A proposal for Hot Pieces of Ace

[Vlad Drăculea]

It's been almost two weeks since RumbleRAWR's last log-in, and voting seems to have slowed down since this weekend, and I got to thinking. It seems unlikely, at this point, that she will return before we might lose momentum on the whole project, and I'm concerned that the people who submitted auditions might lose interest and move on to other things. So I have a few ideas about how we might address this situation until RumbleRAWR's return.

First of all, we'll have to decide on a final vote-tally date that's soon enough that we won't completely loose momentum. It could be either:

• As soon as we make up our minds (which is a bit arbitrary and could be a bit of a mess), or
  
• A future date, like this coming Saturday by, say, 11:59 p.m. PDT, and then someone would need to make a final call for votes, in the Announcements forum. If we choose this option, we might appeal to an administrator to close the poll at that time, rather than have people continue voting afterwards, and "muddifying" the results.
  

Next, we'd have to decide if we're going to pick the top 11 vote-getters, or, given RumbleRAWR's absence, take the top 12 vote-getters, with the understanding that the 12^th vote-getter could be a temporary stand-in, till RumbleRAWR's return. Right now, that might mean we'll need to have a runoff for the 12^th spot, since there are currently two people tied for that place (but that could change).

Then we'd need to decide what to do about the YouTube account, since we don't have the password (unless RumbleRAWR happened to confide in anyone here with it). I propose that we create a temporary YouTube account called something along the lines of "HotPiecesofAVEN", or "AVENsVloggers", or "AceVloggers", or – please someone come up with a better idea!!! – and ask subscribers to sub to both the new channel and the original channel, till RumbleRAWR returns and we can resume using the original one.

So, what do you all think? :)

[Guest member31022]

I like the idea of closing the poll, but how about we put a message devoted to it in announcements prior to closing it?

I don't think we need a 12th stand in, since 11 + 12 are alternates anyway, and it would just be confusing to do so to whoever we get to do it.

As for the youtube channel, I reckon we give it till the end of May, and if she's not back/given us a password, we open a new one in time for the first week after June 1st. This gives her plenty of time, but not too much that people get bored?

[kakkobean]

The end of May sounds good--a lot of people are either out of school by then or getting near the final stretch.

[swankivy]

I could get on board with the "end of May" idea, but it does kind of feel like it's already been forever. -_- How much time is "enough" time? I guess I have to admit that I am impatient and I want to make or at least watch vlogs YESTERDAY!!! There are already over 100 subscribers to the channel, indicating lots of interest for a place that has no content yet. I'm like, "Feed 'em!" I'm tired of waiting--more than half a month is forever in Internet years!

Also, the votes are also "muddified" beyond what they were supposed to be, as one of the last things RumbleRAWR said about this before going MIA was that voting should close over a week ago.

Also, as for a name for the channel, I recommend highly that we don't choose a different name; that we just call it HotPiecesofAce2 or II so it will be very clear that there is a HotPiecesofAce the First. The new videos can be incorporated into the old channel as soon as RumbleRAWR comes back if she so chooses! The new channel rep might make an additional video response to be seen on the original channel to explain it to people, since that's the closest we can get (without being able to edit the channel) to adding content where people will see it. (It will probably start showing up in related videos if we name it something so close, so people will notice.)

And yes, the original idea was to have ten main vloggers, using the 11th and 12th place people to sub for "regulars" if they were unavailable I think. I don't want to seize the reins of someone else's project idea, of course, but perhaps since we don't know exactly what she intended to do, anyone who auditioned by the original due date and is still paying attention could make videos to fill the void? I'd love to start making videos as early as next week (though I certainly understand if more people would rather wait 'til the end of May; it's just that since no matter what we do it isn't official, I wanna get started!). I think if we spearheaded this, contributors and viewers alike would jump on the bandwagon.

Questions/Suggestions:

1. A few auditioners are mods here; does any one of them want to step forward and create/take ownership of a temp channel? That seems natural (though RumbleRAWR isn't a mod), but if not, does another person very familiar with YouTube or AVEN feel comfortable filling in? I looked at the contributors' channels and saw, almost exclusively, people who have only one upload with their audition vlog (or at least no or very little other personal content), though that may be skewed since others may have done what I did (I created channel swankivyToo just for the vlogs, but have a lot of content on channel swankivy). If no one else wants to do it, I even could, but I have never run a collab channel before, and a mod might be a better choice. -_-

2. Do you guys think we should avoid setting a permanent schedule until RumbleRAWR comes back? I could kinda go either way on this, but I'm thinking a good way to do it might be the following procedure:

• Temporary channel owner assigns a topic the week before (I think there's a Facebook collection of topics?)
  
• Temporary channel owner contacts all contributors to announce the topic of the week and the date range, Monday through Friday or Sunday through Saturday (?), requesting any contributions on that topic to be recorded and posted between those dates
  
• All contributors make videos willy-nilly on their own preferred days
  
• PROFIT!!!
  

3. The new channel should have a very clear message about being temporary and "politely hijacked with the best of intentions" in its description. If RumbleRAWR has better/different ideas about how it should be run when she returns, we would of course defer to her, but do you guys think it might be best to just launch without any kind of "official" day assignments or permanent contributors? Twenty people auditioned during the allotted time, but when it comes to actually MAKING videos, it might actually be very useful to RumbleRAWR to see which of us--regardless of popularity in the poll--actually come through with creating content. It might help her make a final decision of who she invites to the final channel when it debuts.

4. I think the temporary new channel supervisor should assign topics from the already-suggested list but make an executive decision, because "hey let's vote on what we should talk about each and every week!" sounds like it would be messy, inconsistent, and difficult to manage. A large list has already been contributed, and based on comments from viewers or trends on the forums, it'd be easy to just pick a topic and tell everyone to talk about it.

