Frequently Asked Questions (aka What's Going On?)
Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2021 5:35 pm
Video and Forum Problems
Why is a video missing?
We've had some hosting issues over the years. Since the show started in 2008, the web has changed, the hosts have changed, even the laws have changed. Finding ways to adhere to the spirit of the original shows while hosting things safely is a full time job, especially with bots. Effort is underway to restore everything, but some videos need to be altered, and some are gated.
Why doesn't fullscreen work on some videos? Also, why is this video having such a difficult time loading?
We have temporarily placed some videos on a host that doesn't have native fullscreen offered, and it is not always stable. This is a "better than nothing" situation used until the video can be placed on a more functional host. We are not doing the remaining ones in order to direct all efforts in getting videos on these better, more stable hosts. Likewise, the intention is for all new videos to go directly to our new hosts.
How long will this take?
As discussed below, effort is currently being directed on new shows, with restoring old ones secondary.
Shouldn't you fix the stuff that's broken before making new stuff?
Logically, yes. But that logic has led to five years of struggling to make new stuff. It has reached a point where the queue is so enormous that (seriously) Chuck will be dead before he finishes it. That's why restoration has taken a back seat this time. However see further down "The Experiment" for more.
I can't create a new account on the forum. Why, and when will it be fixed?
I'm not sure what is causing the problem, and digging further into it is taking time away from other issues. No one is happy with the situation, but we're stuck with it until we can find a solution.
Youtube
Is SFDebris Red your channel?
Yes. SFDebris Red carries material that fits more into what the show has been throughout its long history, with a balance of snarky commentary and serious discussion.
Why can't you use the regular Youtube channel for that?
TL;DR answer: Because.
Long answer: You have to understand the channel's history. It started as just the place where I did videos. When CBS went on a rampage and YT adopted a "copyright strike first and don't bother asking questions later" approach, all the videos migrated over to Blip. The Youtube channel was then used to run trailers for the Blip videos for the subscribers on Youtube, but after a few years even that was beyond what would be allowed. When Blip was shut down, the channel became a place to put videos that wouldn't be at risk (for the most part) of getting false flags called on it, like background videos and book analyses.
As a result, for years the channel drew attention from people interested in the serious discussions that happened to be included in those videos. When something that could be posted without getting a strike came up that didn't fit that, it was often met with confusion at this strange change to the channel's content. The end result is that, while many of the people there like both forms of the show, there's a substantial number who have a preference for what the channel has been in the last six years, rather than what it started as.
SFDebris Red is a compromise to that, being a place where the other kind of material can be safely placed on Youtube. It also ensures that the main channel isn't being flooded with content.
I'm starting to see videos linked to a different Youtube channel than either of those, what gives?
What is now Youtube Red started as a firewall between the regular Youtube channel and content that was potentially at risk of getting an incorrect copyright strike being struck against it. However, it's ability to fill a niche the show needed has meant that the channel needs to not be put at risk, so a third channel has been created to serve as the firewall now.
And when will we see a firewall for the firewall of the firewall?
Shut up.
Films & Star Trek
What happened to the Star Trek title sequences?
The TNG, TOS, and Enterprise titles have been tripping copybots lately. This is possibly what caused our host to shut us down. For the good of the show, I've removed them and am using the new title format for those shows in all forms and all Trek videos on Youtube (I purchased some royalty-free licensed music to ensure this is safe). The pity of it is that I had already created 1080p titles for TNG and Enterprise using the new HD videos and I can't use them.
So you're doing Star Trek with mostly still images now?
The intention is for each new video to be produced in the old format, but to also create one that can be safely posted on Youtube Red for those who prefer using Youtube, especially for mobile.
But what about other recent works such as films?
Attempts to do the same with films have failed. This has necessitated going with much more static images and sometimes splitting into multiple parts to be acceptable to Youtube.
Speaking of films, I've been seeing a lot more of them on the show lately compared to the past, why is that?
