Sorry, meant to post this much earlier, but was sidetracked when I had to draft the following letter:
Dear Sir or Madam:
On or about July 19, 2009 a video of ours entitled “HiSpeedWAM Volume I Teaser”, located at URL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbrulLzWm18 was flagged as being inappropriate. It is our position that the video in question contains nothing more offensive than could be seen on any of the major television networks during prime time viewing hours. Therefore, within ten(10) business days, we expect one of the following to occur:
* An e-mail to be sent to the address in our letterhead (hswfilms@hispeedwam.com) stating the specific reason this video was flagged as inappropriate. (“Inappropriate content” is not specific enough and will not be accepted as a reason. We want to know precisely which content was deemed inappropriate when this video was reviewed as you claim it was.)
* The video in question to be un-flagged and the history of any member(s) who flagged this video reviewed for possible signs of unfair prejudice.
Thank you for giving this matter your prompt attention.
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Anyway...
We've just lowered our prices for DVDs and DVD+Downloads.
DVDs are now $15.95
DVD+DLs just $19.95!
This ain't no DVD your grandma could've burned! Our DVDs are professionally produced, complete with special features--like model interviews, multi-angle featurettes(which are a bitch to author), behind the scenes footage, and uncut scenes. Our DVDs are duplicated on high quality, name-brand media, labeled with LightScribe. We package them in standard Amaray-style keep cases! The inserts are printed by a company that prints them for actual movie DVDs that you might find at Blockbuster!
My goal in doing things this way was to make a DVD that wouldn't be hidden in the sock drawer, but displayed proudly on the shelf. Trying to do my part to bring WAM into the mainstream.
And so I'm making this offer once again, at these reduced prices. Anyone who has bought downloads from me can purchase the DVD for the price difference between your download purchase and the current DVD+DL Price (could be as little as $1.95, depending how many scenes you bought) PM or e-mail me for details.
Check out the pictures to see what you get when you order the DVD
Look at the burned side of the disc, that is one FULL DVD. If there was just a little more data, you could hardly handle the thing without causing playback errors.
It may be tricky to express, but I believe it would be a service to YouTube to alert them to a specific (and presumably very small) number of mentally ill individuals compulsively and deliberately abusing the flagging process. Clearly WAM content is being targeted with malice, clearly 90% of the videos they flag feature nothing remotely inappropriate, and clearly their abusive actions add unnecessarily to the workload of YouTube's staff.
Contributors complaining about unjustifiable flaggings while making that particular observation could be helpful by enabling YouTube to identify those abusers and take remedial action that, over the long term, would ultimately be less labor intensive than continuing to put each of their spiteful "cry wolf" moments into the queue eventually reviewed by overworked human screeners. I suspect each abuser hit with an effective ban would also be one less source of freakishly hostile comments. It may be wrong to feed trolls, but it surely is a wise measure to exile them.
