Why I’m not watching your videos

I completely agree 100%. There are only 2 video blogs that I watch and that is Mark @ 45n5.com and Jim Kukral’s daily flip and I don’t watch every video but the ones that seem interesting after reading the post.

What I like about both of their videos is:
1. They are short (attention problems i have)
2. Each post clearly describes what they are talking about and most of the time actually write an article to go with the video.

I agree with you. I rarely watch any video online. I tend to catch up with feeds in the morning before work, at lunchtime and maybe in the evening when the TV is on. However I’m not alone and it would mean having to dig out some headphones just to listen to the video.

Plus you can’t print a video

Bingo! Videos just bore me. More often than not, the blogger is not a very watchable speaker. When you write, it doesn’t matter how charismatic your speaking style is. 9 times out of 10, I skip video blogs.

thanks for checking out my videos loren

stu - many people, myself included, prefer video over text.

Why not include video AND text in your posts?

I think we should start an anti-video club Stu.

http://www.jccommerce.com/2007/07/23/i-really-hate-non-text-blogging/

Loren - You’re right, I still read those blogs, just rarely watch the videos (Unless the subject is something that really grabs me)

Sarah - Good point, I didn’t think about the printing thing.

Jacob - You’re right, to a point. An eloquent writing style still beats out a plain, boring style in my book.

Mark - You’re right, many do prefer video. As to including video and text in my posts, as I said in the post, I have a head made for text-posting. People really don;t want to see this head pop up in their browser!

Plus, being an Australian, I think people would spend more time laughing at my ‘accent’ (although we really know that anybody who’s not Australian has an accent) than concentrating on the content.

Chance - I actually remember reading that post now. I’d forgotten about it, but it’s frightening how close a couple of my points are to yours.

As to an ‘anti-video’ club, I think that’s probably a bit harsh I choose not to eat marshmallows, but that doesn’t mean that I’m anti-marshmallow per se.

@stu - I don’t believe people will spend the entire time laughing at your accent and don’t think it matters what your head looks like

Have you tried it?

Mark - No I haven’t tried it - I’m much more eloquent in front of a keyboard with my mouth shut.

Kudos to anyone who actually has the stones to do it though….

Wow, I thought it was just me. You are completely right. I can read faster than most people talk, and skim even faster. All of the “gurus” are trying to get me to use video, but for the most part NO.

Bill
edited by Stu - no link dropping unless it’s relevant to the conversation please.

@stu - since you wanted me to comment specifically

1. I can listen/watch video while I read text posts, I have 2 monitors. My productivity INCREASES with a mix of video posts.

2. Sure you can’t quote me, but you can “embed” me just as easily

3. You are correct, you can’t search my videos.

4. If you can’t watch videos in a feedreader it’s time to upgrade your feedreader.

5. I have to be at my computer. That rule doesn’t apply to everybody. Iphones, smart phones, etc all take videos to go. I have some people that just watch my vids portably and never read them.

6. You are correct, the sound needs to be on.

7. That’s a personal preference. I find video easier to digest.

Of course with text only, many many negatives ;(

1. I can’t hear you

2. I can’t see you

3. I can’t work on other things while I’m at your site, text needs undivided attention

4. I can’t use you in my videos

5. Its mostly “anonymous” or people are less responsible for what they say because their face isn’t shown

6. It’s “old school”

7. Is usually formatted so small or poorly that people with site problems can’t read it well.

8. Blind people can’t access your website.

etc.etc.etc.

It’s goofy to go about with lists like this and therefore I assumed you were cranky when you made it.

Enjoy the text, I’ll enjoy the video, and we’ll all get happy

And thank god it’s going to be winter where you are, cause that means it’s gonna start warming up here in KY.

Mark,

Good luck to you if you can listen to a video while doing something else. I’m a bit of a dumbass, and need to give things my undivided attention..

As to the negatives:

Points 1 and 2: You can’t see me and hear me - that’s probably a good thing.

Point 3: I’d like to think that my content was engaging enough to warrant your undivided attention.

Point 5: I’m not convinced that people are less responsible for what they say because you can’t see them. I guess we’ll agree to disagree on that one.

Point 6: “It’s old school” - so is sex, but it’s still fun and the most effective way to produce offspring that I know of.

Point 7: Most people with these sort of problems would have a magnification tool installed on their computer.

Point 8: Blind people can access my site with a text to speech application, which I would assume that most blind people surfing the web would have.

Not sure about the goofiness of lists. Most of the lists I’ve done have been my most successful posts.

As far as it being winter here soon, Summer ended on the 29th Feb here, and it’s 40 celsius here (104F) today, has been for the last four or five days, and will be for at least the next six. God I wish Winter would hurry up!

Sorry Mark, but your points 7 and 8 about people with poor sight or being blind cannot access a text written post is incorrect. If a site is coded correctly (using ems for text size for cross browser compatibility, although pxs work in firefox) then you can resize the text. Also, text can be read out by a screen reader or braille reader providing it’s standard text and not graphical or flash based, as I’m sure you know.

What about those who are deaf? They cannot listen to your video and there’s no transcribe of it. I know you yourself tend to write out a summary of what’s in the video which is a good fallback, but a lot of video bloggers don’t (so don’t take the deaf visitor comment as a personal thing!).

I totally agree with Stu’s points in the initial post and in his comments (particularly the last response to Mark). I like Mark’s solution of offering it both ways - I never watch the videos, but I often respond to the text. I assume all readers are getting precisely what they want - text, video or both.

But when it’s only video OR podcast, I just don’t have time for that. I can’t work on posts or read something while listening to something else, so it would hurt my productivity to rely on videos or podcasts.

[…] Why I’m not watching your videos It takes too long - I just did a little testing, and it appears that I can scan text at a rate of about 800 words a minute, but only talk at a rate of around 260 words a minute. That means that for a 1,000 word post/video, I can read it in around one minute 20 seconds, where I have to sit through you talking for around four minutes (and this doesn’t even take into account buffering time etc). I’m a busy man with little free time, so this is a real negative. […]

[…] second everything Stu recently said about why he doesn’t like video blogging. It’s not quotable. It’s not skimmable. For a lot of us, it uses up more time than […]