Comments on: Non US Viewers Aren’t as Valuable: Metacafe Won’t Pay for exUS Views

By: marquisdejolie

marquisdejolie — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 04:15:41 +0000

@13
My electric bill this month was $23.47. Do you know how many days I had to sit in the dark with nothing on but the refrigerator to get that bill down that low this month?

Most of them.

By: Freddy

Freddy — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:55:11 +0000

@Bobby:

You make a good point, and one I tried to make when I was working at Metacafe. But Metacafe can’t dictate what goes on the homepage because that would imply that their employees are actually watching the videos, and that would make them liable for any pirated material that pops up on their site. (Remember how Viacom wanted to find out if YouTube employees were watching pirated videos.) So theoretically, all those people work at Metacafe without actually watching anything.

Of course, Metacafe employees CAN watch videos submitted to contests and Producer Rewards, because the assumption there is that those videos are original. So why not just limit the homepage to Producer Rewards videos and contest entries?

Because most of Metacafe’s traffic depends on that pirated material, from professional soccer clips to R-rated scenes from movies. They can’t depend on user-generated content to sustain traffic, because not all independent producers have the talent of Nalts. (And even Nalts didn’t resonate with most Metacafe users, mostly because he didn’t make videos about topless soccer.)

So Metacafe is now floundering around for not just a business strategy, but a reason for existence.

Freddy

By: Marilyn

Marilyn — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:49:47 +0000

Here’s my 2 cents:

The best way to stay out of debt is not to generate any. Don’t buy stuff you can’t afford. Pay off your credit card each month. Make sure you put something into savings. It is that simple.

I don’t have cable, drive an old car, my house is paid off (but only because my mother died), I have no credit card debt, and I have a quite sizable money market account. You just have to learn to live BELOW your means.

By: marquisdejolie

marquisdejolie — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:14:47 +0000

@11
There’s PEOPLE there!? I mean, ACTUAL employees? You’re shittin’ me. I don’t believe it.

By: Bobby Jennings

Bobby Jennings — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:16:15 +0000

I spoke with some people at Metacafe the other day. As far as paying creators, I get their new stance. But if they want to start making deals that appeal to professional content creators, they’re going to have to exploit that homepage a lot better.

They use a “wisdom of the masses” reviewing system that controls the content on their homepage. In my opinion, that real estate is too valuable NOT to be FULLY programmed by an editor – a person with Metacafe’s advertising and strategic relationships in mind. Otherwise, it doesn’t look all that different from a UGC catch-all. Bleeecch.

By: marquisdejolie

marquisdejolie — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:11:04 +0000

Why should every GD thing be amusing? You living in a theme park or something? Expecting to see Disney characters downstairs at the breakfast table every morning? Pfffft. Jump on your Harley, pick up a hooker on 3rd and a fifth on sixth and head on down to Juarez. See a midget called Pepper at the Pinchay Gringo Bar in the redlight district. He’ll fix you up. And get a tattoo while you’re down there, gdammit.

By: Nalts

Nalts — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:02:12 +0000

You know you’re in a funk when not only can you not think of a creative idea, but you find barely any videos even mildy amusing (gasp- even your own).

By: Nalts

Nalts — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:00:18 +0000

My note to Michael Buckley 10 minutes ago: > Do you ever have a funk (lasting a few days to a week or so) where you lose your zest for video completely? If so, how do you snap out of it?

His response: You just have to remind yourself how FUN it actually is and there are literally thousands of people who enjoy what you are doing.” (the a bunch of private stuff on how well things are going).

My response before coming to WVFF to hide: I wish you were more of a douche bag so I could wish you ill or be jealous.

By: ~X.365~

~X.365~ — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:32:32 +0000

haha.
no seriously.
this site is strangely cool! they are running their metadata on a wiki based platform

By: Peter Coffin

Peter Coffin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:22:24 +0000

It’s for COOL cats.

MetaCafe is for jazz beatniks.