Category Archives: Mind Uploading

moneytips.com , KSDK 8:44 PM. EST March 01, 2017

Was your Social Security claim denied by the Social Security Administration (SSA)? It is your right to appeal the decision, and now you have an even easier method of doing so. As of December 10, 2016, the SSA allows you to file an appeal online for both medical and non-medical issues to dispute adverse actions or denials of a claim. (Non-medical appeals cover issues such as disputes over Medicare premium rates and cases of overpayment.)

The online appeals process extends to recipients living outside the US. Prior to the online process, appeal options were limited and often impractical for those in other countries.

The SSA online appeal site walks you through the appeal process in a user-friendly fashion. The initial menu allows you to choose between medical decisions or non-medical decisions, as well as allowing you to resume a medical appeal that you had already started.

Before you begin the online appeal process, make sure that you have the necessary supporting documents (forms, medical reports, written statements, and legal documents) to process your appeal. Further information on required documents may be found on the SSA website.

Generally, supporting documents may be uploaded through the website, so make sure you have all of your documents in a suitable electronic form for uploading. However, SSA only accepts original or certified copies of some documents; those will need to be mailed into the SSA (or brought into the SSA office if you prefer but in that case why bother with an online appeal?).

SSA estimates that medical appeals should take from 40 to 60 minutes assuming a suitable Internet connection. Non-medical appeals should take less time, approximately 25 minutes.

The online site for non-medical appeals saves answers automatically as you proceed through the process, but you cannot exit the application and come back to complete it later. The medical appeal site also saves answers automatically, but it does allow you to take a break and return to an appeal that has been saved in progress.

The SSA will contact you if there are any questions or updates regarding your appeal. If you have a personal appointed representative for your SSA claim, make sure that his or her contact information is also included with your submitted information.

You can check the status of your appeal from the submissions page at any time. A simple click of a button will direct you to My Social Security, where you can log in to your personal page (or create one if you do not already have one established).

Keep in mind that the same time limits apply to online submissions as they do to other methods. Generally, you have sixty days from the date of receipt of the letter that informs you about the decision. The SSA assumes that you received the letter within five days of the date on the letter. If you received it later than five days beyond the letter date, keep that limitation in mind.

For any other questions regarding the general appeal process, refer to the Social Security Publication "Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim".

You still have the traditional options of appealing by phone or in person at your nearest Social Security Administration office, if you prefer. We hope you don't have to dispute a Social Security claim at all, but if you do, at least you have choices on the method to use.

Read our article on what you need to get the Social Security benefits you deserve to learn more about the four levels of appeal and the supporting documents you need to submit for your case to be re-evaluated.

This article was provided by our partners at moneytips.com.

To Read More From MoneyTips:

How Much Will Social Security Pay You?

Get A My Social Security Account

Is Everything On Your Credit Report Accurate? Check It Now For Free

Photo iStockphoto.com/shapecharge

( 2017 KSDK)

Read more:

How To File Your Social Security Appeal Online - WFMYNews2.com

moneytips.com , KSDK 9:35 AM. EST February 27, 2017

Was your Social Security claim denied by the Social Security Administration (SSA)? It is your right to appeal the decision, and now you have an even easier method of doing so. As of December 10, 2016, the SSA allows you to file an appeal online for both medical and non-medical issues to dispute adverse actions or denials of a claim. (Non-medical appeals cover issues such as disputes over Medicare premium rates and cases of overpayment.)

The online appeals process extends to recipients living outside the US. Prior to the online process, appeal options were limited and often impractical for those in other countries.

The SSA online appeal site walks you through the appeal process in a user-friendly fashion. The initial menu allows you to choose between medical decisions or non-medical decisions, as well as allowing you to resume a medical appeal that you had already started.

Before you begin the online appeal process, make sure that you have the necessary supporting documents (forms, medical reports, written statements, and legal documents) to process your appeal. Further information on required documents may be found on the SSA website.

Generally, supporting documents may be uploaded through the website, so make sure you have all of your documents in a suitable electronic form for uploading. However, SSA only accepts original or certified copies of some documents; those will need to be mailed into the SSA (or brought into the SSA office if you prefer but in that case why bother with an online appeal?).

SSA estimates that medical appeals should take from 40 to 60 minutes assuming a suitable Internet connection. Non-medical appeals should take less time, approximately 25 minutes.

The online site for non-medical appeals saves answers automatically as you proceed through the process, but you cannot exit the application and come back to complete it later. The medical appeal site also saves answers automatically, but it does allow you to take a break and return to an appeal that has been saved in progress.

The SSA will contact you if there are any questions or updates regarding your appeal. If you have a personal appointed representative for your SSA claim, make sure that his or her contact information is also included with your submitted information.

You can check the status of your appeal from the submissions page at any time. A simple click of a button will direct you to My Social Security, where you can log in to your personal page (or create one if you do not already have one established).

