I don't know if anyone out there will see this, but maybe those that do will find it interesting.

[Chig]

Here is a story about a web video hosting service we all once knew:

How Google had a hand in what happened:

[Chig]

Oh, also I am keeping lights going in this place because I have believed that it is a means for people to stay connected, or be reminded of the special connections we all have shared.   I would appreciate if you would drop a comment here in this blog section if you see this.  If this has been long forgotten, then I should evaluate the need to keep this going.  

[BlancheNoE]

So I felt the chig force buzz my brain in my sleep last night and woke up knowing I needed to come check in here. I have not logged in or even looked in for quite some time. I knew way back then exactly what was being done to our little web-home and did what I could in the form of writing letters to admin ASKING them to charge us a subscription fee to keep it going and begging them to not let Google/ YouBoob win. Yeah, I'm so powerful that my efforts just sped up the downfall. As to why we've been off radar :

 We have been fighting with every last drop just to survive in this dystopian nightmare called modern society and it just eats all of our time and health now. None of it can be helped by friends, family or artistic expression and peeking in only to find the constant struggles of others is not helpful in least (yes , I see the irony of what I'm posting but I wanted you to know the why of it) when we are in no position to be helping anyone else, it is just more frustration. Maybe if life got just slightly less threatening in so many ways, I would feel like creating again but thanks to the way everything is set up, I must be more radically isolated every year if I don't want to be dog-fucking-sick all the time. Yes, I realize I can't catch germs through postings but my mental and emotional health drive my physical health sooooo, yeah.

We love you B. and it is amazing you've kept the ship floating as long as you have. I wish I had ideas but I don't, just love and respect for you and all our other friends who've passed through here.

[NatureJunkie]

Lord knows I hate having to defend Google. Their original motto was "Don't be evil," and now they are The Evil Giant. Trent Lapinski could have distilled all his ramblings about why LV failed in his one line, "It was mostly the results of anti competitive behavior from Google."

But Google's behavior wasn't ANTI-competitive. It was just competitive, period. They did everything they could to crush their competition and they won. If they'd been anti-competitive, they would have bought LV and subsumed it, as they did with YouTube.

Trent's meandering explanation makes me wonder why Google didn't do just that. Trent has it right--LV provided a robust platform with enviable features. So it's surprising that Google didn't acquire it as a fake alternative to YouTube, in the way that General Foods used to make decaf-coffee drinkers think that Brim competed against Sanka. Or in the way that huge corporate breweries have bought out some micro-brewers--they can profit from the tastes of more than one consumer group.

I didn't know that the power users of LV were paid by Google to go back to YT. I do know that the rest of us felt abandoned and scorned by the owners of LV as they let the platform fall apart. Remember the hours or days we sometimes had to wait before our videos would get posted? Evidently that's because people in the Philipines (translate: cheap outsourced labor) were screening each video to keep the site clean enough for Google's advertising guidelines. Who knew? But what was the excuse for all the other fuck-ups there? The lack of site maintenance was why the bulk of users just stopped logging in, and not because we couldn't find LiveVideo on a Google search.

But IMO, Facebook was the other killer of LV. It didn't offer the same kind of social networking LV users were craving, but it could connect you with just about everyone you ever knew without any pressure that you ever had to produce original content. I remember 2008 as the year that LV users were giving more slices of their attention to other platforms such as FB, Twitter, Blog Spot, and a weird one that I think was called Tweak. And of course, Ning. Each platform offered something none of the others did. It was a smorgasbord of platforms competing for our limited hours.

I still grieve the demise of LV, even after all these years. But it's a little hard for me to sympathize with Trent Lapinski. His main grievance isn't that a wonderful, creative, unique online community was crushed by a corporate giant competitor, so much as that the corporate giant kept him from becoming a millionaire "or possibly even a multimillionaire." Me? I came away from LiveVideo with two of the best friends I've ever had in my life, so it made me very, very rich.

Blanche says she was willing to pay LV a subscription to stay alive and free. Me too, and it still goes if you ever want a little help in keeping this place going, Chig. I still value the Ark and I really appreciate that you've kept it going.

[Chig]

Thanks NJ and Blanch.     No worries, I can easily keep this going.  I just didn't want to keep it solely so I know it is here if no one else wanted it.   Funny how no one can limit the L V history to a single thought or paragraph.  Too bad Troy didn't pause and say something about users doing things on a creative level that were not seen elsewhere yet.   I'm thinking we were the first to attempt a movie.

[ThatGirl]

Dont know really what to say except.. this is the place I come to see if anyone is still trying to put a spft touch or a warriors outlook on the horror tat is our New Reality. LV was different things for different people  - i’ve explored that by talking to people over the last 12 years. 

One fact that I believe would go undisputed is that no other platform has ever before or since the community building features LV once launched but I believe wasted a great opportunity to compete with YT. When the creative community was conpelled by other users to move to a vlogging site- the Fresh material stopped flowing - no denying it- so LV let the trash porn in. They ended it by turning it into a porn site. Saw that happen Very recently to a video group watching site I never would gave heard of if it wasn’t introduced to me. Porn tends to muddy tge waters no matter where it appears. 

Whatever you want to do, i will support. Youre a dear and treasured gift as a friend.. if tou need help- ive started to collect some bucks At new job . Maybe tides will turn and some souls will find their way home here- 

or the stressors of life will give us a break to embrace each other again soon.

to me

its worth it

** apologies for the shit typing- im working on repari g my latest injury to both arms.. but m All good-  

[ThatGirl]

^^^ so many errors. Please ket it slide

i cant realky type rn — but u know what i mean and that i CAN spell