Off Topic Gymnastike Issues?

[JBS]

I was reading over another thread and notices that many are not happy with Gymnastike right now.

Here is the other thread...

http://www.chalkbucket.com/forums/threads/enjoy.46023/

You can also look at the comments by others section of the Gymnastike facebook page between the dates of April 22nd - April 28th or so...

https://www.facebook.com/gymnastike.org

I subscribe to Gymnastike and think it is a great site.

What is really going on with all of this? Is everyone just upset because they are charging to watch NCAA's?

 

[Quadqueen]

I'm not just upset about them charging to watch NCAAs. I don't like how basically EVERYTHING is "Gold" so you have to pay the $20+ a month to watch most of their videos now. Every video has a 30 second commercial before it plays, so I don't know why this kind of steep fee is necessary.

 

[MaryA]

$20/month? Yikes!

 

[Quadqueen]

Yes...and my daughter is constantly begging for me to sign up for Gold!! Sorry, kid....

 

[bogwoppit]

For us non US folk often archived meets and youtube is the only way we get to watch gymnastics. Live streaming is often geoblocked.

With gymnastike charging a lot for viewing their gold videos it puts it out of reach of regular gym fans. I mean Netflix is only $8 a month and we can share that between multiple users.

Gymnastike takes video, without permission, from youtube and embeds it in their website. They give no credit and gussy it up like it is their own video.

Forcing youtube channels to be closed as they have NCAA champs video on it is a bit much too. Youtube is the only place I can be sure to catch the routine I want to see. But the best channels are being shut down by gymnastike.

Gymnastike is part of a much bigger online sports company, it is about profit and not just about the gymnastics. http://flocasts.com/ That alone I Have no issue with, but I do take issue with locking up coverage of something like champs whilst they are helping themselves to other people videos.

In the last few years USAG has really come on board, they used to be like gymnastike, hiding coverage etc etc. But now they are promoting their broadcasts, live streaming and allowing anyone to watch their archives. This only helps to promote gymnastics, widen the fan base and frankly makes me want to support USAG.

 

[txgymfan]

I used to watch clips on the site often but when they started charging for gold membership too many clips became "premium". Netflix is less than half that for movies without commercials.

 

[Quadqueen]

Yes, USAG has been really good lately about putting up a lot of videos, including entire meets from years ago. It's great!!

 

[Quadqueen]

How are they shutting down other people's youtube pages?

 

[bogwoppit]

How are they shutting down other people's youtube pages?

Basically they go through and find anyone who has posted any footage from the meet, that the user took with their own camera. They are then reporting them for copyright infringement and you tube has to close down the channel.

This means if you took a video of your DD at champs competing on bars, and posted it for grandma to watch, they can, and will shut down your channel, No matter if it is your first video, or one of 200 videos of your dd's awesome gym career leading to a D1 scholarship.

But in the next breath they are seeing videos from meets that Gymnastike did not attend and are embedding them on the gymnastike website, with no credits and surrounded by ads that earn gymnastike money. They are not paying the youtube user for hits at all as they are watched on Gymnastike not youtube.

It just isn't cool.

 

[Quadqueen]

No - not cool at all.

 

[wallinbl]

This means if you took a video of your DD at champs competing on bars, and posted it for grandma to watch, they can, and will shut down your channel, No matter if it is your first video, or one of 200 videos of your dd's awesome gym career leading to a D1 scholarship.

It's a nuisance, but you certainly can fight these takedown notices. To some extent, I don't blame people for thinking it's hopeless, but the only hope is for more people to fight it. If one claimant has too many bad faith takedown attempts, Google will take action. Likewise, if they act it bad faith, you can report them to the DOJ.

 

[Empowered]

I don't go to gymnastike anymore. I've been annoyed by one too many tweets or Facebook posts saying - "Hey come watch this awesome thing" only to load the page and be told it's $20 to watch.

I know it's all about profit and I am a Capitalism kid through and through, but everyone knows the vast majority of your money is from advertising. I am half expecting MyMeetScores or MeetScoresOnline to hop on board and start charging us to review results.

And shutting down private channels is just beyond deceptive. I have no tolerance for that.

 

[cbifoja]

The FB comments keep mentioning someone named Anne like she is personally responsible for what Gymnastike is doing. Is Gymnastike "owned" by Anne or is it owned by some kind of business entity? I mean is this one woman behind all of this shady business?

 

[Quadqueen]

Anne is the head honcho at Gymnastike...at least she used to be, when it started out as more of a one-two person operation.

 

[bogwoppit]

Anne Philips. http://www.gymnastike.org/speaker/1364-Anne-Phillips

 

[txgymfan]

I didn't know gymnastike would be covering NCAA's Super Six and happened to be home when they were on live. I'm glad I watched them. Typically I would watch clips later of the routines I wanted to see.

 

[BachFlyer]

first, how can gymnastike profit of of airing NCAA meets, when the atletes themselves cant get a dime without losing their eligibility?? im not asking how it's legal, just how it is remotely ethcal!? and then on top of it, i risk getting my channel shutdown if my kid competed in college and i wanted to post that viedeo? i love free enterprise too but seriously, this makes me sick.

 

[COz]

None of this sounds very nice. As a newbie and an Australian I'd never heard of the site until the 'enjoy' thread the other day.

I'm not for a moment saying that I approve of what they're doing, but just one small clarification about the YouTube embedded videos.
I'm pretty sure that the YouTube channel holder would receive the same views and any click revenue that they would normally receive if the video was viewed on YouTube.

There are website plugins that allow the embedding of YouTube video with the addition of video (ads, intros, etc.) at the beginning and end. The videos aren't actually downloaded from YouTube, they're still technically being played via YouTube and YouTube allows external sites to embed their videos so it's not against he YT terms of service or anything. Once a video is uploaded to YT, the user gives YT rights to do all sorts of things with that video, including putting it on a paid site or even putting it on a 'best of YouTube' or something DVD and selling it, ads etc. I think YouTube is relatively keen on people doing this sort of thing (embedding in paid websites).

Not saying that I think that this is ethical or anything, but those are YT's rules and the reason that it's not the place for say, short film makers to upload videos that they might want to retain the rights of for example.

 

[bogwoppit]

For sure. My son makes his living from youtube videos, and that is how it works, basically monetisation of videos watching.

But Gymnastike make money from the advertising on their site where they embed the videos that they do not own. That is the bit I do not like. They give no credit and they force youtube users accounts to close.

 

[vagymmomma]

For sure. My son makes his living from youtube videos, and that is how it works, basically monetisation of videos watching.

But Gymnastike make money from the advertising on their site where they embed the videos that they do not own. That is the bit I do not like. They give no credit and they force youtube users accounts to close.

How can they even do that? I don't understand how they can shut down You Tube accounts when they don't own the IP. I know a few attorneys that would salivate about getting a case like that to argue (assuming there was more than just a victory in principle on the line ).