

Blip.tv deletes Python content - ubernostrum
http://holdenweb.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/bliptv-deletes-python-content.html

======
wlesieutre
Maybe it's cynical of me, but this reads like an admission that the company is
failing and trying to cut costs to keep the lights on a bit longer. As a
content hosting company you don't irrevocably delete your customers' data
without warning and then expect "the best original web series" to rely on your
service.

Still, I'm a bit surprised that there was no offer to transition to a paid
tier or an opportunity to download your media first. Yes, the users should
have had local copies, but it's a fact of life that some people won't.

EDIT: I'm basing my assumption of no offer to download your content on of
Osvaldo Santana Neto's blog post comment. From jsdalton's HN comment[1] and
the replies to it, that may or may not be correct.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7008324](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7008324)

~~~
ubernostrum
As noted elsewhere, notification seems to have been the big issue. I've spoken
to some (reputable) people, who said that they basically just got lucky by
randomly logging in shortly before the big wipe happened, and seeing a "This
account is expiring" notice which gave them enough heads-up to grab copies if
they didn't have them already. They didn't receive emails or any other type of
off-site notification.

So someone who didn't log in to their blip account might well be totally
screwed, since they wouldn't have known they needed to make or check on their
backups.

~~~
durin42
For Adium we got an email confirmation ~3 weeks before things went away. I'm
not sure how (if at all) we configured that. Seems like a short notification
window, but at least we got an email.

Did the owner(s) of the Python account not get that email?

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danneu
I don't know how similar the situation was, but Blip.tv did this to Rich
Hickey's Clojure videos a year ago.

[https://twitter.com/richhickey/status/279210140425674754](https://twitter.com/richhickey/status/279210140425674754)

    
    
        > @blip tv cancels the #Clojure video series without 
        > warning, after 4 years of my being a paid customer! 
        > If you were a viewer, let them know.
    

(Vids were since moved to Youtube:
[http://www.youtube.com/user/ClojureTV](http://www.youtube.com/user/ClojureTV))

------
ubernostrum
Blip was already going downhill for a long time, but this is the final nail in
the coffin. By deleting without the option of recovery (so that content
producers can't retrieve and re-host elsewhere), they have demonstrated firmly
in my mind that they cannot be trusted with content, and the broader community
should be aware of this.

~~~
jsdalton
That's really sucky, but I'm surprised that they didn't give the opportunity
to download the source content? We got the exact same notice but were given 30
days to download our videos. This is the relevant part of the email I
received:

We want to give you the opportunity to download your episodes if you don’t
have them saved or backed up. We’re giving you a 30-day window to do this
using the following page on the producer dashboard:

[http://blip.tv/dashboard/get_video_download_list](http://blip.tv/dashboard/get_video_download_list)

~~~
ubernostrum
People I've talked to say that they didn't get any emails or such about it.
Some content may have been saved due to someone fortuitously logging into
their account and seeing a "You're about to expire" notice.

But overall the way this was handled seems to be terrible, and not even close
to how I'd go about trying to show off a company as a place to bring content
to.

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zenravs
I am a long time reader of HN. I was planning to introduce a site that we are
working some time in the coming month and get HN feedback. But based on the
discussion in this thread, I believe this will be a good time to talk about
it. The URL for the site is www.reedwith.us and is currently in beta.

This is a site where you can upload any professional content like a video, a
pdf or a presentation using your LinkedIn user name and password and discuss.
To serve the professional community needs, in the topic and discussion
sections physical, mathematical and chemical equations and code snippets can
be included.

For example, if you type "perceptual" in the search bar, Perceptual grouping
presentation will be shown as a result. You can look at the presentation. If
you scroll down on the page you will see the Topic and Discussion sections.
There, you will see code snippets, equations etc. You can start a new topic or
participate in the discussion. You can also form groups and discuss privately
with members of your team.

We are very interested in hosting the videos that were deleted by blip.tv. In
addition, you can upload any professional content that you would to like share
with public or a private group.

It is still a work in progress and I would be very happy to hear from you
through this site or using the contact us form located in
[http://reedwith.us/contact.html](http://reedwith.us/contact.html)

~~~
krapp
That looks nice, and useful, but giving you access to my linkedin account is a
no-go. I get enough spam from it as it is.

~~~
zenravs
Thanks for your feedback. We are using LinkedIn authentication, to ensure that
the content and discussion in the site will be professional.

We do not intend to send any unnecessary email to any of our users. I hate
getting spam and I do not want to spam my users. We have set up the site, so
that users have to opt-in for us to send any news-letter etc. They can choose
to receive news-letter by going to their 'Settings' page.

When users form private groups, groups members will be notified via email.
This is the only occasion when we send email to users.

Also, you do not have to login to view the content or read the discussion.
However, you need to login to upload content, participate in discussion, form
private groups etc.

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mlinksva
Some might be saved at
[https://archive.org/details/bliptv](https://archive.org/details/bliptv) see
[http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Blip.tv](http://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Blip.tv)

Also long ago IIRC blip.tv had an upload option to make a copy of the the
upload at the Internet Archive. Not sure how many uploaders used it or how
long it was in place.

Copying your important media to the Internet Archive is always a good idea,
whether you're originally publishing to someplace like blip or yt, or self-
hosting.

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jsilence
I'm wondering whether this would be a good moment for the tech communities to
implement their own decentralized video hosting infrastructure.

I'd imagine a specialized command line capable bittorrent client that
automatically transcodes content to the best/preferred video format for
streaming.

Each community could then setup a couple of official servers to share the load
by indefinitaly seeding the content. These servers could autosubscribe to each
others contents, knowing that their content is curated by the respective
community. Determined individuals and companies could setup slave clients for
these official master nodes.

If the communities agree on the core functionality they could even have a kind
of competition over the best imlementation in their respective language,
python, clojure, whatever.

This way we could get away from the proprietary video hosting sites and their
annoyances (eg. automated DCMA takedowns without proper review).

------
jefforulez
not all python content was removed.

this account was specifically kept open as a service to the community:
[http://blip.tv/pycon-us-videos-2009-2010-2011](http://blip.tv/pycon-us-
videos-2009-2010-2011)

if anyone knows of other important pycon content that was deleted in the past
few months, please email links or blip account names to support at blip tv.

~~~
glimmung
You do know that you're doing this backwards, don't you?

<sheesh>

------
babo
They did the same with clojure videos a year ago.

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JohnTHaller
Anytime you use a free service, you do so with the full knowledge that this is
the likely eventual outcome. I'm amazed that people are still so 'shocked and
outraged' every single time something like this happens.

~~~
wonderzombie
Why would this be intrinsic to a free service?

"As of $date, our pricing tier no longer allows for $X GB of data. You have
until $otherdate to upgrade before we delete the difference."

"We're shutting down so here's a refund. Oh, and we're going offline
immediately. Bye!"

A subscription or paid option doesn't make a business solvent even a little
bit. It might be _easier_ , but the business model must still be sustainable &
viable.

~~~
JohnTHaller
True. But when a company is giving you something for free, it's absurd to
expect that company to keep giving it to you. It could disappear at any moment
and you don't really have a leg to stand on in terms of wanting any more from
them.

------
JerryChang
I bet it was the Killer Joke they removed for our sake:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I3zCQzZx68](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I3zCQzZx68)

------
Kiro
Why?

~~~
krazydad
It's not just python content, they have been doing this with various content
that has small audiences ("underperforming content").