Keep in mind that the same time limits apply to online submissions as they do to other methods. Generally, you have sixty days from the date of receipt of the letter that informs you about the decision. The SSA assumes that you received the letter within five days of the date on the letter. If you received it later than five days beyond the letter date, keep that limitation in mind.

For any other questions regarding the general appeal process, refer to the Social Security Publication "Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim".

You still have the traditional options of appealing by phone or in person at your nearest Social Security Administration office, if you prefer. We hope you don't have to dispute a Social Security claim at all, but if you do, at least you have choices on the method to use.

Read our article on what you need to get the Social Security benefits you deserve to learn more about the four levels of appeal and the supporting documents you need to submit for your case to be re-evaluated.

This article was provided by our partners at moneytips.com.

To Read More From MoneyTips:

How Much Will Social Security Pay You?

Get A My Social Security Account

Is Everything On Your Credit Report Accurate? Check It Now For Free

Photo iStockphoto.com/shapecharge

( 2017 KSDK)

See the original post:

How to file your social security appeal online - WZZM13.com

Recently, three different startups have begun offering a way for anyone to earn bitcoin by uploading content such as images and videos. Bitcoin.com examines the differences between the three platforms.

Also read:New Image Hosting Service Pays Thousands of Uploaders in Bitcoin

Loopnroll allows users to publish photos, short videos and animated gifs along with music that plays while viewing. For each view that a post gets, a small amount of bitcoin is earned by its poster. Our site is about one year old, but the BTC feature is just a few days old, the Loopnroll team told Bitcoin.com, adding that There are about 10,000 posts on the site.

According to the website, the company shares about 50% of our profit with users, and previous days earnings are automatically sent daily to users bitcoin wallets with no minimum payout. Your earnings will primarily depend on: number of views and geo-location of viewers, the website says. A view from Sweden is worth a few times more than a view from Somalia, the team clarified.

Of the three platforms, Loopnrolls interface looks the most like Imgur, the worlds most popular such website.

File Army launched its website in January, and an Android app shortly thereafter. Users upload images and earn money when their posts are viewed, liked, and also when someone follows their account. Occasionally, bonus money is offered from various activities such as logging in, opening newsletters and more, the site says, adding that they are working on introducing pay-to-moderate soon. Users are paid daily without any minimum payout size. Currently, JPG/JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP are the supported file formats.

The service has a unique pay scale based on the amount and quality of traffic which is graded over time, according to the sites FAQ page. The scale potentially allows the service to pay power users more than its competitors because Users producing high-quality traffic can earn higher rates, the startup explained.

In File Armys payout structure, there are overall 9 grades of pay. A new user starts off at the rank of Corporal and gets promoted or demoted depending on the quality of their traffic. Corporals earn $1 per 4,000 views, $1 per 100 likes and $1 per 50 followers. However, Corporals have a cap of $2 per day. Meanwhile, the maximum one can earn is $1 per 750 views, $1 per 50 likes, and $1 per 5 followers. This level is referred to as the Emperor and has a daily cap of $5,000.

One drawback to this system is that earnings received must be received in File Armys official bitcoin wallet called Bitcoinwallet.com. This web-based service is another project by File Armys founder Price Givens, who has also created Fiatleak.com and a few other online businesses.

File Armys platform has a white background, and instead of the familiar side menu, visitors have to swipe left or right to view more posts.

The service that has been paying bitcoin for uploaded images the longest isSupload, which describes itself as free image hosting that splits the profits with you from advertising. Bitcoin.com has already profiled Supload back in December.

The service also looks similar to Imgur with a few slight differences, and allows users to upload images and videos. Currently, jpg, png, webp, gif are supported file types for images and mp/4, webm, mov, avi, and gif are supported for videos, which must be restricted to 30 seconds.

The site pays 50% of its profits generated from ads displayed on its website and the minimum payout is $1, which can be withdrawn at any time.

Which of the three platforms do you prefer? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, LoopNRoll, File Army, Bitcoinwallet.com, and Supload

Bitcoin.com is a unique onlinedestinationin the bitcoin universe. Buying bitcoin? Do ithere. Want to speak your mind to other bitcoin users? Ourforumis always open and censorship-free. Like to gamble? We evenhave a casino.

The post Comparison: 3 Platforms Paying You in Bitcoin for Uploading Images appeared first on Bitcoin News.

This post was syndicated from Bitcoin News. Click here to read the full text on the original website.

Follow us on twitter @NigeriaTodayNG

Also, Like us on facebook

Originally posted here:

Comparison: 3 Platforms Paying You in Bitcoin for Uploading Images - Nigeria Today

moneytips.com , KSDK 8:35 AM. CST February 27, 2017

Was your Social Security claim denied by the Social Security Administration (SSA)? It is your right to appeal the decision, and now you have an even easier method of doing so. As of December 10, 2016, the SSA allows you to file an appeal online for both medical and non-medical issues to dispute adverse actions or denials of a claim. (Non-medical appeals cover issues such as disputes over Medicare premium rates and cases of overpayment.)

