Since there was no reason for some of my Zennie62 NFL Draft videos to be placed in status - no copyrighted music or unauthorized NFL Draft access - it was hard for me to stop, stand up, and salute.
Let's put this all in its proper perspective: YouTube has played a large an important role in my life. YouTube staff has been good to me and extended invitations to me to come to events. YouTube Founder Chad Hurley has always been very nice to me.
But something is happening that I warned of in one of our meetings at YouTube Headquarters: YouTube is getting too big too fast. YT is growing in such a way that its making errors with YouTube Partners that would have not happened years past, like the one with my NFL videos.
I've taken time to write this and design it so that it would be seen and by a lot of people. The point here is that YouTube is like the small town person who grew up, went to Hollywood, and forgot where it came from. In befriending Oprah Winfrey, CBS, and David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Katie Couric, YouTube forgot about people like Renetto and vloggers like me.
Just take one look at the YouTube Turns 5 page, and the video timeline doesn't have a single vlogger on it. It has people who produced shows like LonelyGirl, which everyone thought wasn't real at the time, and one-hit wonders. Where's Renetto?
What about the first YouTube As-One Meetings at Pier 39 in 2007? The one where YouTube's Marketing rep came out and passed out t-shirts and video bloggers boarded planes from as far away as Ohio to be in San Francisco?
And the videos listed on the front page are by people who never heard the term "vlogging" let alone can claim to be vloging pioneers. They're just names like Katie Couric; proof that YouTube saw stars and kicked its long time friends to the curb.
See, Chad Hurley's vision of YouTube is such that it's always seeking new partnerships and going into areas. While that's fine, it always places YouTube in the insecure role of trying to make friends with people who represent companies that just don't like them. Movie studios are not ran by tech people; they don't get YouTube and they certainly fear it.
Meanwhile the YouTube Partners, the people YouTube created who just make commentary and vlog, people like me who you know as Zennie62, sit as second-and-third players to the studios, comedy shows, and entertainers. But vloggers can best explain YouTube to potential advertisers. Vloggers are the first-responders to tech changes. Vloggers are the ones who don't need a studio to make content. We're like Iron Man and the camcorder is our suit in a case.
Vloggers are the ones who can best show others how YouTube can help them. We are the people who talk to the school teachers who just want to tell their story and work with the newspapers that just need a push. We keep it simple: we get a camera, point it at our face, and let her rip.
YouTube has forgot about us. YouTube needs to place more time and energy into creating a real place for the vlogger. Some have just got plain fed up, quit YouTube, and started their own efforts like Vloggerheads. They miss the old days when YouTube was used to have a real conversation about something.
Then, you didn't have to spend your days trying to get the rights to the Miley Cyrus Lap Dance Video, in a chase for traffic; you just talked. YouTube's system was such that the best conversations got the most views. Now we're dwarfed by CBS and The Associated Press, which gets prized web space by YouTube.
What about me?
Some of us have taken to do shows. Me, I am a vlogger. I'm not a show guy. I use YouTube to make video-blogs. That where all this started: using the camera to tell my story. It's fitting that YouTube, to celebrate its fifth birthday, is returning to a vlogging format as its foundation. Vlogging is what YouTube really is all about.
YouTube must concentrate not on being like Hulu, or getting movies onto its website, but helping its vloggers. Celebrate the longtime vloggers like me. I've been here since 2006 and a partner since 2007. Because of YouTube I've been on national television a bunch of times and started a new media company. While I owe a lot to YouTube, YouTube owes a lot to me as one of its ambassadors.
Remember the vloggers. And in doing so, give me the respect I deserve. Fix my channel. Adjust the automatic content evaluation system so it doesn't suddenly make mistakes with my two-year-old NFL Draft videos. Mistakes that have hampered my YouTube account and threatened my pocketbook. Give me a place where I can video-converse with other vloggers and where viewers can find our vlog conversations. Focus on your small town friends. Your roots. Forget chasing Hollywood stardom, unless its us going to the Oscars as YouTube Partners.
Help us help YouTube.
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