Thursday, July 28, 2011

Google Exposed Video Description



First I would like to invite YouTube and Google Staff Members who feel that this video is targeting them individually to read my personal letter to them HERE

For those who missed it, here is the first video I did on the subject of Google Plus



I would like to thank the following 3 YouTuber's for their help in making this video.

BIONICDANCE for her help in doing the lettering for the Thumbnail of the video and Title.

GRAPPLINGIGNORANCE for writing the script for "The Value of Pseudonymity"

PROPORTIONALRESPONSE for performing "The Value of Pseudonymity"

The first thing I mention in the video is THIS POST by Bradley Horowitz. I take three issues with him here. He fails to mention what steps are being taken to restore the many accounts that are being closed. Secondly, he fails to explain why Google is closing accounts for no other reason than the fact that these profiles wish to remain private (as stated in this STATEMENT from Google.) Finally, he claims that people are not being locked out of their Google accounts when their Google Plus profiles are shut down. A simple Google search can show you the difference.

For example
THIS issue is now resolved but he got locked out of his Google account and caused his YouTube channel to be suspended. This was over an error he made in entering in his birthday

THIS is a famous post that has been going around regarding Tom Monopoly. According to his TWITTER the issue has now been resolved as well but there are still others who are having this problem.

THIS is a third example I found

Doing a simple Google search for GOOGLE PLUS LOCKED OUT can yield even more search results if you so desire.

People such as myself have been trying to convince Google to allow the use of Pseudonyms so we can keep our online life separate from our real life. Many of us have jobs that we can lose if our online interactions is discovered, even more so if you are a whistle blower. Others, live in communities where their views are in the minority, or they live under a totalitarian government where their lives can be put in danger for speaking out.

Google itself states in it's YOUTUBE SAFETY CENTER that the first rule of staying safe online is to never reveal your real name.

Google in it's FAMILY SAFETY CENTER links THIS ARTICLE under their section Stopping them sharing too much personal information where the first thing it tells them is to be anonymous as possible.

In fact as recently as February, Alma Whitten, Director of Privacy, Product and Engineering of Google had this to say about the right to have pseudonyms and anonymity in this OFFICIAL GOOGLE BLOG POST

There is a reason for this, we don't want Internet trolls harassing us in real life, and we don't always want our families, co-workers, abusive ex, and our governments from knowing about our online postings.

So I figured the only way to demonstrate this is to use Google Plus the way Google has designed it. I will now detail as many YouTube channels as I can of Google and YouTube staff. One thing they don't want is for their personal youtube channels to become flooded with messages, they want us to use the help center. I say, let's use Google Plus the way they designed it.

Bradley Horowitz's YouTube channel is right HERE

Also Bradley Horowitz's Google Plus account is HERE

Now what I would like to know is why TALIN - gets to keep his google profile despite his real name being listed HERE

Brian Glick the person who brought us YouTube channels 2.0 as stated in the YOUTUBE BLOG has a GOOGLE PLUS ACCOUNT and he linked his YOUTUBE CHANNEL

It is unclear what Brian's role is, if any, in the New Cosmic Panda Layout



However according to THIS YOUTUBE BLOG POST the two people responsible are Noam Lovinsky and Alex Nicksay. Thanks to Google Plus, I was able to find NOAM LOVINSKY'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL so you can send your Cosmic Panda feeback to him.

Shenaz Zack works for YouTube HERE is her Google plus profile and this is here YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Olivia Ma's GOOGLE PLUS PAGE lists her as being the news manager. This is her YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Margaret Healy works in Partner Support and this is her GOOGLE PLUS PAGE

Now of course she is smarter than the others and does not link her youtube channel, however she has added some suspicious looking Google Profiles that in my opinion may be violating the Real Name policy that Google Plus has. Because many of the odd names link back to the YouTube community I will not be listing them here, as I do not want them to get their accounts suspended.

Ben Bayer is the next person I found and here is HIS GOOGLE PLUS and because of him I was able to discover Google employee ALICE C'S PROFILE who is an Engineering Recruiter for Google. May I ask why Alice C can keep her alias on Google Plus but others can not?

