Brian Kameoka's blog

YouTube Decides for You: Always Show Captions

One of my duties as marketing coordinator for The Guild is to manage the show's YouTube channel.  On Friday I uploaded the first episode of Season 3 and added the English and Portuguese subtitles.  Everything seemed to go smoothly, but I noticed that the English subtitles seemed to be on by default, and I wondered if I had configured something wrong on the video or channel.  After some investigating, I discovered that this is not configured at the channel level, but at the individual user (viewer) level.

What's worse is it appears that YouTube has decided to default all users to "always show captions" as part of the new implementation of auto captions announced here. (link to YouTube blog post).

So, quick user tip, here's how to turn this off* (with screen shot below):

1. While logged in to your YouTube account, go to "account" (under your username)
2. In "Account Settings" scroll down to "Playback Setup"
3. Under "Captions" uncheck the "Always Show Captions" option
4. Hit the "Save Changes" button at the bottom

 

While this may only be a minor annoyance to the individual user, this decision by YouTube really affects content creators who are already using captioning.  The Guild has a large international following plus a significant number of deaf or hard of hearing fans who rely on the subtitles.  YouTube is great for sharing a show like The Guild worldwide, and because of the hard work of a lot of dedicated fan volunteers, the show is available subtitled in many languages.

However, the decision to set captions on by default without announcing it is effectively blindsiding users and content creators with a change in functionality.  While I applaud YouTube for having easy to use captioning capability, and believe the auto-captioning is a really cool development, this poor decision has made captions a sore subject and will potentially annoy many users.  The Guild has over 170,000 subscribers on its channel and we're now fielding tons of "why did you turn captions on?!" complaints in comments.  What's worse is that if a user is not logged in, the default is also to run captions.

Not cool, YouTube.  It would have helped if you had given users a heads up to this.

* Note that as of writing, I've turned this off on my personal account yet YouTube is still serving captions to me.

And, shout out & thanks to @worldofhiglet and @osiramon for replying to me on twitter when I first was trying to figure this out, and to @maxsummers, The Guild's translation coordinator.  Also, the amazing and brilliant Gina Trapani mentioned this issue on TWiG (I had emailed her suggesting this as a possible tip of the week).

Social Networking workshop w/League of Sacramento Theatres

Chris McSwain (Twitter: @ChrisMcSwain) and I are presenting a workshop on social networking next week for the League of Sacramento Theatres.  Space is limited, and the League is handling RSVP's, so if you're interested contact me and I'll put you in touch with the right person.

If you're not familiar with the League of Sacramento Theatres, check them out at SeeAPlay.com 

Social Networking on the Web 101
A League of Sacramento Theatres Marketing Workshop

Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogging and MySpace ... gibberish? confusing? a way to kill time online? Perhaps, but also a practically free way to engage current and potential audience members. The session will introduce various online social networking sites, talk about what works and doesn't work, and give tips on increasing the number of your fans, friends and followers. Learn innovative ways to entertain your audience and promote your productions on the Web. Bring your Internet success and horror stories to share.  Presented by Chris McSwain and Brian Kameoka on Monday, May 18 at 6:30 p.m.

 

Tweet This

Goodbye, Gorgeous!

I heard the other day via Twitter that Sony did not renew the fabulous web series Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show (GTCMS)- boo, Sony!  I'm sad to see it go, having enjoyed it from the beginning, but I'm excited to see what GTCMS creator Kim Evey (who I'm honored to call a longtime friend) will come up with next.  Congrats to Kim and all the GTCMS cast and crew for a great run - I believe this show will be remembered as one of the greats from the first wave of original web programming.  Oh, and I'm also rooting for Pogo Saito (also a friend) to win the art direction award at this year's First Annual Streamy Awards (list of nominees here).

To keep up with new stuff from Kim, I recommend following her on Twitter, and while you're at it, subscribing to the Youtube page of Mediocre Films.

There are so many great episodes of this show (if you like guest celebrities, check out these GTCMS episodes with Wil Wheaton, Adam Arkin and Ron Jeremy).  But I think my all time favorite is the very first episode: