Dear bloggers;

A great first show

I should talk about my experience with hosting my first room; this was a fantastic experience, but only because I had such good people who joined the room.  Originally I went live just so chirpy and I could discuss something but we soon had our first guest 'talk.2.me'.  Soon more people joined and I know have some good people as new friends.

I have to say that the Lorielle New show had prepared me in more ways than I would have thought.  She has fantastic diction and almost never says umm or ehh, but what I think I gained the most from watching her was the ability to keep the flow going and try to repeat what was happening for the people who later might watch the archives.

It makes it easy to host a room when everyone participates and strives for the same goal--to have some fun.  I could list a whole lot of people to give thanks to but I'll just name two:  thank you chirpy for being an excellent moderator and providing that fantastic laugh and good naturedness; and my hats off to Fuego who can easily hold her own against a room full of randy guys.

There was some drama between people but that is indicative of real life; there will always be people who rub each other the wrong way.  Almost all the fighting was the friendly sort and fun in nature...I hope people come back when I decide to do this again.  That reminds me, people have asked how often I will do this.  I don't know but maybe twice a week or more?  If I gave a couple of hours notice would you come?  One thing I won't do is knowingly run my show at the same time as Lorielle New because I respect her too much to do that.  I want to also try to pick a time period where people aren't at work or is very late for them (as say, in Europe).

One last point is I don't believe a single person was banned or kicked, and we did have a troublemaker at one point but I think everyone in the room lashed out like sharks smelling blood, to make him leave on his own accord.  Well done group!

I have reviewed some of the video archives so that I can learn to be a better host, watch for any nervous ticks, ensure the flow is right and generally make sure that people watching the archives will understand what is happening so that they can feel they are part of the fun.  One thing I could do is put people in the big window more, as none of what they were saying was recorded.

Pet Peeve time 

I have submitted a bug report to LiveVideo but two problems are plaguing me.  If you are not aware of this, any archive video you have will automatically be deleted unless you click on the option to copy it to your video section.  Once you do this, LV copies the '.flv' (a Flash extension) over to your 'My Videos' then encodes the video.  I believe that this compresses it and changes it to a different extension?

At any rate, if the encoding fails then there is no way to go back to the file and select this 'Copy to My Videos' link again as the program removes it once it is copied over (even if the encoding fails).  You can delete the bad vido from your 'My Videos' section but it won't reset this feature.

Now what?  Well, you now have to download the file to your computer and upload it.  My problem is that I have done this ten or more times and it always fails the encoding.  I checked the help section and the system has no problem receiving ',flv' extensions.  I have also assumed that maybe when I downloaded the video archive, it somehow messed up.  I have re-downloaded it and tried to upload it numerous times.  I have also thought that to try doing this at non-peak times--four in the morning doesn't work, as doesn't morning nor afternoon...and I've already tryed many times during my after dinner hours.

Apparantly others have the same problem but no solution has ever been presented in the LV forum.  So my advise to you, if you have done a LiveShow and have archived material, is don't wait until the last minute to copy your treasures over to your video section.

Don't be afraid to add your comment as we could all learn from what you think and have to say.

SirRight

     They say that keeping a diary is good for the soul because it helps one to express deep personal thoughts to a medium vice having them bang around in the old noggin.  Even if no other person reads the entry, it still helps by releasing the pent up emotion, energy, worry, etc.  If you are reading this then maybe you'll see a little bit of yourself here as well, or at the very least you will gain some insight as to what makes me tick.

Be my friend

     I've noticed since joining LV that there are people who immediately jump on you to be their friend.  Also there are some who might stumble upon you for the same interests and also request to be your friend.  In real life, I have always been very careful who I call a friend; most people are acquaintances.  I want people on my friends list to be of special value so I have decided that I will only accept invitations for people who I have actually met and interacted with...gee, sorta like real life?  I won't deny the friends requests that I have received, but won't accept them until I actually meet them; anyone reading this probably has received the same friend requests from the same people.  Are you wrong to accept these requests because I don't?  Am I being stuffy and perhaps a bit paranoid or dramatic?  Good questions--each of us must walk our own path and this is what I have chosen to do.

Now the drama 

This has bothered me enough that I was inspired to share it here.  I am a little surprised at myself for allowing something so trivial to affect me so...but I trust my instincts and it is obvious that there is more importance to the following occurrence than maybe I was giving credit.  I firmly believe that we are here to learn, so maybe one of my boo boos has caused this and I need to step back and learn from it?  Okay...

To be fair, no names will be given; please don't ask.  As you previously have read, I place quite a bit of importance to who is on my friends list.  One person, also new to LV, wanted to get to know people and have a lot of friends.  She seemed to be a very good sort of person, therefore on my friends list she went.  We really didn't have a huge amount of interaction but I enjoyed reading her dialogues on things happening--recently she was on a trip.  She has a huge friends list (this is important to her and one of her goals), and while I was in a room chatting with people I received an email that stated I was no longer her friend.

Since her goal is to have as many friends as possible (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that...it is her path she has chosen), I was surprised to be given the boot.  I tried to send her an email to ask why I was no longer a friend, but she has the setting that only friends can send her emails.  It is easy to jump to the wrong, negative conclusions so I instead thought that maybe this was a slip of the finger; I have sent her a friends request but have not received a yea or nea (hmmmm kinda like what I am doing....perhaps a lesson there?).

Logic it out 

Everyone likes closure, it helps us to understand, accept and move on.  Unfortunately, I did not receive an email saying "I no longer want you as my friend because...", so I have to make assumptions.  In my experience the rumour mill type assumptions are usually worse than the truth, but I have to start somewhere:

-some factor has occurred that I have not considered
-this was just a slip and if I was patient, this would have been rectified in a short while
-she only wants to be involved with people who are more communicative.  This is unlikely because of the great number of friends she is acquiring, and I did send a comment to her site that stated "Welcome back", as she has just come back from a trip
-she has seen me interact on LV and just can't stand me.  I can accept this; just like in real life, some people just will not like you
-she has made a decision of me based on a third party.  If this is the case then I would lose a lot of respect for her.  I agree that forewarned is forearmed but one of my pet peeves has alsways been the sheep who are told who to like and dislike, and they immediately do what they are told....Baaaaaa.  I have always hated cliques, and I make decisions about people based on personal experiences....the exception of course would be extreme cases where it has been confirmed that the person is a murderer, child molester, that kind of thing.  Besides, it is too easy to be judgemental and I might find that the person someone else doesn't like, might turn out to be a real gem in my life.

Closure and lessons

     I admit it...I do feel better.  I may never know why, and that is fine but I think there is a lesson for all of us out there.  If you take someone off of your friends list, and it isn't obvious why, then consider at least communicating with them first.  This may alleviate a misconception before it gets out of control, and at the very least is the right and decent thing to do  But, you say, this might open up a flame-fest and I really don't like confrontation!  True, it could but...you haven't given the person credit for discussing or accepting your result in an adult manner.  As long as your case is properly transmitted (remove emotion, stick with the facts and allow them room to save face) then there shouldn't be a problem.  I find communication the cornerstone for all good relationships, but if they do come back all emotional and negative, or just aren't adult enough to accept your point of view, then you don't have to respond; cease all activity with them.  I also understand that 'C' type personalities dislike confrontation--perhaps Live Video is a safe way to enhance and enrich your negotiation/communicative/problem solving skills?

I'm not really looking for comments but of couse please feel free to respond.  Keep in mind that how you answer is also a window into your soul; I would find it interesting to see what effect (if any) I may have had on you, with my words.

SirRight