It's not a huge deal, to be honest - Australia accounts for a fairly small percentage of our visitors. Still brings me down a little more and makes me think that advertising and online communities are a rough fit. Here's the email I received:

Good Evening Brian,

Adconion Media Group has received a complaint from an Advertiser about content they were displayed against.

The offending video contravenes Adconion Terms and Conditions where it states that Adconion will not pay for impressions of a salacious nature.

In saying such we have decided that as of 24 hours you account will be cancelled and final payment will be tallied for impressions rendered up to the 24 hour period.

If you would like to view the offending video, I have enclosed a link.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Use-Of-N-Word-May-End-Porn-Stars-Career

Kind Regards,

[name redacted]

----------------------------
Media Account Executive - Australia
Adconion Media Group

The online advertising world leaves me shaking my head more often than not - so, maybe we're on a better track with the Amazon strategy. I've already found a couple books I'd like to order - and although it is not generating much revenue now - I like the idea of putting advertising in the hands of the community and quality recommendation for books, movies and music.

So, I'm looking at this very slick America.gov website- and I'm reminded so much of how the US federal government was just another IT consortium in Snow Crash. Also see this video post on the Tesla Roadster, from the same site.

I've seen some screens today that are absolutely fantastic. I would say that the change from 3.0 to 4.0 will be of a magnitude of the change from 1.0 to 2.0. It's going to be big. But don't fear the change, all of the good things will still be there ... just better.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a nice mix of nostalgia and re-imagining. Don't bother staying past the credits, there is no teaser for the next one - though I'd be surprised if they don't make another.

Simon Pegg was great as Scotty, and the Bones character was a very good Deforest Kelly impression.

As good as it was, if I were honest - I would admit that if I came into this movie knowing no Star Trek canon, it would seem very muddy and confusing. This is a movie for people who know Trek lore - and enjoy little moments of "aha, I see what you did there".

It seems that the Comedy Channel in Australia has put pressure on Comedy Central to block Australians from viewing The Daily Show episodes online. I use StrongVPN, and simply flip the switch, but I'm sure most people will just go back to BitTorrent. I liked watching the full episodes on the Web because the quality is reasonably high and I'm not uploading anything as I am through BitTorrent. (uploads are a concern for many in Australia as we often pay for bandwidth in both directions)

Reddit is a much bigger site than VideoSift - in the top 300 sites in the US, traffic-wise.

Yesterday we had our first #1 ranked Reddit post. That means we had a post that hung around at the top of the Reddit front page for a few hours. We get a lot of our posts sent to sites like Reddit or Digg, but they are often down voted, because they are not linked to the "source" - this being YouTube or other hosts. This reaction always surprises me because a site like Reddit seems to share lot of the anarchic, anti-corporate attitudes that we have here on the Sift.

I thought you might like to see some of the stats from the day. I love web stats . Some think it's like watching paint dry - but I feel like I'm plugged into something neat when I watch them. I should mention that VideoSift hit the number 1 position pretty late in the day, so this doesn't represent the result for any #1 position on Reddit necessarily.
... more inside ...

Beware: Here there be Spoilers

Before I lay into it, I want to say that this was probably the best TV SF since Star Trek TOS. The acting was solid and the visual effects were groundbreaking for a TV show.

I can understand why a lot of Sifters were disappointed by the ending. Loose ends weren't so much tied up, as crumpled up in a ball and tossed away. And yes, they used the God escape.

The problem with so much modern serial fiction is that writers have gotten very good at weaving a rich symbolic narrative - that lacks a core of of plot and believability. (see Lost) Here's my list of themes that were heavily invested in story-wise but kind of dropped at the end.

1. Starbuck. WTF? - did I miss something?
2. The Cylon/human kid - so they led Galactica on a suicide mision- why again?
3. The Baltar Caprica 6 "angels" - fucking angels.
4. The other skin jobs - where did they go? Did they get resurrection?
5. What does "All along the Watchtower" have to do with anything besides making a nice theme song for the final season?
6. Homo Sapiens on a random planet
7. Did I mention Starbuck, the pristine viper and her rotting corpse?

So with all these plot/theme holes that you could fly a heavy raider through, God was the only solution for any kind of resolution. Because the writers painted themselves into a corner with all of their deeply rich and mysterious narrative concepts, creating a very literal deus ex machina.

I have to admit that I didn't mind the god stuff as much as I did in Contact - where I really found it almost offensive, and disrespectful of Sagan's book and belief system. Sometimes, I have to admit, I even like a bit of God in SF. If you ever get a chance to read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russel, that's God in Science Fiction done right.

The theme of my 40th birthday weekend was "Life is too short - we are mayflies".

I think I can actually feel my brain shrinking. Names of songs that that are 2 years old - I can't extract - but any piece of shit song from the 80s is instantly available.

That's the way it works when your brain ages - all of the old pathways from 30 years ago are indelible, while it gets harder and harder to engrave a new memory into the gray matter.

But if my brain didn't shrink, and I was able to inscribe the new memories just as easily as I made the old ones - I suppose something would have to give. Can the human brain hold 100 years worth of clear, concise memories? Probably not. Just like my laptop, I would have to choose the crap to delete.