May I ask why so many Google and YouTube employees have added SARA MC to their circle. Even YouTube founders Chad and Steve have added this lady. Now of course I can not prove that this is indeed a YouTube or Google employee, I just find it odd that so many YouTube and Google employees know who this woman is, and she is allowed to keep her pseudonym while others have lost their accounts for doing the same thing.

The next name I discovered is THUNDER PARLEY and according to the LA TIMES that is now his legal name. When I first discovered his profile he embedded this video on his Google Plus



It does appear that he has since removed the post, thankfully I was able to spot it before he did and thus I was able to determine his YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Now I do have one question to Thunder, why is it that one of your videos looks very similar to a video by ESPN Sportscenter?



I wonder if Thunder has ever seen Youtube's Copyright school



DEEP NISHAR'S GOOGLE PLUS looks very suspicious. One, just like Sara MC, there is no indication that Deep works for Google but he does have several Google employees who have added him to their circle. In other words many Google Employees such as Eric Lange, and Bradley Horowitz have added him and know who he is.

FYI according to THIS ARTICLE His real name is Dipchand Nishar

The next person I found is Christian Oestlien where he talks about inviting businesses to apply for a pilot program for Google Plus as seen in THIS POST



This of course is his YOUTUBE CHANNEL

THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY was one of the few companies hand chosen by Google to have a Google Plus account. Companies were invited to submit their application HERE however, as of now that link no longer goes anywhere. Many companies are having their profiles suspended, while others such as Mashable were allowed to transition theirs into a personal account. More on that in a bit.

Skud is a former Google employee who lost her Google Plus Profile. If anyone should be able to get an account restored with a simple phone call it no doubt would be a former employee who most likely still has friends working on the inside. You can read about Skud's situation in her blog post HERE

I would also like to point out that Skud has opened up GOOGLE SPREADSHEET where she is asking people to fill out a survey if you have had your Google Plus accounts suspended. So far over 100 people have filled out the survey an you can find the preliminary results HERE

Now according to the TERMS OF SERVICE for Google Plus particularly section 13 we are allowed to use the name our family, friends and work associates know us by. However, Google has recently been demanding Photo ID to reinstate Google Plus accounts. This is of no use to those of us who use a nom de plume, a stage name, or online pseudonymn that we use for every other website that we are on. An online pseudonym is not anonamous. We have spent years buidling this online identity, it is how the online world knows us by.

In this GOOGLE BLOG we read about Eric Lange and Google Check out, if you ever had a problem with Google Checkout, you might try contacting him HERE

On a side note, it was very hard to find anyone who worked with Adsense, I do know that click bombing has been an issue. The only person I have found is SUSAN WOJCICKI but her profile lists her as working in Advertising. However, according to USA TODAY she does work with the Adsense. Perhaps frequenting her Google Profile from time to time to see who she ads to her circle might lead you to finding more people in Adsense.

Google posted this video on their YouTube channel



This is Matt Cutts and thanks to his GOOGLE PLUS we now know what his YOUTUBE CHANNEL is

This is VICTORIA GRAND'S Google Plus account

She is most famous for her lecture on how YouTube reviews flagged videos. She is smarter than to link her stuff on her Google Plus account but if you add her you might be able to talk to her if you have any questions and concerns about flagging.



Another question I want to ask is why are so many businesses having their accounts suspended, yet Pete Cashmore of Mashable claims he was contacted by Google and asked to transition his MASHABLE GOOGLE PLUS account into a personal one, you can see him claim this on his personal google plus profile HERE

It does seem like some businesses are getting treated better than others, all we are asking for is the rules to be applied fairly to everyone.

GARY ILLES Google Plus Profile has since changed during the time I was making my video. His profile name used to be ጋርይ ኢንተርኔትዝ and he is from Switzerland. My research indicates that Switzerland uses a Roman Alphabet, so if anyone knows what these characters are let me know.



