Hypable Potential

When I co-founded Supernatural.tv in 2005, I saw the difference between corporate-run and fan-run sites. Finding news and writing about Supernatural was a joy. The moderators in the forums were as passionate about the show as the visitors to the site. We had better discussions, more activity, and more fun than people were having in the CW's official Supernatural forum. Now BuddyTV owns Supernatural.tv and even though the forums remain fan-run, the community has suffered. We were better as a fan-run site. Running fansites takes a lot of time and effort, so finding ones that are well-run, organized, and updated is rare.

But that's changing with Hypable.

Andrew Sims (of MuggleNet and MuggleCast) started Hypable, a site that covers entertainment news for several shows and fandoms. He noticed that "general entertainment sites do not cover specific fandoms as good as individual fansites do" *, so he wanted to create a fan-run site that would offer great coverage for lots of fandoms.

Right now, Hypable writers cover Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, Doctor Who, Fringe, Supernatural, True Blood, Dexter, Mad Men, Saturday Night Live, Disney, The Office, X Factor, and more...the list is growing all the time. Registering on Hypable allows you to filter posts by fandom so that the news you see in "My Feed" is what interests you specifically. Columns and podcasts offer fan commentary on news and events. All around, it's a great setup.

The About Us page talks about the power of fans to cover topics that interest them without corporate influence. "Fan-powered" is good. Fan-driven is better.

A core group of writers is necessary for Hypable: fans rely on frequent updates, so Hypable needs a dedicated writing staff. But as a fan of fantasy and sci-fi shows, more than news interests me.

I want a place where I can read news about my favorite shows, but I also want to read theories and commentary by fans. Right now, when I want to see what people thought of the latest episode of Doctor Who, I search tags on Tumblr. It's not ideal, but it works.

I can't help thinking about the diversity of content Hypable could have if they accepted writing from visitors to the site.

The Write for Hypable page states writers must be able to post at least five stories each day. That's the kind of dedication you need for a news site, but I'm sure there are people out there (like me) who would love to write for fan sites but can't dedicate that much time every day.

Why not take submissions? Submissions allow people to make less of a commitment without lessening the quality of writing. Set guidelines for the kind of content you want. For example, episode commentary, theories about what will happen next in your favorite show, and character studies. All you need is a section on the site for non-news content and editors to review submissions. (I'd volunteer.) Post the quality writing and send explanations to writers when their submissions won't be used.

Accepting submissions does two things. First, it's an easy way to build content on the site. Second, submitting articles is a good way to test out potential staff writers. Frequent submitters can see what it's like to write for a fan site, and the Hypable staff has writing samples to review before they take on committed writers.

I don't know if Hypable wants to be strictly a news site. If it does, it's doing fine. But if Hypable wants to be a hub for fandoms, it needs to have more than news. It needs to offer more fan-written content.

Home videos

My dad was watching home videos today, and I realized that my family and my extended family stopped recording home videos when my cousins and I were about ten years old. I understand that most parents want videos of their kids when they're young, so maybe that's why the videos stopped. We grew up.

But with increasingly smaller video cameras and easier ways to share videos, I think it's strange that we don't record home videos anymore (with possible exceptions for family vacations and weddings).

I have only my own experiences to go on, so I'm curious: did your family record home videos, and did the videos stop at some point?

When Arthur Finds Out

No spoilers here. Just my speculation.
Here's a scenario I'd like to see on Merlin when Arthur finds out that Merlin has magic.

The knights of Camelot, Lancelot, Arthur, and Merlin are away from Camelot, fighting a small army or maybe magical creatures. The knights are losing and Merlin knows he can save them all if he uses magic. Similar situation to that episode about his hometown. Problem is, he'll definitely expose himself. But Merlin can't let everyone die so he uses magic, defeats the bad guys, and saves everyone.

Everybody saw it. Everybody is stunned.

Arthur orders two knights to grab Merlin and bring him to Arthur.

"All this time, Merlin?" Arthur says.

Merlin looks at him and nods. "Yes."

Arthur takes a step back, rubs his hand across his face. "I thought I knew you. I trusted you."

Merlin doesn't say anything for a moment and then: "Arthur, look, I'm sorry. I couldn't tell you."

Lancelot hangs back, watches both Merlin and Arthur carefully.

"Merlin, all that time," Arthur answers. "You were in the castle. Close to Father. Close to me. And..."

"And what?"

"I don't know. What were you doing?"

Merlin stands up straight. "Serving you."

"Using magic."

Merlin sighs. "Yes, when I had to so that I could help you. To protect Camelot."

Arthur shakes his head once and steadies his voice. "You can never return to Camelot."

"What?" Merlin tries to step closer to Arthur but the knights hold him back.

"The king will have you executed if you do."

"Arthur--"

"No."

Lancelot steps in. "Arthur, Merlin just saved all of our lives."

"With magic."

"Yes, with magic. He's a brave man. He knew what you'd think but he did the right thing. And you're going to punish him for it?"

But Arthur won't listen. He orders the knights to ride back to Camelot. He tells Merlin not to follow them.

Then Merlin is in exile for a few episodes until he hears about some attack on Camelot and he has to go back to protect the castle. After Camelot is safe, Uther orders Merlin's execution. Uther questions Gaius to find out if he was helping Merlin keep his secret. Arthur doesn't say anything in public.

Then it's up to Arthur to save Merlin, to convince Uther that Merlin did nothing wrong. If Arthur can get over the way Merlin lied to him over the years.

-----

However the show deals with Arthur finding out, I want it to last a few episodes. We've seen the measures Uther takes to forbid magic in his kingdom. We've seen Arthur question Uther and evaluate the pros and cons of magic. All the while, we've seen a friendship between Arthur and Merlin that grows stronger. When Arthur finds out that Merlin has magic, they will have a messy problem. I don't want to see it tidied up nice and neat in one hour.

Up in the Air's product placement

I watched Up in the Air (2009) today and I noticed every single time the Hilton and American Airlines logos were on screen. I know that's the point. But I don't mind when logos and brand names are in the background. I don't mind if characters say a brand name instead of something generic. But I do mind when product placement is a prominent part of the plot. Ryan Bingham (played by George Clooney) always flies on American Airlines and stays in Hilton hotels, and he has special frequent customer privileges. That's most of the story.

Maybe I'm not being fair. The movie is well-made. Beautiful shots, well-edited, good performances. That's all true. A plot twist I didn't predict. Points for that. But I didn't find myself caring about the characters that much.

I felt distanced, but maybe that's me.

Finding the Little Guys

On April 24, Andrew Bravener posted this video:

He addresses the problems he sees within the YouTube community, and his biggest complaint is that people with low numbers of subscribers have a difficult time getting exposure on YouTube. His video has sparked an enormous discussion and 242 video responses have been uploaded so far.

In one of those response videos, finchiphile made a suggestion to start a Tumblr page where people can submit interesting content from new vloggers or vloggers who do not have a huge subscriber base. The hopes are to kickstart the YouTube community, have video conversations, and share the fun of making videos.

Regardless of what you think of the points Andrew made in his video, this Tumblr page that came out of the conversation is a neat idea. The page is a good place to find little-known YouTubers, and anyone can submit videos they think deserve more attention.

I've watched several of the video responses, so I don't remember who said YouTube has to cater to the masses in order to survive, but that's true. At least the people who are interested in the community aspect have a way to find each other on Tumblr.

Unsubscriptions

I went through my YouTube subscriptions and cut them down from 60 channels to 32. Some of the channels I unsubscribed from don't post videos anymore, but many of them post videos too often. They sit in my subscription box and I don't bother watching them. The thing is, I'll remember those YouTubers who post videos too often because they upload for the sake of uploading. If I feel like popping over to their channels to watch some of their videos, I'll do that. In the meantime, I don't care to keep up with everything they upload.

Reading List

I started a list on my fiction blog to keep track of the books I'm reading. This was inspired by Matthew Elmslie, whose blog you should check out.