I'm sure that we would all be better, wiser more compassionate people if we were allowed to experience geologic time without our brains shrinking. If we could live, say, 10,000 years ...

extropianism, transhumanism whatever - I would just like to get to the future somehow, because I'm extremely optimistic about our long term prospects. The idea that it's immoral or inhumane to live past your alloted 4 score and 10 will have faded away. People will cry for all the dead humans who were lost throughout history.

My birthday itself was very pleasant with no sad thoughts - well maybe one, when I realised that I would never be in my thirties again. But it was only a pinprick. (no, not you Blankfist)

It's no mystery that I've been a bit disappointed with recent events. It's been over 3 years and I need a break. We're heading down to Currumbin Beach, sitting in the sun, playing my guitar and welcoming 40. See you all on the flip side, Lucky has the con.

There's some weird religious overtones with that, rising from the dead - or end times or something. I'm feeling pretty apocalyptic. If anyone else says "life begins at 40" to me, I'll sick this guy on 'em.

I got a neat toy as an early present. It's a 4 channel mic/digital recorder good for picking up the occasional acoustic jam sessions or using as a USB mic - pod casting? It has very little hiss and so far (after 1 day of use) is the mic I'm been looking for.

It's the best SF movie I've seen in quite some time. I don't say this lightly. You know how down I've been on other recent releases. The director is Alex Proyas, who also did Dark City, which should probably be all the recommendation needed.

I won't discuss any plot points because there is a hell of a lot to give up - but yeah. Go see it.

Rick Santelli, a CNBC financial correspondent, cancelled his appearance on the show and Jon spends the whole time talking about the economy. Watch the whole episode for March 4th if you can get it - or check out this Sift which has the best part.

You know the idea that when you die, you will meet your lost friends and relatives in heaven or hell? Facebook is getting weirdly like that for me.

I'm finding that most of the people that I've ever known are there. All my university dorm roommates, ex-girlfriends and junior high acquaintances - smiling back at me from my friend list - and it feels weird.

Part of it is it that I've had a few lives. I've moved to different states, continents and countries over the years - and for the most part, you start fresh with friends.

Now they're all there in one place, waiting to greet me - like angels.

I just discovered that there is a VideoSift.com channel on Reddit.

I like Reddit a lot for a a general news kind of site (though definitely not a community IMHO) - and we get a fair bit of traffic from Reddit.

http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/02/10/cat_internet/

"The internet is the best thing that ever happened to cats," said one commenter at the video-sharing site Videosift, following a clip in which one kitten faces off against a litter of puppies in a "Matrix"-type satire.

ZiggyStardust is a superstar.

This is a follow-up to my earlier post from a teaser email I got from Richard Branson's Virgin Blue airlines. They are indeed giving away a trip on Virgin Galactic. Or at least giving someone the 25 million frequent flyer points required to make the trip.

Makes me want to Jump. Especially Sammy's cameo.

I believe that the more time I spend worrying about money the less satisfied I will be.

It turns out though that lately I've had to think about it quite a bit. You may or may not have read something about the bottom falling out of the online ad market. I can confirm that it has indeed happened.

VideoSift survives on a day to day basis primarily from the income provided by our online display advertisers in the banner up top, and the square in the sidebar. This provides us with a few thousand dollars a month in revenue - which in most months matches up closely to our expenses.

Since around December- and roughly corresponding with the financial crisis - our revenue has dropped significantly to the point where we may really be scraping to meet our monthly costs. We closed our side-project Dwigger partly because we couldn't justify the costs of dedicated servers.

The thing is - I'm not even sure Internet advertising works for an online community like ours. Who clicks on ads on a site like VideoSift? - I sure as shit don't, and from our stats, neither do you. I come here for the content we provide - Why would I click on lots of flashy links that are designed to send away - somewhere much less satisfying?

I would like to make a break from advertising - and I've been looking at other ways to fund VideoSift - because I will not let it fail.

I was very impressed with Wikipedia's latest fund-raising drive. I don't kid myself that we are an entity with the size or following of Wikipedia - but neither are our needs as great. We do have many things in common with a wikipedia type of organisation; We have a decicated group of people who enjoy working collaboratively on our content. We have worked together to create a compendium of video that is not every video on the web - but that is quality, accurately described and accessible. I would also say that as a community we are averse to commerical and marketing activities - which is probably why advertising has never really fit here.

At this point, it's just something we are exploring. We are consulting with noted Sift financial boffins and crunching numbers. The best thing about VideoSift has always been the amazing people that are automagically drawn here. I would rather put the future of the community in your hands than some anonymous ad brokers who continually refer to us as "Video Shift"

I'm not a number person - I do better with pictures. During normal hours, VideoSift averages around 2,000 visitors an hour or more. I was trying to get my head around how many people this is - and I was drinking a pint of Guinness, waiting for the bus on my way home from work. (on sale this week only at the local Pig & Whistle). I came up with this picture - and pasted avatars of the top 15 members for the past week, so it doesn't look like just a pattern of shapes. This is how many people visit our little community every hour. I wouldn't say we are a huge site - but even these modest numbers boggle my mind. Multiple this image by 20 or so to get a day's worth of visitors. (large image ahead)
... more inside ...