Happy Siftiversary - VideoSift is 3.
Yes, it's official - we are 3 years old today.
I'd like to start with links to our previous Siftiversaries:
1 Year old
2 years old
Things have changed so much in online video over this span. When we first started, our tag line was "The best of YouTube and Google Video" . This seems like a circumscribed way to think about online video now - but 3 years ago - that's pretty much all there was. Flash video was just coming into its own - and until then QuickTime still ruled. (one of the few Apple products that I'm not a fan of)
The first YouTube video I ever saw was the Lazy Sunday a video that I think was YouTube's first hit. We're quickly moving to a future where the amount of videos online will rival web pages themselves. I don't think we have a firm grasp on what this means for society - but we'll keep growing and evolving VideoSift to be the community that Sifts the cream from these megaliters of video milk.
VideoSift is growing - and though we are not climbing to rockstar heights of popularity - we do have to change and put in tools that help the community manage itself.
As we grow, we see two avenues to managing the site. A fork in the road if you will. We can become increasingly draconian and sharp with our changes (top down policy changes, midnight mass user account purges) as we see in many so-called online "communities" - or we can put the site in the hands of the people who have invested the time and effort to build VideoSift into the community it is.
Naturally, the latter is the path we've chosen. It's messier, not very slick and sometimes downright ugly - and we will probably never be a Digg or even a Reddit- but I can promise you that we will always strive to keep this amazing place a community. IMHO we are one of the few true communities on the web, and not the slick marketing paint slapped on some sites that claim it.
I'd like to thank all of the Sifters - past and present who have made our community the amazing institution it is. (3 years that qualifies us as an institution in internet time, right?)
Happy Siftiversary to you all!
I'd like to start with links to our previous Siftiversaries:
1 Year old
2 years old
Things have changed so much in online video over this span. When we first started, our tag line was "The best of YouTube and Google Video" . This seems like a circumscribed way to think about online video now - but 3 years ago - that's pretty much all there was. Flash video was just coming into its own - and until then QuickTime still ruled. (one of the few Apple products that I'm not a fan of)
The first YouTube video I ever saw was the Lazy Sunday a video that I think was YouTube's first hit. We're quickly moving to a future where the amount of videos online will rival web pages themselves. I don't think we have a firm grasp on what this means for society - but we'll keep growing and evolving VideoSift to be the community that Sifts the cream from these megaliters of video milk.
VideoSift is growing - and though we are not climbing to rockstar heights of popularity - we do have to change and put in tools that help the community manage itself.
As we grow, we see two avenues to managing the site. A fork in the road if you will. We can become increasingly draconian and sharp with our changes (top down policy changes, midnight mass user account purges) as we see in many so-called online "communities" - or we can put the site in the hands of the people who have invested the time and effort to build VideoSift into the community it is.
Naturally, the latter is the path we've chosen. It's messier, not very slick and sometimes downright ugly - and we will probably never be a Digg or even a Reddit- but I can promise you that we will always strive to keep this amazing place a community. IMHO we are one of the few true communities on the web, and not the slick marketing paint slapped on some sites that claim it.
I'd like to thank all of the Sifters - past and present who have made our community the amazing institution it is. (3 years that qualifies us as an institution in internet time, right?)
Happy Siftiversary to you all!
58 Comments
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
*promote - and crack the bubbly.
siftbotSelf promoting this Sift Talk post - promote requested by original submitter dag.
UsesProzacI don't want this site to ever be like Digg. I like this close-knit community. Happy Birthday, Sift.
jonny<Fires up a fatty> Here, smoke this, and hand me that bottle. Happy Siftiversary!
I think you're setting up a false dichotomy between draconian rule and mob rule, but this isn't the time or place for that discussion. It's party time.
campionidelmondoYaaay, Happy Birthday Sift...and many moooore!
blankfistHappy birfday to you! Happy birfday to you!
joedirtCongrats on another year. You are to be commended for making something addictive.
I do think in all the years, you've had to "deal" with less than a dozen bad eggs (except for spammers, etc).
I think you are focusing too much on Siftquisitions and other features that involve maybe five people a year. I think it's better to add features to address innovations and fun stuff. Think how much ink and time is wasted on this navel mulling over who did what. It's a freaking video site with about four functions, up, down, comment, submit. Why are people breaking things? They shouldn't be able to. There is the digg scalable approach, and you are chosing the wikipedia approach.
Anyways, I wish we could make all the bad eggs and drama invisible to the end user. Not sure why people are given so much say and then so much complaining about how it should be. Also feature creep is another byproduct of everyone votes on everything.
maatcI♥
VS
Herzlichen Glückwunsch!
maatc>> ^maatc:
I♥
VS
Can we make that a shirt?
eric3579How time flies when your sifting. Congrats to all for making this the great site it is.