The online appeals process extends to recipients living outside the US. Prior to the online process, appeal options were limited and often impractical for those in other countries.

The SSA online appeal site walks you through the appeal process in a user-friendly fashion. The initial menu allows you to choose between medical decisions or non-medical decisions, as well as allowing you to resume a medical appeal that you had already started.

Before you begin the online appeal process, make sure that you have the necessary supporting documents (forms, medical reports, written statements, and legal documents) to process your appeal. Further information on required documents may be found on the SSA website.

Generally, supporting documents may be uploaded through the website, so make sure you have all of your documents in a suitable electronic form for uploading. However, SSA only accepts original or certified copies of some documents; those will need to be mailed into the SSA (or brought into the SSA office if you prefer but in that case why bother with an online appeal?).

SSA estimates that medical appeals should take from 40 to 60 minutes assuming a suitable Internet connection. Non-medical appeals should take less time, approximately 25 minutes.

The online site for non-medical appeals saves answers automatically as you proceed through the process, but you cannot exit the application and come back to complete it later. The medical appeal site also saves answers automatically, but it does allow you to take a break and return to an appeal that has been saved in progress.

The SSA will contact you if there are any questions or updates regarding your appeal. If you have a personal appointed representative for your SSA claim, make sure that his or her contact information is also included with your submitted information.

You can check the status of your appeal from the submissions page at any time. A simple click of a button will direct you to My Social Security, where you can log in to your personal page (or create one if you do not already have one established).

Keep in mind that the same time limits apply to online submissions as they do to other methods. Generally, you have sixty days from the date of receipt of the letter that informs you about the decision. The SSA assumes that you received the letter within five days of the date on the letter. If you received it later than five days beyond the letter date, keep that limitation in mind.

For any other questions regarding the general appeal process, refer to the Social Security Publication "Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim".

You still have the traditional options of appealing by phone or in person at your nearest Social Security Administration office, if you prefer. We hope you don't have to dispute a Social Security claim at all, but if you do, at least you have choices on the method to use.

Read our article on what you need to get the Social Security benefits you deserve to learn more about the four levels of appeal and the supporting documents you need to submit for your case to be re-evaluated.

This article was provided by our partners at moneytips.com.

To Read More From MoneyTips:

How Much Will Social Security Pay You?

Get A My Social Security Account

Is Everything On Your Credit Report Accurate? Check It Now For Free

Photo iStockphoto.com/shapecharge

( 2017 KSDK)

See original here:

How to file your social security appeal online - KARE

Was your Social Security claim denied by the Social Security Administration (SSA)? It is your right to appeal the decision, and now you have an even easier method of doing so. As of December 10, 2016, the SSA allows you to file an appeal online for both medical and non-medical issues to dispute adverse actions or denials of a claim. (Non-medical appeals cover issues such as disputes over Medicare premium rates and cases of overpayment.)

The online appeals process extends to recipients living outside the US. Prior to the online process, appeal options were limited and often impractical for those in other countries.

The SSA online appeal site walks you through the appeal process in a user-friendly fashion. The initial menu allows you to choose between medical decisions or non-medical decisions, as well as allowing you to resume a medical appeal that you had already started.

Before you begin the online appeal process, make sure that you have the necessary supporting documents (forms, medical reports, written statements, and legal documents) to process your appeal. Further information on required documents may be found on the SSA website.

Generally, supporting documents may be uploaded through the website, so make sure you have all of your documents in a suitable electronic form for uploading. However, SSA only accepts original or certified copies of some documents; those will need to be mailed into the SSA (or brought into the SSA office if you prefer but in that case why bother with an online appeal?).

SSA estimates that medical appeals should take from 40 to 60 minutes assuming a suitable Internet connection. Non-medical appeals should take less time, approximately 25 minutes.

The online site for non-medical appeals saves answers automatically as you proceed through the process, but you cannot exit the application and come back to complete it later. The medical appeal site also saves answers automatically, but it does allow you to take a break and return to an appeal that has been saved in progress.

The SSA will contact you if there are any questions or updates regarding your appeal. If you have a personal appointed representative for your SSA claim, make sure that his or her contact information is also included with your submitted information.

You can check the status of your appeal from the submissions page at any time. A simple click of a button will direct you to My Social Security, where you can log in to your personal page (or create one if you do not already have one established).

Keep in mind that the same time limits apply to online submissions as they do to other methods. Generally, you have sixty days from the date of receipt of the letter that informs you about the decision. The SSA assumes that you received the letter within five days of the date on the letter. If you received it later than five days beyond the letter date, keep that limitation in mind.

For any other questions regarding the general appeal process, refer to the Social Security Publication "Your Right To Question The Decision Made On Your Claim".

You still have the traditional options of appealing by phone or in person at your nearest Social Security Administration office, if you prefer. We hope you don't have to dispute a Social Security claim at all, but if you do, at least you have choices on the method to use.

