So tomorrow marks the day when we all have to switch over to the YouTube OneChannel design. I just switched the Vlogbrothers page over. The banner is temporary but, otherwise, this is roughly what you will be seeing now at youtube.com/vlogbrothers.
I don’t love this, which I have made no secret of. I did not love the last channel design either, but I prefer it to this. I’ve heard a lot of people, however, saying that they do prefer this design.
So I’m going to take off my YouTuber hat, ignore what bothers me about it from a content creator perspective, and just focus on the design. These are the comments I would give if a design team brought me this design for an important product my business was working on.
- There is entirely too much going on. There are dozens of images on this page, several hundred words, and over twenty individual graphically distinct areas.
- There is no anchor for the eyes. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do when I arrive at this page.
- Cut down on the amount of information. I don’t need to see view counts for every video or have the option to subscribe to a channel (that isn’t this channel) without leaving the page.
- Three column layouts are very difficult to pull off, there needs to be significant visual distinction for them to not appear cluttered and overwhelming, but that has not been achieved or even, apparently, attempted.
I know that people worked hard on this. I know that I am not a top-level manager or designer. I know that YouTube has goals that it is attempting to achieve here, and it’s perfectly possible that this design has increased the metrics that they would like to see increased. In that respect, it is likely that the designers did their jobs and achieved what YouTube set out to achieve.
But it feels like a step back from a user interface perspective.
Also, these are not my complaints as a creator…which have much more to do with how I think Nerdfighteria feels about the Vlogbrothers channel and how Nerdfighters want to interact with my content. That’s a discussion for another time.
If you’ve got further comments or ideas or feel differently (I would love to hear from people who like the new design) I’ll be perusing the reblogs.
![kellysue:
I’ve got three things I’ve got to get turned in today, two kids to get fed and dressed and a bag to pack and a flight to catch, so I can’t respond to this the way I’d like, but I’m putting it here so I don’t forget.
I also need to let my temper subside a bit. If I were to reply right now I’d resort to name-calling and insults and we all know there’s no ground to be gained there.
Instead, when I’m not shaking anymore, I’ll recount my career trajectory AGAIN. [Magazine writer/research assistant—>comic reviewer—>7 years /10K+ pages adapting manga into English—>anthology shorts—>co-writing gigs—>one-shots—>minis—->ongoings]
Maybe I’ll get Alejandro Arbona to attest—AGAIN!—that I was blind-submitted for my first gig at Marvel. I’ll offer that if you’re looking for Men to Credit for My Career, you should look first to Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Peter Rose, Steve Niles and Jamie Rich — all of whom were responsible for making introductions or getting me chances to submit my work well before Matt Fraction had any pull in the industry. (I’ll also state in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t sleeping with any of those men, because I know, dear Anon, that is your next assumption.) Or Brian Bendis, who had championed my work in a way I will never be able to adequately thank him for. (Ditto Steve Wacker.)
(Also not sleeping with Brian or Steve, just so we’re clear.)
Maybe I’ll ponder why it isn’t Fraction who’s considered to have benefited from nepotism. After all, more than 10 years ago now, Matt Fraction was my plus one to Joe Quesada’s 40th birthday party and it was me who sent copies of Last of the Independents to Joe and Axel. I mean, clearly, it was those gestures that got Fraction his career — certainly not the merit of his work, right? I mean, come on — those Hawkeye Eisner noms are part mine, right?
(I can’t imagine how sick Fraction must be of hearing me tell that story. But I bet it’s not half as sick of it as I am.)
(The first person I met in the industry was Wil Rosado. Through him, the first editors I met were Andy Ball, who’s since moved on, and Joey Cavalieri. Just in case anybody wants to make a chart. This would be… maybe 4 years before I met Fraction, Gillen, Ellis, McKelvie et al on the WEF.)
Okay, deep breath.
Bendis is going to tell me that I shouldn’t acknowledge this, that I’m feeling trolls, but here’s the pickle: people deny that this happens. We’re told that the insults to our dignity working women face are in our imagination, that it’s a thing of sexy Mad Men past. It’s WOMEN who make this a thing, right? (Hysterical, don’t you know.) We’re to the point where I meet young women who won’t identify as feminists because the struggle is over and it’s only a thing if you make it one.
