Comments on: Don’t Call it a Viral Video Unless It Goes Viral. Till Then, It’s Just a Promotional Online-Video.

By: Drink Your Fat, Kiddies | Will Video for Food

Drink Your Fat, Kiddies | Will Video for Food — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 02:21:26 +0000

[...] this POV (not viral yet, per my previous post) drives home the message quite well. It’s just revolting [...]

By: BOBJENZ

BOBJENZ — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 18:48:43 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. One time a colleague told me that he makes “viral videos” and I said, “Really? Send me the video.” It turned out to be horrible comedy with 564 views. The only virus involved apparently had infected and destroyed his grasp of what reality was.

By: languageandhumor

languageandhumor — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:07:14 +0000

I’m not offended by the karaoke picture. In fact, that’s a pretty good song she’s singing, “Ito” ["Threads"] by Miyuki Nakajima. The on-screen lyrics are: “What will these threads become? Within the wind that was unsafe and trembling.” This is immediately followed by “You are the warp and I am the weft / Someday this woven cloth might protect someone’s wounds.”

[Sing along from 2:32-2:46 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVt2BBiGugQ: "Konna ito ga nan ni naru no? kokoro motonakute furueteta kaze no naka..."]

Of course, Nalts chose this particular picture on purpose to illustrate not only that karaoke singers aren’t ipso facto Grammy winners (as POVs aren’t immediately viral videos) but also that you never know what one of these WVFF threads will become.

By: languageandhumor

languageandhumor — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:05:23 +0000

Well, with pre-viral “viral” videos, the analogy is apt. We do call a virus a “virus” no only when it seems alive while inside some other organism’s cell turning it into a virus factory but also when it’s hanging out in the world showing no signs of life.

However, I agree that it’s not useful to call a video viral until it goes viral.

“Promotional Online Video” is fine, except for the association of POV with the camera’s or the filmmaker’s “point of view” (as Alexis mentioned @2), regardless of the MPAA rating.

Would there be a separate term for the typical videos that go viral–what before the Web were “America’s Funniest Home Videos” or just Exhibit A in the trial? There’s at least one video sharing site that uses “Viral” as the video category name for “idiot and/or dangerous stunt home video” and not for something created for promotion. Perhaps we should call that type of video a “vidiocy.”

By: Chris Brogan...

Chris Brogan... — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 02:40:51 +0000

Of course I know you as the SOURCE of all such knowledge. I mean, it’s either you or Steve Garfield I ask these types of questions to, but I think of you as more the guy going after big audience and Steve as Mr. Slice of Life.

The snowflake things weird me out.

By: Marc Ostrick

Marc Ostrick — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:09:36 +0000

Not a fan of the word viral either. But I love the Japanese woman.

By: Alexis

Alexis — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:06:08 +0000

In my opinion, viral should refer to the way the video gets it’s views not the number of views. A viral video is one where a viewer shares it with his friends and those friends share it with theirs and so on. The popular vloggers get millions of views, but I would guess that very few of the views are “viral”.

By the way, I’m not liking the POV acronym. It is commonly used as an acronym for “point of view”.

By: NutCheese

NutCheese — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:27:53 +0000

I don’t like this post because the picture of the virus reminded me that I should be studying for biology rather than reading this. Screw that! Biology sucks!

My last final is tomorrow morning so you wont be hearing me bitch about school anymore… well… until next semester anyways.