5. I think the temporary new channel supervisor should find out from each prospective contributor what their preferred method of communication is (e-mail, AVEN private message, YouTube message) so that we'd know the assignment is being read and received. I don't think agreement along the lines of "Okay, I'll vlog about this on Thursday!" is necessary; we'll just do it, and if the content is a little uneven at first (or even regularly), I don't see how that's a problem since the content is available anytime a viewer logs in regardless of when it is actually posted.

6. Do you agree with me that a good first topic would involve introducing ourselves and giving our vital stats (including a/sexual/romantic orientation), our "story" about how we discovered we were asexual or why we use the term, and what's cool/unique/important about us besides being asexual? "Meet your ace vloggers" if you will?

7. We should also have a video title convention, so that it'll be consistent and easy to find the videos by topic and date and viewers have an easy time organizing the content. Everyone named their audition something different, and I think if everyone named their video for the week the same thing with their username tacked on the end, it'd make consumption more user-friendly.

The candidates seem to stay in basically the same positions. Voting continues and probably will continue, but it seems like what's happening is they're voting for the same people, not really changing the balance much. Currently, we have GoAllyGoGo (1st), CaleCaesar (2nd), beyondweird13 (3rd), AereAce / AimsaysHmmm (tied 4th and 5th), BlueCerinthe (6th), Merrymer (7th), Categorey (8th), and swankivyToo (9th, yay me!) and Otherness / sciatrix tied at 10th. If those last two are technically 10th and 11th, we have Cehrazad and irinakettles for tied for 12th. [This is edited to reflect voting since I first wrote it.] Does anyone have a problem with the idea that people lower down on the list could still contribute right now? I think it'd be awesome, and plus there's always a chance some of the elected top 10 might not regularly "show up to work" so to speak. (beyondweird doesn't like this idea and after hearing her reasoning I agree, so I crossed it out.) (Also, any opinion on people who missed the deadline altogether, since there were a few late auditions? I have reservations about that since showing up late to the party on a weekly basis would mean they'd miss the topic, but the late auditions don't necessarily mean the people behind them wouldn't be punctual from now on. Thoughts?)

I propose that everyone involved a) watch/subscribe to this thread for news; b) gets contacted by the temp channel owner (once we elect one) either through YouTube names and/or AVEN messages if their AVEN identity exists or is known; and c) responds with a tip on their preferred method of contact (as well as confirming that they plan to participate).

WHAT SAY YOU?!

[Guest member31022]

I could get on board with the "end of May" idea, but it does kind of feel like it's already been forever. -_- How much time is "enough" time? I guess I have to admit that I am impatient and I want to make or at least watch vlogs YESTERDAY!!! There are already over 100 subscribers to the channel, indicating lots of interest for a place that has no content yet. I'm like, "Feed 'em!" I'm tired of waiting--more than half a month is forever in Internet years!

I figured the end of May because then we can leave another week open for voting, which'll take us to the 22nd, then a week to work out logistics such as order of vids, topic, etc, and then If we began on Monday 31st of May it's plenty of time for us to wait, but the right amount of time to get organised (I think).

Also, as for a name for the channel, I recommend highly that we don't choose a different name; that we just call it HotPiecesofAce2 or II so it will be very clear that there is a HotPiecesofAce the First. The new videos can be incorporated into the old channel as soon as RumbleRAWR comes back if she so chooses! The new channel rep might make an additional video response to be seen on the original channel to explain it to people, since that's the closest we can get (without being able to edit the channel) to adding content where people will see it. (It will probably start showing up in related videos if we name it something so close, so people will notice.)

I like that idea :)

And yes, the original idea was to have ten main vloggers, using the 11th and 12th place people to sub for "regulars" if they were unavailable I think. I don't want to seize the reins of someone else's project idea, of course, but perhaps since we don't know exactly what she intended to do, anyone who auditioned by the original due date and is still paying attention could make videos to fill the void? I'd love to start making videos as early as next week (though I certainly understand if more people would rather wait 'til the end of May; it's just that since no matter what we do it isn't official, I wanna get started!). I think if we spearheaded this, contributors and viewers alike would jump on the bandwagon.

I'm not so keen on this, because 12 is already a LOT of people, and therefore if we had any more it could get really messy, and if we have too much going on, people won't watch it. It also seems to render the idea of auditioning a bit pointless. HOWEVER...if there is any of the top 11 (we may as well keep the 12th open for a lil while for if she comes back) who don't submit videos in say, a fortnight, we could then go to the next people down on the poll to replace them?

2. Do you guys think we should avoid setting a permanent schedule until RumbleRAWR comes back? I could kinda go either way on this, but I'm thinking a good way to do it might be the following procedure:

• Temporary channel owner assigns a topic the week before (I think there's a Facebook collection of topics?)
  
• Temporary channel owner contacts all contributors to announce the topic of the week and the date range, Monday through Friday or Sunday through Saturday (?), requesting any contributions on that topic to be recorded and posted between those dates
  
• All contributors make videos willy-nilly on their own preferred days
  
• PROFIT!!!
  

The first point yes. However, I reckon we should set an order, because we may as well, since people already have their preferred days, and it would make it easier to switch to the other channel anyway. Also, I think the aim was Monday to Friday, or Monday to Saturday if we were having 11 and 12 not as alternates, and again, if it was preferred days, I think it would end up messy and put off viewers. I also think there'd be an influx of videos on Thurs/Fri and not many on Monday. So yes, order is good in my opinion.

3. The new channel should have a very clear message about being temporary and "politely hijacked with the best of intentions" in its description. If RumbleRAWR has better/different ideas about how it should be run when she returns, we would of course defer to her, but do you guys think it might be best to just launch without any kind of "official" day assignments or permanent contributors? Twenty people auditioned during the allotted time, but when it comes to actually MAKING videos, it might actually be very useful to RumbleRAWR to see which of us--regardless of popularity in the poll--actually come through with creating content. It might help her make a final decision of who she invites to the final channel when it debuts.