FYI this is what his profile looked like before, and it still show up in the google cache as of now. Try it yourself

HERE






THE BEST FAKE PROFILES ON GOOGLE PLUS was published on the Huffington Post on July 13th (Arianna Huffinton briefly had her GOOGLE PLUS account suspended) Two weeks later some of these fake accounts are still up. They include

STEWIE GRIFFIN

BORAT

and DARTH VADER (Although not the same one linked in the article)

This Darth Vader has been posting porn on his Google Plus since July 21st and has a TWITTER and a FACEBOOK

Now let's get back to showing favoritism. Why is it that LADY GAGA can have a Google plus account using her stage name, but LADY ADA cannot? (Update she has since had her account restored but is now forced to list her real name as seen HERE Why is it that Charlie Sheen can have his stage name instead of Estivez but I can't. Please explain the rules and show that they are equally enforced for everyone.

FYI there are many accounts on Google Plus claiming to be Lady Gaga, I am citing GAWKER as my source to confirm the validity of the one I previously cited

Dear Google/YouTube Staff

I have been a long fan of YouTube and it's parent company Google. Even when they have done things I disagree with, such as forcing all YouTubers to create and link to a Google account. However, this is the first time that I have ever come out against individual staff members and I would like to explain why I did this.

As you know I was one of the first to participate in the YouTube help forums and due to my helpful and consistant service to the community I was elevated to the rank of Top Contributor. I was even officially thanked by YouTube in their Blog back in 2009.

Over the years I have not only provided free technical support for one of the richest corporations in the world to it's users, but I have also dedicated my channel to helping others via tutorials, and countless PM's I get on a daily basis. One of my video reviews for the new Youtube Editor made it to the YouTube Spotlight back in 2010.



Then a few months ago the YouTube Help channel subscribed to me.



So needless to say, I have done my part to help out this community. Google then launched Google + and I was one of the first people to get an invite. I got it from YouTube employee Margaret Healy. I replied with basically a thanks but no thanks. It was only when I found out that people could set up fake pages, that I decided to create a profile on Google Plus. I never made it public. Furthermore, anyone who attempted to add me into their circle was blocked.

My concern was I did not trust Google +, I didn't know much about it at the time and I was concerned that people who added me could track my online behavior. Single guy with internet, you figure it out.

My account was flagged by someone, and then my profile was suspended. There was no message sent to my email. No notification. I then discovered that other people were being suspended and being locked out of their Google accounts and everything tied to Google. I also found the announcement from Google that Effective July 31st, any profile that is set to private was going to be removed. You can read this announcement for yourself here

Therefore, I decided it would be in my best interest to attempt to sever my Google account from Google Plus. For those who wish to do the same you can do so by clicking here You want to make sure you do option 2, which is to downgrade your account.

It was after I made my first video on Google + that I began getting messages and even a few phone calls. You can see my first video here.



Of course the people who talked to me told me not to disclose their names so I won't but they did tell me where to start digging for some information. One of the things I was told is that Google is getting ready to ramp up their Google Checkout, and that is why they are wanting Google users to link to a real identity. Apparently PayPal is the next thing they plan on trying to take on. Of course because I can't name my sources I can't prove any of this. As a result I left it out of my video. Another thing I left out is Google sock accounts. Based on the information I was told Google employees are tracking the performance and monitoring the hangouts via sock accounts. This way they can interact without people knowing they are talking to Google employees. Seems logical but of course I can't prove it.

However, one thing I was able to prove is that some Google employees are not following the Terms of Service when it comes to disclosing real identities. Names such as Talin, Sara MC, and Alice C for example. Furthermore, if you go through the Google employees and who they have added to their circle you will find lots of them have added obvious fake names to their Circles. Instead of suspending them, they are adding them.

So I set out to demonstrate the need to separate our lives online, and our lives at work and at home and our neighborhood. I used Google Plus the way it was intended, to find the YouTube channels of several YouTube and Google employees. Previously, these people were anonamous. Now thanks to my video, their youtube channel will be filled with messages, and most likely several comments on their channel and videos.

I did what I had to do. I can not stress this enough, requiring people to use their real names will NOT keep the trolls out. Requiring our real identies to be linked to our online identies can be dangerous and life threatening if you live in a country where totalitarian government exists. It can be costly to your job and career if your online views are not popular.