Read our article on what you need to get the Social Security benefits you deserve to learn more about the four levels of appeal and the supporting documents you need to submit for your case to be re-evaluated.

Let the free MoneyTips Retirement Planner help you calculate when you can retire without jeopardizing your lifestyle.

Photo iStockphoto.com/shapecharge

Read the rest here:

Appealing Social Security Decisions Online - Danbury News Times

I'm a bit of a Canon fanboy from my time working at Best Buy and Circuit City, but when given the opportunity to review Nikon's latest DSLR, the D5600, I jumped at it.

While I actually own a Canon Rebel T5i, I was excited to learn what advances have been made in the years since. Although I love my camera, I don't always use it as often as I should due to occasional issues with transferring photos. It's what I filmed the video blogs on my YouTube channel on though, and I do love the quality I can get despite my noob status.

Of course the biggest upgrade from the D5500 is SnapBridge, which maintains a Bluetooth connection to an Android or iOS smartphone or tablet. NFC and WiFi connections are also possible (the latter is required to transfer photos to the smartphone). The idea intrigued me, though it's a bit buggier than I'd have liked.

Overall, the D5600 isa great camera, but I still found it easier to transfer photos through a direct cable connection. It's still a great start in the right direction, and I'm excited at the prospect of getting a hold of Canon's version.

The Nikon D5600 is a midrange DX-format camera with specs nearly identical to the D5500: a 24MP CMOS sensor,no optical low-pass filter (OLPF) and the brand's latest EXPEED 4 processor. It has an ISO range of 100-25600, 5 fps burst shooting, and advanced depth perception usinga 39-point auto-focus system, and can also record 1080p HD video at 60 fps.

Customization options run deep down to the point you can specify when sensor cleaning should take place (at startup, shutdown, both, or neither), and Nikon's Stepping Motor provides a smooth and nearly silent autofocus.

Photo Quality and SnapBridge

If you've spent any time on my blog (or with me in real life), you're aware I'm pretty lazy. It leaks into my work, and I'll often take a minimalist approach to things. It wasn't until late in 2015 that I was in the financial position to even buy a camera - until then my blog was built entirely from smartphone pics.

Having the D5600 available, I made a conscious effort to integrate it into my routine and try to use it for photo shoots. Here are a few pics I took on it from my recent run of product reviews. Keep in mind the pics are highly compressed before uploading on my website.

Now aside from the fact I'm not the greatest photographer, I did learn a few things while using the D5600 this month. One thing I already understood is better quality photos come with larger file sizes, so I was intrigued at how well the photos would transfer to my phone and how quickly said phone would fill up and freeze on me.

It turns out SnapBridge (which itself takes up less than 30MB) already compresses the files when transferring to your phone, although these settings can be adjusted to transfer the raw file. This made it easy to upgrade my Instagram images with professional-looking photos (although once I send this thing back to Nikon, I'm going back to the old way of doing things).

Initially setting up SnapBridge was easy enough, but the problem I had the first dozen times I tried to connect and download photos was a popup to login to the WiFi network on my Samsung Galaxy. This made it impossible to actually transfer the files manually (although it was able to transfer a handful of photos automatically the first night I used it).

I was also unable to pair the devices using NFC (which the Galaxy S7 is capable of, and I've used for a variety of wireless speakers and headphones so I know works on my specific phone). A cloud storage option (called ImageSpace) is available, but I knew the phone was a loaner and didn't implement it to avoid being spammed.

When it did work, SnapBridge was very handy to have, but I spent so much time trying to coax it to work that I soon found myself just plugging the USB cable into my desktop, where the photos would ultimately need to go for some adjustments and uploading onto my blog anyway. A wireless connection to my laptop/desktop would've been much more useful in the long run.

The feature that really made good use of the WiFi connection is another app called WirelessMobileUtility that lets you use your smartphone as a remote. I often find myself needing a remote and having to make do with other ways (i.e. turning the camera on manually, positioning myself, then trimming that off the beginning). Like SnapBridge, WirelessMobileUtility was great...when I could convince my phone to stay connected.

Although buggy, the few glimpses I got into a working connection between my phone and camera were enough to see how useful it could be.

I wasn't exactly happy withmenu navigation however.Taking a video on my Canon is a one-button affair, whereas on this Nikon D5600, I found myself jumping through hoops figuring out how to do it. With only a touchscreen to navigate through some options, I would've hoped for a better experience touching the screen, but far too often I took a pic when I was trying to select an option.

Nikon's D5600 has a lot of good things going for it - greatsensors and lenses, customization options, and wireless connectivity. However, it takes two separate apps to take full advantage of the WiFi connectivity, and both were plagued with connectivity issues.

Still a great camera, I'd expect more for $800, which is about what I spent on my Canon that included a case, SD cards, tripod, and a variety of lenses/filters. I don't know that I'd trade all that in for a spotty Internet connection.

With a fixed app, refreshed approach to menu navigation, lower price point, and 4K video, Nikon would have a hit on its hands. For now, we'll make due with what we have.

