When is it ok to take the internet into real life?

Recently there has been a spat going on regarding Thunderf00t and Dawahfilms. Now I have gone on record in 2010 defending Dawahfilms because I believed that Thunderf00t misrepresented him. I along with many others came to his aid and reached out to him to help him rebuild his online reputation. I also offered to debate him on BlogTV and that helped expose his views to a much wider audience. DawahFilms has basically been spitting on our help ever since then.

Back in late 2010 he began his quest to hunt for Thunderf00t's docs and in a skype conversation made public by dixiecomic (now removed) he announced his plans to use that information to try and get Thunderf00t fired.

The only time it is acceptable to bring the internet into real life is when innocent people are put in danger. Now some could say that the students who attend the University that Thunderf00t does his research at could be put at risk by his videos, however up until a week ago, that University was not public knowledge. It has also been asserted by Thunderf00t that he no longer works at that University and that he has a new place of employment. However, the only person putting anyone at risk from Muslim extremists was Dawahfilms himself.

I may not agree with all of Thunderf00t's views on religion, but he does have a right to express them. Furthermore, he should have the freedom that all of us enjoy by expressing our views on the internet. Many of us live in communities where having a minority opinion can not only get you exiled, but some places of the world that carries a death sentence.

So when is it acceptable to take what happens on the internet into real life. The answer is simple, when innocent people are put in danger. Allow me to give you two examples from my own experiences.

Recently a user by the name of Variablast began filming young children and encouraging them to use racial slurs without first getting their parent's consent. He moved to a much smaller town and continued this practice. Unlike his former hometown which was so large it would be impossible to track him down, his new town was very small and rural. So I contacted the police and later informed the school district to be on the lookout for this individual. I also sent the school information to share with the parents on how to remove the videos from YouTube if they so desired. The police department was more than cooperative, hover didn't even get a reply from the school.

While I have had disagreements with Variablast in the past, such as his attack on the It Gets Better campaign and also DoctorsWithoutBorders, I chose to get involved with the police and school because I now had a better opportunity of stopping him from filming children without parental consent.

However, at no time did I attempt to contact his employer, I don't even think he has one. I made no attempt to contact his landlord or do anything else to affect his real life. Furthermore I never shared his docs with anyone.

Dawahfilms has no such excuse. His only motive is clearly laid out in that recorded skype conversation. If anyone has a copy please upload it so I may embed it here. Dawahfilms, I do not regret helping you as I try to help everyone and my intentions were pure. However I do regret ever knowing you. You are the type of user on this website that makes this place not as fun as it used to be.

Frequently Asked Questions about HappyCabbie

I am a former cab driver that used to make balloon animals for my customers. That is how I got the name. I originally joined YouTube just to embed videos for my website. It was in November of 2007 that I started posting videos other than balloons and I went from 50 subscribers to over 28,000. The best advice I can give to grow a channel is to always be positive and make some video responses. Sometimes you catch a break and a large YouTuber responds back. I have gotten lots of subs that way. Another good idea is to use the cool box feature with other channels of similar size and content. And of course don't forget colabs.

I became a YouTube partner in 2008 and I use YouTube mostly for social interaction. Although I now do this full time for a living, the money is only a perk and never an incentive. One of my biggest breaks was being featured on G4 Network's Websoup. You can see a copy of my TV debut here, or the original video they featured here.

A few people have asked why I don't accept friend requests. I removed my friends list back in 2008 because it resulted in too much spam.

A lot of people ask me how to become a YouTube Partner. Just apply! Currently it is only available in 23 countries so if you get redirected to the home page that means that the Partners Program is not yet available in your country.

What is the criteria to be a partner?

In order to qualify for the Partner program you have to be free of copyright strikes and contend ID matches. If you want to know what the difference is you can click here.