See above points on why I think sticking to the poll people (unless one of them doesn't appear) and having an order are good things.

4. I think the temporary new channel supervisor should assign topics from the already-suggested list but make an executive decision, because "hey let's vote on what we should talk about each and every week!" sounds like it would be messy, inconsistent, and difficult to manage. A large list has already been contributed, and based on comments from viewers or trends on the forums, it'd be easy to just pick a topic and tell everyone to talk about it.

I'm just going to leave the facebook board open, and people can post on there/send me suggestions to its twitter @HotPiecesofAce or post on the youtube topics, and then people can pick from the suggestions.

6. Do you agree with me that a good first topic would involve introducing ourselves and giving our vital stats (including a/sexual/romantic orientation), our "story" about how we discovered we were asexual or why we use the term, and what's cool/unique/important about us besides being asexual? "Meet your ace vloggers" if you will?

Indeed I do!

7. We should also have a video title convention, so that it'll be consistent and easy to find the videos by topic and date and viewers have an easy time organizing the content. Everyone named their audition something different, and I think if everyone named their video for the week the same thing with their username tacked on the end, it'd make consumption more user-friendly.

Good idea!

[Sciatrix]

I don't know about waiting until the end of May--I share swankivy's worry that interest will die down if we wait too long, for one thing, and I'd rather pick up our momentum and go while we can. I wouldn't mind finalizing who is doing what job on the 22nd, though. A suggestion until RumbleRAWR comes back--since the 10th and 11th were supposed to be alternates anyway, why not simply install the 10th as a temporary "regular" contributor and bump them back down to an alternate if RumbleRAWR returns? As I understand it, that was the point of having alternates to begin with, yes?

On the other hand, if any of the contributors have lost interest, pulling in someone from later on down the line or even a later audition is probably a good idea. (I know that when I auditioned, I spent a lot of time worrying about whether I should do it and considering my options. I suspect that there were a lot of other people who felt similarly, and I think that's probably more of a reason for late auditions than anything.) We could hold a secondary poll for that, or we could just run down the line of the current poll and ask people who scored lower if they're still interested.

[------]

I say we hack.

[swankivy]

I figured the end of May because then we can leave another week open for voting, which'll take us to the 22nd, then a week to work out logistics such as order of vids, topic, etc, and then If we began on Monday 31st of May it's plenty of time for us to wait, but the right amount of time to get organised (I think).

I guess I'm just not a big fan of leaving the voting open even longer, since originally RumbleRAWR intended to close it like the Friday before last. I was happy at the end of Friday when I was in a tie for tenth place--like I am now [edit: I went up to 9th since]--but as the next week wore on and I lost some ground, I was wondering if the new votes "counted." It seems incongruous if we are going by the original audition date as for whose auditions we'll consider, but are leaving the voting open significantly longer than she intended.

I like that idea :)

Great! And may I just add that YouTube is very good at associating things together if they have similar names, so that's why I wanted it to be nearly identical. :D

I'm not so keen on this, because 12 is already a LOT of people, and therefore if we had any more it could get really messy, and if we have too much going on, people won't watch it. It also seems to render the idea of auditioning a bit pointless. HOWEVER...if there is any of the top 11 (we may as well keep the 12th open for a lil while for if she comes back) who don't submit videos in say, a fortnight, we could then go to the next people down on the poll to replace them?

Yeah, I've actually said I thought 12 was a lot too, but I only suggested it because the new channel would be unofficial. I think you're right that maybe we should just keep to what the voters elected since a good goal is trying to execute this as close as we can to what RumbleRAWR would have done (and if she opened voting in the first place, she wanted it done democratically!).

reckon we should set an order, because we may as well, since people already have their preferred days, and it would make it easier to switch to the other channel anyway. Also, I think the aim was Monday to Friday, or Monday to Saturday if we were having 11 and 12 not as alternates, and again, if it was preferred days, I think it would end up messy and put off viewers. I also think there'd be an influx of videos on Thurs/Fri and not many on Monday. So yes, order is good in my opinion.

This is true, though I guess I'm just not one of those people who is irritated by channels having less order. Being dependable and consistent and predictable as far as ability to generate content is a very good thing. Maybe if a topic is assigned the week before, the channel creator can send a message to all the people who are expected to make videos, and if they do not get a response along the lines of "Yes my video for such and such will be up on this day" by the weekend, we can assign it to an alternate. Also, right now the top 12 is actually a top 13 because 12th place is a tie, so I dunno who we'd assign it to if the 11th place person couldn't pick up every dropped shift.

Though actually I guess most people procrastinate, I had thought it might be the other way--people making a lot of videos at first and it slowing to a trickle at the end! (But maybe that's partly because one of my preferred days is Monday, and I would be more of the opinion that I "get to" make a video rather than "have to." Even things we want to do get put off, though, so you're probably right!)

I'm just going to leave the facebook board open, and people can post on there/send me suggestions to its twitter @HotPiecesofAce or post on the youtube topics, and then people can pick from the suggestions.

This is great, though I haven't actually seen the format over there; how are people choosing their favorite suggestions? I just wouldn't want people to be confused about how we get our next topic for certain, though my original suggestion was that we DO use this lovely Facebook board as the idea pool; I'd just want the topic to be assigned and assured before the next week of vlogging starts.

I don't know about waiting until the end of May--I share swankivy's worry that interest will die down if we wait too long, for one thing, and I'd rather pick up our momentum and go while we can. I wouldn't mind finalizing who is doing what job on the 22nd, though.