Here is the original post:

Nikon D5600 Review: Hoping to Make Photo Transfers a Snap - Huffington Post

If you've spied a number of shell-backed critters in recent days, best let NHM know via a photograph or two.

May flowers being successfully summoned by April showers is one of the most tried-and-truest of the old-timey sayings.

But where's that perfect phrase that summarizes how soggy February weather can invite bunches of sidewalk-crawly, garden-dwelling snails and slugs?

Some snappy writer needs to get to work on that saying, like, pronto. Because many Southern Californians have encountered a host of gastropods during all of these rainy January and February days of late.

Whether or not you call the shell-rocking wet-weather denizens of your yard "snails" or "gastropods" or some adorable pet name you invented, know this: The Natural History Museum wants to know about your snail- and slug-based sightings.

So we'll crawl no more, at a snail's pace, toward what this all means: SnailBlitz 2017! has begun. Your part, as a curious-about-the-world citizen scientist? Snap photos of your local snails and slugs and share them, either by emailing slime@nhm.org or uploading your pics at iNaturalist.

Tagging them on social media is cool, too. Just use the hashtag #SnailBlitz. "The goal is to reach 1,000 images by midnight on March 31!" says the Exposition Park science museum.

This isn't being done simply to cute-ify social media with snaps of wee slugs. Rather, the museum says that these photos help "...to accelarate our efforts to catalogue the biological diversity of terrestrial gastropods (land snails and slugs) around Southern California."

Also? There shall be prizes for some of the top photographs in different categories, including "Best snail/slug meme."

Best snail/slug meme. Welcome to 2017.

The Grand Prize is almost as awesome as traveling with your own personal shell: Lunch with Jann Vendetti, NHMLA Curator of Malacology, as well as one free annual family membership to the museum. (We mean, that's all extremely awesome, but, come on: Nothing beats your own personal back shell.)

There are other NHMLA-cool prizes, too.

Some "rare snails" were spotted by camera-wielding SoCalers in 2016, do note, and other nifty finds, too. Could you contribute the next photo that excites the snailologists of the world?

Okay, malacologist is the more accurate term, granted. But, still. You might just have a rare snail happily sliming about under your hydrangea bush and not even be aware.

Time to celebrate that lil' guy, and all of our local gastropods, by assuming the important role of citizen scientist.

Details? Slime this way, as slowly as you like, but keep in mind that the deadline for photos is March 31.

Published at 12:36 PM PST on Feb 21, 2017 | Updated at 12:46 PM PST on Feb 21, 2017

Continued here:

SnailBlitz 2017: Citizen Scientists Wanted - NBC Southern California

5495192

As the activist and their judges in the 9thCircuit Court wrestle with President Donald J. Trump over immigration and executive orders, one of the most dangerous mistakesconsistently being repeated by politicians and academics is still being overlooked. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) with real, recent operational experience are not consulted and detailed solutions are rarely considered.

Perhaps this is best exposedwhen considering the immigration screening issue. Call them immigrants, refugees or asylum seekers. it really doesnt matter because there is a breakdown of epic proportions when it comes to fingerprinting immigration applicants and collecting data of any type in their country of origin and uploading and running that data through the Department of Defense (DOD) secured data basis that contains information on an unknown number of dangerous people that have been caught and released in a war zone, or people that may be associated with them.

Currently in the United States there arehundreds ofongoing investigations of individuals that have come to the US (some as long as 10 years ago) that were originally caught by the DOD in the Middle East making bombs, planting IEDs etc. The DOD fingerprinted these individualsbut that information was neverput in databases that are shared with State Department or Border patrol. Because remote locationswhere immigrants are submitting their applications for admission into the US oftendo not offer the technologyto scan fingerprints or upload data, individuals are not fingerprinted in places like Djibouti whereindividuals from Somalia get screened when they seek to immigrate to the US.

Even in the places where immigrantsare fingerprinted, those prints are not uploaded to databases fora total and complete scanof their history. Even phone numbers are not beingrun properly through DODdatabases during this process they go unknown as well. Yet many immigrants are still put on a plane by our State Department and sent to the US.

When these immigrantsdoarrive in the USit is ensured that they are fingerprinted, but in most cases thoseprintsand other important dataare still not ranthrough the classified DOD databases.Yet the process continues and they are processed and cleared to enter into the US from whatever holding facility in which they arrive.

Interestingly, the one time when the DOD systems can be accessed isntuntil years laterwhen immigrants approach ICE to get benefits. That is apparently when information is finallyranthrough the DOD system.

Now, hundreds of cases are being investigated involving immigrants that have been residing inside the US for long periods of time (in some cases over 10 years) that areconnected to bombings and other crimes from war zones the Middle East. Their information had been collected by DOD operators in the field, and uploaded to DOD databases with no plan to share with other agencies.

