Video Mistakes

A bit of a break in the schedule today. (I'll get back to the Iceberg Lake posts later.)

Years ago when I started posting stuff on the Internet I soon had to make a decision about where to upload and secure my video footage. Back then there were a fair number of such sites and I had to make some choices. What I ended up doing was placing a lot of my videos at several sites to kind of hedge my bets.

I put a lot of my stuff on Webshots. Alas, that site was abruptly sold some time back and before I could retrieve my videos (some had been lost from my hard drive in crashes), those files were forever lost to me. A mistake in that case, but you takes yer chances.

Another site that I placed too much faith in was Google Video. I figured...damn, they're the biggest name on the Internet--I'm sure their site will always be safe.

Wrong!

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I suspect that they cut a deal with Youtube and shut down in favor of working closely with the Youtube format. As it was, one day I received a notice that I had a certain amount of time to transfer my files from Google Video to Youtube. I dallied and mainly retrieved them all, but not quite. Again, I lost some material that I had also lost on my various hard drives.

Another one that I used was Photobucket. They're still around, but it became more and more difficult to post files from them to the various online venues that I like to utilize for my blogs and thoughts and fiction promotion.

These  days, I stick with Youtube. Mistake? Well, only time will tell. They seem to be in a unique position akin to a monopoly. I don't like monopolies, but you have to live with them sometimes. Amazon is a growing monopoly, and I don't like that, but if I'm going to  send people to buy my work online then I'm pretty much forced to point them to links to my books there. Sometimes you have little or no choice in practical matters. I am forced to take a similar view in relation to Youtube.

Now...one thing that I did have a choice about was whether or not to "monetize"  my venues on the Internet. So a few years ago I made the decision to do just that with my videos on Youtube. Almost the first week I did so I began to see ads that I would term offensive attached to my postings there. I know that some ads are targeted to your viewing habits, but how ads for products that not only don't I use but to which I am morally, philosophically, and politically opposed is a mystery. It was almost as if they were there just to anger me.  So I shut down the monetization option on my videos.

Then, a few months ago, it was suggested to me by a number of people that I monetize my videos again. As with monopolies, offensive ads were just something I would have to deal with to make some money from my works on Youtube. I'm a capitalist at heart, so I figured, okay. I'll do it. So I ended up monetizing every video I have on that site (which are considerable).

Weeks and months passed. I decided to check my stats and total up what I had earned with the many tens of thousands of hits my videos were racking up. Indeed, my moving images there had garnered an impressive array of views. I was eager to see how much I'd earned.

Imagine my surprise when I found that I'd earned exactly: zero dollars and zero cents.

What the heck??!!

Like all shyster organizations, Youtube has a system in place that allows them to make a lot of money from your work, but which also allows them not to have to legally share those profits with you. I compared notes with folk who have been doing this for a much longer time than I and discovered that Youtube had changed the rules arbitrarily. People who had been making a decent amount of money from their videos had now seen their income stream dammed at the source and all of the profits staying with the parent company.

Alas.

People who had been going to my videos to view them were having to sit through the damnable ads and all I got was nothin'. You all have my apology.

I cancelled the monetization option on my Youtube channel. At least I think I have. You never know with giant corporations like Youtube. Greedy men, like Nature, always find a way.

And here are some videos that I shot that I quite like and which are now once again available without stupid ads mucking up the views.

The exact point where I first got altitude sickness.

Probably the most magical moment I ever experienced in the wild.

Another great experience where every step was a note of rocky music.


The view from Mount Craig. Often overlooked online because it's the second highest summit in the eastern USA and not the highest. In fact, though, the views here are far superior than those from nearby Mount Mitchell which is less than fifty feet higher.

Feel free to peruse all of my videos.