I think maybe what we should do is track down the top 10 (since they're probably NOT all reading this thread; maybe mail 'em through YouTube), make sure they're still up for it, finalize which day will be theirs based on their auditions, and get goin'.

A suggestion until RumbleRAWR comes back--since the 10th and 11th were supposed to be alternates anyway, why not simply install the 10th as a temporary "regular" contributor and bump them back down to an alternate if RumbleRAWR returns?

That's probably our best bet, though right now there's a tie for tenth so I don't know who'd be "demoted" at that point. I hate to sound pessimistic, but maybe that won't be an issue since it's very possible someone else on the list, even if they're popular, might not end up dependably doing vlogs. We shall see!

On the other hand, if any of the contributors have lost interest, pulling in someone from later on down the line or even a later audition is probably a good idea. . . . We could hold a secondary poll for that, or we could just run down the line of the current poll and ask people who scored lower if they're still interested.

Awesome idea, though I think using the current poll is fine because it does take a while to set up a poll and then get a bunch of people to notice it and vote. And if anyone is really bummed out about not being on this channel or doesn't like how this one handles things, it's not like HotPiecesOfAce has to be the only asexual vlog channel out there! Maybe it'll start a trend. . . .

[Guest member31022]

I guess I'm just not a big fan of leaving the voting open even longer, since originally RumbleRAWR intended to close it like the Friday before last. I was happy at the end of Friday when I was in a tie for tenth place--like I am now--but as the next week wore on and I lost some ground, I was wondering if the new votes "counted." It seems incongruous if we are going by the original audition date as for whose auditions we'll consider, but are leaving the voting open significantly longer than she intended.

The only reason I figured we could leave it open a bit longer is because we need a cut-off point somewhere, and it needs to be one everyone decides, so a week gives time to get it sorted (because anytime before it's officially closed by mods, it doesn't seem fair to exclude votes).

This is great, though I haven't actually seen the format over there; how are people choosing their favorite suggestions? I just wouldn't want people to be confused about how we get our next topic for certain, though my original suggestion was that we DO use this lovely Facebook board as the idea pool; I'd just want the topic to be assigned and assured before the next week of vlogging starts.

It's basically just a bit thread of suggestions, which hasn't been active in a while, but may pick up again when it starts up.

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=116031568420155&topic=46

If I get anything via twitter, I can add it via there, and we can request in the vids that people put their suggestions on that board? So it's all in one place.

Basically, I'd say whoever is 'in charge' picks a topic from that board. That way, it's a suggestion-based thing, but not a voting and confusing one :)

[swankivy]

The only reason I figured we could leave it open a bit longer is because we need a cut-off point somewhere, and it needs to be one everyone decides, so a week gives time to get it sorted (because anytime before it's officially closed by mods, it doesn't seem fair to exclude votes).

Oh, I understand that--just don't want it to get stale. We've tried to get interest going several times for this, and there's only so many times we can keep poking people saying hey, didja vote yet? . . . didja? how 'bout now?? before they get sick of it. :) I don't have a problem with Friday either, except that I hope I don't fall off the list!

Basically, I'd say whoever is 'in charge' picks a topic from that board. That way, it's a suggestion-based thing, but not a voting and confusing one :)

Yay, that is EXACTLY what I wanted too! There needs to be a centralized place to have an idea farm and it's fine with me if it's the Facebook group (and I should probably go join it, too!), but I think it'd be extremely messy if every single week we had to democratically choose a topic we all agree on and round up votes before any of us knew what we'd be vlogging about. Having it set up so anyone can suggest and be considered for a topic is perfect.

But of course for this to work we do need to figure out who's going to champion the temp channel itself, so I hope more people who are interested in this end up weighing in with their suggestions and opinions besides, you know, us. As I said above I'd be willing to make and manage the temp channel, but I don't want anyone to feel like I ran in and stole the channel or something. I'd only want to handle it if people were comfortable with it and nobody else really wanted to do it. If someone with more experience herding cats or modding AVEN steps up and volunteers, that might be better. Because even though I've probably made more asexuality-related videos on YouTube than anyone I can think of, I only recently joined AVEN. (Then again, it's a YouTube channel, not an AVEN channel, so it's not as though AVEN membership or familiarity would be required necessarily. . . . )

[Vlad Drăculea]

Okay, I've gone ahead and created the new YouTube channel HotPiecesofAce2 and associated it with the original HotPiecesofAce as best I could through tag words and creating a playlist of the original call for auditions followed by the 20 auditions that came in by May 1st, on which we've been voting. I've also made the new channel a subscriber to RumbleRAWR's personal channel, as well as to the original HotPiecesofAce channel.

The next thing is to send PMs to everyone whose auditions we've been voting on, like swankivy was saying, and then send PMs to all the original channel's subscribers, asking them to subscribe to the new channel, all 125 of them, and counting. Since I don't have a life ;) I'll volunteer to do that, but I'd love it if someone else would come up with a wording that I can past into each message.

Also, it would be great to have someone make a welcome video, since I've never done that. It doesn't have to be any one of us on camera, but could just be words on a screen, like the original call for auditions (white letters on a purple background). Otherwise, we're stuck with the original HotPiecesofAce call for auditions itself as our default video, which autoplays despite my best efforts to stop it from doing that (aurgh!), and I'm afraid this will create confusion. I'd rather not write to the subscribers of the original channel till we have something up on the new channel that we can set at the "featured video".

After all that is done, I'm happy to run this channel for now, since I have time and I'd like the challenge of herding cats. :lol:

[Sciatrix]

How about something like

"Dear HotPiecesofAce subscribers,

Due to a staff issue we've been having, HotPiecesofAce is temporarily being relocated to a new channel, (HotPiecesofAce2). Once this issue is resolved, HotPiecesofAce will be resuming on its original channel and all content from the temporary channel will be transferred back there. However, until this happens, please subscribe to (HotPiecesofAce2) for new content for the time being. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,

The HotPiecesofAce team."

