Vidding discussion

The vids are all down at imeem.

The playlists are not down, yet. So if you haven't deleted your account already, you can save your own playlist (the list, not the vids). Click on the actual playlist (it looks like it will play, but it won't -- but it doesn't redirect to the home page either). Then click "organize video playlist" -- this will launch a popup window that lists all of the vids.

It only works on your own playlist(s) when you are logged in, alas, not on playlists made by someone else. I wouldn't count on this working very much longer, so if you want to do it, do it soon.

aka imeemthrough (TM someone who is not me).

The pathetic blog post where imeem announced the upcoming video annihilation initially did not have comments enabled. But it does now (as pointed out in this article on ReadWriteWeb) so I left a commment.

The comment is still "awaiting moderation" even though at least one comment posted after it has passed through moderation.

So, I am putting the comment here for posterity. And to make me feel better.

ACTUALLY, hundreds if not thousands of your users come here solely to WATCH VIDEO. imeem was not founded as a music-focused service and SOME of us have been here long enough to remember that.

I am appalled at the dismissive way you are treating us. 5 days warning — on a blog post, no less — is really rude and it is not enough time to relocate all of our user-created and user-uploaded content. We will be losing comments, view counts, interpersonal relationships, thousands of playlists and more.

You COULD have emailed or PMed users that have uploaded, favorited, commented on, or made playlists of video content, but you did not and still have not.

You COULD have given us more advance warning. When Ning booted their Red Light District they gave 35 days notice — SEVEN TIMES LONGER.

I have copies of MY OWN video and photos, but you are removing my ability to access videos made by other people. Thousands of browser and delicious bookmarks are instantly dead. Links embedded in academic journals, scholarly articles, and blog posts: dead. Favorites: disappeared. Playlists: disappeared.

I am done with your service and I do not wish you well.

I left a more polite version of this comment on the ReadWriteWeb article, and I also ranted at length about imeem in my LJ.

One of the reasons this is driving me nuts is that I've collected over 4,360 LiveJournal (and other blog) vid rec entries in the delicious account for veni_vidi_vids. And so, so many of those LJ entries link directly to the imeem stream. And it seemed safe enough! Certainly safer than directly linking to a youtube vid.

Beyond the fact that some vids and vidders ONLY EXIST on imeem right now (I am mostly optimistic that vidders will eventually choose to reupload on a different streaming site) it really makes the whole archive of vid recs much less useful. I was searching for one vid earlier and 7 out of 8 recs linked to the imeem stream. (The vidder's LJ had no obvious link to the vid at all). But that 8th rec did help me find a DL link, so searching the delicious account using "viddername" and/or "fandom" can help locate DL links or alternate streaming links.

Now that so many vids are going to be in limbo, there's always vidfinders. vidding indexes by fandom tags (recently) and by fandom-specific memory categories for older vids. (It's a really good idea to cross-post your vid to vidding as well as the fandom-specific comm and your LJ. Just remember that vidding doesn't allow graphics unless they are under a cut.)

Vidders: consider a sticky post at the top of your LJ or a link in your profile. Yes, even if you've only made a few vids. Yes, even if you think everybody knows where your vids are. Some people are streaming at BAM and some at vimeo and some on youtube and some at blip.tv and some at viddler, etc.

FYI: The DownloadHelper extension for Firefox is one of the few that works with imeem. It lets you save as flv, or download and convert to another format.

http://www.downloadhelper.net/faq.php#how-use

And I linked to recent discussions about imeem, blip.tv, and BAM video vault over in veni_vidi_vids, as well as a bunch of imeem playlists (recs) that I'm trying to document. Let me know if you can help!