Bullshit.
It’s not a natural assumption to leap to the conclusion that I got my job because of my marriage. It’s the product of deeply-ingrained sexist thinking. I can name for you a half a dozen men who did, in fact, get their first big two gigs because of who they knew and their dignity and their qualifications have never been called into question. I’m lucky if I go a week.
I was recently directed to a post on a snake pit of a message board (what was I thinking, even going to look?) by a man I’d known as long as I’d known my husband, a man I’d met at the same time—a man who had felt free to ask professional favors of me on multiple occasions—who was lamenting how “easily” I’d gotten to where I was because of Fraction. When friends of mine pointed him to my CV, he half-apologized because he had no idea. Apparently he thought Marvel—a publicly-owned company—was in the habit of handing out gigs to freelancer’s wives just for kicks. Then he threw up the bit about it being a natural assumption.
I would say simply ‘fuck that guy’ and chalk it up to his not being half as smart as he thinks he is, but here’s the thing:
That guy has daughters.
For them, and for my daughter and for your daughter, I am going to occasionally shine a light on these things… even though it both enrages and embarrasses me.
I don’t know if it’s the right call, but I know that ‘ignore it and it’ll go away’ isn’t working.
I need to figure out a way to contain my outrage enough to talk about it in a way that doesn’t attack, but invites dudes like Anon to rethink their ‘natural assumptions’ without setting myself up as an uppity bitch that they’re invested in proving wrong.
I… I clearly don’t know how to do that right now. But I’m going to figure it out.
Later.
Right now, the kids need breakfast and my son has questions about the xenomorph that can’t wait another second.
I’m out.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/a3cfbe2a1267a921453de6ee843d613d/tumblr_mntqhqzpKe1qz6egko1_500.png)
I’ve got three things I’ve got to get turned in today, two kids to get fed and dressed and a bag to pack and a flight to catch, so I can’t respond to this the way I’d like, but I’m putting it here so I don’t forget.
I also need to let my temper subside a bit. If I were to reply right now I’d resort to name-calling and insults and we all know there’s no ground to be gained there.
Instead, when I’m not shaking anymore, I’ll recount my career trajectory AGAIN. [Magazine writer/research assistant—>comic reviewer—>7 years /10K+ pages adapting manga into English—>anthology shorts—>co-writing gigs—>one-shots—>minis—->ongoings]
Maybe I’ll get Alejandro Arbona to attest—AGAIN!—that I was blind-submitted for my first gig at Marvel. I’ll offer that if you’re looking for Men to Credit for My Career, you should look first to Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Peter Rose, Steve Niles and Jamie Rich — all of whom were responsible for making introductions or getting me chances to submit my work well before Matt Fraction had any pull in the industry. (I’ll also state in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t sleeping with any of those men, because I know, dear Anon, that is your next assumption.) Or Brian Bendis, who had championed my work in a way I will never be able to adequately thank him for. (Ditto Steve Wacker.)
(Also not sleeping with Brian or Steve, just so we’re clear.)
Maybe I’ll ponder why it isn’t Fraction who’s considered to have benefited from nepotism. After all, more than 10 years ago now, Matt Fraction was my plus one to Joe Quesada’s 40th birthday party and it was me who sent copies of Last of the Independents to Joe and Axel. I mean, clearly, it was those gestures that got Fraction his career — certainly not the merit of his work, right? I mean, come on — those Hawkeye Eisner noms are part mine, right?
(I can’t imagine how sick Fraction must be of hearing me tell that story. But I bet it’s not half as sick of it as I am.)
(The first person I met in the industry was Wil Rosado. Through him, the first editors I met were Andy Ball, who’s since moved on, and Joey Cavalieri. Just in case anybody wants to make a chart. This would be… maybe 4 years before I met Fraction, Gillen, Ellis, McKelvie et al on the WEF.)
Okay, deep breath.
