mock-up of a different, but similar way of doing it:
http://i.imgur.com/Hqets.jpg

As for the mechanical way of having only three at the top at any point, I think it gives the wrong incentives.

They will only rotate out when someone "knocks another one down", so there's inherent trolling in that.

There's uncertainty in what you get for your precious powerpoint, uncertainty ALWAYS lead to inaction - so people are scared off and won't use them at all.

@dag mentioned the guiding principles:

"1. Changes should promote altruistic social behavior and limit self-interest (that's been with us since the beginning)
2. Changes should increase the usefulness of the site"

If you can align both points in the first, that's much better. People are inherently self interested first and altruistic after that. Just "consuming" videos is a self-interested thing as well, so we have to make it as easy for someone to absorb the content as possible. For the posters, we also must give the fitting incentives for providing value to the site, but the two types of visitors and two very different animals (although almost all posters are also viewers).

I feel the promote system limits the usefulness of the site for the posters. I don't really want to promote anything, because it'll just be gone again as soon as anyone else gets the idea of posting. I also have to consider whether or not I want the currently promoted video to stick around a little longer before posting - maybe the promoted videos are something I don't like, so me and my posse of late night sifters keep promoting them away from the promote reel with our videos of Maru, the wonder-cat, jumping into things.

I hope my ramblings and child-like drawings make sense.

@dag Don't get me wrong, I like most of the system on the sift. And I agree it should take a while to get used to all the nooks and crannies.

I just feel like limiting powerpoints to years active seems like a high threshold.. Maybe months would be better?

But then again, I don't see why limiting power points is a good idea in the first place, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about. I still feel your star level is more than enough to judge how much power you can have. Adding limits on power points on top of that just seems a bit too much.

Also, @lucky760 - is it bad that some people are "collecting" power points? if so, maybe add some sort of expiration dates to the points? and why is it bad?