The easiest way to get rid of a content ID match is to delete the video, but the help article listed above will also show you how to dispute the process. Copyright strikes are a little more difficult. For the longest time the only way to get rid of a copyright strike was to file a counter-notice or get the claimaint to file a retraction. However that was not always possible. Then YouTube announced in their blog that copyright strikes would now expire and that old strikes could be dealt with by attending their copyright school. (http://www.youtube.com/copyright_school)

The other thing Youtube checks for is with the community guidelines and Terms of Service. Sometimes YouTube will remove a video for violating the rules. The best way to avoid flagging is to better understand what YouTube is looking for. To that end YouTube has given us a few educational resources. The first is their Blog post, "Context Is King"

Another good learning tool is Victoria Grand's lecture and demonstration of how YouTube reviews and removes videos that are flagged.

In 2010 YouTube launched the ability to appeal a flag to all users, previously it was available only to Partners. (http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010/07/strike-youre-out-or-maybe-not.html)

Here is the help center article on how to do it. They even embedded my video there.

Currently the ability to appeal age restricted videos is a Partner exclusive however having age restricted videos does not mean that you will be turned down for Partnership.

In addition to being a partner there are two other programs that YouTube has where uploaders can make money. Individual Video Partnerships and Account Monetization.

What is the Individual Partner Program?

The Individual Partner Program is currently by invite only. Essentially you need to be able to quickly get enough views in a short period of time. Although YouTube does not have an announced number of views required to trigger the invite, I have found that 500 views in less than 48 hours usually triggers it. (http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=72857)

Account Monetization was released a few months ago and many people confuse this with Partnership. Like the IVP the invite is automated. The invite to account monetization is triggered by a channel getting a regular number of hits and subscribers. I have seen people with as little as 100 subscribers get this invite.

Like the IVP, any video you wish to place advertising on will have to be manually reviewed by YouTube to ensure it is compliant with the community guidelines and terms of service. They will also be checking for copyrighted things such as music or clips from TV shows. The team who reviews these videos only works Monday through Friday business hours Pacific time. So to ensure maximum profits I advise you to upload Monday through Thursday early in the morning Pacific time. YouTube has several help center articles for how to claim rights to ownership of your videos to ensure they will be approved for ads.

They also have several help center articles on how YouTube enforces their rules.

Check out my Vidstatsx page and track my channel's performance.

I use Ulead to edit my videos, you can purchase the program here.

To record my screen I use CamStudio. It is freeware that you can download here.

Video description for FacepalmResponse 9/23/2011

2011 Global Top Contributor Summit hosted by Google

First let me promote my YouTube channels. Be sure to his subscribe on each one!!!



So what was the Global Top Contributor summit? Well according to their public website it was an "opportunity for Google TCs from around the world to meet each other. It’s a chance to discover what’s happening behind the scenes, learn more about Google products, share experiences and feedback, and have a good time!" Now even though the website was public, the event was not. It was by invite only and everyone was under Non-Disclosure Agreements. Therefore I can not talk about what was discussed. However I would like to show the pictures and photos taken by the over 250 people who were at this event. Google supports help forums in 44 languages and there are help forums for every Google product.

While I can not discuss the meetings, I can discuss the schedule as that was knowledge made available on their public website schedule.

I had better things to do in California than worry

I got so many messages and comments on my video I feel that I must address it. I was not worried about Corky. I knew it was an empty threat because even a helmet head like Corky knew that driving to Santa Clara to barge into the Google summit would be a fools move.

Let's review what he said he was going to do shall we?




I did not have a problem with that video. However dropping docs is a violation of the Terms of Service, as such I did report his comments to YouTube via their online reporting tool. That is correct, even though I had direct access to YouTube staff, I did not waste my time complaining about Corky. The times I had to meet with YouTube staff I discussed matters such as the DMCA, flagging, annotations, the abuse of Network channels who were able to disable flagging on their videos, discussing improvements to Cosmic Panda, ect.

YouTube on their own removed the entire video. Fortunately, a copy of it can be seen here.

Untamed Mind

Hungrybear9562 is lying when he says he does not believe in fair use

See Hungrybear9562 actually believes in fair use. In fact he uses it himself.

Untamed Mind

Why understanding fair use is essential when it comes to taking videos down for Copyright