Farhad2000Videosift is really a MMO. I been playing for close to 3 years. I remember all the patch fixes and large code deployments still. Its not the same, I miss the green orange classic graphics and the admins keep nerfing everything.
campionidelmondo>> ^maatc:
I♥
VS
Can we make that a shirt?
Can mine be spelled out? As much as I love Victoria's Secret...
NicoleBeeHappy anniversary, guys.
jonnyfarhad, joedirt - come on guys, this is party time. Let me grab you guys a couple beers. Why don't you pack that bong while I'm gone.
Let's gets some good music going.
Now dance suckas!
NicoleBee(does a little dance)
K0MMIEDoes Siftbot still want to harvest my fleshy bits? After 3 years I'd think his hunger would have faded.
DeanoI'm feeling funky.
Happy anniversary!
rougyDefinitely a good start.
OrnthoronHooray for VideoSift! Get the bonfire started and dance the night away!
<embed src="http://folk.uio.no/arvidsk/Dump/Bilder/Astrup.jpg" width="440" height="453">
(Nikolai Astrup, Midsummer Bonfire)
alien_conceptI reckon it's a work in progress and fuck yes we should strive to be a community not a dictatorship that's what we all love about this place after all. It's never going to be smooth and we're never going to all agree, but that's what communities do. At least we're keeping it real here, and I for one adore that fact.
Jubilations people! Woo
lucky760Finding VideoSift and becoming part of it is one of the best things that's ever happened to me. I've been here 2.5 years and will remain until SiftBot bites the dust and in all this time I am constantly amazed at this community. It's like a living organism with so many great people from so many different walks of life it's almost hard to believe you are all here in one place sharing this experience that Lord Dag made possible 3 years ago.
Maybe we don't want to be exactly like a digg or reddit, but at the very least we hope to achieve a point on the Internet mountain where VS is fully self-sustaining and we don't have to worry about making it to another siftiversary! With any luck we'll make it to year number 4 and every one of you fine folks will still be here with us then.
*raises champagne flute*
Here's to many more years, Sifters. Cheers. I love you guys. *hiccup*
schmawyReally, Sifty, you don't look a day over two. Cheers!
meeeeemories! http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://videosift.com
EklekIII!!! Congraaaaaatsz
>> ^lucky760:
With any luck we'll make it to year number 4 and every one of you fine folks will still be here with us then.
Of course we'll be lucky with you on board;) As we're now talking internet institutions (dag: "I'd like to thank all of the Sifters - past and present who have made our community the amazing institution it is. (3 years that qualifies us as an institution in internet time, right?)") we need to look beyond a "one year ahead" frame of reference and think about ways to keep VideoSift a quality community for exchanging videos/ideas (facts and opinions) for many years to come..
VideoSift is currently dealing with an overload of videos/ideas and users, which has decreased immensely our shared experience of videos/ideas contributed to the community and of our co-users..only 24/7 users can keep up with the pace..to improve this sense of community there are many ideas waiting to be implemented (e.g. a neighbour system (cf. last.fm), channel search, decrease the max. of unsifted videos from 6 to 4? and 3 to 2?, maximum unsifted queue size (100?) etc.)
Once upon a time - when everybody saw each others videos - MLX posted
http://web.archive.org/web/20060315170206/www.videosift.com/story.php?id=670
the following:
http://www.videosift.com/video/Funkentelechy-vs-The-Placebo-Syndrome
More funk:)))
calvadoswoot woot!
RyjkyjDamn, feels like WAY more than three years. I'm glad to see that even though a lot of the first ones are are gone, some are still here. And I'm glad to see the new guys like zonbie and ladydeath can shoot right up with their hard work.
This place is awesome. One of these days, I might even start paying
deathcowhere's to the $120 million in venture capital money we blew over the last 3 years !
dystopianfuturetodayThanks Dag, Lucky and Siftbot. You've built a nice little community here.
dotdudeHappy Siftversary!
gwiz665Yay, we're old!
I think we are growing in all the right places, so many congrats to you creators and to all my fellow sifters, who make this place the place to be. Huzzah.
I'm hugging you all with my mind powers now!
peggedbeahey hey videosift is an aquarius!... we could never date.
bamdrewhooray for online parties. i'm thinking a track like this is more sifty:
dagComment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)
>> ^deathcow:
here's to the $120 million in venture capital money we blew over the last 3 years !
