This Idiot Can Post a Video
October 31st, 2008 | by Ethan Jaynes |This Idiot Can Post a Video. This is a direct response to Moondog Sports post “Any Idiot Can Post A Video“. That blog is written by my good friend Fred “Moondog”, so don’t think there is any kind of a blog war brewing, because there is not. The post goes through the ins and outs of his hard work, and how easy it is to post a video instead of writing. He makes great points, and I felt the need to respond because all I do is post videos. I actually have some pretty strong feelings towards this because I put a great deal of work into the site, on the blog and behind the scenes.
Here is the comment I left on his post.
” All I do is post videos 95.99% of the time. That is what I do, and I have found a knack for finding the occasional gem. I also really love watching them.
Without writing a thesis paper in your comment section, I will try to keep my points concise.
What is the difference between Dan Patrick showing a highlight on ESPN while he tells a few timely jokes, and me posting a video on my blog with a few timely jokes?
That is my style and his. He is better, but that is how I see my readership getting to know me.
My blog is like a TV channel.”
Now that this is my blog, I will go into further detail. I think posting videos is an art form. It is an art form that many people do far better than myself.
Brian Powell from Awful Announcing is my hero when it comes to posting videos. He finds the best videos from all sports and makes the videos himself a good deal of the time.
Ryne Nelson, the editor of Slam Online, does the same thing for basketball on his blog Odenized.
Both are extremely talented and popular. J.E. Skeets from Ball Don’t Lie is a genius when it comes to finding great videos for Ball Don’t Lie, he also throws in his timely jokes with his superior basketball knowledge. You should check out some of the pop culture references he makes. CLASSIC.
There are also many other bloggers that rock the videos daily.
That brings me to my 1st teacher. Spencer Hall from EDSBS, that is the quintessential college football blog. He does not post videos all the time, but when he does, his writing is superb. I will leave you with an example of a video I posted and he also posted. You can see the difference in our commentary very easily. This was taken 7 months ago, so I hope I am a little better by now. I have never told anyone this, but now is a good time. This discrepancy of writing talent and skill is the number one reason I decided to start an all sports blog. I knew I could never come close to his work, so why fight a losing battle? 
Now I am glad I started an all sports blog, and I still write some for the other one.
This is what I wrote on my other blog SEC Football Blogger:
I Hate Tennessee, Video, This Guy Hates the Vols.
Well, I am not one to spread hate, but I am one to spread funny. This guy is funny. He has plenty of things to say about the Vols. He says something about the Vol orange color looking like throw up in a pumpkin.
He can not stress it enough. This Bama fan Hates the Vols.
And this is what he wrote on EDSBS:
ELOQUENCE HAS A THOUSAND FORMS
There’s many, many ways to express how you feel in an eloquent way. You could be a master of the epigram, like Rochefoucauld, for example:
Men give away nothing so liberally as their advice.
Pithy! Or you could just have an awesome accent and a deep, deep hatred of Tennessee. That’s a form of eloquence too, as this video points out all too well.
9 Responses to “This Idiot Can Post a Video”
By kellex on Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
Not jumping on either side here, but you didn’t present an argument at all there Ethan.
I haven’t read Moondog’s post because his site is filled with porn which bugs the f*ck out of me, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what he said.
From my point of view, there is something a little odd about people that just run off to Youtube and find videos from 20 years ago or a great hit or highlight from the night before and spread it to the world as a “great find”.
Ryne worked wonders with Odenized because he actually capped all those videos. They were HIS. The other blogs you named focus on videos, but they also write a ton of great content to balance things out.
One thing you should keep in mind is that probably 95% of bloggers continue to write because of the creative aspect to it. If someone works a post and it becomes a hit, it’s a pretty satisfying thing. But when someone is “finding” videos and spraying them out to the world, it seems to detract from what most bloggers do, and that’s write.
Everyone has their own thing though, and whatever works for someone obviously doesn’t work for everyone else. As long as the approach people take satisfies them personally and there is a niche for it, it’s kind of hard to argue against.
By ethanator1088 on Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
Moondog took down those ads you talked about, so feel free to check out the post.
As for your comments, I feel that I made the point I wanted to make. I was not contributing to an argument. My main point is that a blog can be like a TV channel, and the blogger can be like your favorite sports caster.