Films are much more difficult to do than TV episodes, as each is usually a solitary entry, and finding background information can be challenging. As a result, with the problems faced since the closing of Blip, the time needed to do films has been missing. After five years of this, the number of films that have been in the queue for an unacceptable period of time has skyrocketed. Because problems are continuing to happen, the new policy is to move forward with the films regardless of any other calamities to address this problem.
Is that why you're cutting corners on the films going with still images?
Absolutely not, still images takes MORE time to do, not less. And to be clear, films are being made top priority, and every intention is for them to be as good as they would have been done at any other time. You are seeing more of them, and that's why you're seeing less of other things.
Originally, we had a Star Trek review every Saturday. Then you started doing a film a month and did a Mini-Review. Now you're doing a film review or two and no mini-reviews. What gives?
There are just a lot more films that need to be done than Star Trek episodes, and the mini-reviews take more time than expected.
However, starting in March the intention is that, on days when there isn't a new Star Trek review, an old Star Trek review will be modified so it can be placed on Youtube Red.
This show began with Star Trek, there's no intention to downplay the vital role it has played in SF Debris' growth over the past 13 years, nor to begin marginalizing it. Circumstances have reached a point where everything else has to give (for the moment) to make more room for the films.
Why did you stop doing the Star Trek reviews Saturday morning? I miss watching them while I eat breakfast.
Since the Blip move, auto-scheduling has been difficult. Part of the reason for the Youtube Red versions is so that I can set those up ahead of time for you to see automatically on Saturday morning. While February may see a few problems there as the show prepares for The Experiment, the intention is to get them in place by the start of March.
Why are you doing two reviews of some films?
Some films have enough material that seems worthy solely of serious analysis that I choose to separate the material into a Red and a Blue version (as jokingly dramatized with Jurassic Park's review). The Blue version is "Discussion [title]" to show it's about examining it seriously. The Red version is the snarky take on it, which will have a normal title card and usually be titled "A Look at [title]." Splitting to Red and Blue is not ideal for all films and is done on a case-by-case basis on what seems best for it, it's not a reflection on the quality of the film.
Why do some videos get a background video and some don't?
In some cases (such as Idiocracy) there's not enough material to make a background video. In others (such as Lilo & Stitch) there's already far more thorough and useful videos on the web to make a deep dive into it not worth doing. And in still others (such as The Blair Witch Project) discussing background elements during the video is better than divorcing it from the film itself. This is also done on a case-by-case basis and not a reflection on the quality of the film.
Video Games
You only did one part of [video game] and the next isn't coming for months?! Why?!
Video games take a tremendous amount of time, and although they have had progress, they are likewise in danger of falling behind. I made the decision to take the three largest ones and turn them into an ongoing monthly installment shared between them. That way, there is some forward progress. This is not ideal, but we left ideal back in 2015.
I have a video game in the queue, do I have to wait for you to finish three titanic monsters before you look at mine?
No, there are some games in the queue smaller than these epics, and it's my intention, once sufficient headway has been made on the films, to do them as well. They will be done all at once, rather than being split.
Restoration Plan
Many shows I like are missing, when will you work on [series]?
In the post-Vimeo move, the videos were placed on several different hosts as best met the needs of the time. The intention was for 2020 to be the move, and 2021 to be refinement. What went wrong was that one host shut down the channel without notice or explanation. This is the same reason why some suggestions (such as archive.org) are not being explored, they tend to fold inexplicably and without warning. The intention for the refinement stage had been to backup videos on several hosts in case this happened, it just happened sooner than intended.
So the intention is to move forward on that, several small hosts to ensure that if one goes down, we don't lose too much. We are still in relatively early days for that, though. For example, Babylon 5 and Blake's 7 are currently sharing a single host. It is intended to have one for animation, one for Doctor Who, one for anime, and so on.
Okay, so what's taking so long?
Without getting into specifics, there is a gate on the number of non-Youtube videos I can post in a day. I have been refining ways of increasing that, but both those things slow us down. When I went to Vimeo, I moved the entire catalogue by just taking a few days off and moving the unmodified videos over. I had no idea I'd be nostalgic for those days.
What about things that have been missing for a while, like the Doctor Who Missing Episodes videos?
Some of these specials or companion videos require substantial re-editing to avoid bots. What's more, in many cases the audio is poor, and in a few, out of date. For that reason, the videos in many cases are being re-made with new video, audio, and in some cases, a revised script.
Won't that take time?
Yes, which is why one day a week will be dedicated just to doing that.
Long time viewers of the show may recall that, when I began at Blip, the show had two episodes a week, Tuesdays (for non-Star Trek) and Saturday (for Star Trek). Not long after, I began making higher quality versions of the original Star Trek videos (the earliest years were all done with a five dollar microphone and Microsoft MovieMaker, so were atrocious), so Thursday was the day each week that a revised version of an old Star Trek review was posted. After they were all done, Thursday became the "half-hour long TV episodes day" (today that queue is still listed in my spreadsheet as "Thursday queue"). So we'll be going back to our roots for a time.
So will there be time for other stuff, or are you just revising old things, doing movies and games, and some Star Trek?
I'm afraid, for the next few months, that will describe much of what I do, unfortunately. Had it not been for the loss of some content, this wouldn't be necessary. There was a plan to make this work in 2020, and we went weeks before Vimeo went on to ruin it. In 2021, we went four days before something similar happened to the new plan, of doing all this and other content too, but that's ruined now. Doing films and games and Star Trek reviews and fixing old videos and restoring stuff recently lost, just doesn't leave any room for anything else. I miss many of these shows myself, with as busy as this mess has made me, sometimes the only time I get to watch these programs I love is when I do the reviews, but for now, this is just what it needs to be to get past the problem. Hence what I call The Experiment.
THE EXPERIMENT
Between March 6 and May 29, there are 12 weeks:
Two of those weeks will be "OFF"
The other 10 weeks:
-Every Monday will be a revised/updated special video (Hermit's Journey, Missing Episodes, etc)
-Every Tuesday will be a modified X-Files episode
-Every Wednesday will be a film review
-Every Saturday will be either:
-A new trek review
-A Youtube-version trek review + a game chapter
-A Youtube-version trek review + Babylon 5 or Stargate
-Janeway, of course, trumps all.
During the two "OFF" weeks, I'm going to attempt to post some revised/updated videos ahead of time on the main Youtube Channel, schedule them to release during the week, and then add them to the main site afterwards.
Why the X-Files?
Two reasons: they won't go on any non-Youtube host right now, and also, we've managed to get one on there without as much fuss as was thought. The hope is that this can be redone with higher quality video than was used originally.
Before you were sometimes replacing Star Trek with a film, now you're replacing it with any old thing? Is this going to be a trend?
This is a temporary change. Originally, a movie would sometimes be on Saturday to allow the other stuff to appear on Wednesday, but since that was moving the films around for arbitrary reasons, it made more sense to just keep films all on the same day. The intention, though, is to eventually go back to the way things were before. This is an experiment to see if this can help address a current problem, not to come up with a good long-term approach for the show.
What does "Janeway trumps all" mean?
Among the backers of the show is Janeway herself. You see her title card near the beginning of some episodes, indicating her demand. If Janeway demands something, the schedule bends to her whim. We've all learned that the hard way by now.
But what about [series]?
For the moment, I have to backburner it. Before the January crash I'd hoped to have a number of shows that haven't been seen in a while, like Korra, Doctor Who, and BSG, plus new like The Expanse and Robin Hood, but trying to do them and work on restoring has proven to be far too much. If the old Vimeo or Blip were here tomorrow we could be back much sooner, as it is, we need to address some items that have had to be neglected for far too long.