There are more details to this story butit is problematic in that no one really knows exactly what is screened and at what point and it is a problem that has largely been overlooked, even by the current administration.If President Trumps administration concentrated on these types of details that subject matter experts working on the ground understand, these gaps could be closed and our immigration security could take a huge leap forward.

As a former FBI special agent, my investigative mind tells me these issues will continue to plague immigration screening because so much attention is being placed on executive orders and hiring more Customs Officers and not on these types of simple solutions.

The Devil is always in the details, thats why simple issues always cause such massive problems. Dont believe me? Just ask someone that is working at the ground level, like the policy makers should be doing!

See the rest here:

Breakdown In Immigration Screening: The Devil Is In The Details - Daily Caller

You know that PewDiePie guy youve been hearing about lately? I have a funny story about him.

I made this YouTube video back in 2012, wherein a bunch of us mocked PewDiePie using a satirical version of The Fine Bros. React videos. I made the centerpiece the fact that, back then, PewDiePie tended to use the word rape quite a bit.

Please note, as many get wrong, I dont think he was making rape jokes at all; it was just yelling the word more than anything. The video blew up a little and prompted him to make a specific apology video to his viewers.

PewDiePie has since actually turned over a new leaf. He had a video called Old vs. New PewDiePie in which he watched his old content and appeared to be a little surprised at his original self. In fact, he contacted me and we had a very cool email exchange, in which he said that my video led to him thinking more about the things he said and re-examine the kind of jokes he was making.

Wow! My trolly little video where I made trouble for a really big YouTuber although not quite the biggest, back then had inadvertently caused some self-reflection and ultimately some good in the world. Not a bad deal!

Well, thats my story. It was a little short for a Polygon article, but alls well that ends well and there has never been, nor will there ever be, any new developments there. Im positive of this fact. Not even gonna Google it.

Now to read my favorite newspaper, The Wall Street Journal ...

Well, instead of just deleting the previous few paragraphs, what say we just go ahead and write a whole article about this?

I go by slowbeef, and Ive been doing Lets Plays and related content since about 2007. Im certainly not rich off of, or successful from my videos, but I run in those circles because Ive been doing it for so long in addition to my day job. Some people even consider me a progenitor of it. I talk to a lot of the A-Listers the people whose names you know rather often and I have some insight into that world. I have one foot in the door, and see a lot of what goes on behind the scenes.

PewDiePie isnt remotely the only e-celebrity to have this sort of scandal, though most controversies tend to be a bit smaller in scope.

Did you ever hear about the streamer who got drunk and told her fans that kids getting cancer was just natural selection? Or the two YouTubers who conveniently forgot to tell their fans they were getting paid for their Ryse gameplay? Or that guy who got caught masturbating on camera during his pre-show? This stuff happens with regularity.

Allow me to extrapolate on a meme those kids today are using: Dude, you had one job. And it looked like a really easy one. Lets Players, streamers or content creators, whatever you like, get to play video games and make jokes while doing so. It seems like a dream gig, so why even risk these sort of gaffes? Why do people risk their jobs for jokes or mistakes that seem easy to avoid?

Well, its complicated. But there are three reasons this keeps happening.

Lets play (ha) a game you cant win. In the comments below, tell me how to get your videos featured, get your subscribers to watch videos or get your related videos in the related videos sidebar as opposed to some other person on YouTube.

Im not joking, go down and do this right now. The rest of the story will be here when you get back.

I can bet that some of you got it right, but the problem is that your answer will become wrong in the next month or so. Content producers get frustrated with the system because the rules keep changing; it always seems like the site is keen to promote someone else, and it can feel impossible to keep up.

For example: subscriber burn, which is a nefarious little side effect of not uploading a new video for a couple of weeks. The term was popularized by the Game Theory channel in 2014; your subscribers stop getting notified of your videos if they stop watching or you stop uploading. Going on vacation? Lets hope you got a backlog, because youll see a big drop in views if you take a week or two off. And they might not come back.

Heres another fun one. If you manage your YouTube settings as a viewer, youll see the selected default option is occasionally notify me of videos and activities from my subscriptions. Occasionally. A lot of viewers dont know this, but YouTube doesnt default to always showing you new videos from their favorite channels.

Youll frequently see uploaders complain that users suddenly get unsubscribed, certain videos no longer appear, or you have to explicitly check a whole new notification setting for some reason. As of this writing, theres a little bell icon next to the subscribe button. The button itself isnt enough to see videos of people to subscribe to, you need to hit the bell and tell YouTube to always send you notifications, the notifications they default you to only sometimes getting.

If this doesnt make much sense to you, you see what we deal with. Its constantly changing. Now, imagine your business hinges on all these random changes.

Most uploaders begin to believe they have to flood the site with videos for a chance one goes viral or to reach subscribers who arent notified or to make up for losing them. And the numbers do go up when you start to do that, leaving many to believe its the only reliable way to keep relevant.

