Should I offer Corky a home?

I am unable to embed the video as he has that feature turned off so instead I can only link his video here Be sure to right click and open in a new tab.

Essentially Corky is going to be homeless again. His new motorhome is not going to be able to pass California emission standards and thus his temporary tags will expire. He has no place to store the vehicle and my previous suggestions on places to park it apparently were not useful.



Now in his video he stated that he does not want to do hard work. He has said this many times. He wants to be an actor or public speaker. While I can certainly understand those goals, I do not understand his unwillingness to take any job that comes to him. He even once gave me a lecture, while he was unemployed, that any job under 10 dollars an hour was beneath him. He was fully aware that I was supporting both of us on 9 dollars an hour.

However, for whatever reason, it is clear that Corky is not going to be able to afford the standard of living he desires for quite some time. As it stands right now he is on the streets with no place to go. There will always be debates on whether his current status is by choice or not. I am not disputing that. All I am saying is this: Is it right for me to refuse him a place to live when I can afford to provide for him?

Back in 2009 he had to move out when I got sick and was no longer able to afford to keep him. I am in a different position now. I can afford to provide for him. I am well aware that if he moves in, he most likely will never move out. I am also well aware that he will not contribute towards the rent. However, I can afford to provide for him again.

Now some of you may remember the two threats of bodily harm he has made to me. Well as you know the first threat came early in 2010 when I was still recovering from being sick. I was weak. I am much stronger now and I do not consider him to be a physical threat. If he were to attempt an attack I am sure I could overpower him with ease.

In June, I intend to move into a new place. When I do I will have room for a couch and a small desk he can use. The only question I have towards you readers is this, is it morally ethical for me to refuse to provide him with a home when I have the means to do so?

What do you guys think I should do. Message me on twitter or YouTube

Why are some YouTube Partners losing money?

TheWillofDC posted a great video two days ago and I would like to respond to it. Now if anyone wants to look at the original version of these 3.0 channel designs when they were in beta you can see them here



So it has improved since then but I do hope one day YouTube gives us more colors and not just this grey. However this is not the first time YouTube has redesigned the channels and it won't be the last.

Now what is causing a lot of drop in views is two fold. First there is the redesign of the home page that YouTube had last month. While the previous layout did promote those who were already popular, the new layout promotes subscriptions up front. In addition to the subscriptions YouTube also is heavily promoting suggested videos based on previous viewing history. This is a great way to find new content.

The new subscription center does have a bug. It has resulted in what is known as video bumping. The home page only holds about 14 videos. So if you subscribe to a few hundred channels like I do it can be kind of tricky to see all the content. Channels that have their sharing features enabled to share any time they comment on a video results in their video being bumped to the top of the list any time they reply to a comment in their video. This bumps others who do not enable comment sharing to be bumped down the list.

Many of the top YouTube Partners got a lot of their views from the home page as YouTube would feature the top 4 videos in every cateogory. People such as CharlesTrippy and iJustine are well known for posting in the wrong category in order to get one of these coveted 4 spots.

Now in order to get to the categories you have to do a few mouse clicks. Not everyone does that. As such those who previously benefited from being in the top 4 for their category are seeing a drop.

The other factor that changed revenue for a lot of people is the new way YouTube promotes related videos. http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&hlrm=en&answer=2500737

While this change was primarily aimed at combating the Reply Channels it also hampers the ability to be a viewwhore. I have talked to a lot of people who have seen their earnings drop from several hundred a day down to just 20-40 dollars a day. One of my good friends Grahamandfriends sadly went the viewwhore route to earn that big money. He was previously earning 3 times what I was on YouTube but now he is hurting. Claims to have taken a 80% drop in revenue.



Now this is not to say that I haven't occasionally viewwhored myself. However my channel is not based on viewwhoring. A look through my channel will show I think maybe 3 or 4 videos that could be viewwhoring. A bulk of my videos are watched most of the way through and usually have a high number of user engagement.

