The LCD Effect

This was written in early 2006, but not posted until January 2007. An interesting look back. Many of the items are still there, but instead of TV promos we get user-dubbed Anime with pop music. -arg

No, not Liquid Crystal Display, but Lowest Common Denominator.

You’ve seen it before: A secret little web site that offers a unique service. You like it, and maybe even tell a few friends. They tell a few more, and then it hits a blog agregator (boing, slashdot, etc…) and all hell breaks loose. Suddenly, this small site has many more users, each one trying to be the ‘big fish’ and make an impression in what was a small community. I have probably just described what has happened to some of the INternet’s best venues, but I am focusing on only one today, GBS.tv.

GBS.tv is an online video site with a difference. instead of making all of the video content available to everyone, all the time, members queue video clips for playing on a stream. It is a nice mix of video on demand (VOD) and TV broadcasting. And you know what, it worked for a while. At least until the LCD factor hit.

The emphasis on the site was ORIGINAL content. “Show the world what YOU produced” “We’re not MTV” and “Ebaumsworld.com sucks” were common threads for users on the site. GBS.TV was a decent concept which did actually generate end-user content (station promotion clips and some 3 minute pieces).

But then it happened. The LCD Effect. Users began uploading music videos, content downloaded from the Prelinger or INternet Archives, ripped from Google video, film101 and youtube.com. The queue list filled up with music video, bill nye the science guy, music video, music video, bill nye, interspersed with video of people playing video games (they call them speed runs) and television program introductions. GBS.tv had fallen into the trap of the LCD. How did this happen? A lack of ‘balls’ by the administrators and content approvers (moderators). They just didn’t say “NO” enough.