Friday, April 8, 2011

Last day to vote in YouTube NextUp Contest!

Hey all, it's the last day (April 8th) to vote for me in YouTube's NextUp Creator Contest! If you haven't already today, please click the link and vote one more time (or two more times, depending on your time zone...)


As a bit of editorial on this contest, I think this "community voting" round of judging is a bit wonky and unfair. The contest is open to YouTube Partners with under 300,000 subscribers, but how is the playing field even remotely level between a user with a few thousand subscribers, and a channel with 50k, 100k or even over 200k subscribers?

For example, there's one channel in the semi-finals with well over 220,000 subs, that's been around for less than a year, run by guys who already have the technical and special effects expertise, HD camera equipment and video making know-how to grow their subscription base. Plus, if they've managed to garner over 200k subscribers in just 11 months, they clearly don't need help. How is some kid shooting vlogs/sketches in his basement on his iSight webcam supposed to compete with that? Or even me, for that matter?

I could be imagining things, but I seem to recall the original rules stating that second round would be a combination of user votes and a third party judging panel; this would have at least balanced out the voting curve and given users with smaller viewerships a chance. (I know for a fact they changed other portions of the official rules after the contest had begun, I just don't know if the judging format was the same.) It just seems a shame that such a wonderful opportunity is being marred by inequities in the voting system.

That said, once again, GO VOTE FOR ME!

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