Don’t despair: there are people who need you right now and there are easy ways you can help. Spoiler alert: put away your solidarity hijabs and safety pins. Watch the 5-minute video here.
On September 25th, 2016, I want to launch #NoMoreCraptions.
What is #NoMoreCraptions, you may ask? It’s a campaign that I want to start to make people aware of the lack of proper closed captioning on YouTube.
As you know, I have been working for almost two years to make YouTubers aware of closed captioning for their deaf audience. I have been somewhat successful, but I’m not clearly as close as I want to be. That is because I cannot do this by myself. There are too many people on this earth. I am one person in a world of seven billion. I can only make so many “caption your videos!” videos. Every channel has a different audience consisting of different people. In order to reach out to everyone, I need everyone’s help.
I have only one rule for this video: the video must be captioned, obviously. The video must be captioned before you make it public.
I want the videos to cover these topics:
Introduce the campaign and what it is
What closed captioning is
Why it’s important (d/Deaf/HOH people, people with auditory processing disorder, for people learning other languages, etc)
What auto c®aptions really are and why they don’t work
How it benefits creators (captions get translated into subtitles, brings it more viewers/subscribers)
How to caption (you can refer them to my 3 Ways To Caption video or tell them to Google, lol)
Note that if creators choose to go the fan contribution route, they NEED to look over the submissions before publishing. Caption with jokes and unnecessary commentary are not real captions and should not be published.
Anything else you can think of that would be worth noting.
I want to emphasize that I would really like to see these videos go up on Sunday, September 25th. Why? While September is fully dedicated to deaf awareness, there is one day dedicated to the cause: the last Sunday of September. So, for 2016, that’s the 25th.
Please, please, please, if you can get anybody you know on board with this, please send them this post. I want as many people involved as possible. My mission is to make this a huge thing. I want this to make this as big as possible in just one day.
When the day arrives, I will make a #NoMoreCraptions playlist on my YouTube channel so all the videos will be in one place.
If you have any questions, feel free to message me! I will reblog in about two weeks and then another a week after that with reminders to get your videos finished and ready to go.
Can people who don’t make videos (but who watch them!) write blog posts or something instead?
If you hadn’t heard about this, you are not in the minority. *I* hadn’t heard about this. It’s not being covered or talked about at all, aside from by individuals in disabled communities. This is a horrific hate crime and Annie’s response to ableism and activists’ lack of attention to disability issues is so incredibly eloquent, powerful, and necessary. If you are a fellow marginalized person or an ally in general, you need to be sharing the hell out of this.
Want to participate in the one-year anniversary of #FemTube? Here’s your chance: the #YouTubeGirls Tag!
This is an idea that came out of the group @thegeekyblonde and I were in during @rowanellis ‘s Creator Workshop at VidCon!
Our goal is to help current and aspiring creators by sharing our YouTube techniques, and no longer keeping the helpful tips secret. We want you to participate! This video details how to create and submit your tag video for the FemTube one-year anniversary playlist. Looking forward to your submissions! <3
As an internet native, a successful YouTube creator, a “millennial,” and your target demographic, I understand why you’d throw a large marketing budget into BuzzFeed’s Video initiatives. Their videos get millions of views and because of their low production value, are easy to turn around on a tight timeframe. I get it. It seems worth the investment.
But BuzzFeed has been caught repeatedly stealing ideas, jokes, bits, gags, and therefore money from prominent YouTube creators. And we’ve all had enough. It’s time to#StopBuzzThieves
Cut.com’s “100 Years of Beauty” vs. BuzzFeed’s “100 Years of” series These ideas are the same down tho the simplistic background choice and caption style. In the past few years BuzzFeed has hoped to acquire Cut.com but they chose to remain independent. There’s no question of how they were inspired to create this series. There’s also no credit given.
This isn’t parody. This isn’t homage. This isn’t a coincidence. This is a deliberate initiative on BuzzFeed’s behalf to undermine the hard work of independent comedians, creators, and innovators in the online space.
Beyond the obvious cut-and-paste of BuzzFeed lies a deeper issue; They are making millions of dollars from corporations like yours who aren’t well-versed enough to know that their work is fraudulent, and pumping it into their company–not even into the hands of their own creators.
Prominent black YouTuber Kat Blaque described a time when she and other LA LGBTQ creators were emailed and asked to help brainstorm ideas for BuzzFeed Video without compensation for their time and input.
“Then a few people chimed into the email chain and I couldn’t help but agree. One person asked “Are we going to be compensated for our time?” and went into depth about how often trans people work for free or very little and create these things that are profitable for cis consumption, but are never able to see compensation. This is a perpetuation of the oppression that marginalized minorities face and when you factor in Buzzfeed as an idea, it creates a situation where as a person with a voice that’s hardly heard, you feel as though you should be thankful for even having the chance. So you’re willing to work for very little or for free and who gets paid for your story at the end of the day? Cis white men. So who cares if you needed to pay rent or afford your medications for the month. Ultimately, you should be thankful for the chance and continue to work for free. When pressed on this, the trans guy in question said thatBuzzfeed “simply didn’t have the budget” for consultants. In response, a fellow trans consultant said that “being able to work for free was a privilege”.
BuzzFeed’s choice to infringe upon the intellectual property of those more innovative has negative implications for culture as a whole. We aren’t living in the golden age of television because people are good at copying video content and putting blonde hair on it. It’s because more and more voices are being heard. And with Facebook announcing that its algorithm will begin prioritizing the posts of family and friends over those of brands and fan pages–there’s no better time to invest your budget into individuals with talent, taste, and ability.
Young people shouldn’t have to work for cheap, or for free, or have their videos stolen for the sake of BuzzFeed’s creatively bankrupt scheme. No one should have to work for exposure. People die of exposure.
Don’t you think your millions of dollars would be better spent on original content from young creators with audiences and potential on YouTube? Do you know how much more of a return you’d get on your investment if you paid 50 top creators $20,000 instead of throwing a blind million at the untalented, underpaid staff at BuzzFeed Motion Pictures?
Suggestions for how to spend all that money you saved when you stopped supporting the predatory content thieves that comprise BuzzFeed Motion Pictures:
Worried it’ll be too hard to find qualified content creators to rep your company? Try partnering with YouTube and talent agencies for access to qualified independent creators. Going directly to creators incentivizes media giants like CAA, UTA, ICM, etc., to sign digital talent and protect them with legal teams that can review contracts and ensure that their ideas are protected and compensated. If you want our brand loyalty, you need to be loyal to us.
By continuing to support BuzzFeed video, you are complicit in the repeated, egregious theft of hundreds of millennials’ intellectual property. Consider this our collective cease and desist letter to BuzzFeed’s video department. We’re not going to cower because of the size or reach of BuzzFeed. We refuse to let their creatively bankrupt business model become the new status quo. The era of BuzzFeed thriving on the backs of uncompensated, young talent is over.
Hey, friends! I am in the process of creating a website dedicated to FemTube, and am looking for artists for our merch section!
Are you an artist? Do you make music, art, poetry, zines, anything or everything in between? Do you want to be part of a website dedicated to representation for females and underrepresented individuals online?
Then slide into my DMs! I want to feature your work on our website!
