You Tube (peripheral mando content)

[Ben Cooper]

Do a lot of people have You Tube accounts so they can share videos on the Cafe? My biggest reservation about uploading to You Tube is that I don't mind sharing with folks on the Cafe (and in fatc that is what I want to do), but sharing with the general population... now that is another story.

[allenhopkins]

1. Don't have an account, don't do videos, enjoy watching 'em though.
2. I wouldn't worry about "sharing with the general population." There are millions of videos on YouTube, and the chances of any vid browser picking out yours are fairly slim. If you label yours generically, then post links or the vids themselves here, chances are that Cafe´members will be the only ones looking at 'em.
3. And if someone else does happen across one of yours, what's the harm? YouTube has the contradictory qualities of intimacy and anonymity. If you post a video of yourself butchering Blackberry Blossom, rest assured it won't be the worst version on the 'Tube, nor the best.
4. If you get flamed in the comments, just consider the source (teenage boys in their PJ's at 4 a.m., who clicked on your vid while looking for porn). Not to worry.

[bratsche]

You do have the choice of making your YouTube videos either public, unlisted or private (requiring an invitation to view). I actually have some, for family only, that are in the latter category. But Unlisted seems to be what you're looking for.

bratsche

[journeybear]

I've had an account for over five years, and it's always been public. My underlying motivation was to be noticed, hoping to be the next youtube sensation (hey, if I can't make a splash because of my brilliant talent through conventional methods, perhaps this would work), but I was nudged along by wanting to participate in the Whiskey Before Breakfast Challenge (http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?50417) here; this seemed the only way. I have put up fifteen videos so far, most of them met with thunderous indifference, so I don't think you have much to worry about.

I just took a quick look through my account, and the numbers are pretty sobering. Only four of them have more than 1000 hits, and three of those are from that initial flurry of uploading. This includes acoustic and electric versions of WBB, both in the mid-1000s, and I assume those numbers are due to 1) views by Café members and 2) their age - even if the more popular one has averaged slightly under one view per day over all this time. Inexplicably, way out in front of these, at 8400 views, is an original composition featuring fingerpicking on the mandolin, again from five years ago. I suppose there aren't many videos of a mandolin being played that way; I'm baffled why this should have gotten so much interest. :confused: I would think that my version of Jimi Hendrix' version of The Star Spangled Banner on the MandoBird, with distortion and wah-wah, would have gotten more traffic, but after three years it's at a pitiful 155 views (it actually gets way more at the page of my former band, over 2000 hits, three times as many as any other video up there, which must irritate the head honcho no end). But way, way, WAY out in front of all of my videos is the one I reposted two years ago of a full set by Katzenjammer. It has gotten over a quarter of a million hits! :disbelief: I get comments from all over the world in languages I can barely identify. I now have 166 subscribers, presumably most of them because of this. It's actually pretty cool to get that much traffic, even if I have hardly anything to do with it. So far, no one has complained, and if they ever do, I'm friends with one of the members; we'll sort it out.

So I would say, post merrily away, and don't worry who sees what. You will be a very small fish in an enormous pond - make that, ocean. Just don't put up anything too embarrassing. ;) Even if you change your mind, you can always take it down. And if someone posts an annoying comment, you can delete it. Have fun! :mandosmiley: