I really liked Drawn By Pain! I kind of like Facebook better than Myspace now, but I found out about DBP from Myspace, and that series was awesome!

As for LonelyGirl15…I feel that while The Last and Outbreak great series, LG15 needs to go back to it’s original story, the one that was left behind at the end of the Resistance. I can’t help but feel that Mason was trying to force things in that direction with his last video in Outbreak, saying he’d done his part and asked Tachyon to hold up her end of the deal. He ended up creating a new plot hole in doing so: how does Tachyon have Jonas?

-Jes

Bring us back what we loved the most. When you say each show needs a home, and that home is a website, I think you all at EQAL have successfully found those places (for your multiple shows). its been a year and a half almost, and while many of us are standing patient, awaiting for our favorite web show to return, many have felt that you’re “not looking back” as one user said above.

I have pretty much posted in most of your team’s insideLG15 articles saying the same thing, we need a direction too. We want to know if there is ever a possibility of this community being able to connect with YOU FOUR and the CAST of LG15TR personally, like we did before, and like we have been doing since “Bree”. You guys DEFINED the term, “Web Show” and like you said above, there was no such thing until the original lg15. Its horrible to see you guys gone when you were at the top, but we’ve all been hangin’ in there for you guys to see what you can bring us, because we truly are your FANS. I know you guys have definitely expanded, and obtaining more traffic than a million people in and out of your websites can be difficult to deal with, but we need a direction. We want to hear what your plans are for the month.

Im sorry if I took your article and starting running in a different direction than many who spoke up above, but I feel they’ve said what I already would have, and this issue is what has been on my mind since mid 09. The streamys were, of course, a major disappointment, and will likely not happen again next year; in which case we all will learn a few things from this years show, like its not the GRAMMYS so they dont need to present it that way, and that satire can only be pushed so far until it becomes obscene and just plain rude. I hope that I do not sound like I am insulting any of you, because quite frankly, EQAL is, and has been my favorite company in developing web shows (lg15, and lg15tr) since day one– even if I havent seen a new episode in a year and a half. Im still hoping for something, and probably always will be,

but not many are like me.

@EricOwens I completely see where you are coming from, but this is what I was trying to get at with my post. My point is that whether we like it or not, we have to draw lines in the sand and create definitions or there will be no way to differente our art form from other art forms. So, my point is, if a show isn’t interactive EVEN IF IT’S DISTRIBUTED ONLINE then it isn’t a social show. It’s still valid entertainment if it’s well done, but I’d just call it a “TV show” even though it’s being distributed on the web. An 8 minute, serialized, video show IS a TV show… the only difference is that it’s a little shorter in length. But, that’s not substantive. TV shows already can be an hour, a half hour, or two hours, and even in those boxes there is a lot of variability in the actual run-time of the episode. So, even though it’s a misnomer to call it a TV show when it’s being distributed online, on iTunes, or via mobile, if it’s not interactive I would still call it a “TV show” (note the quotes). Even if the word “social show” isn’t perfect, my point is that there is something different about What The Buck, Philly D, HotForWords, Epic Fu, Rocketboom, Jake and Amir, that truly makes them different than non-interactive serialized content. Even if it isn’t TRULY interactive and real-time, something about them feels like it is (and most of them actually are), and for me that’s core to this medium. I understand the challenge of trying to tell a pre-planned storyline and also incorporate audience interaction, but it’s definitely doable and when you do it right the audience connects in a way that’s magical. One thing that I’ve been bad about is publicly talking about how we’ve managed to learn through trial and error what works and what doesn’t and I’m going to be doing more of that going forward. lonelygirl15, KateModern, and Harpers Globe were all HIGHLY scripted, pre-planned, and tightly orchestrated productions, but they were also interactive and felt real-time. Thanks for your comment and continuing the conversation!

@Tom Well spoken. Couldn’t agree more.

@Jesse Yeah, we do ned to spread the word. Defining our art is the first thing we need to do, then we can shout it around the world for everyone to hear.

The great thing about this open media outlet is for NEW voices to be heard as well as old. I have had some time in the spotlight from time to time (since 2004 so am very old by these standards), but can never support an awards show (or community) until I feel that it is spending the time and resources to find what is best about open distribution (and best out there on the web).

I am fond of many of the people involved in the making of this event and content that has won awards, but feel that the danger of making the community of creators “seem” small when a million + videos go online everyday is foolish. I agree completely on finding definitions that allow the public and advertisers access to what we and many others do, but am very concerned about the potential incestuous feeling that I felt watching this event and attending the last one.

To me for this to work for benefiting the medium - this should never be about stamping ourselves as legitimate for our own personal brands - it must remain giving to the open distribution medium itself and those that embrace it.

When 40 minutes of padding would have fit the entire craft show right in the “important show” instead of an unrelated “dance number or bit” Not cool.

Not very nice. Not being in the retrospective of the year when the nominees were supposed to be the best of the year makes you wonder why you came to this. No carpet, no clip?

Makes you feel like if you got craft nominated, you weren’t anything.

We were told even as craft nominees we weren’t supposed to walk the Red Carpet. How does that make you feel when the only level higher than nominee is winner of the awards? Isn’t that the only “bone” we get thrown? A chance to talk about out show to press for once as nominees? Why did we show up?

Finally, being put up in the top of the balcony away from the nominees instead on ensuring nominated people got to sit together whether they were craft or “real” would go a long way to the shabby “general public” feeling you gave us as nominees.

No after party tickets for the craft nominees because after all we were just craft nominees was the final insult to a pointless appearance by our cast, friends and celebrity guests.

They show made me ashamed. How could you go up after that abortion and say it meant anything to you or anyone when you were in a vulgar roast of what you do?

We went into a business meeting before the Sunday show and said we are a Streamy nominated series and got a pitch meeting. We had a meeting Monday after and when we mentioned we were a Streamy nominee the conversation turned to “oh my god you are part of that??” which went on to a 30 minute dissection of errors and embarrassment and then no real meeting for us.

Next time, I guess it will be best if we omit the part about our show being Streamy nominated if we want to have a sponsors meeting for the next season.

How upside down is that?

Oh Los Angeles. Ahhhh now i get it. The rest of the World does not matter. I guess it was really silly to think the World actually included anything outside Los Angeles. My bad. Now I see it all so clearly.

This is half the problem. The Streamys have become a subset of the LA BUBBLE.

Its the World Wide Web people. The future is now.

On the first one, I’m with you 100%. A show needs a home to call its own. I appreciate the online networks that carry dozens of shows and give the creators access to a larger audience than they might otherwise have, but there’s a lot that’s given up in that bargain. Without a home website, a show often has no place to provide more information, house extra content, downloads, etc, set up a shop, and probably most importantly, no good way to build a community. I must have this conversation at least once a week.

I tend to agree with your second point, in that producers are foolish not to make use of what the web can do, but the show should still be the heart of the production. Some producers might not have the resources to include a lot of bells and whistles, and I understand that, but there needs to be more than just a video player and a Twitter feed.

As for your third point, I agree in the broad sense that content creators shouldn’t ignore their audience. However, the style and degree of interactivity can vary widely from project to project as it suits the objective of the production. The first show I worked on was very low in interactivity, probably to its detriment. It was pretty much limited to discussions about the industry the show was about. While there were ways of adding fan interaction (perhaps giving them a way to play along with the mystery that unfolded throughout the season), the general objective was to have something akin to a traditional sitcom. The show that I’m currently in preproduction for won’t have any way for the audience to interact with the main story, since we have a very specific story arc in mind, but there will be ways to make suggestions and possibly submit viewer-generated content for the instructional videos that will accompany the main show as we seek to educate our audience and learn from them as well. I’m also in the very early stages of designing another show. This one will rely heavily on audience interaction to get from one episode to the next. We won’t know what show will air from week to week without viewer input. I wish I could say more, but there are a lot of details to be hammered out. In each case, the degree of interactivity is connected to the goals of the show. As you said, though, these are your core principles and they make sense for what you’ve set out to do.

As for what to call what we do, I’m starting to think there might be too many different things going on online to get one all-encompassing name. For now, I pretty much stick with saying I do work in New Media. If pressed, I’ll be more exact and say that I work on a web series (or some similar name that the person is likely to understand without too much explanation) since that’s the primary home for what I work on and it’s serialized.

I don’t know if there is one core identity for people using the web as a medium any more than there’s a core identity for the various types of programming to be found on television, such as news, sitcoms, serialized dramas, sports coverage, and made for TV movies. There might be too much going on online for one awards show to handle.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for bearing with me.

I have posted this elsewhere but here you are again:

“One really needs to wonder who thought this would go over well?

We have long called for more transparency in terms of how the @IAWTV is run and how it makes decisions. The IAWTV needs to engage in an active dialogue moving forward. The organization needs to open itself up to a frank discussion with the entire web series community.

The @IAWTV cannot or should not continue to act as a closed “society” because in the end it is accountable to the entire web series community and we have just seen what happens if we just let those in power “run with the ball”. Like it? No? Then we need to see a total change in the way the @IAWTV is run.

I think we can be pretty sure that the majority of the members and possibly even some on the Board of Directors of the IAWTV had little knowledge of what was going to happen. That does not make them any less accountable.

Those who did not like what happened need to step forward and work with the community at large to foster the change that is needed. We can move forward and we can make things better but only if there are substantial changes in how the IAWTV is set up and operates.

An apology is only as good as how well the person making it understands and articulates exactly what they did wrong. So far there has been little more than lip service. We need accountability and that begins with those responsible stepping forward and telling us how things went SO far wrong.

Then there needs to be changes. BIG changes. The day of brushing things under the IAWTV carpet is over. We are a world wide community and we need to take our genre back and make sure that this organization aligns itself with the entire community… not just an insider faction.”

@TJ Sorry you feel that way, we do our absolute best to address the community needs. It’s very challenging now that we are managing millions of visitors across all of our sites, and we’re working hard to improve both our internal process with our community moderators and our technology which allows us to run and manage our sites. I think everyone here is doing a great job, but we aren’t perfect. If you have any specific issues, feel free to email me and I’ll see if I can help. But, we are going to be doing more to involve the community and build the community. We have been focused on the business, but that’s a necessary evil because we need to keep the lights on.

You mention EQAL will be relaunching, right? And you said you want to engage with the community?

So let me start, EQAL has done a good job with the company aspect, but you have neglected the community that builds your company. Over the last year i have been a part of ever Umbrella site to go up, and i have seen a lot of the same community members from LG15 joining those sites to support EQAL. You may believe that EQAL hasn’t abandon the members, but truly EQAL has walked forward and never looked back. You must remember that in the end of the day you need the members, your company is about interaction, so do it.

I know that this seem disrespectful, and it’s not intended to be.

I have supported EQAL since the LG15 days, even if there has been a lot that has happened with my name. i stuck around, for you guys. why don’t EQAL do the same for everyone else that is a member of the community?

And if you want, you know where i am and you have my email.

I know this is a surprise for me to comment like this, but i want you to know that if EQAL does not show respect to their members, that will be the end of EQAL. Involve THEM.

Thank you for your time.

My suggestion for next year: Have fans submit videos of why they like to watch shows on the web and play the best during the show.

Build community is building audience.