Another thing I do is I constantly link my videos together in playlists or shows or via annotation. The idea is when someone watches one of my videos, I want them to watch another one next. Here is where my views come from.




I had to edit out a few days when I was hit with that votebot that gave me 800,000 bogus views. However, as you can see my views for the most part have remained constant between 12,000 and 15,000 views per day. Most of my views come from search. A lot of my tutorials are my higher viewed videos. Another large percentage comes from being in Related Videos and you will see that the new algorithm did not change my view counts.

So while I may not have made a much money as the viewwhores did back in the day, I am the one who is not fretting about losing views and money right now. It also appears that YouTube is leveling the playing field even more by not promoting people who were already popular. New talent is being discovered and that is good news for us smaller channels who put out decent content.

Why did Machinima defend MeganLeeHeart till the bitter end?

Over the weekend I had information leaked to me that MeganLeeHeart has signed up with the same network that I am joining. Today I was able to confirm this is true. My new network is well aware of the videos I have made about her and her boyfriend LifeinATent and his twin brother KMartinTV. They are also aware of the full length documentary I intend to publish later this month. A project that I have been working on for months and now I am starting to put it together.

The video's intention is to draw attention that these three work together in tandem and to work with one is to work with all three. It also seeks to make others aware of the threats and harassment she and the twins have sent out to anyone who dared to enter into the "video response business"

Something really bad happened yesterday

Yesterday on twitter twitter.com/happycabbie I announced that something bad has happened. I have been thinking it over and trying to decide if I should share it or not.

I have decided that I am not. Several months ago I did announce that I was no longer going to be discussing my personal life and I have not done so. However I think the main reason I don't want to share this is because I don't want to be all negative in my videos.

I try to be as positive as I can be, and that is not always easy. Now while this news is bad news, it is not the end of the world. Life goes on and so will I. In the mean time I will just remain positive and do what I can to make others happy.

Leaked Skype Conversation from LifeInATent about View Bots

I had this skype conversation leaked to me on Saturday but I was asked to hold off on releasing it until Monday. While I do consider the source to be reliable, I can no guarantee that the information her is accurate. I have also made a few edits to remove sensitive information to respect people's privacy.

My conversation with a View Botter

Today I had a conversation with a view botter who claimed to own the view bot service View Tornado. Sadly my attempt to fish information from him did not go as well as I had hoped. Still here is what we discussed. I had hoped to get him to offer me up the codes for the view bot that attacked my video so I could forward it on to YouTube. I actually could have done that as I have been communicating with Partner Support about this issue. I did of course exagerate my claims about being able to contact YouTube staff whenever I wanted. While it is true that I do have a little more contact than most people, I certainly do not have the power to simply pick up the batphone and call then whenever I need to.



Still it appears that his motivation was not as pure as he had claimed. ViewTornado is simply a view bot service hoping to knock out it's competition. Enjoy our conversation.

The Machinima Process: How to join Machinima on YouTube

When Machinima recruits you they send you a form letter that you are to send to Partner Support and to their contact in YouTube staff in order to be released from the Parnter or Account Monetization Program and to disassociate your account from Adsense

This is the message I was instructed to send out.




This is the message back that I get from their contact at YouTube



Partner Support was the next one to contact me but they inform me that the message did not reach them because I was no longer a Partner



My recruiter with Machinima then sends me this message



Finally I am sent this message from YouTube letting me link into Machinima's Adsense



Now on March 30th when my contract with Machinima is terminated I will lose all the perks of being a Partner such as banners and custom thumbnails. The thumbnails I currently have will remain but I wont' be able to create new ones until I rejoin the Partner Program or join another network.

Setting up account monetization should be easy as the system is automated but that means that I have to submit each and every video once again for revenue sharing. Likewise joining another network would mean that I would have to monetize each and every video one by one in their system.

Applying to the Partner Program can take months. So I expect I will accept one of the offers the two networks currently recruiting me are offering.