(shhh! just pass the blow and keep quiet)
ant[does a robot dance]
Only three years? Feels like 10!
mintbbbHappy BDay! I'm so happy to be a videosifter! Keep up the good work, this place is amazing and makes me happy
spoco2I luffs yu guys... *burp* I reeellly luvs you. No, you don' know nothin', you don't know me, you, I, I wanna kiss you, can we kiss, cause I wanna... *burp* kiss. Cause I think that you purty, very purty... I once new a man named Susan... isn't that insane? Cause it's a girly name... *blank stare*
What were we talkin' about? Oh... can we have sex? Cause I think you're... *head droops*
*head snaps to attention*
So... I was telling the guy "You haven't been part of an online community until you've been part of Videoshiff..." I told him good I did... and erm... um...
Oh...
*projectile vomits*
Urgh...
Can I get another champagne over here please?
What were we talking about?
berticus ..8888888.. ..8888888..
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thinker247I could make a nice pedophile joke here, but instead I'll just say thanks for making a great community.
I especially enjoy the videos. I think without them, Videosift would be...some other kind of sift.
So good job on all the videos and the baninations. Even when they are deserved.
gwiz665>> ^NicoleBee:
(does a little dance)
NetRunnerIt's a great little corner of the Internet, and I'm sure happy I stumbled across it years ago. Pretty glad I ditched my lurker status too. Turns out VS is a lot like sex; it's a lot more fun to participate than just watch.
Krupo"The community that Sifts the cream from these megaliters of video milk."
That just SCREAMS *quality. Congrats to the siftbot, siftbot keepers, and siftbot denizens - everyone. Thanks guys for making this place great.
Also, I agree with some of eklek's ideas (though I disagree only and heavily on the idea of a max size to the unsifted personal pqueue size - it's a rich archive of also-rans and the obscure - it may not be the most popular, but someone took the effort to try and classify it with some elegance)... to be discussed further in the 3.4/4.0 days... right now, more "yay".
siftbotAwarding dag with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by Krupo.
kronosposeidonFrom the bottom of my heart I want you all to know this:
You fuckers are alright.
kronosposeidon*doublepromote
One day isn't long enough.
siftbotDouble-Promoting this Sift Talk post - doublepromote requested by kronosposeidon.
youdiejoewoohoo! Front row seats baby!
GratefulmomHappy B-day Sift!! My new favorite place to hang out. Thanks for the fun..:)
deathcow(Steve Martin voice) I would rather hang out with all you, than with the finest people in the world!
ZonbieHooray Videosift! Now Party Dammit! The Overlords have spoken!
hehe, I enjoy spending time here, finding videos, voting up, sometimes voting down and always nice folks here 
heres to another year with you lot 
Your WILL rejoice!
legacy0100Register videosift as a religion and we could get government tax breaks. Then we shall go on to compete with scientology, and argue with church of Flying spaghetti monster members or something...
Dag is our savior and Lucky is the virgin mother.
swampgirlDag and Lucky, congratulations
This has been a home of a sorts for me for 3 years this spring. I swear this place was the only thing that kept me sane from the fall of 2006 to winter 2007. Thanks for that! I loved the game then and played hard.
I care about this site a lot, and I'm trying to roll w/ the changes and growing pains. Ultimately I love the idea of VS. You may have started out about the videos, but this is a community experiment through and through.
Thanks for creating a space for us to 'live' an hour or two (or five) every day. Always I wish you all the best and success. Viva la Sift!
EDDI'll just say this - I'm quite sure I'd be ashamed if I knew who I'd be if it weren't for VideoSift. That's one good measure of how much this community has given me. Thank you guys, from the bottom of my heart
!
volumptuousThank you Dag, Lucky, Chogger, and everyone else who's made this place awezomez1.
bleedingsnowmanThank YOU.
rottenseedYou know you're addicted when you're suckin' dick for internet access...
kronosposeidon^Does that work? Just curious.
rottenseed>> ^kronosposeidon:
^Does that work? Just curious.
Well...long story short, that's what the barista at Starbucks was having me do to give me access to their wifi...later I found out the service free. The blowjobs stopped a couple of weeks later.
ant>> ^NetRunner:
It's a great little corner of the Internet, and I'm sure happy I stumbled across it years ago. Pretty glad I ditched my lurker status too. Turns out VS is a lot like sex; it's a lot more fun to participate than just watch.
Really?
ponceleon>> ^Farhad2000:
Videosift is really a MMO. I been playing for close to 3 years. I remember all the patch fixes and large code deployments still. Its not the same, I miss the green orange classic graphics and the admins keep nerfing everything.
That is so true, when I finally kicked the WoW habit, this is what I spend most of my goofing off time doing, plus I get the weekends off and don't have to raid!!!
TMI I'm sure.
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