Would that do for the mass PMs for subscribers?

A suggestion until RumbleRAWR comes back--since the 10th and 11th were supposed to be alternates anyway, why not simply install the 10th as a temporary "regular" contributor and bump them back down to an alternate if RumbleRAWR returns?

That's probably our best bet, though right now there's a tie for tenth so I don't know who'd be "demoted" at that point. I hate to sound pessimistic, but maybe that won't be an issue since it's very possible someone else on the list, even if they're popular, might not end up dependably doing vlogs. We shall see!

That's a good point, although it's more a problem of who gets temporarily promoted rather than who gets "demoted" when RumbleRAWR returns. I suppose we could do another quick vote-off to see? (I'm currently one of those tied for tenth, so I rather have a vested interest in that!)

On the other hand, if any of the contributors have lost interest, pulling in someone from later on down the line or even a later audition is probably a good idea. . . . We could hold a secondary poll for that, or we could just run down the line of the current poll and ask people who scored lower if they're still interested.

Awesome idea, though I think using the current poll is fine because it does take a while to set up a poll and then get a bunch of people to notice it and vote. And if anyone is really bummed out about not being on this channel or doesn't like how this one handles things, it's not like HotPiecesOfAce has to be the only asexual vlog channel out there! Maybe it'll start a trend. . . .

Yeah, the only reason I would consider doing a new poll would be to allow new auditions to come in. For workability, though, using the old poll would definitely be much easier.

[Vlad Drăculea]

How about something like

"Dear HotPiecesofAce subscribers,

Due to a staff issue we've been having, HotPiecesofAce is temporarily being relocated to a new channel, (HotPiecesofAce2). Once this issue is resolved, HotPiecesofAce will be resuming on its original channel and all content from the temporary channel will be transferred back there. However, until this happens, please subscribe to (HotPiecesofAce2) for new content for the time being. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Sincerely,

The HotPiecesofAce team."

Would that do for the mass PMs for subscribers?

Thank you very much, Sciatrix; this is great! :D

I hate to sound pessimistic, but maybe that won't be an issue since it's very possible someone else on the list, even if they're popular, might not end up dependably doing vlogs. We shall see!

That's a good point, although it's more a problem of who gets temporarily promoted rather than who gets "demoted" when RumbleRAWR returns. I suppose we could do another quick vote-off to see? (I'm currently one of those tied for tenth, so I rather have a vested interest in that!)

Well, ehem, er, I have to admit, here, that I really wanted Otherness to get enough votes to get into the top 9, because he's one of only three men in the top 11, he's one of only two gays (the other being me, and I'm only mostly gay), he's the only "grey-A", and he's one of only four people not either from, or living in, the U.S. (he from Poland).

Likewise, if I were acting as "High Muckitymuck Channel Moderator" ;) and I were I making choices about who would get regular spots, I would have ended up choosing irinakettles over Cehrazad for the 12^th place, and I would have given her a regular position, rather than making her an alternate, simply because, not only is she not from the U.S., but she is the only one likely still to be in high school (though, for all I know, she might be graduating this spring).

Also, it is good to keep in mind that there are other tasks involved in making this project go besides making the vlogs, themselves: editing subtitles, creating transcripts, dealing with fan/hate mail, writing/posting bulletins to subscribers, maintaining weekly playlists, pimping the channel on Facebook and Twitter, etc., etc. If I weren't the only one in her 40s and one of only a few who have admitted to living with disabilities (I may be wrong about that: I may be the only one :(), I would offer to be an alternate, myself, and do some of this behind the scenes stuff when I'm not filling in for someone else. I might still consider being an alternate, anyway, given that I'm so "out there". ;) :D

[Sciatrix]

With respect, if you wanted to base the selections of the contributors primarily on diversity and not on popularity within the AVEN community, you needed to make that clear when you made the original post, and you probably should not have chosen to use a poll to determine which of the auditioners was selected. I know you want to emphasize the diversity of the movement, but have you considered that telling people "you're not really diverse enough to be part of this" is probably not a good idea if you want to encourage participation?

None of this is a comment against Otherness. I voted for him myself, and for many of the same reasons you have, and if I end up an alternate or not a contributor at all, I will step back and support those who are chosen. I want to be a part of this, and if I am not voted for, that is fine and I will look for alternate ways to help--but I do not want to be told to sit back and work in the background because my face will not provide as inherent a defense against sexual people looking to find fault with asexuality as you had hoped.

(My status re: disability is complicated, but I am autistic.)

[ThePieMaker]

Hmmm... is it just me or is this getting a little overcomplicated?

[swankivy]

Okay, I've gone ahead and created the new YouTube channel HotPiecesofAce2 and associated it with the original HotPiecesofAce as best I could

Okee, great. People haven't had very long to see this thread--if they didn't log on today this'll kind of be a shock to them if they had had any intentions of stepping in--but to tell you the truth as long as it's centrally organized and supported by all involved, I'm happy with it!

The next thing is to send PMs to everyone whose auditions we've been voting on, like swankivy was saying

Yeah, see this is really important. Once we know which vloggers are going to be involved, we need to find out this stuff from each contributor:

1. Are you still interested in vlogging for HotPiecesofAce?
   
2. If so, based on your availability identified in your audition video, we'd like to assign you *insert day here*. Do you approve/can you still do this?
   
3. If yes to above, your topic is *insert topic here*. Please reply to acknowledge that you'll be making your assigned vlog! (I think it's logical to assume the first vid should be a "meet your ace vloggers" subject like I was saying above.)
   

Also, it would be great to have someone make a welcome video, since I've never done that. It doesn't have to be any one of us on camera, but could just be words on a screen, like the original call for auditions (white letters on a purple background).