You need ad revenue if you want to make a living talking over video games, which means views and that means uploads. Or at the very least, you need brand deals which means you need clout, which means you need subscribers, which means views, which again means uploads. Most pros create at least one video a day, and its a punishing schedule. Some create as many as three videos a day.

Protip: You can oversaturate your audience, so dont read this as, its good to upload 10 videos a day.

None of this is good for your mental health if you want to do this job or even come up with a standard workflow, which creates the next big problem.

Theres an apparent double standard, right? Comedians tell AIDS jokes, Holocaust jokes, 9/11 jokes and much more. When a popular YouTuber does it, its suddenly being reported by the media (and, cough, other YouTubers). Didnt George Carlin once say no topic is off limits?

Yeah. But like most comedians, he also spent a lot of his time writing those jokes, refining them, trying them in smaller clubs before his big venues, commiserating with his peers, etc. A secret of successful comedians is you dont just spit out jokes that come to you. You develop bits, callbacks, sets, etc. There are legit reasons that Louis CK, Sarah Silverman, and Jim Jefferies get away with questionable jokes and JohnnySephiroth315 doesnt.

Many YouTubers do some of this work, mind, but they also have to prep footage, record it, process it, do editing, transcode it, upload it, schedule it... there are many steps to take before the audience sees the content. And this has to happen, for most, at least once a day. On a platform that changes its rules on the fly, all the time.

Come on, you say. How much work can it be to make a ten-minute video? Try it. Speak about a topic you care about, and then edit out all the pauses and awkward moments but keep your flow. Aim for five minutes, if you like. If you want it to look good, you might have had to do a couple of takes, re-read your outline (you wrote one, right?), mull over editing decisions and make sure the sound is just as good as the video.

Its different for everyone, but there is no process in which you can do this well that doesnt eat up a lot of time and energy. Its a grueling job, especially when positivity is so often tied to success.

There isnt much time to mull over a joke, consult with colleagues, rewrite it, see how smaller audiences take it, and then tailor accordingly. Again, many of us want to have new content every day. The chance youre going to misread your audience and be punished for it goes up with every video you release in this environment. Watch the video below, and imagine having to do this for every joke, on every video for every day of your life.

PewDiePies now infamous sketch? Bit? You know, where he pays a couple of Indian kids on Fiverr ... eh, Im sure youve heard of it. There really is a joke there somewhere at Fiverrs expense, and I think thats what he was going for.

The parts are there, loosely, if you cock your head and squint a bit. Theres an air of exploitation (on Fiverrs part, but also often claimed to be on PewDiePies part) but it was a rush job. Seinfeld, in contrast, maps out goofy jokes about Pop Tarts down to the syllable.

PewDiePie ends up looking like the villain because he uses the old South Park haha anti-Semitism! routine, but the whole joke is malformed. People are quick to dismiss it as merely an edgy throwaway when it couldve been meant as a commentary on paid online services. But who can blame them? As it stands, the joke is really hard to read. It doesnt land cleanly at all.

You can actually imagine, if you like, PewDiePie doing a stand-up set and having comedian friends tell him at the bar that man, youve been leaning on the Nazi stuff a bit lately. Or an audience groaning at a smaller venue, which signals to him its time to do a rewrite. Thats why there are workshops, writing sessions and smaller venues and drinks with fellow comedians. You have to fail often when the stakes are low to learn how to get the big wins. Its a process.

Online personalities cant really know that theyve lost the goodwill of the audience, or that the material will gain mainstream anger if theyre famous, until its too late. Theyre already forming tomorrows video without even seeing the storm thats coming.

Even worse is that there is this air of everyone gets sooo offended and, while thats a whole different conversation, some people use the reverse-outrage to mask the fact that they fucked up a joke and have to pay a price. Or they blame others for pointing it out.

Its one of the cons of being an entertainer. But it all adds up to a firestorm thats always a spark away, no matter where you fall on the ultimate outcome. Come to think of it where was Disney and Maker and YouTube in all this? What the hell are they doing to manage their most popular asset?

One time, a much more successful friend, someone with over 500,000 subscribers, was going to be interviewed by a major television network. He spoke with me about it beforehand.

I warned him off the situation; it sounded like he was going to be sandbagged. He was adamant about the opportunity, and I turned out to be wrong. It also turned out I was one of the only people who were trying to offer an opinion on it.

This guy had tons of views and made a bunch of money; didnt anyone at his Multi-Channel Network, or MCN, know or care that he was gonna do this interview? Did they offer advice or prep him for challenging questions? Was there a conversation about avoiding sound bites that can be taken out of context?

Nope.

MCNs are agencies that partner with you, Maker Studios was PewDiePies MCN, and if youre someone big enough to be worth their time youll get brand deals and opportunities to work with others and increase your audience and revenue. They handle a lot of the backend stuff that most people dont think about when it comes to big entertainers.

The chance youre going to misread your audience and be punished for it goes up with every video you release in this environment

But if someone asks why they should give an MCN 10 percent of their revenue and theyre not a managed partner that means youre in a special relationship because youre big enough for them to really care there may not be much of an answer.

