My moment of glory has finally arrived! Time to dust off the fake moustache, crank up the fireplace, and start posting cranky comments as a reluctant (but always performative) vlogger on Mike’s blog.
(What the hell are you talking about, MK?)
OK OK, a little backgrounder. I was being my usual cranky self, commenting on Mike’s blog about the lameness of vlogging(vlogging = video blogging, for you kids not down with the excuse for English that passes on the WWW), which eventually got me going on the lameness of everything, and I compared myself to the cranky muppet in the balcony (you know, those two old dudes?) Anyways, Mike cheekily suggested I could have a regular vlog spot in the comments of his blog, basically ridiculing whatever I felt like, since I tend to take on this kind of devil’s advocate pose in my numerous argu-ahem discussions with him (which are all very rewarding and our contrary, flip, and inflammatory ways of expressing ourselves (or maybe it’s just me being contrary, flip, and inflammatory) seems to be our personal way of coming to conclusions and forcing each other to make more detailed analyses of our positions).
And then it occurred to me – well, now there’s something I haven’t seen yet. Where are the innovations in the comments of blogs? Comments are nice, but could use some spice. Where normal vlogging just makes me wanna yawn most of the time, vlog commenting is actually interesting, since it brings together the idea of multiple voices in a richer way. And one voice droning over and over, one point of view, one singular “vision” that I have to sit through for however many minutes the video lasts (ah, the oppressiveness of time-based media) is so dramatically unappealing, whereas vlog-commenters can bring in some quick hits of desperately needed variety. Not to mention, sometimes it’s nice to get a better sense of the person behind the comments, or reconnect with that person. It could be likened to a video voice mail (hey – I am still waiting for my video phone, by the way!) Mike noted after my first cranky outburst that he missed me, and wouldn’t he just have been much more fulfilled by my MK-ness if he could have seen a peek of my flat in Edinburgh and heard the comment in whatever silly fake accent I chose?
This goal of mixing it up is part of what makes Ravi Jain’s Drivetime interesting. He vlogs on his commute to work. It would have been cute the first time, and maybe a bit dull the rest of the time, but clearly this is a dude with his head screwed on right. He’s got special guests, he interviews people in his car, he has viewer mail (!!), Ravi is totally organized and cleverly modeled his vlog on a cute concept (commuter vlog with special camera rigs) and a tried and true format (talk show).
Ravi Jain’s Drivetime guests are sort of how I envision the vlog commenting could be. Adding new voices. Spicing it up. Making/reinforcing connections. Letting people see a bit more of your world. A lil’ bit of Blogsterpiece Theatre, if you so choose. (thanks Mir, for that clever turn of phrase.)
HEY! – somebody at Six Apart – steal this idea.
10 replies on “Blogsterpiece Theatre”
Hmm. – MK – i’m not sure if it already exists. Brett showed me this but I don’t know if he set it up just because of your idea.
link
But I love your idea and I think audio comments would be a much easier thing to have catch on. I’m picturing everyone leaving an mp3 file of their response – and all of those also being made available by automatically getting collected into one big mp3 that I can click on to listen to all the discussion.
The other thing i really like is the idea of repositioning the area that comments show up in.
I’m picturing the actual blog entry being put in the middle of the page and video responses being put around the entry – on the side, on top, below the comment. I would be able to see what order they were added, but I wouldn’t have to view them in the order they were left.
Making this quick I have to pee.
I think the idea of repositioning comments around a post is just bril (as they say in the uk).
Like in the gemarrah which are the commentaries on the talmud which are the laws of the jews (my peeps). Where comments by the various rabbis over the years got scratched into margins that got wider and wider with the publications of each edition of the gamarrah until eventually the original text was a tiny box in the midst of huge margins.
This would be even weirder if in the margins were all these little video windows that could be engaged at will.
Tacky – hollywood squaresesque. Possibly only interesting as proof of concept.
I think Mike and I already discussed this one time.
too bad looks like someone already did it. you gotta work more on the pundit thing.
yeah audio comments sure could catch on quicker. dramatic use of musical intros and the final jeopardy theme are in order, tho.
I like the idea of the Hollywood Squares vlog comments all around. Even cooler – what if the comments had a little line that you could drag to point to the specific part in the post you are commenting on? Especially useful for those long blog posts, like yours, Mike 😉
and if only one person is doing it, some folks round here are still pundits 😉
One word. Puppets.
good point – if there’s only one person/group doing it than mk still deserves a "pundit" gold star. kind of like when I "invented" the mycomments thing even though 2-3 people were already doing it 😉
and rob – I think you might be suggesting that I’m longwinded. I’ll see you in the parc tomorrow at dawn with pistols.
No, no, Mike, put the pistols down….. I know what Rob means. He’s really into puppets and does existential puppet shows – I think what he’s suggesting is that instead of me donning a fake moustache I ought to just craft an MK-vlogger-pundit-supremo puppet.
And why not…. Puppets aren’t really getting their due on the inta’net.
Yes.
Puppets = Good
http://www.podomatic.com offers the ability to audio comment on podcasts.
eg if you wish to bore yourself silly, you can visit my podcast, elevatorsounds (about which mike said, "i’m not really liking,") and audiocomment there:
http://elevatorsounds.podomatic.com
oh crap check that. you can email audiocomments. sorry. podoatic has a cool feature where you can record directly to their server, so i thought they would allow audiocomments – apparently not yet – coming soon. sorry.