ComboVid.com

I think the main reason for them is when you want to give people the option of turning them off

Maj wrote:Annotations are text youtube can read, unlike text edited into the video. I bet annotations factor into search rankings somehow.

They actually do. On that note your annotations also affect which videos get into the 'related' section. Like, if you place the name of a song you used in your vid on an annotation, there's a chance said song will pop up in the Related Videos section.

onReload wrote:I'm not a fan either, but sometimes they make sense, like when you need to add something to a video you've already uploaded...or you want to have a simple link to another video (I don't know what the ratio of "people who read descriptions" to "people who have annotations on" is, but it is surprising how many times a glitch will be explained or BGM is credited in the description, and you still see tons of people asking for either.

People on YT are notorious for not reading descriptions. I don't know why, maybe it's laziness, but they just don't read them more often than not. Shoot, I've seen some guys add an annotation on their vid purely for the sake of telling them to read the description, and people still don't read it.

Also, YT could use a feature that allows you to update a vid that you've already uploaded. Say you make a typo or mistake in your vid that you'd like to correct, or you want to re-upload it in a higher definition, etc. Instead of having to take down your old video and upload a new one (or have 2 floating around), it'd be better if you could just update and have it use the same URL. Even if you post a better version of an old vid, it never gets as much attention as the original. Would work wonders for those vids that the music copyright police crack down on, too.

onReload wrote:the reason why I don't like them, actually, is because even though Google/YouTube is huge and seems like it's gonna be around for awhile, a change in hosting or formatting could possibly erase any current annotations - or, if you just want to have your video up on another site, without the YT embed. but i think they have their place.

Agreed. What I was referring to are those vids where people use annotations for 99% of the text in their vid. Like, I've literally seen quite a few tutorials where all of the explanations are nothing but straight annotation. The thing is, without YT your video is null and void. Annotations work well as a band-aid, but using it for life support just isn't a good idea.

AquaTeamV3 wrote:YT could use a feature that allows you to update a vid that you've already uploaded.

Yeah but that's never gonna happen. Even if it does, chances are they'll give the ability to a select few users like maybe partners only. The potential for abuse is huge. In fact i'm surprised they allow audio swap at all, but i'm not surprised that you have to choose the song from a pre-screened list.

Youtube's general audience is ... troublesome. They're pretty limited in what they can implement without shooting themselves in the foot. Some of u2b's simplest and most annoying problems will never be solved.

But they let us upload videos longer than 15 minutes, so i'm content with what it is. The only other thing i'm waiting for is for them to extend partnerships to game video makers, but it's no use lobbying for that or predicting when it'll happen.

I was curious, if people keep pestering youtube, will youtube usually do something about it? I can't make unlisted videos and I was thinking if I kept bugging them, would they at least do something about it.

Persona wrote:I was curious, if people keep pestering youtube, will youtube usually do something about it? I can't make unlisted videos and I was thinking if I kept bugging them, would they at least do something about it.

You could just have me post it publically. Not like anyone looks at my videos anyway. (For example, the super freeze clippings -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29-7ipRSc50 -- has all of 97 views.)

I was trying to find Dooplis' scaled super channel the other day, and the easiest way to get to it was by going through my response. YT's interface is going to pot.

Edit:
And now it has 140 views. The power of SH/F is rampant.

Could this thumbnail selection process be handled any more poorly? I've been waiting for it to refresh for almost 12 hours now. Why the fuck doesn't u2b allow you to select it from the beginning instead of locking it in automatically?

well, if you were asked to specify a time for the thumbnail, that would mean building a new interface for that sort of thing - even if it were a simple JavaScript form that asks which "second" you would choose, (which is tricky anyway, as a second doesn't actually specific a thumbnail, what with all the frames they contain),

or having you slide through a not-totally-processed version of the video and pausing at the appropriate point, which is also shitty, since you can't always pinpoint the exact time....also, they don't want to all the 12-year-olds/56-year-olds who like to just upload and point at the pretty picture.

unless you meant something different, anyway, 'cause those are the two methods I'm imagining...at least it's not how it used to be, where it just selected the center of your video.

No i just mean letting us pick one of the default three options before the middle one gets locked in.

oh, wow. did not realize it did that, can't you re-choose later, when you go to videos > edit ?

