Long boring backstory:
I enjoy watching people play video games on YouTube. A while back, I discovered something rather unpleasant, though: one of my favorite YouTubers, Markiplier, is partnered with a group called Polaris.
Which is a branch of Maker Studios.
Which is a subsidiary of Disney.
Which means part of Markiplier's ad revenue, some creative control, and most likely a significant part of the rights to his videos and channel belong to Disney by proxy.
Does this change anything? Not really, no. Markiplier still makes a good living, living the YouTube dream no less. But it really irrationally bugged me.
I began poking around a bit more. Turns out a lot of the famous YouTubers (Markiplier, PewDiePie, Game Grumps, Dodger, The Yogscast, and CaptainSparklez, amongst others) are partnered with Polaris. Looking into alternatives, I saw the most obvious competitor: Machinima. Turns out they have a history of trapping people into neverending contracts and legally forcing their partners into submission. Not exactly a good choice (I don't actually have any interest in becoming a partner, but I was curious about what the rewards and consequences were).
'Well, why would anybody sign up for that?' I asked after the initial burst of 'wat' subsided. From what I can tell, it seems partners (not all of them, but the more well-known ones (who are also presumably treated better, contract-wise)) get a platform to stand on, monetary compensation based on the number of views they bring in, and (maybe, I'm not sure on this one) assistance in hosting panels and stuff at cons (I saw somewhere that Markiplier at least had a panel at PAX or something through Polaris). I'm sure there are others, and if anybody can point them out I'd greatly appreciate it.
I like the concepts of Kickstarter, Patreon, and Bandcamp. Sure, the people that run them profit off of them, but they're a means of directly supporting creators without going through a more corporate middle-man. I think that sort of idea can be applied to this.
Here's where the actual idea comes in:
What if there was a site that provided a platform similar to Polaris' or Machinima's, but was free to join, didn't claim rights to partners' videos, and didn't require a percentage of add revenue?
Channels (or independent websites) could be submitted and voted on by viewers. Once a channel has reached a certain number of upvotes, they enter a 'hall of fame' of sorts, where they're entitled to a more permanent position on the site (a specific set of pages for the hall of fame members, which would be more prominently displayed and promoted) and (this is more of a maybe, I haven't entirely thought it through) eligible for help in arranging stuff at cons and financial aid for transportation, which would be paid for from a war chest of donations (relying on goodwill of the community instead of leeching ad revenue).
For channels that haven't made it to the hall of fame (i.e. the vast majority of them) they can be found via searching (which obviously wouldn't be useful for bringing in new viewers) or from a variety of prominently displayed sections on the front page (like Kickstarter's Staff Picks and Popular things; a channel that had a sudden burst of upvotes might get on the 'What's Hot' section, a channel with a very high upvote:downvote ratio might get on the 'Cult Favorites' section; things like that). For each channel's page, the creator could describe the channel, put their best videos on display, link to all their social stuff, and so on.
To join, you wouldn't have to sign away any creative control or anything; the only limitations would be that you can't simultaneously be a partner with another site (like Machinima) and <whatever this site's name would be here> and that you can't post, like, a channel full of porn or something. Basic stuff like that.
Then I realized:
Wait a minute, I'm a web developer. That's literally my job. I could make this site.
So I'm just running this idea by all of you B12ers. I'm probably badly misinterpreting the benefits of being a Machinima partner and overlooking some really obvious stuff, but hopefully you guys can point out any gaping holes in the idea before I shout 'eureka' and charge of into the sunset to go build a half-baked site.
tl;dr:
I'm curious if a non-profit site that automated the process and benefits of partnering with Machinima would be a good idea.