Ryne and Brian should be noticed for the hard work of making great videos and posting great videos, but that does not mean that they are the only people that should be able to post videos. You are really splitting hairs to basically say that Ryne is the only person that posts videos that you respect.
Here is the hypocrisy of it all. I feel that bloggers that do not post videos and detest bloggers that do post videos, are no better than print media detesting bloggers for getting the news out better and faster. That is what it all comes down to. The purist bloggers are just like print media, if they feel that strongly about it.
It is also important to point out that only the best bloggers will get actual traffic from posting videos. You have to know the best ones to post. You have to make sure you are the first one to post it. You have to do an excellent writeup of the video.
If you are not doing all of that, your blog might as well be one of the thousands of pages on Youtube.
You can feel good knowing that 90% of the bloggers that just post videos will crash because they will never grow a readership. You have to add to the video
By kellex on Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
Not saying at all that those are the only 2 that should be able to post videos. What I am saying is that there is a difference between creating and finding and how you are using them.
I’m glad that you are able to run an entire blog off of, not sure how else to say this but, other people’s work. (Not meaning to sound like a complete ass there, just not sure how else to say it)
I post videos on my blogs as well, but seeing as the videos are not mine, I would never use it as a linkbaiting piece. Now if I created the video and posted it, for sure I’d be spreading that thing like wildfire.
Just a fundamental difference in the way we view things.
There is an obvious niche for posting nothing but “found” videos on blogs, just not sure I’ll ever fully understand it.
By ethanator1088 on Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
Here is my take and maybe you can see where I am coming from.
Ryne posts a video from an NBA game. That is the NBA’s property and they let him use it for purposes.
I find a video on youtube of an NBA game and post it.
They are both videos of an NBA game. They both came from Youtube. I could download the Youtube video and put an NESW Sports video symbol in the bottom right and post it back to Youtube, but that is a waste of time just to satisfy people that care what Youtube account the video came from when they all come from the NBA.
The point of the video is to spread news via video. It is not to show off your hard work. If I am the first person to find news via video, that is just the way it happens. I respect the bloggers that make their own videos, but you are seriously missing the boat.
Like I said, My blog is like Sports Center.
So next time you say that I am using other peoples work, think what Sports Center would be like without videos. It would be like a newspaper. A Blog without videos is also like a newspaper. < Editorial section of course
If I found a video that was sitting in youtube and did not spread it, and it was good, how else do you think it would be spread?
I find videos for my blog. I do a funny writeup on the video. My readers like the video and my sense of humor. I get traffic. I also get credit for finding the video.
Those are all good things for me and my readers. The only person that could possibly not like that is a blogger that does not post videos.
This is a case of ” To each his own ” but like I said 90% of the bloggers that just post videos will crash because they will never grow a readership. You have to add to the video.
By kellex on Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
I guess I’m not grasping the comparisons here…
For me it’s the “find” part that I have the issue with. There is no original thought in finding someone else’s work. For Ryne, he is actually creating a video of a play that he thought was entertaining. He’s showing his creativity and knack for knowing what will entertain people while doing the actual work involved.
By just “finding” other people’s work and then saying you get “credit” for it, is sort of troubling.
I guess I always used videos for aesthetic purposes or to just break up the same old grind and never once thought about it as something I deserved credit for as the work was not done by me.
Although I do give you some credit to you for taking the time to find these videos, as I sure as hell don’t have the time or patience to sift through hundreds of videos.
By ethanator1088 on Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
I only get credit for the find. My Readers get the enjoyment.
When I “find” a good video that people have never seen before, and they would not know how to find it, or they just do not want to got through the trouble of finding it, bloggers appreciate it. They post the video with a link to my site.
They give me the link, but no one confuses it with the hard work that Odenized and Awful Announcing puts in.
Thanks for the comments Kellex.
By MoonDog on Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
Kellex - I am NOT the King of Porn!
Ethan - I got confused because I didn’t see a video and thought maybe this wasn’t your site.
I’m having some fun with you BTW, if you didn’t get my poor attempt at humor.
I believe you understand the point I made in my post, at least you do now. Initially, it was clear you didn’t.
In some respects, you proved a point I made. I have no doubt how you feel because you wrote something. Had you posted a video or image and wrote a few sentences, we wouldn’t have gotten a sense of how you felt.
But it’s all good. You keep posting videos and I’ll keep writing.
Later.
By kellex on Oct 31, 2008 | Reply
Love you Moondog, and your porn too.