3.1 is going to have a wiki style faq that gold members can edit, this might be a good place to start collecting info for it.

*quality

Gold Star member James Roe has awarded Deano one published post for this quality Sift Talk contribution.

don't post while america sleeps.
don't pretend you know what will Sift.
check out people who voted for your discarded videos and go vote one of their queued vids up.

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

When a post gets stalled in the 2-3 day doldrums, leave a useful comment on your post that gives a bit more detail. I've seen this technique used by seasoned sifters to good effect.

Generally, associating a sift with a collective gives it a better chance to escape the queue, as it will gain more visibility from collective members even a few days after posting. (Plus it helps organize and classify the videos a bit.)

Conversely, if you can't find a collective that it would fit in, the best time to post it would be around 9am Eastern, or 6pm Eastern.(Give or take 2 hours)

And finally, if the video has 5 or more votes in the queue and you're tempted to discard it, don't. There are a lot of people (including me) who look through the "Expiring Soon" list to help videos out. Videos with 5 or more votes generally have a pretty good chance of appearing there.

"Videos with 5 or more votes generally have a pretty good chance of appearing there."

Apart from my Renegade sift

Have yourself a spot saved somewhere to stash some variety of sifts. Music does well here and sometimes more so on the weekends when old farts like me are sittin at home w/ the family having a few drinks and upvoting all the our old favs

When you find a source say on youtube that has provided some unique or siftable material for you..subscribe to the member and follow the related links to others to subscribe to. Ever so often they'll come up with something you'll really like that's unique.

Yeah, everyone wants votes and raise in rank...it's the game aspect of it and when you're on a roll..have fun. Ultimately though, sift what you love to watch.

Hmm advice 'eh? Well first off sift stuff that you like to watch, if you try to find vids that you *think* other people will like generally it just isn't going to work. Sifting is a labor of love so you have to love what you sift.

I find a good summary very helpful when I'm looking through the queue. A video with an ambiguous title and no summary will often get overlooked.

not so seasoned member - but i've found that an attention grabbing (yet honest / accurate) title and an informative descrption makes a big difference. also, people like wikipedia references...

Don't do drugs. Always brush your teeth. There's no sex in the champagne room.

what??? no sex in the champagne room?? awwww.....

anyway, I'd also recommend getting an avatar and commenting regularly, people remember active members, and tend to sometimes give an upvote here and there based on that alone... the Sift, is after all, just as much about social interaction as it is about the videos... if people like you as a member, they will be more likely to watch the stuff you post.

what tends to work for me, is to imagine a clueless state of being, embrace the spirit of the post, and proceed to piss off as many folks as possible, with the fewest number of expletives....hey, only took a year to kiss-ass and reach 250....

Ok, I lied. There is sex in the champagne room, but only for charter members.

The don't post while America sleeps one is good I think... I'm pretty new and I made the mistake of recently posting my first video, but it was 2AM CST. It got some votes (8 right now) but it wasn't up front at the busy hours so now it's drifting somewhere in the middle where no one will ever see it shame.

There are some American night owls, though.

*heads back to easel"

We don't sleep in Vegas.

Try to avoid Ant seeing your sift.