Yes, but when the middle thumbnail is automatically locked in for up to 6 hours until it refreshes to whatever you picked. Or in this case, when they're having server caching problems or whatever the fuck is going on, they're locked in for days without updating.

WHAT THE HELL YOUTUBE!? Why aren't the annotations in my results video showing!?

Actually I'm wondering why when I uploaded my MK video on my channel got the audio cockblocked but when I uploaded it at the CX channel got the audio normally? How this shit work?

Doopliss wrote:Why aren't the annotations in my results video showing!?

No clue, but they were there yesterday.

Don Vecta wrote:How this shit work?

Just stop using major label music. Blaming them for protecting what's theirs is kind of unreasonable. Anyway it's not that hard. There's plenty of safe video game music to choose from.

Which is why I always use VGM. Anime soundtracks are probably safe too.

I just make a windows movie maker video with no picture just a solid colour, and test out different tracks, upload to youtube privately and see if the audio is blocked. A bit time consuming but I try out like 5 or so at once to get an idea of what I can use.

Maj wrote:

Don Vecta wrote:How this shit work?

Just stop using major label music. Blaming them for protecting what's theirs is kind of unreasonable. Anyway it's not that hard. There's plenty of safe video game music to choose from.

Spare me the lecture of copyright and whatnot, that's not the issue.
What I'm wondering is why in one channel they don't let me do it but in another they did, that's what's puzzling me.

it's probably too much trouble to check every new video when it's uploaded, checking every single video against every song isn't trivial.
they probably caught yours immediately beacuse you're on a hidden watch list, I'm guessing they will mute the cx one at some point.
I think they do it inconsistently on purpose so people can't figure out how to beat it.

Don Vecta wrote:Spare me the lecture of copyright and whatnot, that's not the issue.

It wasn't a lecture, it was advice. Even if you manage to find an exploit, you'd only be asking for a bigger headache by using it.

alright, thanx anyways

Grrr, wtf is this, the LAST annotation in my video works, the one towards the end where the hippo is spitting out the bird, but the IMPORTANT ONES doesn't work.

Has anyone noticed that having a video on your u2b channel page doesn't count for shit in terms of views? The whole time i had style v.one featured, insights stats always showed 3x more views coming from related videos, plus obviously way more views coming from embedded players.

I guess you can use it to force a couple hundred views per week onto a video that needs a boost, but otherwise it's completely pointless.

Also, i guarantee that having a good screenshot can double your views. I understand the reasons for limiting that ability to partners, just because of the abuse that would happen if everyone got to pick whatever frame they wanted. But it's such a bullshit disadvantage to have a combovid where your only choices are characters standing around half screen apart.

yeah, I noticed that, but at the same time I'm still astounded by the MILLION views on that guile combo video by Guilley. Pretty amazing!

It's just so rare to get anyone linking directly to a channel page - and even then, there's usually very little reason for anyone to click on those links.

The other thing is, if you have your channel video set to autoplay, that increases views by A LOT. But it's so fucking annoying that i would get irritated visiting my own channel to check for new messages while style v.one was set to autoplay for that one week.

It definitely yields results, but i guess it's up to everyone to decide whether to buy into that option. For me personally, it's just not worth the headache.

Doopliss wrote:Which is why I always use VGM. Anime soundtracks are probably safe too.

That really depends on which anime your doing it from. I know Toei and funimation have musicblocked a few videos on youtube from the series "one piece".

Ah. I usually use more obscure intros or theme's that aren't intros/outros.

Buttermaker wrote:A new interface.

Nice...*Trying it out*

Spotlight annotations don't work? I had the word "style" in DAMAGE v.one as a spotlight annotation linking to style v.one and it worked until i added some more (regular) annotations to the end of the video.

Now the original spotlight annotation is invisible until you move the mouse over it. Tried changing the colors, resaving, republishing - not worked.

Can someone help me with this annotations?!

I want to put links to webpages and youtube channels for the people on my credits for my vid but its not letting me. Persona tried to help but the way he did it is not working for me.

Annotations seem to have a lot of strange glitches, but you're definitely not allowed to link to outside websites. You can link to u2b channels though.