Why is a video missing?
We've had some hosting issues over the years. Since the show started in 2008, the web has changed, the hosts have changed, even the laws have changed. Finding ways to adhere to the spirit of the original shows while hosting things safely is a full time job, especially with bots. Effort is underway to restore everything, but some videos need to be altered, and some are gated.
Why doesn't fullscreen work on some videos? Also, why is this video having such a difficult time loading?
We have temporarily placed some videos on a host that doesn't have native fullscreen offered, and it is not always stable. This is a "better than nothing" situation used until the video can be placed on a more functional host. We are not doing the remaining ones in order to direct all efforts in getting videos on these better, more stable hosts. Likewise, the intention is for all new videos to go directly to our new hosts.
How long will this take?
As discussed below, effort is currently being directed on new shows, with restoring old ones secondary.
Shouldn't you fix the stuff that's broken before making new stuff?
Logically, yes. But that logic has led to five years of struggling to make new stuff. It has reached a point where the queue is so enormous that (seriously) Chuck will be dead before he finishes it. That's why restoration has taken a back seat this time. However see further down "The Experiment" for more.
I can't create a new account on the forum. Why, and when will it be fixed?
I'm not sure what is causing the problem, and digging further into it is taking time away from other issues. No one is happy with the situation, but we're stuck with it until we can find a solution.
Youtube
Is SFDebris Red your channel?
Yes. SFDebris Red carries material that fits more into what the show has been throughout its long history, with a balance of snarky commentary and serious discussion.
Why can't you use the regular Youtube channel for that?
TL;DR answer: Because.
Long answer: You have to understand the channel's history. It started as just the place where I did videos. When CBS went on a rampage and YT adopted a "copyright strike first and don't bother asking questions later" approach, all the videos migrated over to Blip. The Youtube channel was then used to run trailers for the Blip videos for the subscribers on Youtube, but after a few years even that was beyond what would be allowed. When Blip was shut down, the channel became a place to put videos that wouldn't be at risk (for the most part) of getting false flags called on it, like background videos and book analyses.
As a result, for years the channel drew attention from people interested in the serious discussions that happened to be included in those videos. When something that could be posted without getting a strike came up that didn't fit that, it was often met with confusion at this strange change to the channel's content. The end result is that, while many of the people there like both forms of the show, there's a substantial number who have a preference for what the channel has been in the last six years, rather than what it started as.
SFDebris Red is a compromise to that, being a place where the other kind of material can be safely placed on Youtube. It also ensures that the main channel isn't being flooded with content.
I'm starting to see videos linked to a different Youtube channel than either of those, what gives?
What is now Youtube Red started as a firewall between the regular Youtube channel and content that was potentially at risk of getting an incorrect copyright strike being struck against it. However, it's ability to fill a niche the show needed has meant that the channel needs to not be put at risk, so a third channel has been created to serve as the firewall now.
And when will we see a firewall for the firewall of the firewall?
Shut up.
Films & Star Trek
What happened to the Star Trek title sequences?
The TNG, TOS, and Enterprise titles have been tripping copybots lately. This is possibly what caused our host to shut us down. For the good of the show, I've removed them and am using the new title format for those shows in all forms and all Trek videos on Youtube (I purchased some royalty-free licensed music to ensure this is safe). The pity of it is that I had already created 1080p titles for TNG and Enterprise using the new HD videos and I can't use them.
So you're doing Star Trek with mostly still images now?
The intention is for each new video to be produced in the old format, but to also create one that can be safely posted on Youtube Red for those who prefer using Youtube, especially for mobile.
But what about other recent works such as films?
Attempts to do the same with films have failed. This has necessitated going with much more static images and sometimes splitting into multiple parts to be acceptable to Youtube.
Speaking of films, I've been seeing a lot more of them on the show lately compared to the past, why is that?
Films are much more difficult to do than TV episodes, as each is usually a solitary entry, and finding background information can be challenging. As a result, with the problems faced since the closing of Blip, the time needed to do films has been missing. After five years of this, the number of films that have been in the queue for an unacceptable period of time has skyrocketed. Because problems are continuing to happen, the new policy is to move forward with the films regardless of any other calamities to address this problem.
Is that why you're cutting corners on the films going with still images?
Absolutely not, still images takes MORE time to do, not less. And to be clear, films are being made top priority, and every intention is for them to be as good as they would have been done at any other time. You are seeing more of them, and that's why you're seeing less of other things.
Originally, we had a Star Trek review every Saturday. Then you started doing a film a month and did a Mini-Review. Now you're doing a film review or two and no mini-reviews. What gives?
There are just a lot more films that need to be done than Star Trek episodes, and the mini-reviews take more time than expected.
However, starting in March the intention is that, on days when there isn't a new Star Trek review, an old Star Trek review will be modified so it can be placed on Youtube Red.
This show began with Star Trek, there's no intention to downplay the vital role it has played in SF Debris' growth over the past 13 years, nor to begin marginalizing it. Circumstances have reached a point where everything else has to give (for the moment) to make more room for the films.
Why did you stop doing the Star Trek reviews Saturday morning? I miss watching them while I eat breakfast.
Since the Blip move, auto-scheduling has been difficult. Part of the reason for the Youtube Red versions is so that I can set those up ahead of time for you to see automatically on Saturday morning. While February may see a few problems there as the show prepares for The Experiment, the intention is to get them in place by the start of March.
Why are you doing two reviews of some films?
Some films have enough material that seems worthy solely of serious analysis that I choose to separate the material into a Red and a Blue version (as jokingly dramatized with Jurassic Park's review). The Blue version is "Discussion [title]" to show it's about examining it seriously. The Red version is the snarky take on it, which will have a normal title card and usually be titled "A Look at [title]." Splitting to Red and Blue is not ideal for all films and is done on a case-by-case basis on what seems best for it, it's not a reflection on the quality of the film.
Why do some videos get a background video and some don't?
In some cases (such as Idiocracy) there's not enough material to make a background video. In others (such as Lilo & Stitch) there's already far more thorough and useful videos on the web to make a deep dive into it not worth doing. And in still others (such as The Blair Witch Project) discussing background elements during the video is better than divorcing it from the film itself. This is also done on a case-by-case basis and not a reflection on the quality of the film.
Video Games
You only did one part of [video game] and the next isn't coming for months?! Why?!
Video games take a tremendous amount of time, and although they have had progress, they are likewise in danger of falling behind. I made the decision to take the three largest ones and turn them into an ongoing monthly installment shared between them. That way, there is some forward progress. This is not ideal, but we left ideal back in 2015.
I have a video game in the queue, do I have to wait for you to finish three titanic monsters before you look at mine?
No, there are some games in the queue smaller than these epics, and it's my intention, once sufficient headway has been made on the films, to do them as well. They will be done all at once, rather than being split.
Restoration Plan
Many shows I like are missing, when will you work on [series]?
In the post-Vimeo move, the videos were placed on several different hosts as best met the needs of the time. The intention was for 2020 to be the move, and 2021 to be refinement. What went wrong was that one host shut down the channel without notice or explanation. This is the same reason why some suggestions (such as archive.org) are not being explored, they tend to fold inexplicably and without warning. The intention for the refinement stage had been to backup videos on several hosts in case this happened, it just happened sooner than intended.
So the intention is to move forward on that, several small hosts to ensure that if one goes down, we don't lose too much. We are still in relatively early days for that, though. For example, Babylon 5 and Blake's 7 are currently sharing a single host. It is intended to have one for animation, one for Doctor Who, one for anime, and so on.
Okay, so what's taking so long?