My MCN is typically pretty nice and in touch, but Im not managed and if I decide to do an interview or write this article a PR person wont notice or care. Im completely on my own when it comes to thinking about how my audience views me, for better or worse. I dont have a manager to call for advice, guidance or media training.

Surprisingly, this is also true of some of the biggest names in the business. I dont want to make it sound like MCNs do nothing, they are valuable business partners that make it easier to pay the bills, but they definitely dont curate your content. They dont tell their big talent to lay off the political posting, or dial it back on the hard stuff for a bit. Its all business, no grooming or advice.

I dont think this is due to apathy or greed. Im not sure they know how to handle these things either. I mean, even if youve worked in Hollywood or television, here comes a bunch of kids who get tons of ad revenue for screaming over video games. And heres another batch who pantomime being cartoonishly scared of the games. And heres a channel that comments on their commentary! Its baffling to people who dont like or understand it, so I think most business people dont want to touch the golden goose for fear itll stop laying eggs. They just know people are paying attention, and thats worth money.

PewDiePie is a bit anomalous among even the A-Listers, and consider this: part of his contract was that he retained full editorial control (in retrospect: maybe not a win), and Disney agreed to those terms.

Disney.

Jesus, do these italics slant any farther over? Disney! There is almost no other company more protective of its intellectual property or image, and they let a guy in his twenties with one of the largest audiences in the world say and do whatever he wanted under their umbrella. If you combine that with a contract that likely gave Disney a lot of easy ways to drop him if things went south, and you have a creator who is in a bad situation without any guidance from people who can help manage the situation.

Thats huge, and its also telling. It feels like Disney was thinking, Were not exactly sure what you do, or how it makes money, but it does, so lets partner and leave shit alone and hope it keeps making us money. But when you get in trouble, well, bye.

I think most business people dont want to touch the golden goose for fear itll stop laying eggs

Theres always someone else with a funny screen name and a million subscribers who can reach the same audience. But youd think this whole situation couldve been avoided if there were somebody checking in when the first few issues with the content begun. This controversy didnt happen all at once, there were plenty of chances for someone to step in and try to cool things down or provide help or advice when the media got involved.

Yes, real celebrities do mess up. But there are publicists and agencies that try to prevent this from happening and then help with damage control. YouTubers start their careers doing everything solo, get into the Ill take care of it all myself mentality, and MCNs dont seem super equipped to deal with the downsides to some of that.

So you end up with very famous and very rich (and often, very young) personalities with no one to help manage genuine crises. Which means the bad decisions continue.

On the surface, humor seems easy and I think people make the mistake of thinking it just comes naturally. People think Lets Play is just I get paid to play video games and talk?!

But creativity takes time and reflection and refinement and work. Content creators are in this system where theyre incentivized to pump it out faster and faster, which means a lot of jokes come out half-baked and rushed. Short-term controversies cause everyone to rush to make their own reaction video, which is the YouTube version of the hot take, or thinkpiece.

Eager to compete with each other, you get misleading titles and custom thumbnails its kinda clickbaity, really. Hell, even PewDiePie uploads daily despite the fact that hes on top and every publication in the world wont stop telling me how much he makes.

I dont think this system will be improved any time soon, but I would like to end on a positive note. If there is someone whos making the stuff you enjoy (and maybe that still is PewDiePie), find ways to contribute. If they have alternate payment systems like merchandise or Patreon, consider it so they dont have to play the ad revenue works in volume game. Support the people you like and boost their signal. Get them out of the realm where they need to make a video a day.

YouTube has a speed and quantity problem, and it affects all aspects of the business. If you are a content creator, take a little time with controversial stuff. It really is fun to make things, but irreverent, boundary-breaking stuff is high-risk/high-reward. Dont just spit it out: run things by friends and people not in the business. Test the tone before you go live. Sleep on it. That way, you too can be a successful celebrity with a long, stalwart career like Mel Gibson or Michael Richards, only with video games involved, somehow.

Sorry to end this early, but I have a video to upload. Later!

Michael Sawyer goes by the alias "slowbeef" and has been doing Let's Plays since 2005, despite being incredibly unsuccessful at them. He is a self-described video game humorist and is officially way too old to being doing that. You can find him on Twitter, Twitch or YouTube.

See original here:

The three reasons YouTubers keep imploding, from a YouTuber - Polygon

Boing Boing

How To Run A Rogue Government Twitter Account With An Anonymous Email Address And A Burner Phone UPROXX Keep in mind that this location is now tied to your burner phone, so you might wish to do this step when you're traveling in another city. Using Tor Browser, I navigated to ... Be careful about uploading photos for tweets or your profile. Photos often ... It's very hard to maintain an anonymous Twitter account that can withstand government-level attempts to de-anonymize itBoing Boing all 2 news articles »

Continue reading here:

How To Run A Rogue Government Twitter Account With An Anonymous Email Address And A Burner Phone - UPROXX