Sometimes I see good work on YouTube and would like to pay a little to the author, like I would do to good street artists. Just a tiny bit, as a token of my appreciation, in the hope that if many do the same it will generate some compensation for the time and love put into the work I get for free.
When I now show my appreciation by watching it and rating it, the work will get advertising around it (part of their business model, see "YouTube Elevates Most Popular Users to Partners"). I hate advertising. Advertising benefits third parties completely unrelated to the work I see, not my choice.
As I am already registered as a user on this website I could periodically buy a credit of 5€ or something. Each time I rate a video, a self set amount of cents go to the author of the work I just watched.
Currently I am hardly motivated to rate a video which already has a rating I agree with.
Fraud is not worthwhile, as you pay only by rating videos. If this exceeds your (tiny) credit or some set maximum (like what you can physically see) the site will ask you to come back tomorrow as there is apparently some robot taking over with your credit.
Extra privacy features make this interesting: you can give anonymously (similar to giving to a street artist), but you can also make it possible to share information about you to the receiver. Perhaps you only want to show only some demographical data, perhaps you are also open to communication, perhaps you show even your identity completely. If you are the person to set your ratings worth on several dollars you might get a thank you note...-- rrr, May 06 2007 YouTube Elevates Most Popular Users to Partners http://youtube.com/blog?entry=4b3PkL8HQcwmessage from YouTube Team May 03 2007 [rrr, May 06 2007] Natalie http://www.youtube....er/communitychannelA talented young English student from Australia on YouTube [rrr, May 06 2007] SeeMe TV http://www.three.co...p?cid=1139512467578Already being done by Three [DenholmRicshaw, May 06 2007] TipIt.to http://tipit.to/a similar idea, but not restricted to YouTube [rrr, Jun 03 2007] Funny, but I am in the process of baking a very similar concept. www.flyingcartelevision.com-- Galbinus_Caeli, May 06 2007 DenholmRicshaw, the service of Three you point to is different:
"Send us anything: dumb, freaky or just plain rude. You'll earn money every time someone watches your video on their handset. With millions of potential handset viewers, it all adds up."
What I propose is that each time I rate something, I pay. Not merely by watching it. That would prevent many from watching something. And I think it is the reason why such a service is doomed to fail. Vodafone also offered something like this a while ago, but it since disappeared from their site.-- rrr, May 07 2007 Fair point - I suppose you could watch the same video lots of times to achieve the same effect as rating it.
Three's motivation is that they receive most of the revenue and this gives them a reason to maintain a suitable site without the need for advertising.-- DenholmRicshaw, May 07 2007 It is apparently about to baked, but not restricted to YouTube videos only, but anyone could use this service on their site. See link.
The revenge on advertising I would say...-- rrr, Jun 03 2007 random, halfbakery