Those are very easy to do with software I have, but I imagine a ton of other people could do it too. We should kick around a few ideas of what we want on the welcome video for brainstorming fun, though, and maybe aim to get it up after the voting closes?

I really wanted Otherness to get enough votes to get into the top 9, because . . . I would have ended up choosing irinakettles over Cehrazad for the 12^th place . . . because . . .

Hmm, well on this point I agree with Sciatrix:

With respect, if you wanted to base the selections of the contributors primarily on diversity and not on popularity within the AVEN community, you needed to make that clear when you made the original post, and you probably should not have chosen to use a poll to determine which of the auditioners was selected.

I'm on both sides of this discussion because it's true that democracy does not always result in the best representative sample of anything; voting invites a popularity contest, and while that's good because what's popular with voters is also popular with viewers, it will always have its down side. (And of course, Vlad didn't decide to use a poll originally because that was RumbleRAWR's idea, and I know nobody here wants to re-route her vision; we just want to continue it!)

Vlad and I were all about supporting older asexuals in the vlogging because we felt underrepresented and didn't want people to write asexuality off as something teens and college kids do before they find themselves (ugh, you know how the close-minded act!), but with only 12 vloggers we're going to necessarily ignore someone's perspective--not to mention on top of that we couldn't control who tried out and didn't have slots open for "x number of lesbians" and "x number of grays," etc. If it's democratic it's democratic, and that seems to be what we've got to stick to.

My advice would be for the elected vloggers to take inventory of what perspectives are not represented, and do their best to at least give a nod to the missing points of view if it is within their power. (An example in my own work would be when I spent most of a video explaining my motivation for not dating, but noting that many asexuals DO. I did that so people wouldn't get the idea that I was setting myself up as a representative for the general consensus on dating on behalf of all asexuals.)

All we can really do is hope the elected sample of asexual folks will do a good job covering as many bases as possible, and we'll also have to accept that some of our viewers will write us off as delusional and damaged and broken no matter how well we balance ourselves and how "otherwise" normal we look. I hope to at least have a decent balance between men/women, younger/older, romantic/aromantic, and folks from various countries, but in order to be collectively happy with what we get, we'll have to let our opinions of the best choices be voiced through our individual votes, and we'll just deal with the result when it arrives. I hope it works out for the best!

[Vlad Drăculea]

With respect, if you wanted to base the selections of the contributors primarily on diversity and not on popularity within the AVEN community, you needed to make that clear when you made the original post, and you probably should not have chosen to use a poll to determine which of the auditioners was selected. I know you want to emphasize the diversity of the movement, but have you considered that telling people "you're not really diverse enough to be part of this" is probably not a good idea if you want to encourage participation?

None of this is a comment against Otherness. I voted for him myself, and for many of the same reasons you have, and if I end up an alternate or not a contributor at all, I will step back and support those who are chosen. I want to be a part of this, and if I am not voted for, that is fine and I will look for alternate ways to help--but I do not want to be told to sit back and work in the background because my face will not provide as inherent a defense against sexual people looking to find fault with asexuality as you had hoped.

I really tried to use the subjunctive case to talk about this, so that everyone would understand that it was only hypothetical. I'm not RumbleRAWR. If I had started this project, you're right, I would have made it clear that any poll would only be advisory. It is likely that I would have said that the top twelve would be in, and then I would have engaged in some delicate diplomacy, to try and find out who – among over represented groups – would be willing to be alternates. Since, in reality, this is not my project, but our project, in fact I don't feel I have the right to say, all on my lonesome, what will happen, or who will get what position.

In my opinion, I think it wise to come to a consensus about what to do. And, Sci, in all fairness, a democratic vote between you and Otherness would not be fair. He's not an AVENite, whereas most of your friends on AVEN, undoubtedly, would vote for you. So, in my opinion, I think it would be better for the project if we, as a community, came to consensus about who gets the 10th place spot. In such a discussion, it is also highly likely that you could get the 10th place spot, but at least people would have to put their name (username) to their opinion, and they might think more carefully about who they ultimately support.

(My status re: disability is complicated, but I am autistic.)

Life with Autism is really hard, especially in situations like this one. I know how that feels. I didn't remember if you'd mentioned it in your audition, but if you did, I am sorry for not paying better attention. Anyhow, welcome to the club. :)

Hmmm... is it just me or is this getting a little overcomplicated?

Not really. :) Just a few accidentally ruffled feathers.

[ThePieMaker]

No, I really think this is getting ridiculous and the fun is being entirely sucked out. This is RumbleRAWR's project. Like... I think we can wait for her to come back. No matter what, when the channel gets going, we will get viewers. I don't see why we can't wait. This project is supposed to be fun and that's quickly going out the door.

[Sciatrix]

Swankivy:

And, you know, I have no problem with emphasizing diversity, or trying to get asexuals with a variety of points of view and experience elected. In fact, I think those are good goals, and I did actually myself vote based at least partially on trying to get a diverse "cast" for the channel. I don't even have any issue with arguing that we should be voting based on those ideas, and I certainly agree that we should identify the viewpoints we're missing and try to address them. (Race, for one thing. It hasn't escaped my notice that we're, in general, a pretty lily-white group of applicants. We also seem to be mostly cis, if I'm hearing correctly, so elected vloggers need to make an effort to incorporate trans and genderqueer perspectives. And so forth.)

What I have a problem with is someone who has just agreed to de facto take over the temporary channel stating personal preferences and singling out particular applicants and discussing why she wants one over the other. I think the process of choosing applicants could have been done as an autocracy (choosing applicants based on discussion among the community leader(s) in a private sphere, then announcing the "winners" as a fait accompli), or it could have been done as a democracy (the voting poll system we now have). Either would have been fine by me, as long as whichever choice was made early and stuck with. But saying "we're all going to vote who we like best" and then having a leader of the group publicly discuss which specific candidates they favor and why is really, really unprofessional for one, and for another it erases the entire point of having anonymous voting. You can't have it one way or another; you can have authority choosing candidates or you can have majority, but you can't have the authority trying to influence the majority without creating problems. Moreover, discussing specific candidates in public fora opens the door for hurt feelings and drama, and so probably we should stick to discussing preferences based on broad characteristics. Okay?

