What's Happened to the YouTube Community Spirit ?

Something concerns me … I am not asking for anything, no recognition, no pat on the back. Over the passed few months I have been conducting some research. 

When I first started YouTube the feedback was amazing. That very first video, recorded with a little compact camera on a piece of grey cardboard. As if sharing it was not exciting enough, but imagine when I started getting comments from viewers. The feedback was amazing and I loved how there was a REAL discussion happening. Starting with that very first video, I replied to pretty much every comment. As my channel grew, it became harder to deal with how many comments I received, but still, I burned many hours engaging in the conversation.

Fast forward to today and I still pride myself in replying to people whom take part in the Geekanoids community. After all, it's the interactions that make it worthwhile. 

I am a strong believer that we can learn something new every day, so I set myself a task to try and get to know the creators that I personally watch. Over the passed six months I have been commenting on others videos, both small, large and very large channels. 

It's a real eye opener to learn that of the small channels I received approx 50% replies. Of the large channels with 100K or more subscribers this dropped to around 4%. When it comes to the very large channels of 500K or more subscribers, well, I can only recall receiving 3 or 4 replies, so I don't think this deserves a percentage. 

What to take from this? I think it leaves more questions that answers. Do all creators really care? Do they value their viewers? 

Let me know your thoughts.

Above all, know that I appreciate you and wish you an amazing day, week, year & future.

Facebook launches photo comments

Facebook is now letting its 1.11 billion members react to their friends' status updates with photo comments.

The social network said Wednesday that it has started the global release of the new feature, which lets people add photos to comment threads using a new Attach a Photo button. To start, uploads of photo comments will be restricted to the Facebook Web site and mobile site, but simply viewing photo comments will be possible from Facebook's mobile applications, the company said.

Photo comments are a product of one of Facebook's famous hackathons. Facebook engineer Bob Baldwin, one of the developers behind the release, said he was inspired to create the photo comments feature because, "sometimes showing a photo helps me tell a story much better than words alone."

The new addition could transform the social network into a more meme and teen-friendly zone, as photos turn commenting into a more playful activity. Of course, there's also the potential for spam, abuse, and just plain ugly comment threads. But imaginer Baldwin wishes for the best. "I hope this will make threads with friends more expressive and engaging," he said.

Source: CNET