Bendis is going to tell me that I shouldn’t acknowledge this, that I’m feeling trolls, but here’s the pickle: people deny that this happens. We’re told that the insults to our dignity working women face are in our imagination, that it’s a thing of sexy Mad Men past. It’s WOMEN who make this a thing, right? (Hysterical, don’t you know.) We’re to the point where I meet young women who won’t identify as feminists because the struggle is over and it’s only a thing if you make it one.
Bullshit.
It’s not a natural assumption to leap to the conclusion that I got my job because of my marriage. It’s the product of deeply-ingrained sexist thinking. I can name for you a half a dozen men who did, in fact, get their first big two gigs because of who they knew and their dignity and their qualifications have never been called into question. I’m lucky if I go a week.
I was recently directed to a post on a snake pit of a message board (what was I thinking, even going to look?) by a man I’d known as long as I’d known my husband, a man I’d met at the same time—a man who had felt free to ask professional favors of me on multiple occasions—who was lamenting how “easily” I’d gotten to where I was because of Fraction. When friends of mine pointed him to my CV, he half-apologized because he had no idea. Apparently he thought Marvel—a publicly-owned company—was in the habit of handing out gigs to freelancer’s wives just for kicks. Then he threw up the bit about it being a natural assumption.
I would say simply ‘fuck that guy’ and chalk it up to his not being half as smart as he thinks he is, but here’s the thing:
That guy has daughters.
For them, and for my daughter and for your daughter, I am going to occasionally shine a light on these things… even though it both enrages and embarrasses me.
I don’t know if it’s the right call, but I know that ‘ignore it and it’ll go away’ isn’t working.
I need to figure out a way to contain my outrage enough to talk about it in a way that doesn’t attack, but invites dudes like Anon to rethink their ‘natural assumptions’ without setting myself up as an uppity bitch that they’re invested in proving wrong.
I… I clearly don’t know how to do that right now. But I’m going to figure it out.
Later.
Right now, the kids need breakfast and my son has questions about the xenomorph that can’t wait another second.
I’m out.
At the Rainforest Cafe, @irljasmine carefully considers her choice of seafood entree.
<3
Having an alternate viewpoint does not necessarily diminish intelligence. If I said that Jesus rode dinosaurs on a flat, 6,000 year old earth, you might have a case. But even if I was wrong about what I said, I don’t think it makes me a bad person, nor an unintelligent one. Perhaps if I give you insight into how I came to my opinion.
Most of my closest friends are women. I didn’t do that on purpose, it just kind of happened that way. They tell me about daily accounts of sexism, misogyny, and harassment. Men in their workplace disregarding their opinions. Men on the street making explicit catcalls. One of my friends signed up for OkCupid and for no other reason than she is attractive, she got a few hundred messages asking her for sex. Those were the first messages people sent. They didn’t even try to break the ice. There was no, “Do you like mudkips?” They just went straight to (paraphrasing) “I would like to intermingle our genitals. If you don’t want to, you are a slut.”
I look at the youtube comments of any female personality and they are littered with men making salacious comments. I have a friend who sometimes points out sexism on her blog. When I did it… I got comments like yours. “I’m disappointed in you.” When she does it… she gets called every female pejorative. She gets rape and death threats. Why so polite to me and so evil to her? It seems even people’s outrage is sexist.
I can count the number of times I have been victimized by misandry on my vagina. But my friends have to put up with this crap all the time. And most of the time they have no choice but to swallow it and try and go about their day. I certainly have a lot of my own problems, but I have never had to deal with anything like that.
My opinion is based on my experiences and the accounts of my dearest friends. I know I was a bit general and anecdotal in my original post, but It is the conclusion I came to and I stand by it.
I think “I can count the number of times I have been victimized by misandry on my vagina” might be one of the best things thefrogman has ever written. Preach it.
Man On Cusp Of Having Fun Remembers Every Single One Of His Responsibilities | Full Story
(via zackfinfrock)
Blog: “Here! This is an animated gif of an amazing animation.”
Followers: “OMG HOW COULD YOU NOT SOURCE THAT! SOMEONE MADE THAT GIF THAT WASN’T YOU! BURN IN HELL”
Blog: “Sorry! Here! I have given proper credit to the person who made the gif. Should I list who created the original animation?”
Followers: “What? No, who gives a crap?”
[video]
[video]
(Source: generichenle)