To simply demand that those who do not wish to reveal their real names need not apply is to deny our voice to what can be one of the largest social networks in the world. There is no quicker way to get a message out than to use Google and it's products. Google Plus can be used in ways we can't even imagine yet, but if free speech is inhibited by fear of life, liberty, or livelyhood, then it is truly a sad day for the internet.

I am the HappyCabbie


Sunday, July 10, 2011

Refuting the ignorance from ArchieWhambulance

One thing that I know to be true is that there is a cure for ignorance. That cure is education. However ignorance can only be cured if there is a receptive mind. Ignorance should not be labeled as an insult. Ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge about something. Thankfully we live in the age of information and the Internet where knowledge flows freely. The cure for ignorance is nothing more than a mouse click away.

May I present to you ArchieWhambulance the YouTube Partner who whines about YouTube Partners and makes a lot of money from angry fan boys.



His video of course was a response to TheWillOfDC's interview with admins of YouTube Partner Support



For those who are interested you can subscribe to TheWillOfDC here


Self Promotion FTW


Now lets go through this one by one. The overall summary of this video is that TheWillofDC was a corporate lap dog pitching softball questions. Of that I have no major disagreement. ArchieWhambulance is entitled to his opinions. I myself would have come prepared with examples and certainly would have addressed the click bombing issue. However he did ask some good questions as well. I just think he should have prepared some follow up questions. However, I do concede the fact that there was probably a pre-interview meeting that discussed what could and could not be discussed. The truth about non-disclosure is you can not discuss what you can not discuss.

Now on to ArchieWhambulance's video

1. At 02:53 seconds he asks for a single instance of a top level YouTube partner being disciplined. Well surely he knows that YouTube staff can not discuss the status of other accounts with anyone else except the account holders, However, here are some examples.







For those not familiar with that story she was told by YouTube that she had to clean up her act. You will notice that her newer videos parody the style of the original but do not exactly sync up with the original beat of the song she is spoofing.

Although it does date back to 2008 Sxephil and KevJumba did have a video taken down
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/08/youtubers-borro/

Hey even myself have had videos removed from YouTube due to flagging. I don't like it, I disagree with the flagging but I must follow the rules of this site if I wish to continue to be here. Even the #1 most subscribed on YouTube has had a video flagged just 3 months ago.



Here is a link to the page itself but you will need a TubeMogul account to view it

Below is a copy of the video



2. At 03:09 into his video he casts doubt on YouTube's claim that all flagged videos are reviewed by a live person. Again his cure for ignorance is simply a click away. Sadly the embed codes on BlipTV are not the best so here is the direct LINK if the video won't play



At 03:20 ArchieWhambulance that there is proof of some kind of false flagging yet fails to provide any evidence for it. Sorry but I do not believe that false flaggings exist, and this is from someone who was just flagged last month. There is a reason why a video is taken down. Most of us simply do not agree with that reason.

At 03:38 I almost busted a gut laughing at his statement that Shane Dawson has never been false flagged. Well, as you know I do not believe false flagging exists, but Shane Dawson has been flagged many times. Here is the LIST of videos.

ArchieWhambulance then goes on to claim that ShaneDawson is untouchable. I am sorry but the only explanation I have for that level of ignorance is he was too lazy to check his facts. Another theory is that he simply does not care about facts, this might explain his reputation for blocking people who dare to correct him. Now I will say that he is correct, to the best of my knowledge, that sxephil has not gotten flagged down for thumbnail abuse, however he has had videos taken down. Sxephil is abusing thumbnails and I fully support YouTube's crackdown on thumbnail abuse.

For those who do not know in order to flag a video for misleading thumbnail this is what you have to do. First hit the flag button, then select the spam option, then select misleading thumbnail and there you go.

At 04:50 ArchieWhambulance states that it is good business to protect the people on top. No, it is good business to protect the advertisers. Case in Point. People tried for years unsuccessfully to get DavidsFarm off YouTube. YouTube only cast him out when he became a financial liability after the show 16:9 talked to some of Youtube's advertisers. YouTube cares about YouTube, as soon as any of us become a liability, they will cast us out. Just look who was on top just two years ago, the ones on top now will not be there forever. There is no special protection given to anyone.