I hope everything works out for the best, too, and I'm confident that anyone who chooses to stick with the channel will provide good conversation on the chosen topics in the future.

[Sciatrix]

I really tried to use the subjunctive case to talk about this, so that everyone would understand that it was only hypothetical. I'm not RumbleRAWR. If I had started this project, you're right, I would have made it clear that any poll would only be advisory. It is likely that I would have said that the top twelve would be in, and then I would have engaged in some delicate diplomacy, to try and find out who – among over represented groups – would be willing to be alternates. Since, in reality, this is not my project, but our project, in fact I don't feel I have the right to say, all on my lonesome, what will happen, or who will get what position.

Okay, I get that a little more. I do think that you're definitely taking a pivotal role in it right now, even if you don't think of it as yours, and I think your spoken opinions definitely carry a lot of weight in the discussions thereof. Does that make sense?

In my opinion, I think it wise to come to a consensus about what to do. And, Sci, in all fairness, a democratic vote between you and Otherness would not be fair. He's not an AVENite, whereas most of your friends on AVEN, undoubtedly, would vote for you. So, in my opinion, I think it would be better for the project if we, as a community, came to consensus about who gets the 10th place spot. In such a discussion, it is also highly likely that you could get the 10th place spot, but at least people would have to put their name (username) to their opinion, and they might think more carefully about who they ultimately support.

Okay, see, I can understand that a little better, but I think in that case moving the vote to a Youtube-centered format (if one exists) would be a better option in order to eliminate some of the bias that exists towards me as an AVENite. That would also have the effect of allowing subscribers to the community to decide which audition they prefer, including those who are not active on AVEN and maybe don't know me as well. I actually prefer people being able to make their decision without having to put username to it, as a matter of fact; I think people who don't necessarily like me and especially those who maybe do like me as a person but who think Otherness is a better candidate are probably more likely to make their vote if they think I'm not going to see it. If I have an advantage of being a known quantity here, I think that moving the poll to a Youtube-centered format is more likely to put us both on a more even footing than making a discussion here.

(My status re: disability is complicated, but I am autistic.)

Life with Autism is really hard, especially in situations like this one. I know how that feels. I didn't remember if you'd mentioned it in your audition, but if you did, I am sorry for not paying better attention. Anyhow, welcome to the club. :)

I don't think I did, actually. My autism does inform some aspects of my asexuality, but I just wasn't thinking about it at the time I did my interview. To be honest, I was more than a little flustered when I did it, and I definitely was focusing entirely on my life within the framework of asexuality, not through the framework of other things that affect me.

Hmmm... is it just me or is this getting a little overcomplicated?

I'm not actually angry, for the record. And I want this project to go ahead. I know it's RumbleRAWR's, but zie hasn't seemed to be taking any interest in it or have the time for it lately and I confess, I want to start already! I tend to be anxious when things don't seem to be happening and worry that they're only going to stagnate if no motion is going on, so that's my bias out in the open.

[swankivy]

No, I really think this is getting ridiculous and the fun is being entirely sucked out. . . . This project is supposed to be fun and that's quickly going out the door.

Oh no! Well, I agree that the kerfluffle over who's doing what is confusing right now, but I think we can iron out kinks and then it will be simple enough to still have fun with it. I read through the original thread when everyone was deciding whether and how to have a YouTube collab channel in the first place (before I joined here!), and it looks like it was long and complex and back-and-forth too. I hope it'll still turn out and you'll still have fun! I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Swankivy:

And, you know, I have no problem with emphasizing diversity, or trying to get asexuals with a variety of points of view and experience elected. In fact, I think those are good goals, and I did actually myself vote based at least partially on trying to get a diverse "cast" for the channel. . . . Moreover, discussing specific candidates in public fora opens the door for hurt feelings and drama, and so probably we should stick to discussing preferences based on broad characteristics. Okay?

I just want to double check and make sure you knew I was agreeing with you above . . . ? Maybe I elaborated on the pluses of both sides (elected vs. appointed) a little too convincingly/verbosely and made it seem like I was either inconsistent or supporting an autocratically run channel in this case? I did point out the positives of the outlook I'm ultimately NOT in favor of, probably just because I want to admit I'm as guilty as anyone of championing a cause (in my case, wanting to see older asexuals in the vlogs). But I outlined that because I wanted to illustrate how every cause is important, and if we attend one cause we necessarily ignore other ones.

So I'll just be a little more explicit here and state for the record that I am supporting the democratic option, and I don't condone tiebreaker solutions being settled based on, heh, affirmative action if you will. (Actually I think if we have a tie we can just have one day with an extra vlogger, 'cause there's no fair way to settle it otherwise?)

I really need to talk less! ::makes a resolution to learn how to be concise::

[swankivy]

I know it's RumbleRAWR's, but zie hasn't seemed to be taking any interest in it or have the time for it lately and I confess, I want to start already! I tend to be anxious when things don't seem to be happening and worry that they're only going to stagnate if no motion is going on, so that's my bias out in the open.

Just as an added note about this in case anyone else didn't know--RumbleRAWR isn't absent because of taking no interest or not having time, FYI. This is the topic started by RumbleRAWR to explain the disappearance. It makes me sad. It also sounds like an iffy situation, and I hope she will come back soon to tell us in what capacity she can be involved with the channel, but parental smackdown might involve an indefinite future for her lead in this project.