Without getting into specifics, there is a gate on the number of non-Youtube videos I can post in a day. I have been refining ways of increasing that, but both those things slow us down. When I went to Vimeo, I moved the entire catalogue by just taking a few days off and moving the unmodified videos over. I had no idea I'd be nostalgic for those days.
What about things that have been missing for a while, like the Doctor Who Missing Episodes videos?
Some of these specials or companion videos require substantial re-editing to avoid bots. What's more, in many cases the audio is poor, and in a few, out of date. For that reason, the videos in many cases are being re-made with new video, audio, and in some cases, a revised script.
Won't that take time?
Yes, which is why one day a week will be dedicated just to doing that.
Long time viewers of the show may recall that, when I began at Blip, the show had two episodes a week, Tuesdays (for non-Star Trek) and Saturday (for Star Trek). Not long after, I began making higher quality versions of the original Star Trek videos (the earliest years were all done with a five dollar microphone and Microsoft MovieMaker, so were atrocious), so Thursday was the day each week that a revised version of an old Star Trek review was posted. After they were all done, Thursday became the "half-hour long TV episodes day" (today that queue is still listed in my spreadsheet as "Thursday queue"). So we'll be going back to our roots for a time.
So will there be time for other stuff, or are you just revising old things, doing movies and games, and some Star Trek?
I'm afraid, for the next few months, that will describe much of what I do, unfortunately. Had it not been for the loss of some content, this wouldn't be necessary. There was a plan to make this work in 2020, and we went weeks before Vimeo went on to ruin it. In 2021, we went four days before something similar happened to the new plan, of doing all this and other content too, but that's ruined now. Doing films and games and Star Trek reviews and fixing old videos and restoring stuff recently lost, just doesn't leave any room for anything else. I miss many of these shows myself, with as busy as this mess has made me, sometimes the only time I get to watch these programs I love is when I do the reviews, but for now, this is just what it needs to be to get past the problem. Hence what I call The Experiment.
THE EXPERIMENT
Between March 6 and May 29, there are 12 weeks:
Two of those weeks will be "OFF"
The other 10 weeks:
-Every Monday will be a revised/updated special video (Hermit's Journey, Missing Episodes, etc)
-Every Tuesday will be a modified X-Files episode
-Every Wednesday will be a film review
-Every Saturday will be either:
-A new trek review
-A Youtube-version trek review + a game chapter
-A Youtube-version trek review + Babylon 5 or Stargate
-Janeway, of course, trumps all.
During the two "OFF" weeks, I'm going to attempt to post some revised/updated videos ahead of time on the main Youtube Channel, schedule them to release during the week, and then add them to the main site afterwards.
Why the X-Files?
Two reasons: they won't go on any non-Youtube host right now, and also, we've managed to get one on there without as much fuss as was thought. The hope is that this can be redone with higher quality video than was used originally.
Before you were sometimes replacing Star Trek with a film, now you're replacing it with any old thing? Is this going to be a trend?
This is a temporary change. Originally, a movie would sometimes be on Saturday to allow the other stuff to appear on Wednesday, but since that was moving the films around for arbitrary reasons, it made more sense to just keep films all on the same day. The intention, though, is to eventually go back to the way things were before. This is an experiment to see if this can help address a current problem, not to come up with a good long-term approach for the show.
What does "Janeway trumps all" mean?
Among the backers of the show is Janeway herself. You see her title card near the beginning of some episodes, indicating her demand. If Janeway demands something, the schedule bends to her whim. We've all learned that the hard way by now.
But what about [series]?
For the moment, I have to backburner it. Before the January crash I'd hoped to have a number of shows that haven't been seen in a while, like Korra, Doctor Who, and BSG, plus new like The Expanse and Robin Hood, but trying to do them and work on restoring has proven to be far too much. If the old Vimeo or Blip were here tomorrow we could be back much sooner, as it is, we need to address some items that have had to be neglected for far too long.