At 06:46 ArchieWhambulance unknowingly contradicts a previous statement. He maintains that ShaneDawson has two strikes on this account. Well first of all it is not up to TheWillofDC to keep himself updated on the topics discussed on the ArchieWhambulance channel. Secondly he has no way of proving that. All he can prove is that ShaneDawson has had two videos removed. Well the truth is not all Terms of Service violations result in a strike on your account.



This video of mine was flagged down last month



Yet as you can see there are no strikes on my account, even though a video was removed just one month ago.





Furthermore I can even document 4 videos that have been flagged down on my defeated nemesis's account (TheRealNickBravo) yet his channel remains. Four videos flagged down in less than six months. So is TheRealNickBravo part of YouTube's protected class? After all he does have over 700 subscribers. Here are the URLS to the videos to prove it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=volix6kO1LU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntobj8VW024
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6XFajUcch4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4fN_cejJF4
This of course can all be independently verified by anyone with a TUBEMOGUL. For those who do not know a TubeMogul Account can let you track anyone's channel performance. It preserves the upload history of a channel from the date someone adds a channel to their search database. Therefore anyone with a TubeMogul account can go in and independently verify that these four URLS are legit and not pulled out of random. In case ArchieWhambulance is reading, this is what proof and documentation look like.

At 06:56 ArchieWhambulance continues on with ShaneDawson detailing that has documented these strikes and that one of them was six or seven months ago. ArchieWhambulance, those strikes disappear after six months!
http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?answer=92486

ArchieWhambulance the reason ShaneDawson is still able to upload videos is because he does not have two active strikes on his account. Only copyright strikes last forever and there have been some adjustment to that youtube policy recently. As showcased in their YOUTUBE BLOG as well as their newly updated COPYRIGHT CENTER. So YouTube is being more flexible and more forgiving than it has in the past. There are certainly things I don't like about YouTube, such as it's lifetime bans, however this progress on the part of YouTube should be celebrated.

The rest of his video was just venom spewing and not really worth commenting on.

I would like to point out the one thing I did like discussed more than anything by TheWillOfDC and the admins from YouTube, and that is category gaming. For too long people have been putting their videos in less competitive categories such as PETS AND ANIMALS to bump down other videos so they can show on the top pages of YouTube. iJustine is famous for doing this. Thankfully YouTube has implemented a category cheating reporting tool. In my opinion it should be integrated into the flagging system but at least it is a start.

I would like to add one more thing. ArchieWhambulance again displays his ignorance with this comment reply on his video.











Sorry to correct you yet again ArchieWhambulance but this has nothing to do with them being a Top Level YouTube star. If it was then why are iJustine's vidoes, or Sxephil's videos still flagable. No the ability to disable flagging is the result of creating and YouTube approving your Show category. Currently this is only available to Networks and YouTube channels that are in networks. Now some YouTube partners such as my good friend iShatOnU have created their own network. You can see for yourself that flagging is disabled on many of his videos.

Now I do not know if Smosh runs their own network or if they are in the network of another company. I also know that not all YouTube networks can enable shows. Now to create a show you have to first set up the shows name, description, add graphic images, and add one video to the show and wait for YouTube's approval which of course is not automatic. I have had shows rejected. YouTube is very cautious in granting a show because they know that it can't be flagged. Of course the video can still be removed for copyright and a few other reasons.

Now do I agree that some people can disable flagging because they belong to the right network. Of course not, however I would be a fool not to take advantage of the protection as long as I have it.

Now in conclusion I would like to remind everyone that I have shown evidence that there is no special treatment given to the top YouTube Partners. Even people such as Shane Dawson and RayWilliamJohnson have been disciplined by YouTube. Sadly I don't think ArchieWhambulance is willing to cure his ignorance, but I hope I was able to highlight errors in his statements to those who read this blog.

I don't frequent my blog that often so if you do wish to discuss the topics discussed please do so via YouTube Message by clicking HERE

Monday, July 4, 2011

PeaceInChristAlone Can't be Serious!!



Update: He has since retracted the above statement.