[kakkobean]

Just for the record:

I'm still interested in this project, so I'll wait until whenever all the details are sorted out and we can get this thing started, regardless of whether or not I will be actively (that is, video) involved in the project. So. The PMing of other people who might not have gotten the memo to follow this thread is a good idea, otherwise they might not feel that their input is valued post-audition.

*wiggles fingers*

[swankivy]

The PMing of other people who might not have gotten the memo to follow this thread is a good idea, otherwise they might not feel that their input is valued post-audition.

Yeah, and I'd like to add that it was possible to find out about these auditions without being an AVEN member; I wasn't. (Joined post-audition, 'cause after a long time of not knowing what was going on with the fate of the channel, I thought I would find news about this and other important things easier if I joined. I came for the news and stayed for the awesome people and the ! At least one other person I know of in the auditions is not from AVEN.) So we can't assume that making an announcement here is enough.

[kakkobean]

The PMing of other people who might not have gotten the memo to follow this thread is a good idea, otherwise they might not feel that their input is valued post-audition.

Yeah, and I'd like to add that it was possible to find out about these auditions without being an AVEN member; I wasn't. (Joined post-audition, 'cause after a long time of not knowing what was going on with the fate of the channel, I thought I would find news about this and other important things easier if I joined. I came for the news and stayed for the awesome people and the ! At least one other person I know of in the auditions is not from AVEN.) So we can't assume that making an announcement here is enough.

So did a friend inform you, or did you learn from the livejournal community? I'm also on there, so we could make a post there on the updates for this channel--I know a few people who seemed very interested over there that would appreciate the info.

[Guest member31022]

I know one of the main worries is that the project will start to stagnate, but seeing as I'm running the facebook/twitter, I can tell you now that we're still getting an increase in fans of that, despite not having any vids up (I've tried to use the #asexymonday hashtag on twitter to it's full advantage). It's easy enough for me to post on there that it might take a little longer than expected due to one of the team's personal problems or something, and I know that I for one wouldn't mind if that was why it was taking so long.

The current top 11 is:

GoAllyGoGo 9.62%

CaleCaesar 9.18%

beyondweird13 8.89%

AimsaysHmmm 6.41%

AereAce 6.27%

BlueCerinthe 6.12%

Merrymer 5.69%

Categorey 5.54%

swankivyToo 4.81%

Otherness 4.66%

sciatrix 4.66%

So there's no longer a problem with ties, as the next two for 12th are tied, but that space will ideally be being left open for rumbleRAWR (that's Cehrazad and irinakettles).

It'd be easy enough to have it Monday to Saturday, have 12 daily vloggers, and then the next two down (Cehrazad and irinakettles) as alternates?

So we now have 3 boys, a few older ones, some young ones (you wanted a high schooler? I'm 19, not high school, but recently left and uni, and I think a couple of others may have been similar)

So that should stop the problem of 'diversity'.

I also don't think popularity in the AVEN community has made too big a difference - me and AereAce weren't particularly known on here at the time we auditioned.

But yeah, I really would like to give rumbleRAWR time to come back, because it's her baby, and she worked so hard to make it popular (the reason I set up the twitter account was to carry on promoting it on there, she'd got it mentioned on lots of sites via there). And people probably won't fall away, they'll be happy to wait as long as you give them reason :)

[Sciatrix]

I just want to double check and make sure you knew I was agreeing with you above . . . ? Maybe I elaborated on the pluses of both sides (elected vs. appointed) a little too convincingly/verbosely and made it seem like I was either inconsistent or supporting an autocratically run channel in this case? I did point out the positives of the outlook I'm ultimately NOT in favor of, probably just because I want to admit I'm as guilty as anyone of championing a cause (in my case, wanting to see older asexuals in the vlogs). But I outlined that because I wanted to illustrate how every cause is important, and if we attend one cause we necessarily ignore other ones.

So I'll just be a little more explicit here and state for the record that I am supporting the democratic option, and I don't condone tiebreaker solutions being settled based on, heh, affirmative action if you will. (Actually I think if we have a tie we can just have one day with an extra vlogger, 'cause there's no fair way to settle it otherwise?)

I really need to talk less! ::makes a resolution to learn how to be concise::

Oh, no, that's not your problem, that's mine. I was aware of the fact that you agreed with me--I was just using your post as a stepping stone to clarify why I had an issue with the original post and also attempting to elaborate on my own issues with the problem of choosing who becomes a contributor from the auditions. I actually see positives to both methods of choosing myself; the only thing I had a problem with was being inconsistent with the choice. Does that make sense? (You're not the only one who has some issues with verbosity!)

I also think I'm coming across, again, as much more angry and upset than I am, and I apologize for that in general to everyone. Seriously, not angry at anyone right now at all. Or upset.

I want to wait for RumbleRAWR too, but I'd feel a lot better about doing that if we'd heard from her. At the same time, I absolutely don't want to push her away or anything like that, which would be bad for a whole host of reasons. I haven't been keeping up as much with non-AVEN bases of discussion on this (or on the lj, actually, since I lurk there), but if you think that there isn't any loss of interest right now, beyondweird, I'm happy to sit back and see what happens.

[Guest RumbleRAWR]

DELETED.

[Guest RumbleRAWR]

DELETED.

[ThePieMaker]

I thought there was one particular person who auditioned who I am incredibly disappointed to not see on there. AimsaysHmmm was by far one of my favorites and she had the votes to support that. Her personality and she spoke well and also I thought her age was a nice factor too.

Also, I think Merrymer should be a regular as opposed to an alternate. The fact that she is a psychology student (or rather she actually just earned her undergrad degree in it) would bring a... sort of different spin to it. You know? I guess a more educated point of view on these things.

But those are just my opinions about it. Otherwise, I am completely and utterly honored and super humbled by this.