Ok so lets get some background on this. This was for a colab that Fruitikay was putting together but it never happened. In it PeaceInChristAlone says some pretty disturbing things. First at 1:40 he lumps all Catholic Priests together as pedophiles. While there has been a lot of sex abuse in the Catholic Church, not all priests are pedophiles. Most are good decent people and have no problem living a life of celibacy.

Furthermore in the video description he says this: "Kill all pedophiles and protect the kids." He then lists three Bible verses to back up that statement. Mathew 18:6 Mark 9:42 and Luke 17:1-3. Now the problem is this, none of these three verses deal with pedophilia or the sexual abuse of children.

For those unfamiliar with the Bible here is a condensed lesson. Mathew Mark and Luke are known as the Synoptic Gospels because they basically tell the same events but from different perspectives and different details. The passage in question is regarding faith and sin. In Mathew the disciples of Jesus asked Him who would be the greatest in Heaven and Jesus brought forth a child and told his disciples that they must have the faith of a child in order to enter into Heaven. In Mark it just talks about sin, and in Luke it talks about sin, then followed up with a lesson on faith. You can look up the passages yourself and read them in context at BibleGateway.com

So the question remains, why would PeaceinChristAlone, a person who knows this stuff, misquote the Bible? I don't know but lets go on.

At 2:20 into his video he says that teens should not have sex but instead get married and have sex within marriage. I am sorry but that is just foolish. Teens should not be having sex as they are usually not emotionally mature enough to handle long term relationships. Furthermore, in no way should any teen ever get married. They have no education, no means of supporting themselves yet. Get a job, get some benefits and show some stability in your life and then take on a lifelong commitment.

At 2:30 seconds into the video I am convinced he is trolling us now. Capital punishment for adultery and divorce. I am sorry but I refuse to believe he actually thinks we should kill people for having sex outside of marriage. I met the guy, I like the guy, but I have been on YouTube long enough to spot someone when they are trolling. GodsGunsGutsGlory is serious when he talks like this, PeaceInChristAlone is just poking us for the lulz.

Now lets move on to his other video



Ok first of all Tom Leykis is not a militant atheist. Tom Leykis is a shock jock on the radio. He has been on the air for a very long time and was at one time nationally syndicated. Currently he does podcasts. I used to listen to him when I was a truck driver. When I drove trucks I mostly listened to talk radio. Hey, don't judge me, I also listened to Dr. Laura and even Art Bell back in those days.

Tom Leykis is an atheist but that is not the main focus of his radio broadcasts. His main focus was what he called Leykis 101 which was to teach men how to get laid for less money. He gave out advice such as never spend more than $40 on a date, and if you didn't get laid by the 3rd date to dump her. He also taught that men should never get married and he frequently admitted that he himself was married and divorced 4 times.

Other radio personalities such as Phil Hendrie used to poke fun at him and would refer to him as Combover Boy



Religion, although occasionally addressed when a caller would bring it up, was never a focus of his show. Had PeaceInChristAlone NOT referred to Leykis as a "militant atheist", I would look over this as simple ignorance of the content of the Tom Leykis Show. He could have simply pointed to a video he found on the internet commented that Leykis was an atheist and no harm no foul. However, upon first coming across Tom Leykis the first thought in your head is NOT militant atheist. Rather your first impression of him is something like a male pig who hates women. He is one of those radio personalities that you love to hate, and it did make the long hours of driving a truck go by faster.

At 1 minute into the video, PeaceInChristAlone asks is this the way to go, is this Atheistic belief better for society or is the Christian view of settleing down and getting married better for society.

Well sorry, but he can not be serious with this question. This is why I think he has turned to trolling. Maybe he wants views I don't know, but if his goal is sharing the gospel, trolling the internet rarely works. He knows full well and good many atheists get married and have happy wonderful lives. Furthermore he knows that atheism does not preach any morals. It is simply a lack in a belief in a god.

Atheists get their morals from the same place the Christians do. We get them from our parents, and later from our teachers and peers.

Anyway here is the video of me meeting PeaceInChristAlone, I like the guy and consider him a friend so it was rather difficult to call him out on his trolling. If you want to make videos and get views go for it, but if your goal is to win people to Christ, you are turning a lot of people off.



Be sure to subscribe to Fruitikay if you have not already done so